Precept and Practice – AUGUST 31 – Carelessness of Speech

Language is often a standard not of intelligence only, but of morals also…..

Facility of speech is not, of course or by any means, an unfailing guarantee of either grandeur of mind or integrity of conduct.   Some of the very best and greatest men, like Moses, have been men slow of speech and slow of tongue.   Yet there undoubtedly is a close relation between speech and conduct.   Carelessness of speech is frequently the precursor of carelessness in conduct, while exactitude in speech is generally an evidence of exactitude in thought, and exactitude in thought is generally accompanied by integrity of action.  ‘The tongue of man,’ writes Carlyle,  ‘is a sacred organ.   Action hangs, as it were, dissolved in speech.   The kind of speech in a man betokens the action you will get from him.’

But exactitude of utterance is seldom compatible with great frequency of utterance.   Much talking is pretty much the same thing as loose talking, and fast writing as poor writing.   In this nineteenth century, our magnificent English language is in peril of serious deterioration from the rapidly produced multitudes of speeches, sermons, newspapers, magazines, and books, which are incessantly poured forth.   It is seldom one listens nowadays to a sermon or a speech, and quite as seldom one reads a paper or a book, in which the language is exact and work-manlike.   Speed in utterance leads to carelessness, and upon the heels of careless utterance tread the toes of careless thought, and when thought is careless its power is gone.

(Bishop Diggle – Sermons for Daily Life)

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From the Introduction to Precept and Practice

The kindly welcome given to my other little books, ‘Being and Doing’ and ‘Character and Conduct,’ must be my excuse for adding another collection of extracts to the number now in circulation.

The quotations are gathered from the books of many earnest thinkers, and deal with Life in all its length and breadth, with ourselves, our characters, our plain unvarnished faults and weaknesses, our often untoward circumstances, and with all that drags us down;-  with our purposes, our religion, our love and friendships, and with all that uplifts us;-  with our relation to others, our influence and responsibilities, and finally with those stages of our journey which bring us to the Road’s Last Turn and to the Silent Land.

CONSTANCE  M. WHISHAW