Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 14.djvu/205

Rh other hand, to a return to coarseness. In coarseness there is still an element of strength; the terse monosyllable which Bayard gave as a retort to the summons of surrender is an instance. Had he said, "Après vous, messieurs!" it would almost have been equally strong. The coarseness of some of the earlier English novelists, I think, was chiefly a reaction against the French manners of former periods. In my limited personal experience, I have found that many young men, who had spent their days with the ideal of "good form" before them, have taken a childlike delight in using vulgar language when free from restraint.

Language is to a certain extent an indicator of national character. But we must not be led to a one-sided statement of the case. There is an abuse, as well in the neglect or disuse of words expressive of feeling as in the too facile application of such words. And I believe that there is a faulty implication in De Quincey's remark quoted above, especially in its application to the English character—the implication, namely, that, where there is no verbal demonstration of feeling, we may infer a greater depth of feeling. In fact, one frequently hears this asserted, and the proverb, "Still waters run deep," has contributed to confirm such a belief. But this must not be hastily accepted. I believe that it is the extreme and just opposition against the equally faulty assertion that, where there is no demonstrative feeling, there is no feeling whatever. Falsehood, luckily, is not the normal manner of expression, notwithstanding the proposition that "la parole a été donné, à l’homme pour cacher sa pensée;" and therefore I am inclined to believe that, cæteris paribus, feeling is more likely to be present where we can perceive the outward signs of its existence, than where there is no sign whatever; as I am more inclined to believe that preciseness and firmness of character are more likely to be possessed by the man who takes great pains with the neatness and cleanliness of his person and attire than by one who does not. But there are action and reaction between the care of the person and the cast of the character; e. g., cleanliness may be the outward expression of certain traits of character, and when practised may again produce, or strengthen, or prolong these traits. All education rests upon the fact of this interaction. We see what is the desirable cast of mind by its outward manifestations, and try to ingraft such a mental attitude by habitual practice of these manifestations. It has been suggested to me in conversation that the fact of the lower orders, especially in the country, wearing their "Sunday best," and generally attending to the neatness of their appearance on Sundays, has a reviving and improving effect upon them. The workday customs, with rough language and more or less brutal indulgences, are cast away with the work-day clothes, and there is a strong feeling that outbursts would be out of keeping with such fine dress, and that a man must act up to his (genteel) appearance.