Page:Ralcy H. Bell - The Mystery of Words (1924).pdf/153

 thoughts. If we regard them merely as symbols, they seem endowed with sentience; but since we know they are not, we can not shift the moral responsibility of decent usage from our own shoulders to their wings. We must deal with them as with any other phenomenon. If we handle them wisely, they will serve us well; if we use them ignorantly or viciously, it is only through chance that they do not harm us.

The intellect, with all its achievements, never has been able to estimate the value of a word nor to compute its power for harm. Only the Ideal Soul is wise enough and good enough to gauge the worth of a kindly word spoken at the right time, or to take account of the evil and the misfortune of a cruel word uttered at the wrong time. Common experience tells us that the stress of anguish may be broken by a word; and that a word may open the very gates of hell. No phenomenon is greater than this.

Consider for a moment. What makes a