Only a sham manliness regards swearing and misapplied temper as adding force to one's personality. It is, in truth, unutterably sickening to direct one's self in the goody goody direction, but we cannot recognize profanity as being any deterrent from that. Though the profane man may often be most estimable, the custom is nevertheless usually associated with its congeners, drink, lust, and gambling, and renders it hard for one to be an austere moralist.
A better prescription for acquiring neurasthenia could not be written than by compounding sufficient quantities of alcohol, lack of exercise, and spent sexual force, with frequent choleric explosions of temper and vulgar speech. If that promotes manliness then there is a misunderstanding in the definition of the word.
Wherever there is good discipline there is an outcry against profanity, and for that reason we consider these few words concerning it appropriate. By the military and naval authorities, by the chiefs of police and fire departments, and elsewhere where men show to the best advantage, it is discountenanced. In these days even the captains of merchantmen say that they will do all the swearing themselves if any is to be done, not for religious reasons, but for the sake of good discipline.
A prolonged residence in a mining camp furnishes an altogether repellent contrast to this. Outside of the unbecoming liberty which the blasphemer takes with the Creator, he makes use of a common and low grade of wit, hurts his nervous system, lowers his ideals, weakens the force of his speech, and displays his lack of a powerful vocabulary of good words. The ideal life is handicapped if this is ignored, and morality seems an intruder where language is coarse and where evil is inhaled.
The healthy man is the special favorite of Nature, while the diseased man is treated as of little value. In other words a chief source of happiness is to have the body in an uninjured condition, and the constitution so well balanced and adjusted that one's strength may survive through future generations. High spirits, a good digestion, vigor, and a clear mind are advantages which cannot be overestimated.
They are not to be bought at the drug store, nor to be obtained through the prescriptions of physicians however eminent, but are gratuitously bestowed by Nature upon all who obey her rules.
The prudent man imposes on himself restraints from ruinous temptations which, though they may be intensely pleasurable in themselves, will be repulsive to him if his strongest passion is to do what is right. He sees the connection between antecedents and consequents, and acts in a trustworthy, coherent manner.
Actions are either right, indifferent, or wrong; and in the main we can promptly classify them. If one holds a certain action to be evil, it is evil for him, notwithstanding the opinions of others.
The thing which is most admired in the ethical domain is when a man does what he conceives to be right to the death. Doing right for right's sake is better than making compromises, or acting on the basis of policy, and if, as is often said, fun and pleasure counterbalance right, we cannot stop to argue with those who maintain a doctrine which puts them entirely outside the bounds of noble endeavor.
The best type of man automatically refuses to do wrong, and regards trespass against others as more dreadful than being trespassed against. When he cannot do what is the very best, he will at least endeavor to approximate it, and thus is prepared for higher and higher conceptions and moral growth.
The Japanese have a word which is akin to "health conscience". That is to say that physical morality is a duty. Every transgression against health is an unpardonable sin, and we are never justified in treating our own bodies as we please, and far less so when our actions are concerned in giving and receiving and are co-operative, as they characteristically are in sexual intercourse.