will use profane language. It is an outrage upon good
manners. No one can be called a gentleman, who is guilty of it. It is a
vice that has always been held in detestation by the great and the good.
General Washington would never allow it in his army. In 1757, while a
colonel, at Fort Cumberland, when he was a young man, he issued an
order, expressing his "great displeasure," at the prevalence of profane
cursing and swearing, and threatening those who were guilty of it with
severe punishment. The day after he took the command of the
Revolutionary army he issued a similar order. In August, 1776, he issued
another order against this vice, in which he speaks of it as "a vice so
_mean and low_, without any temptation, that every man of sense and
character detests and despises it." He also strictly forbade gaming and
drunkenness.

_Howard's opinion of Swearers_.

Howard, the Philanthropist, standing in the street, heard some dreadful
oaths and curses from a public house opposite. Having occasion to go
across, he first buttoned up his pocket, saying to a by-stander, "I
always do this, when I hear men swear, as I think that any one who can
take God's name in vain, can also steal, or do any thing else that is
bad."

God has set a mark upon this vice. He not unfrequently punishes it, by
directly answering the prayer that is profanely uttered. J. H. was a
notorious swearer. He had a singular habit of calling on God to curse
his eyes. After some years, this awful imprecation was verified. He was
afflicted with a disease in his eyes, which terminated in total
blindness. This so affected his general system, that he gradually sunk
under it, and went to give up his account. A number of similar cases,
some of them still more awful, you will find in the tract entitled, "The
Swearer's Prayer."

_Playing Truant_.

Playing truant when sent to school, is almost always the means of
getting into bad company; and bad company leads to ruin. A boy thirteen
years old, was brought before the police court in Boston, charged with
stealing a gold pen from a lawyer's office. He had been in the habit of
coming into the offices, in the building, and selling apples. The
gentleman from whom he stole the pen had furnished him money to fill his
basket; and he returned his kindness by stealing his pen, which was
worth three dollars. His mother appeared before the court, and plead
earnestly for her boy, saving that he was a good boy to her, except
tha