Exclamation

“ I know not why the rebuke and prohibition apply not with full force to the numerous oaths by goodness, faith, patience, and mercy, which we hear from lips that mean to be neither coarse nor irreverent, in the schoolroom, street, and parlor; and a moment's reflection will convince any well-disposed person, that, in the exclamation Lor, the cutting off of a single letter from a consecrated word can hardly save one from the censure and the penalty written in the third commandment. ”

“ The feelings move inwardly, and are embodied in words. When words are insufficient for them, recourse is had to sighs and exclamations. When sighs and exclamations are insufficient for them, recourse is had to the prolonged utterance of song. ”

“ Take no care though you incur this sentence of excommunication: for a hundred, or for a brace of hundred pounds the pope will absolve you: who, out of the plenitude of his power, what he pleases can either loose or bind: for the greater cannot command a greater than he. You will have your tenth to a farthing, which will amount to very many thousand marks: and what lessening will it be of that inestimable sum, to give the pope a small driblet, who can absolve you though he himself had confirmed the sentence, seeing it belongs to him to annul, who can enact ”

“ I do hereby take upon me, in the meanwhile, conditionally to remove from thee the dread sentence of excommunication, seeing thou hast made all the concession as yet in thy power, and that thou art ready to make what reparation thou canst for what hath passed, and to do such penance as may be required of thee ”

“ But if you use such words as are the ordinary form of an oath in a language which you understand, so as the hearers may justly suppose you to understand it, it is an oath, coram hominibus, before men, and in the latter narrower sense of the word. And it shall be obligatory and pleadable against you in any court of justice by those you swear to; yea, and God himself doth take you thereby to be obliged thus to men: and if it be a profane, causeless swearing, men must call it an oath; for they see not the heart ”

“ King. But why can you not swear? for an oath is a common thing amongst men to any engagement.
R. H. Yes, it is manifest, and we have seen it by experience; and it is so common amongst men to swear, and engage either for, or against things, that there is no regard taken to them, nor fear of an oath; that therefore which we speak of in the truth of our hearts, is more than what they swear.
King. But can you not promise before the Lord, which is the substance of the oath?
R. H. Yes, what we do affirm, we can promise before the Lord, and take him to our witness in it ”

“ If one consents to swear that he is not a heretic, I say to him, ‘If you wish to swear so as to escape the stake, one oath will not suffice for me, nor ten, nor a hundred, nor a thousand, because you dispense each other for a certain number of oaths taken under necessity, but I will require a countless number. Moreover, if I have, as I presume, adverse witnesses against you, your oaths will not save you from being burned. You will only stain your conscience without escaping death. ”

“ I, then, both on that first occasion [so advised you] , and now contend that you should not rescind your former resolutions, nor err through three things, the most inexpedient for empire, namely, pity, delight in oratory and lenity. For pity is property felt toward those of a kindred temper, and not toward those who will not feel it in return, but are of necessity our enemies for ever. And the orators who delight us with their language will have a field in other subjects of less importance, instead of one in which the state, after being a little pleased, will pay a great penalty ”

“ Much swearing and profanation of God's name, by loose and vain oaths in common discourse: yea, swearing by the creatures—as, soul, faith, conscience, and the like, thereby sacrilegiously attributing to them divine honour; as also, by imposing upon all persons in any public trust the unlimited and unlawful oath of allegiance, together with the bond of assurance, and the oath of abjuration, contrary to the oath of the covenant, thereby debauching people's consciences, and involving them in the guilt of perjury. ”

“ As for those who fear lest they, too, should incur excommunication by coming to hear my sermons, I ask: Is it a sin to preach? Is preaching a crime? If the author of the excommunication were to say so he would contradict the Gospel. ”

“ The name acclamationes was also given to the decrees passed by the senate in honour of the emperor, and to the congratulations addressed to him, inasmuch as these were always carried by acclamation. Under Trajan these were entered in the Acta, and engraved upon bronze. (Plin. Panegyr. 75, &c.; Capitol. Maxim. duo, 16, 26, Gordian. tres, 11; Lamprid. Alexand. Sever. 6-12; Vopisc. Tac. 4, 5, 7, Prob. 11.) Many instances of acclamationes are given by Ferrarius, De Veterum Acclamationibus et Plausu, in Graevius, Thesaur. ”

“ In the calm seasons of life, the true use of oratory consists in the assistance which it affords to our fellow-citizens. We then behold the triumph of eloquence. Have we reason to be alarmed for ourselves, the sword and breast-plate are not a better defence in the heat of battle. It is at once a buckler to cover yourself [b] and a weapon to brandish against your enemy. Armed with this, you may appear with courage before the tribunals of justice, in the senate, and even in the presence of the prince. ”

“ Never you mind about mottoes. Put your question to his worship.
Dusty Lady. Well, me lord, what I wanted to ask was this. I warn a summons against a person—I can't call her a woman—she's nothing more or less than a person—and she's been taking my character away like anything and (banging witness-box with dilapidated hand-bag) I'm going to put a stop to it if I 'ave to go to the 'Ouse of Lords to do it. ”

“ For all must swear—all and in every place,
College and wharf, council and justice-court;
All, all must swear, the briber and the bribed,
Merchant and lawyer, senator and priest,
The rich, the poor, the old man and the young ”

“ Do you attribute any greater weight or any meaning to the words “I swear,” and to the fact of kissing the book, beyond the words of ordinary promise?—Not beyond the words of ordinary promise made under statutory obligation. ”

“ An oath is an oath, sir, and we have yet to be false to ours. And the King, say I, should, next to God, be loved and loyally served by his subjects. And so I have served this George, and his grandfather before him, according to the talents which were given me. ”

“ The witchery of words, powerful enough on the printed page, is to me ten times more powerful when it is reinforced by voice and glance and gesture. Fine rhetoric and lofty declamation have always stirred my blood; and yet I suppose that Demosthenes was right, and that, though rhetoric [Pg 285] and declamation are good, still the most valuable asset for a public speaker is a complete identification with the majority of his countrymen, in their prejudices, their likings, and their hatreds. ”

“ A prelate excommunicating a clerk who has appealed to the king and council of the realm is thereby a traitor to God, the king, and the realm. (14) Those who desist from preaching or hearing the word of God or the gospel preached [or, according to another reading, preaching the gospel] on account of the excommunication of men are excommunicate, and in the day of judgment will be held traitors to God. ”

“ Of those promises made to our brethren, to which God was a Witness, he being appealed to concerning our sincerity; these must be performed to the Lord, with an eye to him, and for his sake: for to him, by ratifying the promises with an oath, we have made ourselves debtors; and if we break a promise so ratified, we have not lied unto men only, but unto God.
II. It is here added, that the commandment does not only forbid false swearing, but all rash, unnecessary swearing: Swear not at all, v. 34; Compare Jam. v. 12. Not that all swearing is sinful ”

“ PAROLLES. In good sadness, I do not know; either it is there or it is upon a file with the Duke's other letters in my tent. FIRST SOLDIER. Here 'tis; here's a paper. Shall I read it to you? PAROLLES. I do not know if it be it or no. BERTRAM. Our interpreter does it well. SECOND LORD. Excellently. FIRST SOLDIER. [Reads] 'Dian, the Count's a fool, and full of gold.' PAROLLES. That is not the Duke's letter, sir; that is an advertisement to a proper maid in Florence, one Diana, to take heed of the allurement of one Count Rousillon, a foolish idle boy, but for all that very ruttish. ”

“ The Publick Part of Your Lordship's all the World knows and admires; and tho I see every Day That which renders Your Lordship the Instruction, as well as the Delight of all that have the Honour of Your Conversation, yet I can no more describe it, than I dare attempt it. I shall therefore, my Lord, entirely forbear; fearing as much doing Violence to Your Modesty, as Injustice to Your Merit. ”

“ We likewise forbid all and everyone under pain of excommunication reserved to us and our successors to dare to assail either in secret or in public, verbally or in writing, by disputes, injuries and affronts or by any other kind of contempt, anyone, no matter who he may be and least of all those who were members of the said Order. ”

“ Do you attribute any more meaning to those words than a pledge to human beings around you?—I attach no more meaning to those words than I do to a pledge to human beings authorised by law to take such a pledge from me under similar solemn circumstances. ”

“ When we think of the stream of words ever flowing from our lips, and how few grains of gold that stream has brought down amid all its sand, and how seldom Christ’s name has been spoken by us to hearts that heed Him not nor know Him, the exhortation, “Let your speech be always with grace,” becomes an indictment as truly as a command. ”

“ And whereas We are desirous, that none of our loving Subjects should be ignorant of the said Encouragement, We have thought fit, with the Advice of our Privy Council, to publish the same, by this Our Royal Proclamation, to the End that all Officers, Seamen, Marines, Soldiers, and others, Our Subjects, may be fully informed of the Benefit thereby intended for such of them, as shall be willing to assist by their Endeavours in the vigorous Prosecution of the War, and the Annoyance of the Enemy. ”

“ By thy decree was spilt,
Whose head, upon the charger brought,
Appeased revengeful guilt,
His name, amid a deathless page,
Gleams forth with living ray,
While all thy royalty and pride
Are swept like foam away. ”

“ The above is the truth, according to the oath of the deponent, who declares that he has not spoken out of malice, but solely in obedience to his conscience, and having been read to him, is declared to be correctly recorded. ”

“ I feel as sore and rum as the friar’s bum.
This symbolic application is met with again in the ceremony of absolution for excommunicated persons. The pleader (if a man) , had to present himself before the church door with bared shoulders, and before the bishop or priest who was presiding at the ceremony. Kneeling, and bare headed, he had to humbly beg for the absolution of his sin; and then the priest, having made him swear to obey the commandments of the church, would sit down and, taking a whip or rod, would recite a long psalm and, at each verse, he would strike the petitioner. ”

“ Our Lord's command, Swear not at all, can never relate to an oath in a civil cause, taken according to the definition above given: profane and common swearing, with all light, irreverent oaths and imprecations, and all such oaths as are not required by the civil magistrate, in cases where the Lord is supposed to be witness, are certainly intended in our blessed Lord's prohibition. ”

“ The air of the New World seems favorable to the art of declamation. ”

“ The matter in discussion is a declaration of war made at this tribune by the ministry, and I express myself constitutionally, as you will admit Well! Is it for the ministry, for the ministry alone, to declare war? Should we not, we also, have a word? ”

“ Strafford, Bolingbroke, the two Pitts, Fox,—to cite no other names,—I imagine few will dispute that these call up the notion of an oratory, in kind, in extent, in power, coming nearer than any other body of modern oratory to the oratory of Greece and Rome. And the affinity of spirit in our best public life and greatest public men to those of Rome, has often struck observers, foreign as well as English. ”

“ And thou shalt swear, The Lord liveth, in truth, in judgment, and in righteousness; and the nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him shall they glory.
Heb. VI, 16. For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife.
17. Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath.
2 Chron. VI, 22. If a man sin against his neighbor, and an oath be laid upon him to make him swear, and the oath come before thine altar in this house ”

“ But inasmuch as no one came forward and my lord the Archbishop gave me and my proctors no locus standi, therefore, in the name of justice, I entreat his Majesty, the Queen, their advisers, and the Prefect of the entire court to grant to me due attestation of this fact—namely, that I made the above declaration, and publicly posted up a letter concerning this matter, and that no one in the whole kingdom stood forth against me. ”

“ Fleeter than horses, swifter than men,
To carry your messages, a million times ten."
Then the King spoke to them in deep and solemn tone: "The task is a great one. The King's business is grave and important. My messengers must be swift and faithful. Are ye able?" [Pg 35]
Then the four winds piously crossed their breasts with their wings and whispered, "Try us and see, try us and see, try us and see." ”