Selective Tendencies, etc.
tive, terse, graphic, clear, inoffensive; and it is as good as any one of a thousand other colloquial and even idiomatic phrases which can not bear analysis.
“Communities have customs; individuals, habits—commonly bad ones,” says Mr. Bierce in Write it Right. Why “bad ones”? “Two (or more) ones hardly sounds right. The plural of one is not the best of taste, etc.”[1]
It is true that “communities have customs,” and for that reason individuals follow customs. Certain conduct in certain environment becomes customary. It is, for instance, a civilized man’s custom to rescue a drowning child, to put out the flames of his neighbor’s house, to send flowers to weddings and funerals, to help capture a thief, to turn a deaf ear to gossip, to smile at the sage who strains at a gnat and swallows a camel; but these customs are not habits. According to Crabb’s English Synonymes, “Custom supposes an act of the will; habit implies an involuntary
- ↑ The Worth of Words. (Bell.)
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