p. 279 | Correct Use of Words by S. S. Times

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jun 22, 1882

Correct Use of Words.

By S. S. Times

WORDS are of value only as they represent ideas If a word is misused, it is likely to so far misrepresent a truth. A common and a vicious misuse of this sort is in applying the word "worth" to a man's moneyed possessions. "He is worth a hundred thousand dollars." "He is worth millions." Nonsense! Yes, and worse than nonsense. The truth is that the man has a hundred thousand dollars, or has two or three or perhaps twenty or thirty millions of dollars, while perhaps he isn't worth fourteen cents as a citizen, or as a neighbor, or as a fellow-man. Many a man who has a great deal of money isn't worth anything to speak of; and many a man without a hundred dollars in the world is worth millions to the world. But is there any harm in using a word in this way, in its popular sense as distinct from its legitimate meaning? Of course there is. It accustoms one to the idea that the two meanings are interchangeable. A confusion of words brings a confusion of ideas. When a youth finds that a man's bank account is spoken of as the measure of that man's worth, he sees a new meaning in Pope's declaration, "Worth makes the man, and want of it the fellow;" And he is not unnaturally inclined to ask with Butler, "For what is worth in anything, But so much money as 'twill bring."

If you want to keep character from being bought and sold in the market, never, never speak of a man as "worth" so many dollars. If that phrase means anything, it means that that is the price of the man's manhood; and if it means that, it isn't kind to speak it out plainly. Say, if you will, that the man has so much money, and that you hope he came by it honestly; but don't say he is "worth" that much, as if you knew what he could be bought for.