Editorial note — APPENDIX.
Reading edition
Trust me! truly! surely! may we praise the Lord! are mild asseverations, but it is implied that in those days restraints on profanity were necessary. It has been asserted that profane swearing is coeval with Christianity, rather, perhaps with canonization—men called upon their patron saints to witness, and went beyond them. In Demosthenes’ oath—
“By earth, by all her fountains, streams and floods!”
there was no profanity.