Some consider that levity is likely to bring any subject it
touches into contempt, or is only fitly used in connection with light
subjects; while others regard it as merely a source of harmless
pleasure, and can even laugh at a joke against themselves. In like
manner some consider it inconsistent with the profession of religion to
attend balls, races, or theatres, or even to wear gay-coloured clothes.
Congreve has been blamed even for calling a coachman a "Jehu." On the
other hand, at the beginning of this century, "a man of quality" could
scarcely get through a sentence without some profane expletive. Sir
Walter Scott makes a highwayman lament that, although he could "swear as
round an oath as any man," he could never do it "like a gentleman." Lord
Melbourne was so accustomed to garnish his conversation in this way that
Sydney Smith once said to him, "We will take it for granted that
everybody is damned, and now proceed with the subject." In former times,
and even sometimes in our own day, the most eminent Christians have
occasionally indulged in jest. At the time of the Reformation, a martyr
comforted a fellow-sufferer, Philpot, by telling him he was a "pot
filled with the most precious liquor;" and Latimer called bad passions
"Turks," and bade his hearers play at "Christian Cards." "Now turn up
your trump--hearts are trumps.
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