"
(15) 'Memoir,' p. 427.
CHAPTER VIII.--TEMPER.
"Temper is nine-tenths of Christianity."--BISHOP WILSON.
"Heaven is a temper, not a place."--DR. CHALMERS.
"And should my youth, as youth is apt I know,
Some harshness show;
All vain asperities I day by day
Would wear away,
Till the smooth temper of my age should be
Like the high leaves upon the Holly Tree"--SOUTHEY.
Even Power itself hath not one-half the might of Gentleness"
--LEIGH HUNT.
It has been said that men succeed in life quite as much by their
temper as by their talents. However this may be, it is certain
that their happiness in life depends mainly upon their equanimity
of disposition, their patience and forbearance, and their kindness
and thoughtfulness for those about them. It is really true what
Plato says, that in seeking the good of others we find our own.
There are some natures so happily constituted that they can find
good in everything. There is no calamity so great but they can
educe comfort or consolation from it--no sky so black but they
can discover a gleam of sunshine issuing through it from some
quarter or another; and if the sun be not visible to their eyes,
they at least comfort themselves with the thought that it IS
there, though veiled from them for some good and wise purpose.
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