of prudence. Nor does reason or religion sanction self-imposed
burdens or hardships of any kind, whether in penance for wrong-doing, as a
means of purchasing the Divine favor, or as a mode of spiritual
discipline.

Patience implies *serenity, cheerfulness, and hopefulness*, under burdens
and trials. It must be distinguished from apathy, which is a temperament,
not a virtue. There are some persons whose sensibilities are so sluggish
that they are incapable of keen suffering, and of profound and lasting
sorrow. We can hardly call this a desirable temperament; for its capacity
of enjoyment is equally defective, and, as there is more happiness than
misery in almost every life, he whose susceptibility of both pain and
pleasure is quick and strong is, on the whole, the gainer thereby. The
serenity of patience requires vigorous self-command. It is essential,
first of all, to control, and as far as possible to suppress, the outward
tokens of pain and grief. They, like all modes of utterance, deepen the
feeling they express; while a firm and self-contained bearing enhances the
fortitude which it indicates. Control must also be exercised over the
thoughts, that they be abstracted from the painful experience, and
employed on themes that will fill and task them. Mental industry is the
best relief that mere philosophy has for pain and sorrow; and though it
certainly is not a cure, it never fails to be of service as a palliative.
Even when bodily distress or infirmity renders continuous thought
impossible, the effort of recollection, or the employment of the mind in
matters too trivial for its exercise in health, may relieve the weariness
and lighten the stress of suffering. Nor let devices of this sort be
deemed unworthy of a place even among duties; for they are often essential
means to ends of high importance. They assert and maintain the rightful
supremacy of the mind over the body; they supersede that morbid brooding
upon painful experiences which generates either melancholy or
querulousness; and they leave in the moral nature an unobstructed entrance
to all soothing and elevating influences.

*Cheerfulness* in the endurance of pain and hardship must result in great
part from the belief. If I regard myself as irresistibly subject to an
automatic Nature, whose wheels may bruise or crush me at any moment, I
know not why or how I could be cheerful, even in such precarious health or
prosperity as might fall to my lot; and there cou