ement the power of self-control, and enabled him to excel in
patience, even when he had most cause for disgust.

It was said by an enemy of William the Silent that an arrogant or
indiscreet word never fell from his lips.

How brilliantly could Carlyle write of heroism, courage, self-control,
and yet fly into a rage at a rooster crowing in a neighbor's yard.

A self-controlled mind is a free mind, and freedom is power.

"I call that mind free," says Channing, "which jealously guards its
intellectual rights and powers, which calls no man master, which does
not content itself with a passive or hereditary faith, which opens
itself to light whencesoever it may come, which receives new truth as
an angel from heaven, which, whilst consulting others, inquires still
more of the oracle within itself, and uses instructions from abroad,
not to supersede, but to quicken and exalt its own energies. I call
that mind free which is not passively framed by outward circumstances,
which is not swept away by the torrent of events, which is not the
creature of accidental impulse, but which bends events to its own
improvement, and acts from an inward spring, from immutable principles
which it has deliberately espoused. I call that mind free which
protects itself against the usurpations of society, which does not
cower to human opinion, which feels itself accountable to a higher
tribunal than man's, which respects a higher law than fashion, which
respects itself too much to be the slave or tool of the many or the
few. I call that mind free which through confidence in God and in the
power of virtue has cast off all fear but that of wrong-doing, which no
menace or peril can enthrall, which is calm in the midst of tumults,
and possesses itself though all else be lost. I call that mind free
which resists the bondage of habit, which does not mechanically repeat
itself and copy the past, which does not live on its old virtues, which
does not enslave itself to precise rules, but which forgets what is
behind, listens for new and higher monitions of conscience, and
rejoices to pour itself forth in fresh and higher exertions. I call
that mind free which is jealous of its own freedom, which guards itself
from being merged in others, which guards its empire over itself as
nobler than the empire of the world."

Be free--not chiefly from the iron chain
But from the one which passion forges--be
The master of thyself. If lost, regain
The r