calm for fair
adjustment. Such a course is not usually held to be a proof of wisdom
or virtue; and men are much more ready to praise and think well of
smartness, and spirit, and readiness for an encounter. To leave off
contention before it is meddled with does not command any very general
admiration; it is too quiet a virtue, with no striking attitudes, and
with lips which answer nothing. This is too often mistaken for dullness,
and want of proper spirit. It requires discernment and superior wisdom
to see a beauty in such repose and self-control, beyond the explosions
of anger and retaliation. With the multitude, self-restraining meekness
under provocation is a virtue which stands quite low in the catalogue.
It is very frequently set down as pusillanimity and cravenness
of spirit. But it is not so; for there is a self-restraint under
provocation which is far from being cowardice, or want of feeling, or
shrinking from consequences; there is a victory over passionate impulses
which is more difficult and more meritorious than a victory on the
bloody battle-field. It requires more power, more self-command, often,
to leave off contention, when provocation and passion are causing the
blood to boil, than to rush into it.

Were this virtue more duly appreciated, and the admonition of the Wise
Man more extensively heeded, what a change would be effected in human
life! How many of its keenest sufferings would be annihilated! The spark
which kindles many great fires would be withheld; and, great as are the
evils and sufferings caused by war, they are not as great, probably, as
those originating in impatience and want of temper. The fretfulness
of human life, it seems not hard to believe, is a greater evil,
and destroys more happiness, than all the bloody scenes of the
battle-field. The evils of war have generally something to lighten the
burden of them in a sense of necessity, or of rights or honour invaded;
but there is nothing of like importance to alleviate the sufferings
caused by fretfulness, impatience, want of temper. The excitable
peevishness which kindles at trifles, that roughens the daily experience
of a million families, that scatters its little stings at the table and
by the hearth-stone, what does this but unmixed harm? What ingredient
does it furnish but of gall? Its fine wounding may be of petty
consequence in any given case, and its tiny darts easily extracted; but,
when habitually carried into the whole texture