tensity of determination existing in such men. "My distresses have been greater than I have ever owned, or ever will own to any man. I have known hunger and nakedness to the utmost extremity of human suffering; I have known what it is to have food given me as charity to a madman; and I have at times been obliged to shelter myself under the miseries of that character to avoid a heavier calamity. Such evils are terrible to bear, but they never have yet had power to turn me from my purpose.”

§ 163. Of power of the will as exhibited in patience under suffering. We invite the particular attention of the reader to the view of the subject which is now presented before him. If he will take the trouble to contemplate it steadily, we doubt not that it will have its due weight. We wish to be understood as distinctly and fully maintaining, on the ground of common observation, that the Will has an actual and substantive power, and that it is utterly impossible to explain the phenomena of human nature except by taking this view. Nor do we propose, in support of our positions, to introduce merely extraordinary instances of energy of the Will; but, on the contrary, should not hesitate to rest the issue of the inquiry on an appeal to cases which are of common occurrence. We have an evidence (an unobtrusive one, perhaps, but still worthy of our notice) of the power of the Will in that patience and submissiveness which we not unfrequently witness in the ordinary trials of life. Persons who have had their sensibilities wounded day after day, and hour after hour, have been seen at the same time to wear the smile of cheerfulness; and so far from uttering complaints and indulging a rebellious spirit, they have been uniformly kind to those who were the causes of their suffering. Others, who have suffered under the approaches of a wasting and insidious disease, have completely succeeded in quieting the emotions within them, and permitted no murmur to arise; they have even blessed these trying visitations of Providence,

and have shed a loveliness, glorious for themselves and cheering to the heart of the spectator, over the chamber of sickness and death. It is not enough to say that they may have possessed an enlightened understanding or a virtuous heart; nothing but the innate energy of the Will (however it may have been supported by correct views and virtuous principles) could have silenced and subdued the secret voice of anguish.

§ 164. Illustration of the subject from the command of temper. The fact that men are not governed by a fatality impressed upon them from an exterior cause, but have an efficiency in themselves, may be further illustrated from the control which they are seen to exercise over their passions, in what is called command of temper. Few sayings are more celebrated than that of Socrates on a certain occasion to his servant, that he would beat him if he were not angry. Hume, who is entitled to the credit of being a careful observer of human nature, speaks expressly of the remarkable command of temper which was possessed by Henry IV. of England, and it is not uncommon to find this trait pointed out by historians and biographers as one worthy of particular notice. The biographer of our illustrious countryman, Mr. Jay, says that "he sought not the glory which cometh from man, and the only power of which he was covetous was the command of himself." And this power, although he was obliged to contend with a natural irritability of temper, he exhibited in a very high degree.

In a recent interesting Work, entitled Recollections of the House of Lords, there is a sketch of the character and political labours of Earl Grey, a name familiar to those who are acquainted with the leading events of modern English history. The anonymous writer, who everywhere discovers his knowledge of the operations and tendencies of the human mind, speaks of him as follows: "He was not so insensitive **Life of John Jay, vol. i., chap. xii.

to the attacks of his opponents as was generally supposed. Those who knew him intimately were well aware that his sensibilities in this respect were not blunted by the cares and anxieties of office. But he had great COMMAND OVER HIS TEMPER. His philosophy had taught him the great advantages to a man holding so important a situation as he did, of concealing any soreness he might feel from the conduct of an opponent. He knew that to betray a loss of temper at the attacks of the adverse party was precisely the way to invite a repetition of such attacks. He therefore resolved to subject his temper, in this respect, to a severe course of discipline. He successfully carried his resolution into effect!"

§ 165. Further illustrations of this subject.

It would not be difficult to specify other distinguished men, both of our own and other countries, who knew how to conciliate the actings of a sensitive and enkindled heart with the coolest circumspection and the most perfect self-command. But this is not necessary, since the trait in question is one daily coming within our notice. It is not uncommon, in almost every village and neighbourhood, to observe persons of naturally quick feelings, and whose passions are obviously violent, and are prone to foam and to toss about like the waves of the sea, who nevertheless have those passions under complete control, even in the most trying circumstances.

And is it not a duty to exercise this control over the passions? "He that ruleth his spirit," says Solomon, "is better than he that taketh a city." And again, "He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down and without walls." "Be ye angry," says the Apostle, "and sin not; let not the sun go down upon your wrath." Here, then, is a great practical fact in the philosophy of the mind, and upon which important and solemn duties are based, viz., that the passions are under our control. But where is the power that controls them? It is not enough to

say that this power of regulation and control is deposited in the understanding. It is true that the understanding can suggest various and important reasons why this control should be exercised, but it cannot of itself render those reasons effective and available. The greatest light in the Understanding, and even if it were carried into the region of the Affections and the Conscience, could never bring this great result to pass without the co-operation of the effective energies of the Will.

§ 166. Proved from the concealment of the passions on sudden and trying occasions.

There are instances where the passions are repressed, or at least concealed, for the purpose of forwarding some ulterior end, which indicate the existence of power in the will. We might, perhaps, leave this statement just as it is, to be filled up by the private and personal recollections of the reader. But history, which furnishes so many valuable expositions of the passions and the will, is not without its striking instances here. It is mentioned by those writers who have given an account of Sylla, the Roman dictator, as a marked trait in his character, that he was capable of acting the dissembler to perfection. He was engaged in forming and executing gigantic plans for the extension of the Roman empire, at the same time that he had formed other plans of an entirely different character, and based upon the most dreadful passions, which he silently and calmly laid up to be executed at some distant day. One would have thought that his whole soul (such was his consummate ability in the management both of his present designs and of those passions which were afterward to be indulged) was exclusively taken up with his present business, and possessed no thought or feeling for anything else. The conspirators against Julius Cæsar, after they had fully determined on his assassination, an event which involved either his death or their own, and perhaps both, were in the almost daily habit of meeting

and transacting business with him; and yet that wonderful man was utterly unable to detect in the language, manner, or looks of the conspirators any evidence or intimations of their atrocious design. Does not this indicate on the part of the conspirators power of Will? Cicero seems to have been excluded from the conspiracy chiefly because he was supposed to be wanting in that decision and fortitude of purpose which was requisite to the occasion.

§ 167. Further instances of concealment of the passions.

We may go further and say, that people may not only avail themselves of the power of the Will to subdue their passions or to conceal them, and that, in so doing, they prove the existence of power in the Will, but they not unfrequently subdue them to a certain point, letting them run in certain directions and not in others; or repressing them to a certain degree, and permitting them to rage below that degree.

An instance will help to illustrate what we mean. The author of the Recollections of Mirabeau gives an account of a quarrel which took place between Mirabeau and Claviere, two names which must be familiar to all who are acquainted with the events of the French Revolution.-"A singular circumstance, which struck me very forcibly, had called this quarrel to my recollection. Mirabeau and Claviere, although beside themselves with rage, maintained, with regard to each other's characters, a discretion which surprised me. I trembled every moment lest Claviere should utter some taunts regarding Mirabeau's private conduct, and tax him with meanness in pecuniary matters. But, although he had frequently mentioned such things to me, he was too much master of himself to utter them now; while Mirabeau, on the other hand, foaming with pride and anger, had still the address to mingle with his invectives testimonies of esteem and compliments upon Claviere's talents. Thus they scratched and caressed each other with the same hand." The same writer makes another statement