88
which has so often wrought misery, sown discord and disunion, arrayed brother against brother, and friend against friend, sundered the bonds of man's fellowship to man, desolated kingdoms, and covered the face of the earth with blood? It is terrible in its combinations and effects, and even its lowest degrees are subversive of social and individual happiness. It is peculiarly reprehensible in our sex, whose most necessary ornament is a spirit of meekness, gentleness, and forbearance; and so boisterous and turbulent is this in its exercise, that it is distinctively termed by some critics, "an unfeminine passion." It is supposed by some that its lineaments give spirit and dignity to the character upon particular occasions. But covet not such a spirit, or such a dignity as this. It is an unamiable spirit, a dignity that inspires no true respect; and in cases where energy is requisite, firmness and determination will accomplish more than all the violence of passion.
In us who are young, an irritable, contentious temper is deeply inexcusable; for if there ever exist seasons, situations, or causes that palliate it, those palliations do not belong to us; to whom the cares of maturity, and infirmities of age, are unknown; whose spirits are unbroken by disappointment; whose path is illumined by hope: to whose eyes the imagery of nature is