Semi-weekly Louisianian. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1871-1872, 1872-02-15
Temper.-Like fire, temper, wisely

gerous master. Besides it must
rule or serve. Without mental
power over it, sudden fits of passion
often overcome prudence, justice,
even love itself, the obligations of
business, and the ties of lifelong
friendship; while philosopher has
affirmed that every ebullition of un-
governable temper, every hot out
burst of passion shortens ones life.
Yield to the habit, and it soon be-
comes your daily disposition. Mas
ter it, and it ceases to afflict you.
He is more than thrice-armed who
can be calm and self-contained
when the poisoned arrows of malice
or of hate pierce the most cruelty.
For the inspired record declares, in
language which combines counsel
with prophecy: "He that is slow to
anger is better than the mighty,
and he that ruleth his spirit than
he that taketh a city" And, if Til
lotson was correct when he said
that "anger is a short fit of mad
ness" how should all who desire to
have a healthy mind in healthy
body guard themselves against the
tempory insanity it creates.
Backbiting.-How much of this
vice there is all around us I need
not attempt to estimate. So i'm
portant, apparently, was it in the
Creators mind to condemn it that
one of the Ten Commandments
(the Ninth) seems primarily aimed
against it; and David tells us in the
Psalms that among those who are
to abide in Thy tabernacle will be
found "he that backbiteth not with
his tongue" while Paul, in II
Corinthians, specially denounced
envyings, strifes, and backbitings:
Not only is its evil influence felt in
bearing false witness directly against
our absent neighbor; but in the ap-
petite for retailing the defamatory
words of others against him. How
many characters have been smirched,
if not destroyed, by that oft repeated
phrase, "They say?" How many
sharp and cruel arrows have caused
once happy hearts to bleed upon
hearing of some wicked and widely
circulated calumny that a thought
less friend has breathed upon the
air, and thus started on its widen
ing sphere of evil. Far rather cul-
tivate an habitual disbelief of float
ing gossip and scandal. Far rather
be honored, as you will be, for de-
tending the absent, and shielding
those thus struck at behind their
back, by a habit SO appropriately
called backbiting.
Fretting.-I will not repeat an ar
gument made in your columns last
year to prove that three-quarters of
all anticipated trouble seems to be
only borrowed trouble, that never
came to pass. But I have alluded
to this particular point to give your
readers the cement of a happy from
tiersman upon that very article.
Said he, as I met him, on the very
outer boundary of our settlements
IN the Northwest:
"My philosophy of life is very
simple, and renders me happy as
the happiest. Never fret about
what you can help, but go to work
and help it. Never fret about what
you can't help, for that fretting is all
thrown away"
On a plane of perhaps lesser i'm
portance may be classed the unwise
habits of Incidence, carelessness,
thoughtlessness, ETC., which grow
30 surely and steadily upon all who
do not strive to extirpate them from
their daily lives. None, except those
who have tested it thoroughly, can
realize how much can he accom-
plished each day by a careful sys-
of time, and thought
full reminder of the duties to be
performed. A few moments given
every morning, when the mind is
the clearest, to the duties of the
day which lies before you, and few
more moments every evening to a
retrospect of what duties have been
forgotten, and thus omitted, and