Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1877-07-27

| leniencv on crimes committed when Ger
tain wind is blowing. II has been decided
by the mild wisdom of he Legislature tina
man il quite irresponsible for ms actoh'
while the malignant influence lasts. Mad
dened by the cold cutting air. 10y the dus
ana powdered straw which fill his moutl
and eyes, and by the virulent persistency o
the wind, he may rush forth and avengt
himself on the first person he meets. The
consequences will only be slight fine, and
close imprisonment till the weather shows
signs OF improvement These provisions
seem almost in advance of what human
nature has right to Expect, they tend to-
wards fatalism, and di.rourage all efforts to
| subdue circumstances II character. But 1t
is perhaps to be wished that, i'll forming
judgments of the temper and conduct OF
others, people should learn somewhat in
the direction of this American mlldness.
Among the circumstances and conditions
which make it liiiicnlt, from moment to mo-
mcnt, to preserve that balanced attitude of
the completely formed will which is charac-
ter, health is perhaps the most important
Health influences the temper most nearly; /;
certain physical conditions, not apparent TO
the observer, are at least as irritating as the
worst east wind and yet the patients words
and actions are judged as severely ms If he
were before an English, not Paraguayan
| jury.
Bad health and good health have obvious
| " IL strong influence on the formation of
character, and yet it is always impossible
to say priori how either will act on any
| given individual. Thus it seems easy for n
large. eupeptic and Jolly looking man to have
good temper. The wind that beats the
mountain blows more gently about his large
curves. Ii visits with Il sharper inquisitiOn
tl..,. .Nt
ill-conditioned person, and it is not surpris-
ing if the former is comfortable and happy
while the latter is exasperated and peevlsh.
large man can endure more fatigue before
his energy droops to that languid state in
which all the wheels of being are slow, and
the body and mind resent every sort OF con-
tact, everything that forces exertion on them.
But the favored of nature in health are apt
to degenerate in character by reason of n
physical pride like the "Intellectual pride"
which preachers SPEAK OF, and which, ac-
cording to one famous liberal theologian, is
purely mythical and imaginary sin. Ply
steal pride is only too real failing and
causes only too much unhappiness i'll iami-
lies. The healthy member. who is great
eater of beef, has merged his imagination
and sympathies in tyrsnnical robustness.
Though he would be the first to blame the
moral Pharisee who should declare that he
had never slipped from righteousness, the
physical Pharisee is eternally Dragging that
he never was wearied out. He may think
that the hero talked too largely who de-
cared that he did not know what fear was
like, but for himself he insists that he does
not know what fatigue is like. Thus the re-
suit of his natural gifts is II certain hardness
and cruelty. He opines that boys should
trough it, and is an advocate of tagging
and bullying. The healthy tyrant is all for
hardening every one, and he reviyes the cold
water torture OF the theological past for the
benefit of his more delicate children. The
expression which he uses most frequently is
Nerves, all nonsense look nj me-" and
then he bCres his audience with the recital of
some cruelty that he practieed or endured in
his youth.
1t is IL question whether it is better for a
family to illl into the hands of the healthy
or of the nervous and debilitated tyrant.
For the latter. bad as has been the influence
OF his health on his character. some excuse
may be made. He does not deserve pity for
having drifted into that state which the
Scotch idiom describes az 'all egg-shells.
A sudden noise an inopportune interruption,
Il painful story, affects some people with
physical shock which the robust world knows
nothing of. There are moments of langour,
apart from actual suffering, in which every
sensation is modified anguish A family
which walked IN list slippers, which never
played games, which possessed no piano, and
lived far remote from street cries and railway
whistles, would yet be too noisy company for
the man or woman who has yielded in the
struggle and left character 1t the mercy of
nerves. Where there are such people in a
house il is impossible for any one to do any
thing rightly. The game begins in the
morning when 1t Is discovered that the neigh
bor's dog or q distant barp-door fowl kept
the dear sufferer awake. He comes down
late to breakfast and finds breakfast cold.
and some one else has reud the newspaper
before him, and there is talk of u party Of
pleasure, against which he rages peeyishly.
Every one, he prophesies, will get wet, will
catch cold and die, and really some of the
audience may come to think such fate II
fortunate release. The vanquished charac
ter the member of a family. or of a society.
who has given up fighting for cheerfulness,
and who lets his physical depression have its
own way is not only wretched himself. but
n cause Of wretchedness to others People
grow up in this baleful shade, as it were, un-
der moral upas tree, and through all their
lives retain q trace of his keen sensitiveness
to annoyance. and his angry resentment of
the pn-pricks of daily existence.
In palliation of this miserable way of tax
ing the events of life must be set OF course
that always unknown quantity, the actual
measure and quality of the physical discom-
fort which the nervous singer person to en-
dure with patience. We all know by expert
ence that to be weak ID to be irritable, that
IA hungry man is an angry man, and that Il
cold or u tired man is little better. We never
can tell how much the victim has borne be-
fore he got into the habit of constantly cry
ing out, and We are hardly fair to him when
We say that such or such person bears far
greater agony with patience. Most people
have met, and have marveled at, the extra
ordinary sweetness and happy temper with
which women endure the extremes Of long
continued pain. In place of the constant
fretting and restlessness which, Judging 10y
the more common instance OF peeyish ILL
health, might be expected, the patients de-
velope II new power of resistance. and won
deriuly perfect resignation. Their pain is So
well concealed that 1t may even be forgotten
by those around them, and IT Is only after re
Election that We discover their more than
stoicnl virtue. "Tho door il open" Is the
constant word of comfort which Epictus has
for the suffering 1.-THE door il open. and
when you will you can leave of playing ht |
the game of life. But to these afflicted per
SONS 'tht uOof IN hnut III . AihNtE ~ tHt /
sIly talk of the ''advanced" preachers OF en-
thusinsm, one might say that the example of
this Christian endurance of extreme and |
hopeless anguish is II spectacle of virtue, II
constant n notive and spur To courage which |
can never be forgotten by those who have |
witnessed 1t, nor ever quite cease to lntiu- |
ence their conduct. There are characters |
which ARE refined to perfection 10y physical |
suffering. and there are characters which |
grow daily worse and weaker under what |
appears to be much less terrible strain. |
But we live far too entirely alone, and one |
mans feelings are iar too securely hidden |
from the sympathy Of others, for us to de |
eide M to what might happen to either char
actrr IN changed conditions. The more than
stole resolution might yield To whatever ner
vous condition 1t may be that causes every |
contact to be painful shock. The human
sensitive plant might be hardened into cour-
age and patience 10y the approach Of II de
cided and mortal malady
Much OF the discipline by which the de-
won't persons and ascetics of all faiths have
chastened. or tried To chasten, themselves
seems to have been adopted with the very |
purpose Of experiment on the relations be-
tween health and character. A robust saint |
might have II charming sweet temper, and Ice
easy and accessible To all men. till he came |
to try himself by fasting. Ii he could mas
ter the peeyishncss which on II small scale |
t,inpts us when dinner il deferred. then he
might congratulate himself on victory. |
That "oyrrhardness To his brother. the ass, |
with which st. Francis reproachcd himself. |
could not but produce Hrtlfclally all the |
temptations Of natural debility. An Amcri- |
can philosopher says that many lad people |
have passed Tor SAINTS because they never |
got to the ground of their characters. never, |