The herald., 1895-08-11
PATIENCE is A
STRONG ARMOR AGAINST THE
RULE OF FATE
BY TENNESSEE c. CLAFLIN

br lENNESSEE =. CLAfLiN
Patience is an excellent virtue, and on q
OF those most difficult to acquire. Woman
possesses 1T in a far greater degree than
man, and this has been one Of her com
pensations for long ages of servitude. 1t
was necessary to her to endure or die,
and she has learned to endure. Yet in
the face OF all the difficulties and trials
which beset us through life. the wrongs
and injuries, the diseases and disap-
polntments which are incidental to all,
patience is essential to every one, ire
spective of sex. We admire courage, al
ways, but seldom admire passive forti-
tude. But courage may be mere
ANIMAL instinct. and usually is, whereas
patience is high intellectual quality and
Is the fruit of reason or relig on. Chaucer
wrote in his Persones Tale,' The philoso-
pher sayeth that patience IS the virtue
that stffereth debonairiy all the outrfges
OF adv9rsitee, and every wicked woi d. !"
what armour, then, can be so effec tual
against the disasters of fate as this God
ike gift of enduring calmly?
The fretful, fussy individual is con :
temptibe to others and a misery to him
self. Whenever a woman is destitute of
this most womanly quality Of quiet en-
durance, nature or education has robbed
her of a Distinguishing virtue of her sex.
and she becomes one of those sour and
querulous creatures that are able to drive
any man from house and home unless
he has the pat;ence Of Job. Its oultiva
ton, therefore, is of primary Importance
and should begin at the earliest slage of
life. But when we see how young infants
are permitted by the indulgence of fool
ish mothers to defy them and their
nurses, to struggle and scream and kick
in paroxysms of passion whenever they
are thwarted. and habitually disobey
when they become older, we need not
wonder that with such a training they
be subject to criminal outbreaks. So
long as parents neglect their duties to
their offspring, so long will wIetchedn ness
and vice roll on, and many man whose
eivl passions control HIM would be
tempted, if he knew all, to curse the
irrational fondness of the mother who
bore him.
meaning: "Patiens. suffering or Learn
ing, that is to say. calmly. We have lost
the old English verb TO patient" which
was in vogue down to Shakespeare s
time. Patient yourself, madam" says
Titus Andronicus. Ours is a sterling,
solid word. which has sustained its sig
MITIGATION for ages, and has seen good SER
vice in the life of humanity. The martyrs
for philo 'ophy and religion, to say moth .
ing OF others, gave notable examples of
its meaning when they cheerfully en-
dured all the agonies that tyrannous in
virtue of the best pagans, says Lecky in
History of European Morals. was per-
haps of as high an order as that of the
best Christians" And the patience of
pagan philosophers under persecution
was no way inferior to that of the fol-
lowers of the cross. Both nave proved
thousands of times over how subllmely
NJ and W. auffpr nd iia vvh n n,
sustained by this noblest of virtues
Pound the body of Anaxarchus, for thou
dost not pound his soul" was said to the
tyrant of Cyprus by the philosopher when
brayed alive in a stone mortar with iron
hammers to satisfy mean revenge.
quently repeated of Platonle maxims. IA
God (what God I know noD dwells in
every good man," saiu Epictetus. And
Marcus Aurelius adds: Offer to the God
that is in thee a manly being. citizen,
a soldier at his post, ready to depart from
life as soon as the trumpet sounds" An
other teaching of the Stoics was 1.-THE
tioning submission to the DEGREES Of
rebel" said Seneca. "fo fear. to grieve,
to be angry. Is to be q deserter. said
Aurellus. "Remem ber, " wrote Epictetns,
hi, himself IS cripple, that you are but an a.
has ordained. If he wishes to you to rep
resent poor man, do so heartily; if a
fcripple, or q magistrate, or private
man, in each case act your part with
honor. God does not keep good
man in prosperity. He tries, He strength
ems him, He prepares him for Himself. :"
When Anaxagoras, the preceptor of
Socrates, PericIes, Euripides and many
other famous pupils, was condemned to
death because Of scientific research, he
ridiculed the sentence, and said it had
long been pronounced upon him by ma
ture. He refused to have his corpse borne
to his own country, hfor. said he, 1.-The
grave Is as long from one place as the
other" Nor were these mere precepts,
for he. like numbers of the stoics Eand
epicureans, had renounced wealth and
honors for practical philosophy. Epi-
Gurus himself taught that 'all good and
all evil consist in feeling, and what is
death but @the deprivation OF feeling?'
And Cicero declared that ''all virtue is in
coin." THE proper study of wise
men," said great modern philosopher,
is not how to die, but how to live.
There is no subject on which the sage
will think less thanSdeath."
When Atoninus Plus was dying, and
Of the night. the emperor replied,
"Aequanimitas! (patience.)
Action. feeling and resignation, form
the three components of the worthiest
life, but the crown of all is patience! 10
know how to endure and how to wait; to
render the mind superior to all accident
of time or place. The imagination OF
the most imaginative race never conceiv-
ed anything grander than the lonely Titan
chained to Mount Caucasus with an eagle
fIom year to year ever gnawing his vital
organs. Beaten by tempests and chilled
by the eternal SHOWS. he lifted his eyes
and voice in calm defiance of his unjust
prosecutor. and patiently awaited the
hour of his deliverance. He stands today,
in the record of Pagan genius. giant
type of mortal endurance. But if we
turn our eyes to Calvary, in the reign of
Tiberius, we perceive a still grander and
more human example. He who had re-
nounced all things for His love of
humanity, whose whole life had been
spent in innocence and benefcence and
the highest exercise of patience. con-
demned for blasphemy, by the impure
lips of those He wished to save, hangs
bleeding on the cross. But. in that hou r
of supreme torture His patience rises
above His pain. "Father!' He cried.
forgive them. for they know not what