The Republican journal., 1897-09-23
PATIENCE.
By Lady Cook. nee Tennessee Claflin.

Patience is an excellent virtue, and one
OF those most difficult to acquire. Woman
possesses it in far greater degree than
man, and this has been one of her com
pensations for long ages of servitude. It
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 he.
set us through life, the wrongs and in
juries, the diseases and disappointments
which are incidental to all, patience is
essential to every one, irrespective of sex.
we admire courage always, but seldom
admire passive fortitude. But courage
may be mere animal instinct, and usual
ly is, whereas patience is high intel
lectual quality, and is the fruit of reason
or religion. Chaucer wrote in his "Per-
sones Tale" ''The Philosophers sayth
that patience is the virtue that sutfereth
debonaLrly all the outrages of adversitee,
and every wicked word.'' What armour,
then, can be SO etfectual against the dis
asters of Fate as this God like Gift of en-
during calmly.
The fretful, fusSy individual is con-
temptible to others and misery to HIM
self. Whenever a woman is destitute of
this most womanly quality of quiet en-
durarce, nature or education has robbed
her of 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 patience of Job. Its cultivation.
therefore, is of primary Importance, and
should begin at the earliest stage of life.
But when we see how young infants are
permitted by the indulgence of foolish
mothers to defy them and their nurses, to
struggle and scream and kick in parox-
ysms Of passion whenever they are
thwarted, and habitually disobey as they
become older, we need not wonder that
with such training they should grow up
without self-control and be subject to
criminal outbursts. 50 long as parents
neglect their duties to their offspring, so
long will wretchedness and vice roll on.
and many man whose evil passions con-
troll him would be tempted, if he knew
all, to curse the irrational fondness of the
mother who bore him.
The origin of our word denotes its
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 time
patient yourself, Madam" saws Titus
Andronicus. Ours is sterling, solid
word, which has sustained its significa-
ton for ages, and has seen good service
in the life of humanity. The martyrs for
philosophy and religion, to say nothing of
others, gave notable examples OF its mean
ing when they cheerfully endured all the
agonies that tyrannous intolerance could
int1ict upon them THE virtue of the
best Pagans, says Lecky in ''History of
European Morals" twas perhaps of as
high an order as that of the best Chris
s-''Ai''' -h4Nt SAtN pttAlCACC u L dSuu
philosophers under persecution was no
way inferior to that of the followers of
the Cross. Both have proved thousands
Of times over how sublimely men and
women can suffer and die when sustained
by this noblest of virtues .'Pound the
body of AnaXarchus for thou does not
pound his soul, was said to the tyrant
of Cyprus by the philosopher when bray
ed alive in stone mortar with iron ham
mers to satisfy mean revenge. Follow
God,' was one of the most frequently re-
peated of Platonic maxims. "A God
what God | know mott dwells in every
good man. said Epictetus. And Marcus
Aurelius adds, Golfer to the God that is
in thee manly being, citizen, a soldier
at his post, ready to depart from life as
teaching of the Stoics was ''the duty of
the most absolute and unquestioning sub
mission to the DEGREES of Providence. .
ITO weep, to groan, is to REBEL said
Seneca. ''To fear, to grieve, to be angry,
is to be deserter," said Aurelius. RE
member" wrote Epictetus, himself a
cripple, ''that you are but an actor, act
ing whatever part the Master has ortlain
ed. If He wishes you to represent a
poor man, do SO heartily; if a cripple, or
a magistrate, or a private man, in each
case act your par with honor. God
does not keep a good man in prosperity
He tries, He strengthens him, He prepares
him for HIMSELF When Anaxagoras,
the preceptor of Socrates, Pericles, Eurip-
ides, and many other famous pupils, was
condemned to death because of scientific
research, he ridculed the sentence, and
said it had long been pronounced upon
him by Nature. He refused to have his
corpse borne to his own country, for,
said he, ''the road that leads to the other
side of the grave is as long from one place
as the other'' Nor were these mere pre-
cepts, for he, like numbers of the Stoics
and Epicureans, had renounced wealth
and honors for practical philosophy.
Epicurus himself taught that ''all good
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