trifling, foreign, perhaps imaginary
good.

THE most pointed satire I remember to have read, on a mind enslaved by
anger, is an observation of Seneca's. "Alexander (said he) had two
friends, Clitus and Lysimachus; the one he exposed to a lion, the other
to himself: he who was turned loose to the beast escaped, but Clitus was
murdered, for he was turned loose to an angry man."

A PASSIONATE woman's happiness is never in her own keeping: it is the
sport of accident, and the slave of events. It is in the power of her
acquaintance, her servants, but chiefly of her enemies, and all her
comforts lie at the mercy of others. So far from being willing to learn
of him who was meek and lowly, she considers meekness as the want of a
becoming spirit, and lowliness as a despicable and vulgar meanness. And
an imperious woman will so little covet the ornament of a meek and
quiet spirit, that it is almost the only ornament she will not be
solicitous to wear. But resentment is a very expensive vice. How dearly
has it cost its votaries, even from the sin of Cain, the first offender
in this kind! "It is cheaper (says a pious writer) to forgive, and save
the charges."

IF it were only for mere human reasons, it would turn to a better
account to be patient; nothing defeats the malice of an enemy like a
spirit of forbearance; the return of rage for rage cannot be so
effectually provoking. True gentleness, like an impenetrable armour,
repels the most pointed shafts of malice: they cannot pierce through
this invulnerable shield, but either fall hurtless to the ground, or
return to wound the hand that shot them.

A MEEK spirit will not look out of itself for happiness, because it
finds a constant banquet at home; yet, by a sort of divine alchymy, it
will convert all external events to its own profit, and be able to
deduce some good, even from the most unpromising: it will extract
comfort and satisfaction from the most barren circumstances: "It will
suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock."

BUT the supreme excellence of this complacent quality is, that it
naturally disposes the mind where it resides, to the practice of every
other that is amiable. Meekness may be called the pioneer of all the
other virtues, which levels every obstruction, and smooths every
difficulty that might impede their entrance, or retard their progress.

THE peculiar importance and value of this amiable virtue may be farther
seen in its permanenc