Puslapio vaizdai
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tending to turn nature from her course; for were it so the night would not bring that entire relief and recess which it is designed to afford: with a like design it will be expedient that the domestic intercourse of a statesman should alternate with his business, and not mix with it.

But whilst standing apart from the details and aloof from the personalities of political life, a woman may be nevertheless very strongly imbued with principles of that height and generality in which moral, religious, and political interests meet: and to have a wife who should be imbued with such principles, and endowed with a capability of applying them upon great and fit occasions, will be of inestimable service to a statesman. For then, in addition to the cooling and refreshing of his spirit, he will have his grasp of his principles invigorated by association with a mind accustomed to view things in peace and without compromise. It is true the sentiments of the wife may

be too

abstract, and not sufficiently modified by a reference to practicability: but the husband can more easily make any requisite deductions on this score, than he can repair the ravage which his character may undergo from the want of something in the nature of a living inflexible canon wherewith to compare his own persuasions, warped in the stress and pressure of perpetual combat.

Finally, it will be well that the wife of a statesman's choice should be sound in health and of a light and easy temper, neither jealous herself nor giving cause for jealousy; neither going much abroad nor requiring her husband to be more at home than his avocations permit ; fresh in her feelings and alert as to her understanding, but seasonable in the demonstration of either, and willing at all times to rest contented in an intelligent repose. Her love should be

A love that clings not, nor is exigent,

Encumbers not the active purposes,

Nor drains their source; but proffers with free grace
Pleasure at pleasure touched at pleasure waived,
A washing of the weary traveller's feet,

A quenching of his thirst, a sweet repose
Alternate and preparative; in groves

Where loving much the flower that loves the shade,
And loving much the shade that that flower loves,
He yet is unbewildered, unenslaved,

Thence starting light and pleasantly let go

When serious service calls.

76

CHAPTER XI.

CONCERNING THE EFFECTS OF ORDER AND THE MAINTENANCE OF EQUANIMITY.

By the regimen of domestic love the heart of a statesman is composed and regulated at home: for a like regulation in business he must look to the principle of order. The energy of a statesman should be as purely as possible intellectual; it should be of that rare species which can be combined with equanimity. And to bring about this combination he must appeal from the extemporaneous exactions of circumstance, from the impulses of a perturbed and hurried life, to the principle of order. The

excitement and flurry of spirits occasioned by [ a sense of urgency in affairs, and by too quick and versatile an apprehension of their importcomprehending in the feelings more

ance,

matters at a time than can be entertained by

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the judgment, are obviated by such an habitual reference to order as shall make it paramount to all considerations but those of the most imperious character. Calmness is of the very essence of order; and if calmness be given, order may easily be superinduced; and if order be given, it will almost of necessity govern or supersede casual excitements, and produce calmness. Nor is there any principle which may be more surely established in the mind by adopting the habits which, if previously subsisting, it would teach. All that is wanted is strength of judgment to perceive the ultimate advantages of acquiring the principle, and strength of will to make the present sacrifice; and on these will follow, in due and certain suc

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