every thing which is contrary to the divine will.




CHAPTER VII.
SELF-GOVERNMENT.

What self-government includes. Cheerfulness a duty. Discretion.
Modesty. Diffidence. Courage. Vigilance. Thoughts and feelings. The
affections. The temper. The appetites and passions.


This is so broad a subject that I shall present my thoughts concerning
it under several different heads. It includes, in my estimation, the
government of the THOUGHTS, the IMAGINATION, the TEMPER, the
AFFECTIONS, and the APPETITES. The young woman who truly governs
herself, will be at once _cheerful, discreet, modest, diffident,
vigilant, courageous, active, temperate_ and _happy_.

Cheerfulness.--Is cheerfulness within our power? some may be inclined
to ask. I certainly regard it so. That there are moments of our lives--
nay, even considerable seasons--when cheerfulness is not required, may,
indeed, be true. Our friends sicken and die, and we mourn for them.
This is a law of our nature. Even our Saviour was, at times, a man of
sorrows and acquainted with grief; though of all individuals in the
universe cheerfulness was his right. But he bore more than his own
sorrows; and in so far as his example is, in this respect, binding upon
us, it is only when we bear the sorrows of others. Those should,
indeed, often be borne; and in proportion as they are borne--in