V

86

ANGER AND FEAR.

corporeal parts ; and that whatever injures the one, disorders theother.

The passion of anger ruffles the mind, distorts the countenance,hurries on the circulation of the blood, and disorders the wholevital and animal functions. It often occasions fevers, and otheracute diseases ; and sometimes even sudden death. This passionis peculiarly hurtful to the delicate, and those of weak nerves. Ihave known such persons frequently lose their lives by a violentfit of anger, and would advise them to guard against the excess ofthis passion with the utmost care.

It is not, indeed, always in our power to prevent being angry ;but we may surely avoid harbouring resentment in our breast. Re-sentment preys upon the mind, and occasions the most obstinatechronical disorders, which gradually waste the constitution. No-thing shows true greatness of mind more than to forgive injuries ;it promotes the peace of society, and greatly conduces to our ownease, health, and felicity.

SucJi as value health should avoid violent gusts of anger, as theywould the most deadly poison. Neither ought they to indulge re-sentment, but to endeavour at all times to keep their minds calmand serene. Nothing tends so much to the health of the body as aconstant tranquillity of mind.

FEAR.

The influence of fear, both in occasioning and aggravating dis-eases, is very great. No man ought to be blamed for a decent con-cern about life ; but too great a desire to preserve it, is often thecause of losing it. Fear and anxiety, by depressing the spirits,not only dispose us to diseases, but often render those diseases fa-tal which an undaunted mind would overcome.

Sudden fear has generally violent effects. Epileptic fits, andother convulsive disorders, are often occasioned by it. Hence thedanger of that practice, so common among young people, of fright-ening one another. Many have lost their lives, and others havebeen rendered miserable by frolics of this kind. It is dangerousto tamper with the human passions. The mind may easily bethrown into such disorder as never again to act with regularity.

THE EFFECTS OF FEAR ON CHILD-BED WOMEN.

But the gradual effects of fear prove most hurtful. The con-stant dread of some future evil, by dwelling upon the mind, oftenoccasions the very evil itself. Hence it comes to pass, that somany die of those very diseases of which they long had a dread, orwhich had been impressed on their minds by some accident, orfoolish prediction. This, for example, is often the case with wo-men in child-bed. Many of those who die in that situation, areimpressed with the notion of their death, a long time before it hap-