THE MESSAGE AND PROMISES TO MANKIND. 241 



bitter evils are incidental to the universal human lot ; 

 that they are a part of human destiny, like death itself, 

 which cannot be shunned. We know, too, that they 

 follow from natural causes, and that, therefore, no moral 

 miracle can possibly be wrought to deliver us from them; 

 and if there is to be the least mitigation, it must, we 

 know, be wrought by natural means, and in an intel- 

 ligible manner. But happily we also know something 

 more than formerly respecting the sequence of our 

 mental states and their physical concomitants, the evil 

 as well as the good ; and we can do something at least, 

 through the united forces of physiology and psychology, 

 to mitigate the mental pains which we cannot cure. We 

 are taught that if the evil and depressing passions, " the 

 vultures of the mind," have destructive effects upon our 

 nerves and health, as they surely have, we must resist 

 and control or shun the causes which produce the 

 disastrous effects. We are thus compelled, under severe 

 natural penalties, to regulate our life more wisely. We 

 are driven to a greater self-mastery, a stronger and wiser 

 self-denial, it may be even to a greater renunciation of 

 objects dear and desirable ; and we shall certainly be 

 required to cultivate a stricter conscience, and one more 

 void of offence to all. In this way, by natural, which 

 also include moral means, we may really reduce our 

 worst sorrows, troubles and trials to within a narrower 

 and endurable compass ; and when we have in this way 

 done our utmost, it is then our duty, and it exhibits the 

 right spirit, to accept, if not contentedly which might 

 be demanding too much from men at least unmurmur- 

 ingly, silently, and stoically, the irreducible burden of 

 grief that we must bear. We thus return to stoicism ; 

 we must cultivate the spirit of resignation, which a 

 knowledge of the fixed general order of Nature in the 



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