344 SCIENTIFIC ILLUSTRATIONS [Tern 



The Equable Temper. 



Do not be elated by prosperity ; do not be chilled by adver- 

 sity. Let not external circumstances regulate your demeanour. 

 But let them be governed by your strong will acting under a sense 

 of what is right. Your temper will then be equable as it should 

 be. Just look at the plants. One of their most mysterious 

 properties is that of regulating their temperature. The twigs 

 of the tree are not frozen through in winter, neither does their 

 temperature mount up in summer in proportion to the external 

 heat. Their vitality protects them equally from both extremes. 

 And when you are yielding too much to mere external influences, 

 just think of this. BE. 



The Equable Temperament. 



Some men are blessed with that temper which is equal and 

 uniform at all times. The violence of wrath never heats them, 

 and the disappointments and vexations of life fail to chill the 

 even geniality of their disposition. The thermometer of their 

 temper rises and falls only within the most limited range, and 

 therefore you can always calculate upon the presence of all the 

 products of calmness, and the absence of the vices which are 

 incidental to characters which are less benign. As with men, 

 so with climates. Some countries are fortunate in the enjoyment 

 of a climate exempt from remarkable vicissitudes of tempera- 

 ture ; there are no sudden transitions from heat to cold, nor 

 does the summer differ much from the winter. Here it is natural 

 to expect that animal and vegetable life will flourish, and that 

 diseases connected with atmospheric changes will be few in 

 number and mild in character. Of this New Holland, which 

 enjoys a very uniform temperature, furnishes an apt illustration. 

 Vegetables and shrubs are here evergreen, and the groves and 

 forests are clad in a perpetual verdure. There is no shedding 

 of leaves in winter, and Nature presents the whole year round all 

 the luxuriance of summer. Similarly in the faces of some men 

 of equable temperament she, under all circumstances, presents 

 evermore the same placid smile. s. 



