2.  The difference in the happiness which is received or bestowed by the man who governs his temper, and that by the man who does not, is immense.  There is no misery so constant, so distressing, and so intolerable to others, as that of having a disposition which is your master, and which is continually fretting itself.  There are corners enough, at every turn in life, against which we may run, and at which we may break out in impatience, if we choose.

3.  Look at Roger Sherman, who rose from a humble occupation to a seat in the first Congress of the United States, and whose judgment was received with great deference by that body of distinguished men.  He made himself master of his temper, and cultivated it as a great business in life.  There are one or two instances which show this part of his character in a light that is beautiful.

4.  One day, after having received his highest honors, he was sitting and reading in his parlor.  A roguish student, in a room close by, held a looking-glass in such a position as to pour the reflected rays of the sun directly in Mr. Sherman’s face.  He moved his chair, and the thing was repeated.  A third time the chair was moved, but the looking-glass still reflected the sun in his eyes.  He laid aside his book, went to the window, and many witnesses of the impudence expected to hear the ungentlemanly student severely reprimanded.  He raised the window gently, and then—­shut the window blind!

5.  I can not forbear adducing another instance of the power he had acquired over himself.  He was naturally possessed of strong passions; but over these he at length obtained an extraordinary control.  He became habitually calm, sedate, and self-possessed.  Mr. Sherman was one of those men who are not ashamed to maintain the forms of religion in their families.  One morning he called them all together, as usual, to lead them in prayer to God; the “old family Bible” was brought out, and laid on the table.

6.  Mr. Sherman took his seat, and placed beside him one of his children, a child of his old age; the rest of the family were seated around the room; several of these were now grown up.  Besides these, some of the tutors of the college were boarders in the family, and were present at the time alluded to.  His aged and superannuated mother occupied a corner of the room, opposite the place where the distinguished judge sat.

7.  At length, he opened the Bible, and began to read.  The child who was seated beside him made some little disturbance, upon which Mr. Sherman paused and told it to be still.  Again he proceeded; but again he paused to reprimand the little offender, whose playful disposition would scarcely permit it to be still.  And this time he gently tapped its ear.  The blow, if blow it might be called, caught the attention of his aged mother, who now, with some effort, rose from the seat, and tottered across the room.  At length she reached the chair of Mr. Sherman, and, in a moment, most unexpectedly to him, she gave him a blow on the ear with all the force she could summon.  “There,” said she, “you strike your child, and I will strike mine.”