CHAPTER XVIII.
Of the way to overcome Sudden Risings of the Passions.
IF you have not gained the habit of warding off sudden attacks, whether of injuries or adverse occurrences; in order to acquire it, your plan will be to anticipate such attacks, and desire to bear them over and over again, and thus dispose yourself for actually receiving them.
The way to forestall them is this,—having considered the bent of your passions, consider also the places where, and the persons with whom, you are likely to be thrown; you may easily thus conjecture what may probably happen.
And should any other vexatious circumstance arise, which you had not foreseen, in addition to the general help which a prepared mind gives, even to meet evils beyond those for which it was prepared, you may with advantage avail yourself of the following mode of meeting it:—
As soon as you first feel the blow of this unexpected injury or trial, be on your guard at once, and make the effort to lift up your mind to God, contemplating His unspeakable goodness and love to you, in sending you this trial in
