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a mere flash, which passes away immediately, leaving no permanent traces, and incompatible with persistent and steady pursuit of an object. It is the character of the nervous temperament to he capable of sustained excitement, holding out through long continued efforts. It is what is meant by spirit. It is what makes the high­bred racehorse run without slackening speed till he drops down dead. It is what has enabled so many delicate women to maintain the‘most sub­lime constancy not only at the stake, but through a long preliminary succession of mental gnd bodily tortures. It is evident that people of this temperament are particularly apt for what may be called the executive department of the leader­ship of mankind. They are the material of great orators, great preachers, impressive diffusers of moral influences. Their constitution might be deemed less favourable to the qualities re­quired from a statesman in the cabinet, or from a judge. It would he so, if the consequence necessarily followed that because people are ex­citable they must always be in a state of excite­ment. But this is wholly a question of training. Strong feeling is the instrument and element of strong self-control: but it requires to be cultivated in that direction. When it is, it forms not the heroes of impulse only, but those also of self­conquest. History and experience prove that