Then we have with the kindly affections the defensive
affection—resentment, the spontaneous uprising of our natures against
harm and injury. It meets impending danger in an instant—not only
personal danger, but is present in our relations with others; as the
mother repels harm from her child. The resentment against wrong and
injustice should be taught as a righteous and noble attainment, but the
abuses are equally dangerous.
The mother will do well to explain to the child the different qualities
of this attainment. That quality which will protect him from wrong and
injury and which is excited by cruelty and injustice on the one side,
and on the other side the abuses which are passion and peevishness.
Teach him that the giving away to sudden fits of anger stamps him as
being ill-bred and peevishness is a sign of weak character; both of
which are diseases that if not cured will tend to destroy the moral
structure.
There is more virtue in one sunbeam than a whole hemisphere of clouds
and gloom. Therefore, look on the bright side of things. Cultivate what
is warm and genial—not the cold and repulsive, the dark and morose.
Don’t neglect your duty; live down prejudice.