The Characters: First Series

Passion and Patience, like Esau and Jacob, are twin-brothers. And their names, like their natures, spring up from the same root. 'Patience, ' says Crabb in his English Synonyms, 'comes from the active participle to suffer; while passion comes from the passive participle of the same verb; and hence the difference between the two names. Patience signifies suffering from an active principle, a determination to suffer; while passion signifies what is suffered from want of power to prevent the suffering.