All 7 Uses

tempered
in
The Scarlet Letter
(Edited)

Conscious of his own infirmity—that his tempered steel and elasticity are lost—he for ever afterwards looks wistfully about him in quest of support external to himself.
p. 37.9 *

tempered = made stronger or less brittle by heat treatment (figurative)
It might be, too, that a witch, like old Mistress Hibbins, the bitter-tempered widow of the magistrate, was to die upon the gallows.
p. 47.8

tempered = typical mood
He was not ill-fitted to be the head and representative of a community which owed its origin and progress, and its present state of development, not to the impulses of youth, but to the stern and tempered energies of manhood and the sombre sagacity of age; accomplishing so much, precisely because it imagined and hoped so little.
p. 61.2

tempered = made less extreme
...speaking in an authoritative voice, although tempered with respect towards the youthful clergyman whom he addressed:
p. 62.6 *
The mother's impassioned state had been the medium through which were transmitted to the unborn infant the rays of its moral life; and, however white and clear originally, they had taken the deep stains of crimson and gold, the fiery lustre, the black shadow, and the untempered light of the intervening substance.
p. 85.3

untempered = not made less extreme

standard prefix: The prefix "un-" in untempered means not and reverses the meaning of tempered. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.
As they descended the steps, it is averred that the lattice of a chamber-window was thrown open, and forth into the sunny day was thrust the face of Mistress Hibbins, Governor Bellingham's bitter-tempered sister, and the same who, a few years later, was executed as a witch.
p. 108.3

tempered = typical mood
And that ugly tempered lady, old Mistress Hibbins, was one.
p. 172.1 *

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Grouped by 3 Meanings

Definitions:

(1) (tempered as in: bad news tempered by kindness)
made less extreme
(2) (tempered as in: tempered steel)
made stronger or more flexible by heat treatment -- often of steel or glass
(3) (tempered as in: short-tempered)
having a typical mood or temperament -- often in reference to how easily one is angered
(4) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)

tempered in The Scarlet Letter (Edited)

tempered
in
The Scarlet Letter
(Edited)