contented woman is far worse. Perhaps you have met
her, with her eternal complaint of the injustice of Fate toward her.

She feels that she is born for better things than have befallen her;
her family does not understand her; her friends misjudge her; the
public slights her.

If she is married she finds herself superior to her husband and to her
associates. She is eternally longing for what she has not, and when
she gets it is dissatisfied.

The sorrowful side of life alone appeals to her.

This she believes is due to her "artistic nature." The injustice of
fortune and the unkindness of society are topics dear to her heart.
She finds her only rapture in misery.

If she is religiously inclined she looks toward Heaven with more grim
satisfaction in the thought that it will strip fame, favor and fortune
from the unworthy than because it will give her the benefits she feels
she deserves.

She does not dream that she is losing years of Heaven here upon earth
by her own mental attitude.

WE BUILD OUR HEAVENS THOUGHT BY THOUGHT.

If you are dwelling upon the dark phases of your destiny and upon the
ungracious acts of Fate, you are shaping more of the same experience
for yourself here and in realms beyond.

You are making happiness impossible for yourself upon any plane. In
your own self lies Destiny.

I have known a woman to keep her entire family despondent for years by
her continual assertions that she was out of her sphere, misunderstood
and unappreciated.

The minds of sensitive children accepted these statements and grieved
over "Poor Mother's" sad life until their own youth was embittered.
The morbid mother seized upon the sympathies of her children like a
leech and sapped their young lives of joy.

The husband grew discouraged and indifferent under the continual
strain, and what might have been a happy home was a desolate one, and
its memory is a nightmare to the children to-day.

Understand yourself and your Divine possibilities and you will
cease to think you are misunderstood.

It is not possible to misunderstand a beautiful, sunny day.
All nature rejoices in its loveliness.

Give love, cheerfulness, kindness and good-will to all
humanity, and you need not worry about being misunderstood.

Give the best you have to each object, purpose and individual,
and you will eventually receive the best from humanity.

CHAPTER XVII

COWARDICE AND WORRY

Cowardice