reached. Complete
self-mastery in matrimonial conflicts is a long and difficult
acquisition. Probably it is fully acquired in the fewest possible cases.
The one who acquires self-control, who gives in during the adaptative
period of which we have written, is not the weaker. The young wife
should always keep in mind that the underlying principle to be
vigorously adhered to in the home, is justice. There will arise many
occasions that will severely test your disposition and your patience,
but, if you have yourself well in hand, if you understand yourself, you
will emerge from the conflict successfully and as a consequence a little
stronger. When we acquire the determination to efface self in these
domestic squabbles we begin the building of a character.

WHAT IS A THOUGHT?--The greatest product of creative inspiration is the
human brain. The very fact that each human being possesses one of these
marvelous products implies responsibility, the responsibility of what we
will do with it. A thought is a creation of brain or mind activity. It
may be a bad or evil thought or it may be a good thought. Let us now go
back to the young wife just as she is about to begin the hour or so of
recreation in the afternoon. Her work being done for the time, let us
suppose she elects to do a little fancy needle work. She finds a
comfortable seat and is soon apparently engrossed in her work. Is she?
Doubtless she is, and a very commendable, harmless, inviting picture she
presents, but a thousand thoughts are passing through her mind. It is
not the sewing that she does, that will be weighed in the balance, it is
not the patient stitch, stitch, stitch, that she takes, that will mark
the hour well spent. It is the one thought that will predominate over
all the others, that will tell the ultimate tale, because of its effect
on her own mind. A thought once created, even if it is never expressed,
is as much a created entity as a deed executed.

Suppose this young wife attended a social gathering in some friend's
house the evening before, and for some trifling reason she formed an
unfavorable impression of another lady guest; during the hour of her
sewing, which we are discussing, she goes over in her mind all the
incidents of the gathering, and because of the previous impression, she
still thinks unkindly of the lady in question. She passes judgment upon
her in her own mind. What has she really done? She has created a thought
an opinion, which no