that delights the devil more than
to scratch a man with the irritability of hunger, and have him respond
to it at once by being ugly and rude to a friend; for then the
irritation immediately becomes moral, and every bit of selfishness
rushes up to join it, and to arouse whatever there may be of evil in
the man. It is simple to recognize this merely physical form of
irritability, and we should no more allow ourselves to speak, or act,
or even _think_ from it, than we should allow ourselves to walk
directly into foul air, when the good fresh air is close to us on the
other side.

But moral irritability is more serious; that comes from the soul, and
is the result of our wanting our own way. The immediate cause may be
some physical disturbance, such as noise, or it may be aroused by other
petty annoyances, like that of being obliged to wait for some one who
is unpunctual, or by disagreement in an argument. There are very many
causes for irritability, and we each have our own individual
sensitiveness or antipathy, but, whatever the secondary cause, the
primary cause is always the same,--resistance or unwillingness to
accept our circumstances.

If we are fully willing to be disturbed, we cease to be troubled by the
disturbance; if we are willing to wait, we are not annoyed by being
kept waiting, and we are in a better, more quiet humor to help our
friend to the habit of promptness. If we are willing that another
should differ from us in opinion, we can see more clearly either to
convince our friend, if he is wrong,--or to admit that he is right, and
that we are wrong. The essential condition of good argument is freedom
from personal feeling, with the desire only for the truth,--whether it
comes from one party or the other.

Hurry, worry, and irritability all come from selfish resistance to the
facts of life, and the only permanent cure for the waste of force and
the exhausting distress which they entail, is a willingness to accept
those facts, whatever they may be, in a spirit of cheerful and reverent
obedience to law.

V

_Nervous Fears_

TO argue with nervous anxiety, either in ourselves or in others, is
never helpful. Indeed it is never helpful to argue with "nerves" at
all. Arguing with nervous excitement of any kind is like rubbing a
sore. It only irritates it. It does not take long to argue excited or
tired nerves into inflammation, but it is a long and difficult process
to allay the inflammation when i