and that those of us who have never committed this crime owe it to
circumstances and not to superior power of inhibition. Of course it may be
associated with sex but probably no human experience is per se more
diametrically opposite to sex. Some temperaments seem to crave, if not need,
outbreaks of it at certain intervals, like a well-poised lady, so
sweet-tempered that everybody imposed on her, till one day at the age of
twenty-three she had her first ebullition of temper end went about to her
college mates telling them plainly what she thought of them, and went home
rested and happy, full of the peace that passeth understanding. Otto Heinze,
and by implication Pfister, think nations that have too long or too
assiduously cultivated peace must inevitably sooner or later relapse to the
barbarisms of war to vent their instincts for combat, and Crile thinks anger
most sthenic, while Cannon says it is the emotion into which most others
tend to pass. It has of course been a mighty agent in evolution, for those
who can summate all their energies in attack have survived. But few if any
impulsions of man, certainly not sex, have suffered more intense, prolonged
or manifold repressions. Courts and law have taken vengeance into their
hands or tried to, and not only a large proportion of assaults, but other
crimes, are still due to explosions of temper, and it may be a factor in
nearly every court case. Society frowns on it, and Lord Chesterfield says
the one sure and unfailing mark of a gentleman is that he never shows
temper. Its manifestations are severely tabooed in home and school. Religion
teaches us not to let the sun go down upon our wrath and even to turn the
other cheek, so that we go through life chronically afraid that we shall
break out, let ourselves go, or get thoroughly mad, so that the moment we
begin to feel a rising tide of indignation or resentment (in the
nomenclature of which our language is so very rich, Chamberlain having
collected scores of English expressions of it), the censorship begins to
check it. In many cases in our returns repression is so potent from long
practice, that the sweetest smile, the kindest remarks or even deeds are