corrected, if we are to get a clear idea of self-control, and if we
are to make a fair start in acquiring it as a permanent habit.

I am what I am by virtue of my own motives of thought and action, by
virtue of what my mind is, what my will is, and what I am in the
resultant combination of my mind and will; I am not necessarily what
I appear from the outside.

If a man is ugly to me, and I want to knock him down, and refrain
from doing so simply because it would not appear well, and is not
the habit of the people about me, my desire to knock him down is
still a part of myself, and I have not controlled myself until I am
absolutely free from that interior desire. So long as I am in hatred
to another, I am in bondage to my hatred; and if, for the sake of
appearances, I do not act or speak from it, I am none the less at
its mercy, and it will find an outlet wherever it can do so without
debasing me in the eyes of other men more than I am willing to be
debased. The control of appearances is merely outward repression,
and a very common instance of this may be observed in the effort to
control a laugh. If we repress it, it is apt to assert itself in
spite of our best efforts; whereas, if we relax our muscles, and let
the sensation go through us, we can control our desire to laugh and
so get free from it. When we repress a laugh, we are really holding
on to it, in our minds, but, when we control it by relaxing the
tension that comes from the desire to laugh, it is as if the
sensation passed over and away from us.

It is a well-known fact among surgeons that, if a man who is badly
frightened, takes ether, no matter how well he controls his outward
behavior, no matter how quiet he appears while the ether is being