administered, as soon as he loses control of his voluntary muscles,
the fear that has been repressed rushes out in the form of
excitement. This is a practical illustration of the fact that
control of appearances is merely control of the muscles, and that,
even so far as our nervous system goes, it is only repression, and
self-repression is not self-control.

If I repress the expression of irritability, anger, hatred, or any
other form of evil, it is there, in my brain, just the same; and, in
one form or another, I am in bondage to it. Sometimes it expresses
itself in little meannesses; sometimes it affects my body and makes
me ill; often it keeps me from being entirely well. Of one thing we
may be sure,--it makes me the instrument of evil, in one way or
another. Repressed evil is not going to lie dormant in us forever;
it will rise in active ferment, sooner or later. Its ultimate action
is just as certain as that a serious impurity of the blood is
certain to lead to physical disease, if it is not counteracted.

Knowing this to be true, we can no longer say of certain people
"So-and-so has remarkable self-control." We can only say, "So-and-so
represses his feelings remarkably well: what a good actor he is I"
The men who have real self-control do exist, and they are the leaven
that saves the race. It is good to know that this habitual
repression comes, in many cases, from want of knowledge of the fact
that self-repression is not self-control.

But the reader may say, "what am I to do, if I feel angry, and want
to hit a man in the face; I am not supposed to hit him am I, rather
than to repress my feelings?"