master of himself. If he acknowledges his mistaken tendencies fully
and willingly and then refuses to act, speak, or think from them, he
is taking a straight path toward freedom of life and action.

One great difficulty in the way of self-control is that we do not
want to get free from our anger. In such cases we can only want to
want to, and if we use the strength of will that is given us to drop
our resistance in spite of our desire to be angry we shall be
working toward our freedom and our real self-control.

There is always a capacity for unselfish will, the will of the
better self, behind the personal selfish will, ready and waiting for
us to use it, and it grows with use until finally it overrules the
personal selfish will with a higher quality of power. It is only
false strength that supports the personal will,--a false appearance
of strength which might be called wilfulness and which leads
ultimately to the destruction of its owner. Any true observer of
human nature will recognize the weakness of mere selfish wilfulness
in another, and will keep entirely free from its trammels by
refusing to meet it in a spirit of resentment or retaliation.

Real self-control, as compared to repression, is delightful in its
physical results, when we have any difficult experience to
anticipate or to go through. Take, for instance, a surgical
operation. If I control myself by yielding, by relaxing the nervous
tension which is the result of MY fear, true self-control then
becomes possible, and brings a helpful freedom from, reaction after
the trouble is over. Or the same principle can be applied if I have
to go through a hard trial with a friend and must control myself for
his sake,--dropping resistance in my mind and in my body, dropping