the unfortunate picture which has caused trouble remains in
the mind, the more thoroughly it becomes imbedded there, and the more
difficult it is to remove it.

Are we not convinced that a power beyond our control runs the universe,
that every moment of worry detracts from our success capital and makes
our failure more probable; that every bit of anxiety and fretfulness
leaves its mark on the body, interrupts the harmony of our physical and
mental well-being, and cripples efficiency, and that this condition is
at war with our highest endeavor?

Is it not strange that people will persist in allowing little worries,
petty vexations, and unnecessary frictions to grind life away at such a
fearful rate that old age stares them in the face in middle life? Look
at the women who are shriveled and shrunken and aged at thirty, not
because of the hard work they have done, or the real troubles they have
had, but because of habitual fretting, which has helped nobody, but has
brought discord and unhappiness to their homes.

Somewhere I read of a worrying woman who made a list of possible
unfortunate events and happenings which she felt sure would come to
pass and be disastrous to her happiness and welfare. The list was
lost, and to her amazement, when she recovered it, a long time
afterwards, she found that not a single unfortunate prediction in the
whole catalogue of disasters had been realized.

Is not this a good suggestion for worriers? Write down everything
which you think is going to turn out badly, and then put the list
aside. You will be surprised to see what a small percentage of the
doleful things ever come to pass.

It is a pitiable thing to see vigorous men and women, who have
inherited godlike qualities and who bear the impress of divinity,
wearing anxious faces and filled with all sorts of fear and
uncertainty, worrying about yesterday, to-day, to-morrow--everything
imaginable.

"Fear runs like a baleful thread through the whole web of life from
beginning to end," says Dr. Holcomb. "We are born into the atmosphere
of fear and dread, and the mother who bore us had lived in the same
atmosphere for weeks and months before we were born. We are afraid of
our parents, afraid of our teachers, afraid of our playmates, afraid of
ghosts, afraid of rules and regulations and punishments, afraid of the
doctor, the dentist, the surgeon. Our adult life is a state of chronic
anxiety, which is fear in a milder form. We ar