nter into them. As well expect to gather grapes of thorns or figs of
thistles, as to secure a desirable disposition out of undesirable moods.
A sunny disposition never comes from gloomy moods, nor a hopeful one out
of the "blues." And it is our disposition, more than the power of our
reason, which, after all, determines our desirability as friends and
companions.

The person of surly disposition can hardly make a desirable companion,
no matter what his intellectual qualities may be. We may live very
happily with one who cannot follow the reasoning of a Newton, but it is
hard to live with a person chronically subject to "black moods." Nor can
we put the responsibility for our disposition off on our ancestors. It
is not an inheritance, but a growth. Slowly, day by day, and mood by
mood, we build up our disposition until finally it comes to characterize
us.

TEMPERAMENT.--Some are, however, more predisposed to certain types of
mood than are others. The organization of our nervous system which we
get through heredity undoubtedly has much to do with the feeling tone
into which we most easily fall. We call this predisposition
_temperament_. On the effects of temperament, our ancestors must divide
the responsibility with us. I say _divide_ the responsibility, for even
if we find ourselves predisposed toward a certain undesirable type of
moods, there is no reason why we should give up to them. Even in spite
of hereditary predispositions, we can still largely determine for
ourselves what our moods are to be.

If we have a tendency toward cheerful, quiet, and optimistic moods, the
psychologist names our temperament the _sanguine_; if we are tense,
easily excited and irritable, with a tendency toward sullen or angry
moods, the _choleric_; if we are given to frequent fits of the "blues,"
if we usually look on the dark side of things and have a tendency toward
moods of discouragement and the "dumps," the _melancholic_; if hard to
rouse, and given to indolent and indifferent moods, the _phlegmatic_.
Whatever be our temperament, it is one of the most important factors in
our character.

3. PERMANENT FEELING ATTITUDES, OR SENTIMENTS

Besides the more or less transitory feeling states which we have called
moods, there exists also a class of feeling attitudes, which contain
more of the complex intellectual element, are withal of rather a higher
nature, and much more permanent than our moods. We may call these our
_sentiments_, or