ed by it. My master kept him near by for several weeks, always
using very simple arguments to combat the instinctive resolutions which
were formulated in his brain many times a day.

"Common sense, thus solicited, was revealed to the impulsive one, and
appeared like a peaceful counselor.

"The ridiculous and odious side of his resolution was represented to him
with such truth that he embraced Lang-Ho, saying:

"'Now, Master, I can go away, and your mind can be at rest about me.

"'The arguments of common sense have liberated me from bondage in which
my lack of reflection held me.

"'I return to my home, but, I beg of you, allow me to take away this
ridiculous costume which was my savior.

"'I wish to hang it in my home, in the most conspicuous place, that, from
the moment my nature incites me to obey the commands of impulse, I may be
able to look at once upon this garment, and thus recall your teachings,
which have brought sweetness and peace into my life.'"

All those who are inclined to act by instinct should follow this example,
not by dressing up in a ridiculous robe half green and half yellow, but
by placing obstacles in the way of the accomplishment of impulsive acts,
which the dictates of common sense would not sanction.

"For those whose mind possess a certain delicacy," again says the old
master, "these obstacles will be of a purely moral order, but for those
who voluntarily allow themselves to be dominated by a diseased desire for
action, obstacles should adopt a tangible form; the difficulty in
conquering anything always makes impulsive people reflect a little.

"Under the immediate impression of the perception of an act they are
ready for a struggle to the death; but this ardor is quickly
extinguished, and inertia, in its turn, having become an impulse, makes
them throw far away from them the object which determined the effort.

"In proportion as they encounter obstacles, which they have taken the
precaution to raise, the encroachment of the impression will make itself
less felt.

"The mere fact of having foreseen will become a matter for
reflection for them.

"The feeling of the responsibilities will be roused in them, and they
will understand how difficult it is to escape the consequences of
impulsive acts."

Would one not say that these lines had been written yesterday?

More than ever our age of unrest makes us the prey of impulses, and to
the majority of our contemporaries, the robe, hal