s of ways,--in connection with little, everyday
questions, as to whether a thing is one color or another, as well as in
the great and serious problems of life. If, in an argument, we feel
confident that all we want is the truth,--that we do not care whether
we or our opponents are in the right, as long as we find the right
itself,--then we are free, so far as personal feeling is concerned;
especially if, in addition, we are perfectly willing that our opponents
should not be convinced, even though the right should ultimately prove
to be on our side.

With regard to learning how always to look first to ourselves,--first
we must become conscious of our own resentment and resistance, then we
must acknowledge it heartily and fully, and then we must go to work
firmly and steadily to refuse to harbor it. We must relax out of the
tension of our resistance with both soul and body; for of course, the
resistance contracts the nerves of our bodies, and, if we relax from
the contractions in our bodies, it helps us to gain freedom from
resistance in our hearts and minds. The same resistance to the same
person or the same ideas may return, in different forms, many times
over; but all we have to do is to persist in dropping it as often as it
returns, even if it be thousands of times.

No one need be afraid of losing all backbone and becoming a "mush of
concession" through the process of dropping useless resistance, for the
strength of will required to free ourselves from the habit of pitting
one's own will against that of another is much greater than the
strength we use when we indulge the habit. The two kinds of strength
can no more be compared than the power of natural law can be compared
to the lawless efforts of human waywardness. For the will that is
pitted against the will of another degenerates into obstinacy, and
weakens the character; whereas the will that is used truly to refuse
useless resistance increases steadily in strength, and develops power
and beauty of character. Again, the man who insists upon pitting his
will against that of another is constantly blinded as to the true
qualities of his opponent. He sees neither his virtues nor his vices
clearly; whereas he who declines the merely personal contest becomes
constantly clarified in his views, and so helped toward a loving
charity for his opponent,--whatever his faults or difficulties may
be,--and to an understanding and love of the good in him, which does
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