do control them well, and how few who have perfect
self-control have very strong feelings!

Which shall we choose, the strong feelings or the self-control? We have
not complete choice in the matter, for we must begin with the
temperament we are born with. Others may choose to love or hate us for
the temperament we are not responsible for, but what can we do for
ourselves?

I believe the hardest task is that of the cool-blooded women. How are
they to make themselves feel without becoming hypocrites? Pretending to
feel any emotion is no help in feeling it. Nevertheless, we are not
entirely helpless. There are ways of nourishing noble germs of feeling
even when the natural soil is cold and dry.

One way is to clear the ground of weeds. A cool nature is sometimes
peculiarly prone to envy and suspicion. A woman with little love of her
fellow-creatures sits alone in her home day after day, and thinks of her
own troubles and the shortcomings of her neighbors till it seems
impossible to love anybody but herself. Such emotions as stir the dull
current of her life are all selfish. But if she has the one saving
virtue of being able to perceive her narrowness, the remedy is in her
own hands. For she can go out and speak to somebody, and even a passing
greeting sometimes sets the blood flowing afresh. And there is always
somebody she can help, though, it may be only a child who is in some
trifling difficulty. Every act of this kind makes another easier, and
every such act nourishes the little germ of love in the heart. I have no
doubt that persistence in doing small kindnesses for every one about her
would be potent enough to transform the coldest of us into a woman
glowing with love. Yet I cannot say I have ever seen such a
transformation. I suppose that is because the cold nature does not
perceive its coldness or desire to change. Still there are surely some
of us who know that love in us is only a stunted plant, and who do
sincerely desire its more luxuriant growth. Those of us who have ardent
feelings towards our friends know that we are often worse than cold
towards those we do not fancy. We sometimes, alas, take a certain pride
in our sensitiveness in this particular. We justify our hatred for
uncongenial people till we have fairly faced the truth that love is the
law of our being, and that we _must_ love our neighbor. Then, though we
cannot change our temperament, yet by the doing of prosaic duties, the
germ of love may b