every man, be he never so noble and dignified, there is, in the depth
of his nature, a mob of low and vulgar desires which constitute him an
animal. It will not do to let this mob revolt or even so much as peep
forth from its hiding-place; it is hideous of mien, and its rebel
leaders are those flights of imagination which I have been describing.
The smallest annoyance, whether it comes from our fellow-men or from
the things around us, may swell up into a monster of dreadful aspect,
putting us at our wits' end--and all because we go on brooding over
our troubles and painting them in the most glaring colors and on the
largest scale. It is much better to take a very calm and prosaic view
of what is disagreeable; for that is the easiest way of bearing it.

If you hold small objects close to your eyes, you limit your field of
vision and shut out the world. And, in the same way, the people or the
things which stand nearest, even though they are of the very smallest
consequence, are apt to claim an amount of attention much beyond
their due, occupying us disagreeably, and leaving no room for serious
thoughts and affairs of importance. We ought to work against this
tendency.

SECTION 14. The sight of things which do not belong to us is very apt
to raise the thought: _Ah, if that were only mine_! making us sensible
of our privation. Instead of that we should do better by more
frequently putting to ourselves the opposite case: _Ah, if that were
not mine_. What I mean is that we should sometimes try to look upon
our possessions in the light in which they would appear if we had lost
them; whatever they may be, property, health, friends, a wife or child
or someone else we love, our horse or our dog--it is usually only when
we have lost them that we begin to find out their value. But if we
come to look at things in the way I recommend, we shall be doubly the