'Temper,' one of the plagues of human society, is generally held to be
incurable, save by the vague process of exercising self-control--a
process which seldom has any beneficial results. It is regarded now as
smallpox used to be regarded--as a visitation of Providence, which must
be borne. But I do not hold it to be incurable. I am convinced that it
is permanently curable. And its eminent importance as a nuisance to
mankind at large deserves, I think, that it should receive particular
attention. Anyhow, I am strongly against the visitation of Providence
theory, as being unscientific, primitive, and conducive to unashamed
_laissez-aller._ A man can be master in his own house. If he cannot be
master by simple force of will, he can be master by ruse and wile. I
would employ cleverness to maintain the throne of reason when it is
likely to be upset in the mind by one of these devastating and
disgraceful insurrections of brute instinct.

It is useless for a man in the habit of losing or mislaying his temper
to argue with himself that such a proceeding is folly, that it serves no
end, and does nothing but harm. It is useless for him to argue that in
allowing his temper to stray he is probably guilty of cruelty, and
certainly guilty of injustice to those persons who are forced to witness
the loss. It is useless for him to argue that a man of uncertain temper
in a house is like a man who goes about a house with a loaded revolver
sticking from his pocket, and that all considerations of fairness and
reason have to be subordinated in that house to the fear of the
revolver, and that such peace as is maintained in that house is often a
shameful and an unjust peace. These arguments will not be strong enough
to prevail against one of the most powerful and capricious of all
habits. This habit must be met and conquered (and it _can_ be!) by an
even more powerful quality in the human mind; I mean the universal human