not affect them in the same way. I acknowledge, not only from
observation, but from personal experience, that there are certain
people from whom one recoils with a feeling of physical as well as
mental repugnance. I believe that every woman who reads this talk has
an unerring feminine instinct which will thus prompt her when she
meets her own particular "Dr. Fell."

But I also believe that we seldom meet characters which repel us in
this especial way. Oftener some slight to ourselves, some one
unfortunate speech, biases our judgment, and those against whom we are
thus prejudiced are even sometimes connected to us by ties of
consanguinity. We would do well to analyze the causes which lead to
our feelings of dislike, and I fear we should often find that wounded
self-esteem was the root of the evil. And, after all, what a great
matter a little fire kindleth! Let us quench the spark before it
ignites. It is arrant folly, not to mention wickedness, to make
enemies for the little while we are here. There is an incurable
heartache which comes from such mistakes. Owen Meredith describes it
in a poem, every verse of which throbs with hopeless love and regret,
and one of which teaches a lesson so much needed by us all that we
would do well to commit to memory the last two lines, and repeat them
almost hourly:

"I thought of our little quarrels and strife,
And the letter that brought me back my ring;
_And it all seemed then, in the waste of life,
Such a very little thing!_"