So much are men enured in their miserable estate, that no condition is so
poore, but they will accept; so they may continue in the same.

_Florio's Montaigne_.





"You may as well be eaten by the fishes as by the worms," said the daughter
of a naval commander to me one day, when discussing the perils of the sea.
Such philosophy, applied to each of the vexatious and dangerous situations
of daily life, would go far toward casting out worry.

We have already referred to two important elements at the foundation,
and in the framework, of the elaborate superstructures we rear with such
material as worry, doubts, fears and scruples. The first is _exaggerated
self-consciousness_, the second the tendency to succumb to the compelling
thought or impulse, technically termed _obsession_.

With regard to self-consciousness, the worrier will generally realize that
even as a child he was exceptionally sensitive to criticism, censure,
ridicule and neglect. He was prone to brood over his wrongs, to play the
martyr, and to suffer with peculiar keenness the "slings and arrows of
outrageous fortune." I remember once leaving the table on account of some
censure or careless remark. I fancied I had thrown the whole family into a
panic of contrition. On the first opportunity, I asked what they had said
about it, and was told that they had apparently not noticed my departure.
This salutary lesson prevented repetition of the act.