Who does not recognize the modest prototype of this elaborate rigmarole
chasing itself through his mind as he walks the street in jaunty mood, and
who of us would not surprise and alarm his friends if he should suddenly
let go his habitual control, express his every thought and materialize his
every passing impulse to action? Who can doubt that the person who has
trained himself for years to repress his obsessions is less likely to
give way to this form of insanity than one who has never practiced such
training? Let us then endeavor to pursue "the even tenor of our way"
without giving way to the obsession that we must inflict our feelings upon
our associates. We may in this way maintain a mental balance that shall
stand us in good stead in time of stress.

The autumnal tendency to melancholy is recognized by Thoreau. The
characteristic suggestion of this nature-lover is that the melancholic go
to the woods and study the _symplocarpus foetidus_ (skunk cabbage), whose
English name savors of contempt, but whose courage is such that it is
already in the autumn jauntily thrusting forth its buds for the coming
year.

An admirable reflection for the victim of moods, as for many another, is
the old saying in which Abraham Lincoln is said to have taken peculiar
comfort, namely, "This also will pass."






XV.