It is evident from the foregoing that physical habits have much to do with making life easier and saving expenditure of nervous energy, but just this same thing holds good for mental states. With care, a proper habit of mind and of the mental attitude towards difficulties in life, can be so cultivated as to ward off many of the discouragements, and most of the causes of depression that weigh heavily on some people. The natural disposition can not be entirely overcome, but habit, as a second nature, can modify the personality so as to make conditions much better than before.

With this wonderful power in habit, it is too bad that its force for good is not used. It is especially important that its force for evil shall not allowed to dominate human actions so as to make them harder of accomplishment. Many people, who are greatly troubled by the inconveniences and discomforts necessarily associated with human life, worry over it to such a degree as to make themselves sick. The expression I have quoted elsewhere of the old man who said, "I have had many troubles but most of them never happened," is a typical example of what the habit of looking at things from a wrong standpoint means to many people. They are confirmed pessimists. Their one consolation, when a small evil happens to them, is that perhaps this may be sufficient to ward off the greater evil that fate surely has in store.

Pessimism.—Pessimism has been defined as sticking one's nose in a dungheap and then asking, "How is it that it smells bad around here?" Some people are always nursing a grievance. No matter how many times they may happen to have been undeceived, still the next time the opportunity occurs they are sure that fate or friends or someone has it in for them and that the worst may happen at any time. In the expressive words of a recent slang phrase, they have a "perennial grouch." This state of mind toward the environment not only prevents the physical and mental good that cheerfulness brings with it, but it unfavorably influences physical conditions within the body. People suffering from indigestion are usually morbid, petulant, and hard to get along with. Many a dyspeptic makes this an excuse for his bad temper. Anyone who has had to study these cases much soon comes to the conclusion that the beginning of the digestive disturbance was the gloomy outlook on life, which flowed inward to disturb the digestion and all the other animal functions.

Depression of Mind and Body.—Patients suffering from melancholia nearly always lose in weight. As a result of their lowered vitality, there is a suppression of the nervous impulses which rule over nutrition, with a consequent loss of weight. In cases where there are only tendencies to depression and gloom, the effect upon the digestive system is not so marked but there is no doubt that there is some effect, and that the indigestion in these cases is more often than not a result of the depressed state of mind, rather than the depression of mind the result of the indigestion.

Moodiness.—The habit of looking at the gloomy side of things is easily formed and, once acquired, it becomes very forceful. Many a man who was quite cheerful when young, becomes moody as he grows older. Nearly everyone permits moods more than is good for him. The attitude of mind that should be cultivated is one in which it is realized that, though there may be {234} many sources of evil in the world there is a preponderance of good even in the worst environment, and that opportunities for making the best of things will be found by any cheerful disposition. Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch is a typical example in fiction of the optimism that counts. Miss Helen Keller in real life is a typical example of how the most untoward circumstances can not crush the spirit of man if he only wishes to be cheerful—if he only tries to lift himself above his surroundings, no matter how discouraging they may seem to be. No one is without discouragement and causes for unhappiness. "Happy he who has least," the Greek dramatist said.

The difference between the optimistic and the pessimistic point of view is much more a matter of habit than is usually thought to be the case. Indeed, there is good reason for assuming that it is so largely a matter of habit, that other factors count for little. We all know individuals who, after having, been cheery, bright, hopeful and helpful, have had some incident sour them and then they have been just the opposite. This did not come all at once; it was a growth. They felt hurt and aggrieved, and then began to look at things through dark glasses, and after a time could see nothing on its brighter side. Not infrequently, as doctors well know, the growth of such a moody disposition has been the signal for the development of a series of complaints, if not of actual symptoms, and men and women who have not been in the doctor's hands before now become valetudinarians. This new physical condition is often attributed by their friends, by themselves, and even by complacent physicians, to the effect upon them of the trial or disappointment that struck them. Only too often it is wholly due to the cultivation of a habit of pessimism consequent upon a shock that for the moment pushed their cheerfulness into the background. Strong characters will not be thus easily affected, but weaker characters need not suffer such a change of disposition and with it a deterioration of health or well-being unless they so will it.