Part 17 (2/2)

TEMPERAMENT--Some are, however, more predisposed to certain types of anization of our nervous systeh heredity undoubtedly hastone into which we most easily fall We call this predisposition _temperament_ On the effects of temperament, our ancestors must divide the responsibility with us I say _divide_ the responsibility, for even if we find ourselves predisposed toward a certain undesirable type of ive up to them Even in spite of hereditary predispositions, we can still largely determine for ourselves what our moods are to be

If we have a tendency toward cheerful, quiet, and optiuine_; if we are tense, easily excited and irritable, with a tendency toward sullen or angry iven to frequent fits of the ”blues,”

if we usually look on the dark side of things and have a tendency toward ement and the ”duiven to indolent and indifferent matic_

Whatever be our temperament, it is one of the most important factors in our character

3 PERMANENT FEELING ATtitUDES, OR SENTIMENTS

Besides thestates which we have calledattitudes, which contain more of the coher nature, and much more permanent than our moods We may call these our _sentiments_, or _attitudes_ Our senti conition, which we naious faith_, _selfishness_, _pride_, _vanity, etc_ Like our dispositions, our sentirowth of months and years Unlike our dispositions, however, our sentiical undertone, and depend -continued experience and intellectual eleht throw us into an irritable ht result in a surly disposition; but it would hardly permanently destroy one's patriotis attitude on suchwhiinning in concrete experiences in which feeling is a predoh the multiplication of these experiences h many percepts There is a residual element left behind each separate experience in both cases In the case of the concept the residual element is intellectual, and in the case of the senti element is predominant

How this comes about is easily seen by means of an illustration or two

The reeable feeling is produced; she puts hiles him in her arms, and the experiences are pleasant The child comes to look upon the s pleasant for hi for her in her absence He finally grows to love his iven his connected at first wholly with pleasant experiences cothened no doubt by instinctive tendencies toward affection, and later enhanced by a fuller realization of what a row at last into a deep, forceful, abiding sentiment of love for the mother

THE EFFECT OF EXPERIENCE--Likeith the sentiment of patriotism In so far as our patriotism is a true patriotisratitude and love e conte, and the blessings which come to us from our relations as citizens to our country If we have had concrete cases brought to our experience, as, for example, our property saved from destruction at the hands of a n foe, the patriotic sentier

So we may carry the illustration into all the sentiious sentiin in our belief in the care, love, and support fro typified to us as children by the care, love, and support of our parents Pride arises from the appreciation or over-appreciation of oneself, his attainenesis in theto self In all these cases it is seen that our sentiments develop out of our experiences: they are the per results which we have to show for experiences which are so quality is a strong acconitive part of the experience

THE INFLUENCE OF SENTIMENT--Our sentirowth from the experiences upon which they are fed, but they in turn have large influence in deter the direction of our further development Our sentiments furnish the soil which is either favorable or hostile to the growth of new experiences One in whom the sentiment of true patriotisestion to betray his country's honor on battlefield, in legislative hall, or in private life, than one lacking in this senti senti influence in the face of tes A deep and abiding faith in God is fatal to the growth of pessimism, distrust, and a self-centered life One's sentie of his character Let us know a ion, reat questions of life, and little reht on these, heon these, there is little to build upon

Literature has drawn its best inspiration and choicest themes from the field of our sentiiven us our David and Jonathan, our Damon and Pythias, and our Tennyson and Hallam

The sentiment of love has inspired countless masterpieces; without its aid most of our fiction would lose its plot, and ious sentireatest epic, ”Paradise Lost” The sentiment of patriotism has furnished an inexhaustible theo into the field of music and art, we find that the best efforts of the masters are clustered around some human sentiment which has appealed to the it on canvas or in marble, that it row in us

SENTIMENTS AS MOTIVES--The sentiments furnish the deepest, the most constant, and the most powerful motives which control our lives Such sentiion have called a thousand arle and die on ten thousand battlefields, and have given e to suffer in the fires of persecution Sentiments of friendshi+p and love have pro devotion Sentied the boundary lines of nations, and have pro of ten thousand unnarave we are weaving into our lives the threads of sentiood or evil

4 PROBLEMS IN OBSERVATION AND INTROSPECTION

1 Are you subject to the ”blues,” or other foreable, or rather constant? What kind of a disposition do you think you have? How did you come by it; that is, in how far is it due to hereditary temperament, and in how far to your daily moods?

2 Can you recall an instance in which some undesirablemental condition? What is your characteristicin an ill-ventilated roo for half a day in an ill-ventilated schoolroo to bed?

3 Observe a number of children or your classmates closely and see whether you can determine the characteristic mood of each Observe several different schools and see whether you can note a characteristicthe differences noted (Physical conditions in the roo, etc)

4 When can you do your best work, when you are happy, or unhappy?

Cheerful, or ”blue”? Confident and hopeful, or discouraged? In a spirit of haronistic? Now relate your conclusions to the type of atmosphere that should prevail in the schoolroom or the home Formulate a statement as to why the ”spirit”

of the school is all-irowth, disposition, sentiments, character, etc)

5 Can you measure s serve as _uide to action? Make a list of the important sentiments that should be cultivated in youth No the work of the school then worthy senti and emotion are not to be looked upon as two different _kinds_ ofstate of a high degree of intensity and co states whenever the exciting cause is sufficient to throw us out of our regular routine of affective experience The distinction between e is a purely arbitrary one, since the difference is only one of cosof sadness on hearing of a number of fatalities in a railway accident rief if we learn that a ladnessof resente