AS THE TWIG IS BENT
Temperament looms large in the game of life, and, like all other human
brain tendencies, is subject to regulation through the exercise of
ordinary horse sense. We often hear one person speak of another’s
temperamental qualities in the light of an _incurable disease_, and
more than likely in an apologetic way. A faulty tendency is usually
laid at the door of a doughty grandsire on one or both sides of the
house and left there as a piece of ordinary table gossip to be resumed
any old time without notice.
We’ve all heard someone dispose of another with quick dispatch by
the casual remark, “_He’s temperamental_.” It all depends upon the
inflection of the speaker’s voice whether his words are intended as a
knockout blow or an apology in behalf of the culprit. But any time you
want to pursue the subject you’ll hear about some obdurate old ancestor
who passed the buck on to his posterity.
While we most assuredly do inherit various _mental attitudes_ from our
ancestors, there’s nothing we cannot get rid of if we resolve to do so.
There is nothing fatal about preconceived notions handed down to us.
Mental culture through education and association is the royal road. If,
through ignorance, or narrow-mindedness, one should prefer to hang on
to certain personal or mental crudities just for the sake of posing as
a “chip off of the old block,” then let the punishment fit the crime.
Temperament plays a big part in _making life worth while_ and is more
largely due to the time in which we live and with whom we associate
than to inheritance. It is the physical department that is really
handed down to us--the _blood in our veins_ rather than the dents on
our brains. To be subject to scrofula from infancy is no fault of our
own, but to continue an eccentricity under the claim of _inherited
temperament_ is excusable only upon the score of ignorance.
People do inherit brain tendencies, but they are all subject to control
through the will to _do or don’t_, as the case may be. Supposing
grandfather used to swear like a trooper--and he probably did--the
habit was temperamental to the extent of being in tune with the times
in which he lived. But what grandson of to-day would think of claiming
exemption by reason of inherited temperament if addicted to the same
vulgar habit? On the other hand, if we are born with _rheumatic_
tendencies we may expect to fight with them all our lives. One is a
brain tendency, _subject to control_; the other is a blood-inheritance
that _we may never correct_.
Personal habits of thought or action are temperamental according to the
avidity with which we cling to them. George Ade has said that a man
might be born with a hair lip or a club foot, but _whiskers_ were his
own fault. Thus we were handed the best possible line of demarcation
between the _inherited tendency_ and the _personal temperament_.
So, if we were of the temperament to wear a beard because our great
grandfather wore one we could, if the notion struck us, take it to the
barber and have it cut away. Just so we may get out from any other
_temperamental habit_, or thought, or action, through the very simple
process of becoming masters of our own minds. Grandfather may hand us a
line of tainted blood that we can’t manage, but temperament is our own
to manage as we will.
Control over one’s temperament is positively necessary in making life
worth while. If we are bent on securing full happiness for having
lived, we are bound to contribute our share toward an ultimate _world
sanity_ in which the word temperament may not serve to cloak _mental
deficiency_. College life takes the kink out of the untrained mind and
makes it behave normally. It makes no allowance for the accentuated
temperament. Fool notions brought along from the dear old home town are
soon sifted into the chaff barrel and _common sense_ comes into its
own.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]