Character and Conduct – 31 March – Hypochondriacs

The evils and burdens of such a temperament are half removed when a man once knows that he has it, and recognises it for a disease, – when he does not trust himself to speak and act in those bitter hours as if there were any truth in what he thinks and feels and sees. He who has not attained to this wisdom overwhelms his friends and his family with the waters of bitterness; he stings with unjust accusations, and makes his fireside dreadful with fancies which are real to him, but false as the ravings of fever.

A sensible person, thus diseased, who has found out what ails him, will shut his mouth resolutely, not to give utterance to the dark thoughts that infest his soul.

A lady of great brilliancy and wit, who was subject to these periods, once said to me, ‘My dear sir, there are times when I know I am possessed of the Devil, and then I never let myself speak!’ And so this wise woman carried her burden about with her in a determined, cheerful reticence, leaving always the impression of a cheery, kindly temper, when, if she had spoken out a tithe of what she thought and felt in her morbid hours, she would have driven all her friends from her, and made others as miserable as she was herself. She was a sunbeam, a life-giving, presence in every family, by the power of self-knowledge and self-control.

Little Foxes, HARRIET BEECHER STOWE.

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