I would be true, for there are those who trust me;
I would be pure, for there are those who care;
I would be strong, for there is much to suffer;
I would be brave, for there is much to dare.
I would be friend to all–the foe, the friendless;
I would be giving, and forget the gift;
I would be humble, for I know my weakness;
I would look up–and laugh–and love–and lift.
What about bad temper? An English writer said some time since that more than half of us are bad tempered. He gave the figures. He arranged to have about two thousand people put unconsciously under espionage as to their ordinary temper, and then had careful reports of the results tabulated. The footing up is decidedly unflattering to the two thousand people who were thus treated. More than half of them – to be entirely accurate, fifty two percent of them – are set down as bad tempered in various degrees. The dictionary has been well nigh exhausted in giving the different shades of badness. Acrimonious, aggressive, arbitrary, bickering, capricious, captious choleric, contentious, crotchety, despotic, domineering, easily offended, gloomy grumpy, hasty, huffy, irritable, morose, obstinate, peevish, sulky, surly, vindictive – these are some of the qualifying words. There are employed, in all, forty six terms, none of which describes a sweet temper.
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