CHAPTER XXVI.
_What is It that Makes Me so Nervous ?_ THE two main reasons why women are nervous are, first, that they do not take intelligent care of their bodies, and secondly, that they do not govern their emotions.
I know a woman who prefers to make herself genuinely miserable rather than take food normally, to eat it normally, and to exercise in the fresh air.
"Everybody is against me," she says; and if you answer her, "My dear, you are acting against yourself by keeping your stomach on a steady strain with too much unmasticated, unhealthy, undigested food," she turns a woe-begone face on you and asks how you can be "so material." "Nobody loves me; nobody is kind to me.

Everybody neglects me," she says.
And when you answer, "How can any one love you when you are always whining and complaining?
How can any one be kind to you when you resent and resist every friendly attention because it does not suit your especial taste?
Indeed, how can you expect anything from any one when you are giving nothing yourself ?" She replies, "But I am so nervous.

I suffer.

Why don't they sympathize ?" "My dear child, would you sympathize with a woman who went down into the cellar and cried because she was so cold, when fresh air and warm sunshine were waiting for her outside ?" This very woman herself is cold all the time.

She piles covers over herself at night so that the weight alone would be enough to make her ill.