My next step was to _will_ that I should, all the next day, be free from any nervous or mental worry, or preserve a hopeful, calm, or well-balanced state of mind.

This led to many minute and extremely curious experiences and observations.

That the imperturbable or calm state of mind promptly set in was undeniable, but it often behaved, like the Angel in H.G.
Wells' novel, "The Wonderful Visit," as if somewhat frightened at, or of, with, or by its new abode, and no wonder, for it was indeed a novel guest, and the goblins of "Worry and Tease, Fidget and Fear," who had hitherto been allowed to riot about and come and go at their own sweet mischievous wills, were ill-pleased at being made to keep quiet by this new lady of the manor.

And indeed no mere state of mind, however well maintained, can resist everything, and the mildest mannered man may cut a throat under great provocation.

I had my lapses, but withal I was simply astonished to find how, by perseverance, habitual calm not only grew on me, but how decidedly it increased.