To such a man, one would naturally think the depressing passions were strangers, and that he must have been born without them; but he assures me that he was a slave to them for many years, and that he was frightened out of harboring them by a physician, and that whatever good he has accomplished in his humble sphere (as he calls it) he attributes to the partial Emancipation which his doctor's warning led him to enforce upon himself. The story that follows was elicited on hearing an outline of the theory of possible Emancipation as presented in these pages. [Sidenote: "The Old Gentleman Needs it"] "Stop right there: don't go any farther till I have talked with you about that part of it. It is as true as gospel, but I never knew what it was. I have had an experience which makes me know that it is true, but I didn't know the reason for it. When the doctors told me that I must quit worrying and take it easy, or medicine would do me no good, and I would die, why didn't they tell me that anger and worry were not necessary, and that it was they that I was suffering from? I would have understood it better, and I wouldn't have had so much trouble about fearing I would have them back some time in spite of myself. Why didn't the preachers tell me this when I was a boy, and let me begin to live then, instead of waiting till I got to be an old man or pretty near to it? You can bet that my boys will know this thing right away, and live it too, and I want my men to know it. It is the only thing they need to complete their happiness. The old gentleman needs it, and Mr.----, and Mr---- (mentioning a number of well known men who are their own worst enemies, who harm no one but themselves, but whose abuse of self, through worry, is as merciless as the tortures of the Inquisition); and what a blessing it would be for the women! See here, I want a hundred of those books as soon as they are published, and I know where they will do a heap of good. They will be better than the medicine of all the doctors, and do a lot of good besides. I'm going to commit what you have told me to memory, so as to tell people about it if I haven't got a book by me. You see that I know all about this, for I have had an experience. When I was a youngster, I was naturally ambitious, and pretty smart with the tools, and 'took' with my employers, and finally got to be superintendent. Then I got to be more ambitious, especially after I was married and the children came. I wanted them to have a good education and be fitted to be gentlemen, which I knew their mother's, and I might remark incidentally, my own blood entitled them to be. I was pretty sensitive, and was always standing up for my rights. I was too apt to worry. I had not heard what you have told me and thought worry necessary. If I had not worried I would not have got angry. [Sidenote: "Got to be Superintendent"] [Sidenote: It Became a Habit] [Sidenote: "Frightened out of my Wits"] [Sidenote: Anger and Worry Caused Sickness]