The
last one was about saying a little hymn before you let yourself speak
whenever you feel angry. Philip got hold of it, and made fun of it. He
said it was like the recipe for catching a sparrow by putting salt on
its tail, because if you were cool enough to say a hymn, there would
then be no need for saying it. What do you think, Aunt Isobel?"
"My dear, I have long ago given up the idea that everybody's weak
points can all be strengthened by one plaster. The hymn might be very
useful in some cases, though I confess that it would not be in mine.
But prayer is; and I find a form of prayer necessary. At the same time
I have such an irritable taste, that there are very few forms of
devotion that give me much help but the Prayer-Book collects and
Jeremy Taylor. I do not know if you may find it useful to hear that in
this struggle I sometimes find prayers more useful, if they are not
too much to the sore point. A prayer about ill-temper might tend to
make me cross, when the effort to join my spirit with the
temptation-tried souls of all ages in a solemn prayer for the Church
Universal would lift me out of the petty sphere of personal vexations,
better than going into my grievances even piously.
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