Bottled lightning, in truth, is one of our American ideals, even of a,
young girl's character! Now it is most ungracious, and it may seem to
some persons unpatriotic, to criticise in public the physical
peculiarities of one's own people, of one's own family, so to speak.
Besides, it may be said, and said with justice, that there are plenty of
bottled-lightning temperaments in other countries, and plenty of
phlegmatic temperaments here; and that, when all is said and done, the
more or less of tension about which I am making such a fuss is a small
item in the sum total of a nation's life, and not worth solemn treatment
at a time when agreeable rather than disagreeable things should be
talked about. Well, in one sense the more or less of tension in our
faces and in our unused muscles _is_ a small thing: not much mechanical
work is done by these contractions. But it is not always the material
size of a thing that measures its importance: often it is its place and
function. One of the most philosophical remarks I ever heard made was by
an unlettered workman who was doing some repairs at my house many years
ago.
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