Intolerance is an unwillingness that others should live in their own way, believe as they prefer to, hold personal habits which they enjoy or are unconscious of, or interfere in any degree with our ways, beliefs, or habits.

That very sense of unwillingness causes a contraction of the nerves which is wasteful and disagreeable.  The feeling rouses the contraction, the contraction more feeling; and so the Intolerance is increased in cause and in effect.  The immediate effect of being willing, on the contrary, is, of course, the relaxation of such contraction, and a healthy expansion of the nerves.

Try the experiment on some small pet form of intolerance.  Try to realize what it is to feel quite willing.  Say over and over to yourself that you are quite willing So-and-so should make that curious noise with his mouth.  Do not hesitate at the simplicity of saying the words to yourself; that brings a much quicker effect at first.  By and by we get accustomed to the sensation of willingness, and can recall it with less repetition of words, or without words at all.  When the feeling of nervous annoyance is roused by the other, counteract it on the instant by repeating silently:  “I am quite willing you should do that,—­do it again.”  The man or woman, whoever he or she may be, is quite certain to oblige you!  There will be any number of opportunities to be willing, until by and by the willingness is a matter of course, and it would not be surprising if the habit passed entirely unnoticed, as far as you are concerned.

This experiment tried successfully on small things can be carried to greater.  If steadily persisted in, a good fifty per cent of wasted nervous force can be saved for better things; and this saving of nervous force is the least gain which comes from a thorough riddance of every form of intolerance.

“But,” it will be objected, “how can I say I am willing when I am not?”

Surely you can see no good from the irritation of unwillingness; there can be no real gain from it, and there is every reason for giving it up.  A clear realization of the necessity for willingness, both for our own comfort and for that of others, helps us to its repetition in words.  The words said with sincere purpose, help us to the feeling, and so we come steadily into clearer light.

Our very willingness that a friend should go the wrong way, if he chooses, gives us new power to help him towards the right.  If we are moved by intolerance, that is selfishness; with it will come the desire to force our friend into the way which we consider right.  Such forcing, if even apparently successful, invariably produces a reaction on the friend’s part, and disappointment and chagrin on our own.

The fact that most great reformers were and are actuated by the very spirit of intolerance, makes that scorning of the ways of others seem to us essential as the root of all great reform.  Amidst the necessity for and strength in the reform, the petty spirit of intolerance intrudes unnoticed.  But if any one wants to see it in full-fledged power, let him study the family of a reformer who have inherited the intolerance of his nature without the work to which it was applied.