,,how ,,to ,,eat ,a ,,cure ,,for ,,nerves ---------------------------------------- ------------------------------- ,whosoever wishes to eat much must eat little4 ,cornaro1 in saying this1 meant that if a man wished to eat for a great many days--that is1 desired a long life--he must eat only a little each day4 ---------------------------------------- ------------------------------- ,,how ,,to ,,eat ,a ,,cure ,,for ,,nerves ,by ,,thomas ,,clark ,,hinkle1 ,m4,d4 ,,rand ,mc,n,a,l,l,y ,,company ,,chicago--,,new ,,york ---------------------------------------- ------------------------------- ,copyright1 #aiba1 by ,,rand ,mc,n,a,l,l,y ,,company ---------------------------------------- ------------------------------- ,,the ,,contents ,,page ,i4 ,,where ,,the ,,trouble ,,lies #ac ,,ii4 ,,how ,,to ,,overcome ,,the ,,trouble #ca ,,iii4 ,,right ,,and ,,wrong ,,diet ,,for ,,nervous ,,people #ee ,,iv4 ,,value ,,of ,,outdoor ,,life ,,and ,,exercise #gi ,v4 ,,effect ,,of ,,right ,,living ,,on ,,worry ,,and ,,unhappiness #aji ---------------------------------------- ------------------------------- ,nature1 desirous to preserve man in good health as long as possible1 informs him herself how he is to act in time of illness2 for she immediately deprives him1 when sick1 of his appetite in order that he may eat but little4 --,,cornaro ---------------------------------------- ------------------------------- ,,the ,,introduction ,this author-physician's cure for nerves vividly recalls the simplicity of method employed in the complete restoration to health of one of olden time whose story has come ringing down the ages in the ,book of ,books4 ,naaman1 captain of the host of the king of ,syria1 a mighty man of valor and honorable in the sight of all men1 turned away in a rage when ,elisha1 the prophet of the ,most ,high1 prescribed for his dread malady a remedy so simple that it was despised in his eyes4 ,but his servants came near and said 444 ',if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing1 wouldest thou not have done it8' ,in ,how to ,eat the author offers the sufferer from nerves a remedy as simple as that ,elisha offered ,naaman4 ,he gives him an opportunity to profit by his well-tested knowledge that overeating and rapidity in eating are ruinous to health and shorten life4 ,it is seldom that there emanates from the pen of a doctor a book which1 concerning any physical disorder1 minimizes the efforts of the medical practitioner4 ,while this author-physician gives full credit to the conscientious physician for the great service he is able to render in all other spheres of his profession1 he wholly denies the necessity for medical care in cases of nervous breakdown1 and discounts liberally the benefits to be derived from professional advice except in so far as the doctor is the patient's counselor and dictator as to what and how and how much he shall eat and drink1 and the way he shall employ his time4 ,any discourse is valuable which incites a man having a marked tendency to depressing1 morbid ideas1 to rid himself of them4 ,dr4 ,hinkle helps the sufferer to gain that confidence and cheer which result from knowledge of certain immunity from dreaded ills and positive assurance of recovery by mere regulation of food or employment along the lines of simple1 everyday living4 ,but that alone is not sufficient4 ,it is made quite clear that no one thing by itself will insure a cure of nerves4 ,the cure must come through common sense exerted along several related avenues of endeavor4 ,no matter how steadfastly one may adhere to directions as to abstaining from harmful food and injurious methods of partaking of those foods which are beneficial1 if he spends the larger portion of his time idly rocking in a convenient arm chair1 exerting neither body nor mind nor will1 that which might be gained by proper nutrition is largely nullified by lack of physical exercise and mental activity4 ,that this little book may serve as a spur to the bodily self-denial and self-repression and the intellectual and spiritual uplift which make for character-building1 is the very evident goal of its writer4 ,from self-analysis and self-cure he has worked out a philosophy--a system or art--by which those afflicted with nervous breakdown may be healed4 ,and by putting into print the result of his practical experiments in diet and exercise he has broadened immeasurably the scope of his helpfulness to all nervebound sufferers by placing within their reach the simplest of measures by which release is secured from a condition which wholly incapacitates for active service or even for quiet1 everyday usefulness4 ,it is because the things ,dr4 ,hinkle advises are so commonplace1 and because the doing of them day after day1 year in and year out1 is so monotonous1 that people will be tempted to disregard or make light of their helpfulness4 ,but the commonplace things which make up life are all important1 as ,susan ,coolidge has so aptly expressed in these lines which fittingly illustrate the author's thought3 ,the commonplace sun in the commonplace sky ,makes up the commonplace day4 ,the moon and the stars are commonplace things1 ,and the flower that blooms and the bird that sings2 ,but dark were the world1 and sad our lot ,if the flowers failed1 and the sun shone not2 ,and ,god1 who studies each separate soul1 ,out of commonplace lives makes his beautiful whole4 ,it therefore behooves the sufferer from nerves and that great host of others who are in danger of a nervous breakdown if they do not speedily mend their ways of eating and living1 to heed the kindly admonitions and follow the precepts of this author who practices what he preaches4 ,by persistently doing commonplace things in the most commonplace way1 keeping ever in mind the great objects to be attained thereby--good health1 good cheer1 and increased usefulness throughout a long life--the reader of this little treatise will find it worth many1 many times its size1 weight1 and bulk4 ,and heeding the author's admonition1 ,go thou and do likewise1 he will not shorten his life or lose it altogether in fruitless quests for the strength and nerve vigor which constantly elude him because of lack of self-control and failure to persist in the simple but efficacious measures of relief here outlined4 ,m4 ,f4 ,s4 ---------------------------------------- ------------------------------- ,,how ,,to ,,eat ,a ,,cure ,,for ,,nerves ,i4 ,,where ,,the ,,trouble ,,lies ,what we leave after making a hearty meal does us more good than what we have eaten4 --,,cornaro ,it is now over twenty years since ,i had my first nervous breakdown4 ,about ten years later ,i had another1 far worse than the first one4 ,the first lasted six months2 the second a little more than two and one half years4 ,doubtless if ,i had not in the strangest way in the world found out how to cure myself it would have lasted until now1 unless death in the meantime had come to my relief4 ,but right here ,i want to say that if you are looking for some new or miraculous treatment for such unfortunate people you might as well close the book now1 for you will be disappointed4 ,there is a cure for nerves but the cure is as old as the world4 ,the trouble with poor deluded mortals--doctors included--is1 we are constantly looking for a miracle to cure us1 but if we look back on all the real cures that we have ever heard about1 we shall find they were as simple as the sun or the rain4 ,and in the name of common sense let me ask3 what is the difference how we are cured if we are cured and are happy as a result of it8 ,isn't that enough8 ,most certainly it is4 ,and now1 as we journey along through the pages of this book1 ,i want you to know that these words have been written by one who has nothing to offer you except human experience4 ,as we proceed you will notice that every statement is tremendously positive4 ,when a man has been through this literal hell of nerves he knows all about it and what can be done for it4 ,and so when ,i tell you the things you must do to get well and stay well1 ,i want you to understand that ,i know4 ,there is absolutely no theory to be found in these pages4 ,if you put your finger in the fire you burn it4 ,you don't have to take your finger out of the fire1 call in a lot of learned gentlemen and say to them3 ,now tell me your candid opinion about my finger4 ,is it burned or is it not8 ,and ,i am just as positive about my cure of nerves as you could be that fire burned your finger4 ,that brings me to what ,i want to say about the so-called rest cures at the sanitariums4 ,it is a well-known fact that if a case of nerves is pronounced cured at a sanitarium the cure is only temporary4 ,sooner or later every one of these patients goes down hill again4 ,and remember ,i am talking about people who have nervous breakdowns ,,through ,,no ,,fault ,,of ,,their ,,own4 ,i have no time to spare for the person who has brought on his own trouble4 ,i am chiefly concerned with that host of children in ,america--and there is a host1 ,i am sorry to say--born of what ,i choose to call pre-nervous parents4 ,the girls of such parents frequently break down in high school4 ,and many of the finest boys that ,i know have this dreadful thing fastened firmly upon them just at the very beginning of their lifework4 ,you may think ,i am a little vehement1 but to me one of the most damnable and disgusting things in the world is that the medical profession remains so ignorant concerning the real cure for such cases4 ,i believe the late ,sir ,william ,osler was the greatest physician of his generation4 ,he was not only a man of talent1 he was a genius1 and his knowledge of medicine almost passes understanding4 ,yet ,osler himself was as much in the dark concerning the real cure for so-called neurasthenia as the physicians who read his works on practice4 ,if one wants to find out how ignorant the whole profession is on the subject of a permanent cure1 let the thing get hold of him1 and then let him make the rounds of the physicians1 follow out their advice1 and see where he comes out6 ,i have said that even the sanitariums of this country--and for that matter ,i might have said of any other country--do not permanently cure these people4 ,i have ample proof of this statement4 ,i have met these people everywhere and no doubt you have1 too4 ,quite recently the subject was brought up anew to me4 ,i had written an article on the subject for one of the magazines1 a magazine having a large circulation4 ,in a very short time my mail was literally flooded with letters4 ,every incoming mail brought great numbers of them4 ,they came from physicians of the regular school1 and from physicians of many other schools1 too4 ,i won't mention any of them1 for this is a treatise on a dreadful affliction and how one may get rid of it2 it is not intended as a criticism of anyone4 ,i have no desire to criticize and ,i haven't time4 ,i am stating facts interwoven with my own life4 ,if the cure is real1 the people will find it out after they have tried it2 if it is not1 they will also find that out4 ,in fact1 it's exactly as ,gamaliel1 the teacher of ,paul1 said to the men of ,israel when they would have slain the apostles for teaching ,christ's sayings1 ,refrain from these men and let them alone3 for if this counsel or this work be of men1 it will come to naught3 but if it be of ,god1 ye cannot overthrow it4 ,and it's exactly the same way with this healing art4 ,the very fact that physicians of all schools of medicine--physicians who were sufferers from nerves--wrote me1 shows plainly that they could not heal themselves4 ,i have many letters from people who have been in sanitariums for years and who still have nerves4 ,the sanitariums do some people a lot of good1 but they cannot remove the cause of nervousness4 ,i am certain that the very best rest cure for women is the one ,dr4 ,weir ,mitchell first used4 ,but such women are sure to go down again and again and still again if that is all that is done for them4 ,now frankly1 if ,christian ,science could cure such cases and make them stay cured ,i should want a practitioner of this cult to treat them4 ,but ,christian ,science simply cannot cure them because the underlying cause of this trouble is physical1 not mental4 ,in other words1 the mind becomes ill because the body is made ill by certain poisons1 and the nature of the disease is so peculiar that most of these miserable sufferers will not even try a thing unless some one brings them overwhelming evidence of its having wrought a cure4 ,or1 if they do try it1 they usually quit the treatment before nature has had time to do her work and set their bodies right4 ,i have the most profound sympathy for such people4 ,i want to speak directly to them4 ,that is the task that ,i have set myself in this work4 ,i want to talk directly to those of you who are sufferers from nerves4 ,i see you in every state1 in every city1 in every village1 and throughout the farming districts of this country4 ,i have received letters from many farmers who are suffering with this thing4 ,to them let me say1 ,i know just how you feel1 and from the very bottom of my heart ,i pity you4 ,i know the horrible suffering of each one of you4 ,i don't care what your ambition has been or is4 ,i don't care what your situation in life may be4 ,i don't care how rich or how poor you are4 ,i don't care how much trouble you have had1 or the nature of it4 ,i want you to know these words are being written by one who knows more about your sufferings than you can imagine4 ,i want you to believe this1 because it is true4 ,if you have longed and prayed for death1 remember that the one who is writing these words also has longed and prayed for death4 ,but one thing you must be sure to remember3 while you are waiting and trying to get well you must have patience4 ,i recollect one beautiful day in early spring when traveling in ,nebraska ,i passed a little cemetery4 ,how sweet and restful the place seemed1 and as ,i looked out over those little white stones ,i prayed silently that the great ,god who made me would not hold me much longer on earth1 that ,he would soon grant me the rest and peace which ,i believed was to be found only in death and the grave4 ,but remember this3 ,in those dark days never for a moment did ,i think of taking my own life6 ,these words may reach some one who has had such a thought4 ,if so1 ,i say to you that to take one's life is the most cowardly thing a human being can do4 ,this is the only place where ,i feel like being severe with you people4 ,shame on the man or woman who will not go on to the end fighting honorably6 ,and now if you have ever given thought to such a thing1 blot it from your mind forever4 ,i can see how these miserable people might long for death1 as ,i did4 ,but no matter how we may long for release through death1 the ,god of nature must be the judge of our time of going4 ,now this brings me to what ,i want to say about such sufferers going insane4 ,believe me1 they never do6 ,remember this always4 ,you won't become insane4 ,you couldn't if you tried6 ,in letter after letter among the flood of them ,i have had from all over this country and ,canada1 ,i read how the poor sufferer feared he or she might be going insane4 ,i know1 poor souls1 just how you feel4 ,that feeling is1 ,i think1 the most dreadful of all things connected with nerves4 ,i suffered from it for years4 ,it is a dreadful feeling1 but there is not the least bit of danger of such a thing happening to you4 ,you will not go insane4 ,such persons can't4 ,do you really get me8 ,such persons cannot go insane4 ,this disease is nothing but what we call a functional nervous trouble4 ,and so forget about the danger of insanity for all time4 ,you can be cured1 but you will make your return to health just that much slower by harboring this fear4 ,and it would be simply foolish for you to go on thinking it possible after ,i--let me say it again--after ,i have told you that it cannot happen4 ,for the value of this treatise lies in the ,i4 ,its value is just like that of the treatise by ,cornaro4 ,he lived it4 ,and so likewise have ,i lived it4 ,i have been laid low with this malady4 ,i have staggered in black despair with staring eyes and bleeding feet and crying soul along this road strewn with thorns and stones4 ,i know what it is to lie awake all night and cry like a baby1 with none to know and none to tell me what to do4 ,i know what it is to be tremendously ambitious4 ,ambition6 ,ambition6 ,ah1 ,god of ,heaven6 ,how a poor soul suffers who beyond everything else1 craves to be able to do something big in this world because he knows he should1 yet is held down by this dreadful thing1 nerves6 ,and how little1 how unspeakably little1 do physicians1 even the greatest of them1 know1 actually know1 how we suffer1 unless indeed there be one in whose own body the fiend has sunk deep its talons4 ,after ,i had my first breakdown ,i made up my mind to study medicine because something told me that ,i was one of those peculiar people who just think there is something the matter with them4 ,is it not strange that with all the advance that has been made in general medicine1 little or nothing has been done for the relief of the people born with this curse hanging over them8 ,i wish this book could be put into the hands of every nervous parent for1 think as you may1 all nervous parents beget nervous children4 ,but does it follow that such children should have a nervous breakdown almost before they are out of their teens8 ,no1 decidedly not2 and what is more1 they never should and never would break down1 if they had proper food4 ,i look back with horror on the many nights of my childhood when ,i suffered with night terrors4 ,and right here let me say3 no child will ever have night terrors if he is given just what he should eat1 and is kept from overeating4 ,and now a few words about the first great point concerning the prevention as well as the cure of nerves4 ,nervous people1 and many others as well1 eat too much4 ,that1 you say1 is nothing new4 ,but that is just where the dreadful wrong begins2 and why there has been tragedy after tragedy1 and why even while this is being written there will be many more tragedies4 ,you will hear lecturers say--,i myself have said it1 and to large audiences3 ,you people eat too much4 ,but if that's all that is said1 people straightway go away and say3 ,oh1 yes1 he's right1 of course4 ,we all eat too much4 ,and there it ends4 ,until recently people did not know--most of them don't know yet--that each day they are actually bringing the grave nearer by overeating4 ,not long ago the great life insurance companies of this country held a notable convention in the city of ,new ,york4 ,now after everything had been said and done1 after every phase of life insurance had been discussed1 what do you suppose was the great outstanding statement from that remarkable body of men who know more about why people die than any other body of people on earth8 ,it was this3 ,the average ,american man or woman dies at the age of #dc because he eats what he wants to eat rather than what he should eat4 ,that means1 of course1 that practically all ,americans overeat4 ,they are all like the child who says1 ,i'm not hungry for bread and butter4 ,i'm hungry for cake4 ,and ,i find that most of these poor deluded nervous sufferers eat what they want under the supposition that it is good for them because they crave it4 ,i myself used to do so4 ,i would eat candy by the pound4 ,and it is odd but quite true that nervous people crave the very things that hurt them most4 ,but there is no more sense in eating what you crave because you crave it than there is in the man who is addicted to alcohol1 drinking alcohol because he craves it4 ,i once used tobacco2 ,i craved it1 but ,i did not need it just because ,i craved it4 ,it is true the body naturally needs some fats1 some carbohydrates2 in fact1 a balanced ration1 as we shall see later4 ,but ,i want to make it mighty plain here that never was there a greater error than that of supposing you need chocolates or sweets just because you crave them4 ,and you don't need to overeat1 and keep on doing it1 just because you must eat4 ,,ii4 ,,how ,,to ,,overcome ,,the ,,trouble ,he who pursues a regular course of life need not be apprehensive of illness1 as he who has guarded against the cause need not be afraid of the effect4 --,,cornaro ,we have now come to the second step in the cure of nerves--eating the right food in the right way4 ,you must chew all food until it is of the consistency of cream1 and you must also sip all liquids slowly4 ,and now1 as you read these things that ,i have set down1 ,i want you to remember this3 doing any one thing--and doing that alone--will not cure this malady4 ,no1 it is doing a number of things at the right time4 ,i know this is true because ,i have tried it4 ,for a time ,i chewed my food to a cream1 but that was the only thing ,i did in an endeavor to get well4 ,i was doing none of the other things that are absolutely necessary for a cure4 ,this is one great trouble with all such people4 ,they will ,fletcherize for a time and then say there is nothing to that because it does not cure them4 ,well1 as ,i've said1 that alone will not1 and ,i want to dwell at length on this because nobody knows as well as ,i do1 what harm such a belief does the nervous sufferer4 ,trying out ,fletcherizing alone1 which ,i say must be done together with other things if you want to get well and stay well1 is like taking the handle of an axe and going out into the woods to cut down a tree4 ,now with ,fletcherizing you have a perfectly good handle1 but you know very well that you can't cut a tree down with only an axe handle4 ,but that is not the fault of the handle4 ,the fault is obviously your own4 ,now suppose you get the axe and fit the handle to it4 ,you can then cut the tree down if you work hard enough at the task4 ,again1 suppose you cut the tree half way through and quit4 ,will the axe keep on until the work is done8 ,you know it will not1 and you very well know if you wish to be cured you must keep on doing your part of the work or dieting will be of no value whatever to you4 ,now suppose a man comes along and tells you that the axe you have is no good and therefore it is no use for you to keep on trying to use it4 ,that is exactly what some physicians still say about ,fletcherizing4 ,but you say1 ,i must cut this tree down4 ,nobody will do it for me2 how shall ,i get it down8 ,can you give me an axe that will cut it down8 ,oh1 no1 he replies1 but anyway there's no use fooling with that one4 ,then1 if you are determined to do the work1 you say1 ,i have to cut the tree down4 ,you have no other axe to offer me1 so ,i'm going to try the one ,i have4 ,and you go ahead and cut down the tree4 ,then just as you have finished1 the man comes your way again1 and in great delight you call out to him3 ,come and see6 ,i cut this tree down with the axe you said was no good6 ,the man comes over to you and says1 ,where's the tree8 ,i don't see it6 ,you are astonished and you tell him1 ,there it lies on the ground right before your eyes6 ,can't you see it8 ,but he turns and walks away saying3 ,there is no tree there2 it is all in your mind4 ,this is exactly what people with nerves have been told again and again by physicians1 by relatives1 and by most other people who have never had nerves4 ,i tell you these things so that when you begin to eat sparingly and chew your food to a cream you may fortify yourself against well-meaning but mistaken friends and relatives4 ,and1 oddly enough1 it does seem that the individual with nerves has more friends and relatives than any other person in the world4 ,remember you must not only chew your food to the consistency of cream for one or two months1 you must make this practice a lifelong habit4 ,if you cannot take time to eat a meal in this way1 you had much better go hungry4 ,to people who travel and must frequently take their meals in railroad eating houses1 ,i would say1 get some bread and butter sandwiches and eat them slowly while on the train4 ,there is always a chance to secure all you need to eat1 too4 ,you may not always be able to sit an hour at the table--the time we should give to a meal if we eat as we should4 ,i know many object to this rule on the ground that if we followed it we should get nothing else done4 ,but that is nonsense4 ,did not the ,master of us all say1 ,are there not twelve hours in the day8 ,then can we not devote three of the twelve to our food8 ,if we have nine hours in which we are at our highest efficiency1 is it not good sense1 if we eat three meals a day1 to give three hours to these meals8 ,there is only one sane answer to the question2 we should take an hour for a meal4 ,every now and then some magazine writer will state that the chewing of food to a cream does not help anybody4 ,he will tell you that you can swallow your food any old way and it will not hurt you in the least4 ,in fact1 ,i actually saw an article in one of our leading periodicals containing just such statements4 ,we should1 ,i suppose1 have only pity for an editor who would give space to such stuff1 and should also pity the poor wretch who by writing it is striving to attain notoriety4 ,at any rate there is one excellent thing about such lies1 they do harm for only a little while4 ,when people find out that a thing is harmful to them1 they usually quit it1 no matter how many notoriety seekers are urging and encouraging them to keep on4 ,usually the sufferer with nerves is the only one in the household who will eat sparingly and chew his food slowly4 ,but now and then ,i find an intelligent1 sympathetic man who will do so because it is helpful to his wife4 ,he sympathizes with her infirmity1 and with fine self-denial eats as she does4 ,and note this3 he usually derives benefit from so doing4 ,time after time when ,i have put a nervous woman under this regimen1 and then her husband elected to go along with her1 ,i have had the man come to me and say3 ,well1 doctor1 ,i declare ,i'm feeling a whole lot better myself6 ,i don't get sleepy any more during the daytime1 and that pain ,i used to have in the region of my liver is gone6 ,and so on and on4 ,the fact is just this3 anybody who follows the rules that ,i learned to apply in my own case cannot fail to be benefited4 ,and although those not inclined to nerves can eat a greater variety of food1 it's greatly to be desired when there is a nervous person in a household of grownups that all other members of the family enter together into this thing4 ,it could not fail to help every one of them4 ,to be truthful1 in the beginning you will all find it mighty hard to persist in chewing all your food to a cream4 ,mouthful after mouthful of food will get away from you when you are not thinking4 ,this just goes to show how we are in the habit of bolting our food4 ,at first people who ,fletcherize or chew their food perfectly1 usually lose weight4 ,i most certainly did4 ,i lost about twenty pounds because of it1 but ,i was so well and felt so good ,i could almost have jumped over the ,north ,star4 ,i know that1 unfortunately1 a lot of people with nerves have started to chew their food carefully and to eat sparingly1 but the minute they found themselves losing weight they were frightened and quit4 ,they went on carrying that ten or twenty or thirty pounds of flesh and all the time suffering the tortures of the damned just in order that they might keep it4 ,but of what benefit are a certain number of extra pounds of flesh and how can a man explain such a senseless action8 ,the astonishing thing is that many physicians are willing to condemn a cure just as soon as they find the patient has lost a pound of beef4 ,but as ,i said before1 the primary mission of man in this world is not to raise beef4 ,i do not find fault with the raising of beef in the feeding yards1 but if beef must be raised let us confine the industry to the cattle pens and stock yards4 ,let us not worship it to the degree that we would rather live in hell than part with a few extra pounds that overload our own bodies4 ,now just here ,i want it distinctly understood1 as ,i have said before1 that this text is primarily for functional nervous cases4 ,tubercular people belong to an entirely different class4 ,they should live out of doors day and night and should1 if possible1 be treated at outdoor institutions established for such cases4 ,but the individual with nerves will find what he needs and will find it abundantly if he has enough determination to take hold of it and keep at it4 ,on the part of many it will take all the determination they have to chew their food to a cream and always eat sparingly4 ,in regard to the amount of food taken1 judgment must of course be used4 ,we all know that it is possible to eat too little4 ,but you should always quit eating while you still feel you would like a little more4 ,i know of no better guide than this to offer you4 ,but ,i have observed that the person who eats slowly and chews his food to a cream never eats as much food as he would if he bolted it4 ,it is just like letting a thirsty horse drink water4 ,i remember1 as a boy on the farm1 when ,i led a very thirsty horse from the field to the water tank how rapidly he would swallow4 ,if my father were with me1 after the horse had drunk a while he would say1 ,make him hold his head up4 ,frequently when ,i did so the horse would draw a long breath and drink no more4 ,had he gone right on drinking1 as a thirsty horse will if you permit him to do so1 he might have drunk twice as much as was good for him4 ,and that's the way people eat4 ,as a result the horse that drinks and drinks and drinks when he is very thirsty sometimes dies in a few hours4 ,i have seen a horse die from drinking too much water and ,i have also seen people die in a few hours after a terrible gorge that they could not get rid of4 ,do you know that most nervous people have a way of sitting down to the table and eating until they are literally full8 ,if you could take out the stomach of such a person and look at it1 the sight would frighten you4 ,and with good reason4 ,for as a result of this habit many nervous people have dilated stomachs4 ,but if they would correct their manner of eating there is usually enough tone in the muscular walls of the stomach to get it back to normal4 ,i marvel again and again over how miraculously nature restores herself even after she has been terribly abused1 if only she is given a chance4 ,i am certain that all human beings would be more efficient if they chewed all solid food to a cream and sipped all liquids slowly4 ,the late ,professor ,william ,james1 the great ,harvard psychologist1 testified to the value of such a habit1 as did a number of other distinguished ,harvard professors4 ,i regret that some physicians still hold out in their belief that it does no good although the evidence stands out as clearly before them as a tree along the roadside4 ,but they are like the physician who some years ago declared that bathing was bad for people4 ,i recall how hard we all bore down upon him1 as he richly deserved1 and how the ,journal of the ,american ,medical ,association printed a short poem ridiculing him4 ,i am quite certain that the members of the ,regular school of medicine have progressed infinitely farther toward the cure of diseases than members of all the other schools combined4 ,i do not say this simply because ,i happen to be a physician of the ,regular school2 ,i say it because a candid survey of what has been accomplished1 and by whom1 proves it4 ,but as to diet1 we have done little compared with what we should do4 ,we have made no greater progress along this line because so many of us have been blinded by prejudice--the curse of the human race4 ,with regard to chewing all food to a cream1 most modern writers on dietetics1 while acknowledging that this super-mastication is useful1 maintain that it does not increase the value of the food4 ,but they err greatly in this1 as we can prove in a very few words3 ,if a certain amount of proteins1 fats1 and carbohydrates is bolted by a nervous man suffering from a breakdown1 it will cause intestinal toxemia as a result of the bolted food1 but if he chews the food to a cream it will be digested in a normal manner and will not cause gas in the stomach or intestines4 ,the proper amount of food is absorbed and nourishes the man as it should4 ,now did not the thorough mastication of that food increase the value of the proteins1 fats1 and carbohydrates8 ,the thing is a self-evident fact4 ,in the first case a man takes food which quickly turns to a loathsome poison4 ,in the second instance the same kind of food is so thoroughly mixed with the ptyalin in the saliva that whatever is eaten becomes of value as protein or fat or some other food element4 ,after many years of sad experience with this malady we call nerves ,i am convinced that the reason why people have this disease is because they are literally food drunk4 ,i have treated men who had been on an alcohol debauch and ,i know how terribly depressed they are after such a spree is over4 ,it is exactly the same way with the pre-nervous people that break down4 ,they sit down to a big meal and overeat4 ,there is a temporary stimulus1 just as in the case of the person who takes intoxicants1 followed by that terrible mental depression that all who have suffered from nerves know4 ,and because the individual with the nerves is overeating two or three times each day1 he stays drunk with the poisons that form in his stomach and intestines4 ,such people over-assimilate the poisonous products of proteins1 especially of sugars4 ,of course this may seem oddly stated because we would not want any absorption of the poisons in the intestines1 but it is probable that nature can and does take care of a little of it there in the healthy individual4 ,it is perfectly absurd to say1 as some physicians still continue to say1 that no poisonous matter is ever absorbed in the intestinal tract4 ,give a child something that causes intestinal indigestion and see how quickly he has a rise in temperature4 ,this fever is the direct result of poisons absorbed in the intestines4 ,in the case of the nervous adult1 however1 this poison does not as often result in fever as it does in a horrible mental depression and a complete inability to perform any sort of work4 ,and so there seems no question but that this terrible malady we call nerves1 or a nervous breakdown in any of its many forms1 is in a majority of cases the result of the wrong eating habits of the individual4 ,the chewing of all food to a cream will go far toward curing the trouble1 but in most cases this alone will not effect a cure4 ,it would not have done so in my own case1 although ,i did see much improvement as a result of that practice alone4 ,and here ,i want to say this3 ,there are many who say they cannot eat acid fruits because of the distress they cause4 ,now if such people would always chew an apple1 a pear1 or other fruit to a cream1 no distress would result from eating fresh fruit4 ,but such people must follow in detail the diet ,i shall give farther on4 ,now1 facts cannot be stated too strongly4 ,it is certain acid fruits will cause distress if you do not chew them to a cream4 ,i would swell up like a toad if ,i ate only one apple hurriedly4 ,i don't dare think what might happen to me if ,i ate three or four in that way4 ,i might possibly find myself transformed into a human balloon and float away into space4 ,but ,i don't eat apples that way--not now4 ,some who read these pages may think it very strange1 yet it is quite true that there really are persons suffering with nerves who have not gumption enough to follow this simple rule of chewing all food to a cream4 ,i despair of ever helping those people4 ,they still continue to dispose of a big meal in fifteen minutes1 and then insist they have chewed all their food carefully4 ,i have had that thing happen right before my own eyes4 ,then think of their complaining that they cannot eat apples because they cause so much gas in the stomach6 ,one reason why a large number of such people are troubled with gas1 even though they do chew their food to a cream1 is because they immediately follow a meal with one or two cups of tea or coffee4 ,now please remember this3 ,an individual afflicted with nerves has no business drinking either tea or coffee4 ,he should let them both alone4 ,plain hot water is the very best drink in the world for a nervous person4 ,if you want a drink after your meal drink a cup of plain hot water4 ,and you should also drink a cup of hot water half an hour before breakfast4 ,if you do not care for breakfast1 and feel you do not need this meal1 drink the hot water anyway4 ,the victim of nerves should never drink during the meal but after it1 if he must drink anything at all4 ,he should also drink a pint or more of cold water between meals every day4 ,now1 another thing with regard to chewing all solid food to a cream4 ,it has been proved over and over again in my own case and in that of many others1 that in doing this the brain and muscles are both made stronger and keener for work1 that those who chew their food in this way have much greater endurance1 both mental and physical1 than those who do not4 ,today if ,i should relax my vigilance in respect to chewing my food ,i should soon go down again4 ,but with this aid1 which ,i now so easily employ1 combined with exactly the right things to eat1 ,i find ,i need have no fear4 ,it has been ten years since my last breakdown and in that interval ,i have done the very best work and by far the hardest brain work of a lifetime4 ,i do not believe people break down from overwork4 ,you may think that a perfectly absurd statement4 ,but ,i have good grounds upon which to base my belief4 ,if nervous people would eat sparingly and chew their food to a cream1 eating the foods ,i shall mention later on1 ,i am confident they would rarely1 if ever1 break down4 ,it is certain that in the last ten years1 with the greatest mental strain on me1 ,i should have gone down again1 and perhaps more than once1 if ,i had not found what caused nerves and how to prevent it4 ,in the meantime ,i have written ten or more books1 and every writer1 at least1 knows what a nerve-racking profession writing is4 ,in addition to all this mental labor ,i have gone right ahead with my medical practice4 ,surely there is balm in this particular ,gilead4 ,but if you will not chew your food to a cream you need not expect to win the entire reward4 ,and you must do this not only one day or one week or one month or one year1 but all the days1 weeks1 months1 and years that you may live4 ,and1 alas6 ,i know only too well all the trouble well-meaning but deluded people who sit at the table with a nervous individual will make him when they discover how much time he is taking to chew his food4 ,at first1 because of the length of time ,i spent at a meal1 such people thought ,i must be eating as much as a horse4 ,but1 here and there1 for ,i was in many places1 when people found out what ,i was doing1 they would only courteously deride me for being so gullible about what they termed fads4 ,we are all well aware that the vast majority of ,americans do not chew their food to a cream or anything like it4 ,and there are those1 therefore1 who advance as an argument that because the majority do not there must be something wrong with the minority who do4 ,well1 let us follow this out a little3 ,not so many hundred years ago everybody believed the world was flat4 ,but their theory did not make it flat4 ,and so1 even though thousands of people who crowd our eating houses do bolt their food1 that does not prove there is no danger in the practice4 ,and they who do it are digging their graves with their teeth4 ,chew your food6 ,,iii4 ,,right ,,and ,,wrong ,,diet ,,for ,,nervous ,,people ,he who leads a sober and regular life1 and commits no excess in his diet1 can suffer but little from disorders of any kind4 --,,cornaro ,people who are the offspring of nervous parents and who have had a nervous breakdown should not eat commercial sugar1 eggs1 or animal food of any kind whatever4 ,these statements may seem wholly unimportant to some people1 but ,i realize what a tremendous bomb ,i throw into the camps of others when they read them4 ,you see1 for centuries people have believed meat and eggs to be the best of all foods2 so when ,i make a statement like the foregoing1 the effect is not unlike that which followed ,columbus' statement that no matter what people believed1 the fact was that the earth was round1 not flat4 ,from the very beginning it has not made a single bit of difference as to what physicians or anybody else thought2 facts count4 ,and no matter what we may think or how long we have thought it1 facts go right on being facts just the same4 ,sometimes1 even after twenty years' experience1 about once in two or three months--because there is nothing else at hand--,i find myself eating a small bit of meat4 ,this usually happens when ,i am on a lecture tour4 ,but if ,i eat only a small slice of bacon at the evening meal ,i dream bad dreams and the next morning feel drowsy1 heavy1 and sluggish4 ,animal foods as well as eggs and commercial sugar poison all those born of nervous parents4 ,i have proved the truth of this by my own case and by several years' observation of other cases4 ,do your children have night terrors8 ,you answer1 yes4 ,well1 let me tell you how to stop these horrors in the little ones4 ,if you give them meat--and remember you should never give them pork--let them have a very small piece at noon1 never at night4 ,and they should never be permitted to have it for breakfast4 ,give the child his one small bit of meat at noon4 ,for the evening meal give him some cereal with milk or cream1 but no sugar4 ,give him all he wants of this special dish1 but nothing else at that meal1 and you will find his night terrors and moaning will cease4 ,i look back on most of the nights of my childhood with horror1 for until ,i became a man ,i talked in my sleep and had the most horrible dreams4 ,i used also to get up in my sleep and walk about the room4 ,my parents were well aware of the fact that all of their eight children were poor sleepers1 and of them all ,i was by far the worst4 ,and1 although it was innocently done1 the food they were giving us was poisoning us4 ,you don't need to think that in order to take poison you must have strychnine or arsenic4 ,no1 indeed you don't4 ,we were fed exactly as hundreds and thousands of poor little ones are being fed now as this is being written4 ,we were fed on meat1 eggs1 and fats1 and when we became ill1 friends round about us thought they were doing something real kind when they sent in a nice piece of fried rabbit or some celebrated golden brown fried chicken4 ,but we vomited at the sight of the food--which was really our salvation4 ,i have two boys of my own4 ,the elder1 a sturdy chap not yet ten years of age1 has to have clothes for a fourteen-year-old boy1 and he is much stronger than any boy of his age he has ever met4 ,the younger boy is now seven and his physical development is wonderful for a child of that age4 ,now these boys hardly know what an egg is4 ,they never eat one4 ,as to meat1 ,i am certain that since they were born they have not eaten it on an average of once a week4 ,they have eaten a little1 but you will admit that eating meat not more than once a week1 and often going weeks without a bit of it1 certainly is eating very little4 ,there have been times when they have not seen meat for three months4 ,now1 ,i don't eat as ,i do and have my children eat as they do just for a fad4 ,i think nothing is more stupid and silly than for people to do certain things just because somebody else does them4 ,we should all have good sound reasons for our actions in this world4 ,we should all try our very best to use sound common sense4 ,that's why ,i say that people who are the offspring of nervous parents should not eat animal food of any kind after they are twenty-one1 and they should never at any time eat eggs4 ,it would be far better for them if they did not eat commercial sugar4 ,but ,i do admit that when some of these people get well by dieting1 they are able to eat sparingly of all these things and still keep well4 ,but some people can never eat them and ,i am one of the number4 ,i remember one summer about two years ago ,i was on a lecture tour for a ,chautauqua ,bureau1 and it seemed that surely ,i got into the very worst eating places that summer that ,i ever had in my life4 ,for three or four days ,i ate only eggs1 as they seemed to be about the only food ,i could get besides bread and butter4 ,at the end of the third day--,i remember the time very well--when night came ,i could not sleep1 and just as when ,i had one of my nervous breakdowns1 that old feeling of inexpressible gloom began to settle over me4 ,i knew instantly the cause of it1 because twice before when ,i had purposely experimented with eating eggs ,i had had similar experiences4 ,i immediately took a heavy cathartic and after having thoroughly rid myself of the poison ,i again slept well4 ,but ,i am not alone in this fight against the use of eggs for nervous people4 ,john ,burroughs said that eggs poisoned him1 and ,i have talked with men of great wealth and great business ability who have reached the top by their own efforts1 who have told me that eggs poisoned them4 ,now ,i have found that for these nervous people animal food is a slow poison4 ,sooner or later it will do its work4 ,and just here ,i wish to say that there are some people who seemingly can eat almost anything and not suffer from so doing4 ,last summer ,i talked with ,count ,ilya ,tolstoy1 son of ,leo ,tolstoy1 the celebrated ,russian writer4 ,the ,count1 who is also a lecturer1 told me that he was obliged to have eggs and that he had eaten them all his life4 ,he said his appetite was never satisfied unless he ate eggs4 ,he is now past sixty1 and apparently is strong and rugged4 ,now eggs no doubt are good for him4 ,but right here is where infinite harm can be done to nervous people like myself4 ,people who can eat everything--and among physicians seemingly there are many who can do so--will say to these poor sufferers3 ,why1 it's all nonsense about things hurting you6 ,eat anything you want and all you want and then forget about it4 ,physicians have said that to me and during the past twenty years ,i have heard them say it thousands of times to others4 ,personally ,i do not believe in ,christian ,science--physicians of the ,regular school do not believe in it2 but do you know that when a physician says to a sufferer from nerves1 ,it's all nonsense about what you eat hurting you2 eat anything you want and then forget about it1 that physician is fully endorsing ,christian ,science4 ,he is telling the person to whom he is talking that there is no such thing as physical suffering4 ,of course1 such a physician is nothing but a fool4 ,yet that's why so many of these people turn to ,christian ,science4 ,yes1 that is exactly why they try it4 ,it bolsters up a sufferer for a time just as contact with a magnetic and hopeful personality may for a time bolster one up4 ,but such persons almost always go back to the sanitariums4 ,nerves is not a mental disease2 that is1 the seat of the trouble is not mental but physical1 and the mental phase of nerves is only a symptom1 or rather one of the symptoms of the disease4 ,we people who have gone down into the dark valley have experienced a million1 more or less1 different kinds of feelings4 ,i fully believe one half of the ,american people are the offspring of nervous parents4 ,this means that there are fifty-five million of this nervous type of ,americans4 ,this type includes people all the way from the man in an office who gets angry quickly1 to the individual who is in a state of complete collapse4 ,and the man who is afflicted with nothing more than a quick temper1 or is living under high nervous tension1 is liable to beget children who will suffer from the malady in a far worse degree than ever he will1 unless1 indeed1 he eats only the things he should eat and observes a number of other rules besides the two ,i have already laid down4 ,now1 the ideal diet for nervous people is a slightly modified vegetarian diet4 ,to be specific1 it is a ,lacto-vegetarian diet minus eggs4 ,there are1 however1 two things included in this diet that ,i would warn one in the beginning to eat of sparingly4 ,these are bananas and cooked cabbage4 ,if they agree with you1 well and good2 but if they do not1 let them strictly alone4 ,eat all kinds of vegetables1 both fresh and cooked4 ,eat all kinds of fruits1 especially fresh fruits4 ,there is an old saying and a good one1 ,an apple a day keeps the doctor away4 ,there are a thousand ways to prepare vegetables and fruits for the table1 and there are a number of books that give good recipes4 ,if a nervous individual has never yet had a breakdown ,i believe he can safely eat most of the vegetarian dishes that have eggs in them1 but it would be a serious mistake to select the special dishes that contain eggs and live on those just because they contain eggs4 ,i believe1 too1 that after a nervous person is restored to health1 if he strictly observes the rules of eating sparingly and of chewing all food to a cream1 he may safely try out such courses as are found in ,bardsley's ,recipes for ,food ,reformers or ,broadbent's ,forty ,vegetarian ,dinners4 ,it may seem odd1 but there are people who for some reason or other lack the instinct1 or whatever is needed1 to know that a certain thing they eat hurts them4 ,i have had men and women sit in my office and say with the utmost sincerity that they were certain that it wasn't anything they ate that hurt them because they never had any pain in the abdomen4 ,sometimes these people were in a dreadful state of nervous breakdown4 ,so you see the danger that lies here4 ,if you know1 you can always tell what special thing disagrees with you4 ,for example1 ,i know eggs disagree with me1 and like ,john ,burroughs and many others1 ,i know when they harm me4 ,therefore1 after you have recovered you might try being your own physician4 ,but if you are not sure as to what disagrees with you1 you would much better stick to a vegetarian diet and go without eggs the remainder of your days4 ,commercial sugar also is the cause of many breakdowns among the people of this country4 ,and is it not strange how these poor suffering people crave sweets--the very thing they should not have4 ,they will argue with themselves--and some physicians will agree with them--that they should go right on eating candy because they want it4 ,but1 as ,i have already said1 there is just as much sense in saying a man should have whiskey because he craves it or that a young man should have tobacco because he craves it1 as to say that any one should have candy because he craves it4 ,there is absolutely no sense in such an argument4 ,if you are suffering from a nervous breakdown1 for sixty days quit eating candy and everything sweet except honey1 and follow the other rules ,i have already laid down4 ,it may be that you will have to stick to this diet for three months4 ,but try it4 ,that is exactly what cured all my bodily ills and brought my soul out of the dark and gloomy night after everything else had failed4 ,i do not mean to say that this diet alone cured me1 but ,i do say it was the biggest factor in the cure4 ,there are1 however1 some other things that it would be worse than folly to ignore4 ,this ,i shall come to later4 ,but just here ,i want to have it understood that this thing of eating--how you eat1 and how much you eat1 and what you eat--is of transcendent importance in the cure4 ,of course1 under some circumstances connected with cases of breakdown1 nothing but the good judgment of friends will avail4 ,for example1 the question of how much one shall eat is something that not all the books in the world nor all the physicians in the world can determine4 ,i say1 always quit while you want a little more4 ,i cannot say more or less than that4 ,so many have written me recently asking just what ,i eat1 that it may be a help to some of them if ,i set down here just what ,i ate today4 ,i ate no breakfast at all4 ,sometimes ,i go for weeks without eating breakfast4 ,this is especially apt to be the case if ,i am engaged in writing a magazine article or a book4 ,i find my brain is much clearer and that ,i can work much better when ,i eat no breakfast4 ,but ,i do drink one or two cups of very weak tea4 ,i use just enough tea to color the water4 ,now ,i do not advise everybody to go without breakfast4 ,some people tell me that they have a headache unless they eat something4 ,and some writers say that if they do not eat a little breakfast they cannot write so well4 ,thus you see where the question of common sense and using your own judgment comes in4 ,there are always a few things you will have to decide for yourselves4 ,at noon ,i ate about two handfuls of corn flakes with milk and cream but no sugar1 finishing with about four ounces of bread pudding that had a little brown sugar in it4 ,now1 in mid-afternoon1 as ,i write this1 ,i am not hungry4 ,tonight ,i shall eat another dish of corn flakes and some buttered toast and three or perhaps four good-sized apples1 ,i usually eat three or four apples a day4 ,if ,i want a piece of pie for lunch1 ,i eat it1 but ,i eat nothing else4 ,i live on the plainest of plain foods4 ,apples used to create a lot of gas in my stomach1 but now they do not because ,i chew them to a cream4 ,milk used to make me constipated1 but it does not when ,i chew the cereal with it carefully and eat a number of apples4 ,most nervous people are constipated4 ,but apples are really the salvation of nervous people4 ,if you are constipated1 drink1 or rather1 sip1 a glass of hot water half an hour before breakfast1 then eat nothing for breakfast but apples2 eat two big ones and chew them slowly to a cream4 ,go to stool regularly every morning4 ,this habit is half the cure of constipation4 ,apples1 of all things ,i know1 are the finest things for the liver4 ,if you take a patient ill from chronic indigestion1 whose stools are clay colored1 and put him on a diet of apples1 if he chews properly1 in less than twenty-four hours the stools will be of the regulation dark brown color1 as they should be when the liver is working in a normal1 healthful manner4 ,and eating apples will work in exactly the same way with children as with adults4 ,apples1 apples1 apples6 ,eat them no matter what the price4 ,you remember how good ,adam found the apple--or at least we presume it was an apple that he found so good--and ,i can think of no other single thing that would tempt a man to make all the trouble he did4 ,if he had to sin1 then ,i'm for ,adam every time1 for ,i think had ,i been in his place and ,eve had offered me a big juicy red apple1 ,i should have taken it and eaten it4 ,i don't know but that ,i might even have eaten it without the invitation4 ,i think that ,adam's great mistake was not so much in eating the apple as in trying to lay the blame on the woman4 ,nobody should ever apologize for having eaten an apple4 ,now1 generally speaking1 there is one thing a nervous parent--or any other kind of parent for that matter--should never say to a child4 ,never tell him he is nervous4 ,if we realize that our children are the offspring of nervous parents1 it is1 as ,i have already suggested1 much better for all concerned1 for we cannot avoid a danger unless we know what or where the danger is4 ,when we know the child is nervous we should plan carefully1 leaving out of his diet all pastries and rich greasy foods1 and keep him largely on a vegetarian diet4 ,but1 as ,i have already suggested1 we do not need to diet a nervous child as strictly as we do a nervous adult where infinite harm has already been done4 ,give the nervous child meat only a part of the time1 and if he goes without eggs it will be all the better for him4 ,i wish from the bottom of my heart that ,i had never tasted an egg6 ,what a fine thing it would be if we so trained our children that they would never suffer from nerves6 ,and usually it could be done4 ,the belief that because nervous parents have broken down their children sooner or later must break down1 is our greatest curse4 ,but such a belief is absurd1 for if dieting1 outdoor exercise1 and a few other simple rules are observed1 there is no danger that it will happen4 ,to be sure1 these rules must be definitely understood and strictly adhered to4 ,if we treat this misfortune in the manner ,i shall mention later1 we can make our lives more successful and infinitely happier than the lives of those who have never learned self-control4 ,for instance1 ,i am far healthier than men all around me who seem to be able to eat three ,christmas dinners each day4 ,they sit at the table and boast about being good feeders1 then later they come to me for pills1 saying1 ,there is nothing the matter with me1 doctor1 but ,i thought ,i had better take a little medicine so ,i won't get ill4 ,but they don't fool me4 ,i know exactly what is the matter with them4 ,they are so full of pork they can't think4 ,to tell the truth1 we people who have suffered from a nervous breakdown or some illness akin to it1 and have learned that we must eat right or die1 are of all people the most fortunate4 ,every now and then ,i hear some good old sister1 with a face like a full moon and jowls like a bloodhound1 say1 as she finishes her third piece of mince pie1--her waist line having extended accordingly1--,isn't it too bad about poor brother ,jones6 ,he looks so terribly thin6 ,they say he has fallen away from one hundred and sixty pounds to only a hundred and fifty4 ,and they do say he can't eat meat and eggs at all6 ,the poor man6 ,but the real facts of the case are that brother ,jones is able to walk ten miles any day1 and the possibility is that in the not distant future he will read in his morning paper that sister ,sue ,portly has been operated on for gall stones and the number reported is almost unbelievable1 about three hundred1 in fact4 ,and so1 all the time sister ,portly was feeling sorry for lithe1 energetic brother ,jones1 she was a walking stone quarry1 as it were1 and yet didn't know it4 ,so don't worry because you have to diet or because after reading these lines you determine that you must begin to diet4 ,for1 whoever you are1 and wherever you may be1 you belong to a most fortunate class of people4 ,and now ,i wish to say some things about what nervous people should do besides dieting1 and especially do ,i wish to say these things to those now suffering from a nervous breakdown4 ,much of it at least will apply to children of nervous parentage4 ,you will observe as you go along that ,i keep mentioning these children4 ,i do so always with the thought in mind that there is absolutely no need for them ever to break down if these common sense rules are followed4 ,i take it that not any one of us or a number of us1 but that all of us love our children more than we love ourselves4 ,admitting the truth of this1 then we should all be interested in this system for them as well as for ourselves1 for as their nerves are so shall their success be4 ,,iv4 ,,value ,,of ,,outdoor ,,life ,,and ,,exercise ,better to hunt in fields for health unbought4 ,the wise for cure on exercise depend2 ,god never made his work for man to mend4 --,,dryden ,people in this country are now beginning to get away from the idea that a man or woman who is past sixty is getting old4 ,when the ,rev4 ,john ,wesley1 the itinerant preacher and author1 was eighty-eight years old--please note the eighty-eight--he walked six miles to keep a preaching appointment4 ,when asked if the walk tired him1 he laughed and said3 ,why1 no6 ,not at all6 ,the only difference ,i can see in my endurance now and when ,i was twenty is that ,i cannot run quite so fast4 ,i know there are calamity-howlers who say3 ,oh1 well1 some people are born to success and long life and some are not6 ,the individual who permits himself to get into that frame of mind is doomed and no one can help him4 ,such reasoning is of course all nonsense4 ,john ,wesley was always a spare eater4 ,yet he lived an active outdoor life1 often traveling forty and even sixty miles a day on horseback4 ,he never failed to keep an appointment on account of the weather4 ,and he was a tireless worker1 often preaching four and five times a day4 ,at the same time he read and wrote every spare moment1 turning out a large amount of literary work4 ,dr4 ,eliot1 ex-,president of ,harvard ,college1 a constant writer and speaker1 and among the greatest of ,american educators--now nearer #ij than #hj years of age--is also a moderate eater4 ,he says1 ,i have always eaten moderately of simple food in great variety4 ,this practice is probably the result1 first1 of a natural tendency1 and then of confirmed habit and much experience under varying conditions of work and play4 ,from much observation of eating habits of other people1 both the young and the mature1 ,i am convinced that moderation1 simplicity1 and variety in eating are more important than any other bodily habit towards maintaining good health1 power of work1 and1 barring accidents1 attaining to enjoyable old age4 ,it is interesting to note what that eminent lawyer1 legislator1 and orator1 ,chauncey ,m4 ,depew1 had to say on the occasion of his eighty-seventh birthday about a simple diet and reaching the century mark4 ,the true philosophy of life is this3 ,the more you like a thing the more reason there is for giving it up if you find it is not good for you4 ,if you treat nature properly1 nature will adjust herself to you4 ,my diet is very simple4 ,i have the same breakfast every day in the year1 and it consists of an orange1 one four-minute egg1 one half of a corn muffin1 and a cup of coffee which is mainly hot milk4 ,i have this at half past eight4 ,my hour of rising is seven every morning4 ,for luncheon ,i partake principally of vegetables1 with no meat1 and a glass of water4 ,this is at one o'clock4 ,at dinner ,i skip most of the courses and enjoy small portions of vegetables1 fish1 and fowl4 ,i never eat between meals and consume now less than half ,i did at fifty4 ,the vigor and long life of ,bishop ,fallows of ,chicago are mainly due to his living and mental habits and to his simple diet4 ,he is well over #he years of age1 but few men of three-score years can do as much work1 the year round4 ,there are two or three sermons and several public addresses each week1 and the work of a large parish--from marriages and christenings to funerals and parish visitings--which is never slighted4 ,an active ,grand ,army man and ,civil ,war veteran1 he is asked to address countless military and patriotic gatherings1 and his energy seems as tireless as his spirit is willing4 ,his ability to meet these demands can be traced back to simple living and simple eating4 ,the ,bishop is temperate in all things1 and refuses to worry4 ,he neither drinks nor smokes4 ,in regard to his diet he says1 ,i eat very little meat1 but take plenty of fruit1 cereals and vegetables4 ,i take regularly before breakfast a cup of hot grape juice4 ,i use it frequently at other times4 ,i take buttermilk daily4 ,night and morning he takes simple physical exercises1 and always walks at least a couple of miles each day4 ,the ,bishop's ancestors were long-lived4 ,his great grandfather lived to be #if2 his grandfather1 #ia2 his eldest brother1 #ic4 ,his father's death from a fall occurred at the age of #ha4 ,he has a brother who is #ib4 ,this in itself is evidence that he comes of a family in which right living--which means simple living--has prevailed until its effects have shown in each succeeding generation4 ,the world-renowned ,american inventor1 ,thomas ,a4 ,edison1 now in his #geth year1 has today a mind as brilliant and ingenious1 and a skill as remarkable for inventing things that are of practical use1 as when at #ba he invented his automatic repeater which did so much for telegraphy4 ,and ,edison is another spare eater4 ,what he ate at the three meals of the day on which he wrote the following letter1 is characteristic of the small amount he eats every day in the year4 ,and you will learn that this is true of every man or woman who has lived long and is still doing active brain work4 ,and so1 once for all1 let us think right about this matter4 ,we get out of ourselves just about what we put into ourselves or do for ourselves in the way of food and exercise4 ,transcriber's ,note3 ,the following is the text of a letter from ,mr4 ,edison that was included as an illustration in the book4 ,from the ,laboratory of ,thomas ,a4 ,edison1 ,orange1 ,n4,j4 ,march #b1 #aiba4 ,dr4 ,thomas ,clark ,hinkle ,cawker ,city1 ,kansas4 ,dear ,sir3 ,your letter of ,february #beth was received4 ,my food for the one day on which your letter was received1 was as follows3 ,,breakfast ,cup coffee #a_/b milk1 #a_/b coffee4 ,two pieces toast1 #b-a_/b #d1 #a_/d thick4 ,another piece toast with two small sardines on it4 ,,midday ,,meal ,glass milk4 ,two pieces of dry toast4 ,,evening ,,meal ,two glasses milk4 ,three pieces very thin dry toast4 ,small piece steak1 #a-a_/b wide1 #c_/h thick1 #c long4 ,small baked potato4 ,one piece nut chocolate4 ,yours very truly1 ,thos ,a ,edison ,transcriber's ,note3 ,this additional note was handwritten on the typewritten letter being reproduced in this section4 ,weight #ahe lbs ,can diminish this diet without loss of weight ,e ,transcriber's ,note3 ,end of letter4 ,most people do not take enough systematic outdoor exercise4 ,and exercise1 ,i would have you understand1 is another essential in the cure of one who has nerves4 ,but ,i am quite sure that a lot of bad advice has been given women sufferers along this line4 ,i find that as a rule1 women make better progress1 at least at first1 with complete rest or as much rest as they can possibly get4 ,i have seen great harm come from telling a woman afflicted with ,the ,mysterious ,disease--as it is often called--to take long walks4 ,i am always extremely careful about telling such a woman to indulge in vigorous exercise4 ,some women1 of course1 are much stronger than others4 ,my advice to a woman is to walk in the open air unless she is so ill she cannot walk at all without becoming very weak4 ,and here again each person must use common sense and decide the matter herself4 ,but no person with a nervous breakdown should ever work at any task or take any kind of exercise to the point of exhaustion4 ,i well remember a man who came to me some years ago suffering from this malady4 ,he had been trying to get well by doing heavy stunts in a gymnasium4 ,he was very muscular1 in fact he was an athlete1 and was still under twenty-five years of age4 ,his cheeks were ruddy1 and to the ordinary observer he appeared to be in the pink of condition4 ,but he had that peculiar expression of the eyes that flashed his story to me as plainly as if blazoned forth by the letters of an electric sign4 ,i told him at once that he could never hope to cure his nerves by such violent exercises4 ,and right here let me advise men in this condition not to run4 ,i receive many letters of inquiry from young men with broken-down nerves who tell me they are taking long walks and finishing with a run4 ,to all such ,i say3 ,do not run4 ,i know all about it for ,i have tried it4 ,i was on my university football team4 ,and all my life ,i have been fond of athletics4 ,i am still fond of this kind of life and always expect to be1 but exercise is frequently overdone by nervous people4 ,usually1 the physically strong man who breaks down with nerves thinks at once of physical training4 ,but strange as it may seem1 you can make such a man's muscles as hard as iron but that alone will not cure him4 ,and it is true that many people in this condition do not seem nervous for they are not at all shaky1 as some think an individual should be if he is the victim of a nervous breakdown4 ,i well remember that one day when at my worst ,i could not work nor concentrate my mind on anything4 ,i chanced to be in ,topeka1 ,kansas1 and passed a shooting gallery4 ,i was a good rifle shot and ,i had been taking long walks and shooting ,kansas jack rabbits4 ,i went in1 picked up one of the rifles1 and started firing at the biggest target4 ,i rang the bell twice on that target in succession1 and then aimed at the finest target there and rang the bell twice in succession on that4 ,the proprietor was very much surprised1 saying it was remarkably good shooting2 and yet ,i was down and out with nerves4 ,i have seen many athletes who1 to the untrained observer1 looked well1 but who in reality were nervous wrecks4 ,outdoor exercise alone will not cure such people1 or if seemingly it does--and this is important--sooner or later the individual is sure to go down again4 ,you have first to remove the cause1 and that is largely wrong diet4 ,now of course it is only reasonable to say that if such an individual does not get out of doors at all he cannot get well4 ,that is one trouble with many of our women today4 ,they will go on a diet and stick to it1 but they will not get out of doors4 ,if they do go out1 they ride a little distance in a street car or in an automobile to do some shopping4 ,or they go to a store and spend a good deal of time there--indoors1 mind you--and then are whirled home again4 ,some of them seem to think that is taking outdoor exercise1 but of course it is not4 ,so many times they have said to me1 ,why1 ,i do get out6 ,yes1 they do get out1 but they immediately go indoors again4 ,the nervous individual1 unless the collapse is so severe that the first few weeks must be spent in bed1 should get out of doors at least three or four hours a day1 every day in the week4 ,this is a general rule that should be observed by everyone4 ,it takes genuine courage1 ,i know1 for a man or woman to spend this much time out of doors4 ,and ,i know that those who are compelled to work for a living cannot take three hours all at one time4 ,but labor conditions in this country are such that ,i am sure the vast majority of our people could spend this much time outdoors in wholesome recreation if they would make up their mind to do so4 ,and remember this3 ,after the nervous person is cured he should never let anything prevent him from continuing such outdoor exercise4 ,i am constantly trying to make this point--when you get well you should stay well4 ,one breakdown is bad enough2 don't have another4 ,and you will not have another if you will change the habits of a lifetime as you are advised to do4 ,among farmers there are many1 the offspring of nervous parents with bad eating habits1 who suffer from nervous breakdowns4 ,so you see exercise out of doors alone will not cure such cases4 ,sometimes a farmer will tell me he fears to give up eating meat because he will grow weak as a result4 ,but just here ,i wish to call your attention to the fact that there are nations that have for ages lived on this lacto-vegetarian diet4 ,i myself have not eaten meat or eggs for ten years4 ,at least ,i have not eaten them except the few times mentioned4 ,and every time ,i did break the rule ,i was harmed far more than ,i was benefited4 ,i am very sure the farmer who chooses this lacto-vegetarian diet will thrive on it4 ,members of our profession discovered not very long ago that at an advanced age the peasants of ,bulgaria are a wonderfully preserved people both mentally and physically4 ,foolishly a great number of the profession immediately jumped to the conclusion that buttermilk alone did the miracle for these people4 ,the drinking of buttermilk became such a fad that some of the largest of our physicians' supply houses began and are still making buttermilk tablets4 ,and physicians1 many of them1 are credulous enough to prescribe them4 ,they might just as well prescribe chalk4 ,while buttermilk tablets are harmless1 they are of no benefit whatever4 ,how easily fooled people--physicians included--may be6 ,bulgarian peasants are strong and rugged and live to a great age not because they drink buttermilk1 but because they live on milk and fruits and vegetables and stay out of doors4 ,buttermilk is a good healthful drink1 but it is only a minor reason for the health and strength of the ,bulgarian peasant4 ,now1 really1 could you think of anything more absurd than to prescribe buttermilk or buttermilk tablets as the fountain of youth when the patient is breaking all the laws of health1 as most buttermilk laymen and physicians are doing8 ,it seems almost impossible that people--physicians in particular--should for a moment believe such things4 ,but they do4 ,barnum said there was a sucker born every minute1 and this certainly seems to be true4 ,no1 there is no royal road to health4 ,the buttermilk-tablet route will not take you there4 ,if you will live out of doors as ,bulgarian peasants do1 and if you will eat as they do1--as man is expected to eat1--you will live just as long as they do1 and you will get a great deal more out of life and be much more helpful to others4 ,when the time comes round for your next buttermilk tablet1 do not take it4 ,instead1 do as those peasants do--leave off eating meat and take a two-hour walk in the sunshine4 ,then when nine o'clock comes1 like the ,bulgarian1 go to bed and stay there until morning4 ,if the person afflicted with nerves expects to get well and stay well1 he must go to bed at an early hour and get eight or nine hours of sleep not only some nights but every night in the week4 ,when one begins dieting and taking outdoor exercise he should go to bed regularly at an early hour even though he has not been sleeping well4 ,no matter how many sleepless nights he has experienced before beginning this regime1 he should retire early just the same1 because1 sooner or later1 sleep will come and the relaxed body is resting even if the individual does not sleep4 ,now ,i have been through all this lying awake at night1 so ,i know from experience that it is best to go to bed early and at a regular hour4 ,if you can1 you should sleep nine hours4 ,nervous people need more sleep than others4 ,sleep is a better restorer of nerves than anything else we can try4 ,i do not believe that ten or even eleven hours' sleep would be harmful to a nervous adult1 because very often ,i have seen such a person benefited by it4 ,children should have all the sleep they want up to ten or twelve hours4 ,but after a child has wakened in the morning he should be permitted to get up4 ,it is not good for him to lie in bed after he wishes to rise1 for nature is calling him to get up and exercise4 ,the nervous individual not only should exercise systematically out of doors but he should play some game4 ,you remember when we were children how much we loved to play8 ,well1 to give up play when we grow up is all nonsense4 ,and just because people quit playing is the reason they have wrinkles and frowns4 ,did you ever notice how often people laugh when at play8 ,there is something about play that compels one to laugh4 ,and what all people need1 nervous people and others as well1 is to get into the habit of laughing more4 ,and it is not hard to find something to play4 ,i like to play at basket ball with a child1 and ,i can enjoy tossing a ball for an hour if the child will stick to the game that long4 ,playing basket ball in the open air on a sunshiny day is one of the very finest exercises in the world4 ,if you are suffering from nerves and are able to be out of doors at all1--,i mean if you are well enough to be out1 and at least nine out of ten sufferers are1--get a basket ball and get some one to play with you4 ,if at first you are poor at catching the ball you will with practice improve4 ,gradually toss the ball a little higher and a little higher until you have difficulty in catching it4 ,any woman or girl can stand this sort of open air exercise4 ,if the weather is cold1 no matter2 wrap up and play anyway4 ,but enter into the game with spirit4 ,playing the regular game of basket ball is too violent exercise for the nervous person4 ,the victim of nerves should always keep in mind that it is mild outdoor exercise that will do him good4 ,tennis is too violent an exercise for people who have had nervous trouble4 ,anyway1 there is no use in one's doing anything that will make his heart beat like a trip-hammer4 ,a women can toss a basket ball and laugh and get rosy cheeks and grow younger and prettier as easily as when playing tennis4 ,golf is also good exercise1 but a large number of people who work for a living and suffer from nerves would have little chance for exercise if golf were all that could be offered them4 ,furthermore golf is practically only a summer game1 and an individual belonging to the pre-nervous class needs outdoor exercise every day in the year4 ,but golf is excellent exercise1 and there is nothing better if one has the time to give to it and has access to links4 ,bicycling is splendid exercise for nervous people1 but automobiles are so numerous that it is now considered almost dangerous to ride a wheel on any of our main traveled roads4 ,mountain climbing1 ,i believe1 is not to be recommended for most people suffering from nerves4 ,i have known such people to go to ,colorado and spend some time climbing mountains1 and then come back much worse than when they went away4 ,my advice to the nervous person who goes to the mountains is to be out of doors all the time he can1 but to take things easy4 ,it would be better for such a person to walk about slowly on the level ground through some of the towns or along the foothills4 ,let leisure be your watchword in a hill country4 ,i know ,i injured my nerves out in ,colorado one summer because ,i was ill advised4 ,mountain air is good for you1 but the mountains will do you more good if you simply look at them4 ,if you think you must go to the top1 take a burro4 ,you will find that the burro will give you a lesson in how to do things in a leisurely way4 ,do not get out of patience with him and whip him4 ,remember that the burro is smarter than you are in regard to the business of mountain climbing4 ,he has never had a nervous breakdown1 and if you will let him have his own way he never will have4 ,it will do you good to let him have his way2 he affords a tremendous lesson in patience4 ,patience1 that's just what we need1 and we need it badly4 ,walking slowly in the open air for two or three hours is the best exercise for man4 ,fortunately1 like the water we drink1 it is free to the poor as well as the rich4 ,for the nervous man who is able to do it1 ,i know of nothing better to build up muscles and keep the liver and other internal organs in good shape than sawing wood4 ,don't scorn this sort of exercise because you have been told that the ex-,kaiser is taking it4 ,that is not to be laid up against the wood or the exercise1 for1 quite fortunately1 the wood does not care who saws it4 ,get some wood1 then1 and a buck saw1 and saw wood for your own benefit4 ,you can do this morning and evening4 ,wood sawing brings into play every muscle in the body1 and the exercise is just enough to make a man comfortably tired without doing him harm4 ,many people who go to sanitariums for a cure pay from fifty to seventy-five dollars per week for the privilege of sawing wood1 and you can take this exercise just as well and at considerably less expense at home1 sawing your own wood instead of that of the sanitarium4 ,another splendid diversion for a man with nerves1 if he can have it1 is a small workshop where he can make just any old thing out of boards and nails4 ,if one is apt in this line1 he can make things that will interest children4 ,this sort of work requires a certain kind of concentration that is most excellent for the nervous sufferer4 ,this suggestion would of course apply to a woman1 too1 if she cared to try such an experiment4 ,sewing1 and especially fine needlework1 is very trying to a woman's nerves1 and if she has broken down under that kind of work she should quit it and do something else4 ,if she has to make her living in that way1 she of all people should observe the outdoor rules as well as rules for dieting4 ,i am sure nervous people profit by frequenting all possible outdoor games4 ,if a number of people afflicted with nerves could get together and take daily walks and at the same time determine that their conversation should always have a humorous slant1 it would help all of them wonderfully4 ,riding in an automobile is beneficial if the machine is driven slowly and the patient is kept out of doors from three to four hours4 ,but the fast driving that is generally done is bad for these people4 ,they come back from a ride worse than when they started4 ,it may be set down as a general rule that any form of outdoor exercise or play is good for the nervous person if it is not violent4 ,nervous people should1 if possible1 take a vacation once a year and get into new surroundings4 ,i am certain1 however1 that it does not make any difference where one lives4 ,a man is just as likely to have a breakdown in one part of the world as another4 ,while on these vacations he should stick to his rules just as rigidly as when he is at home4 ,i have had letters from people in ,canada and from others in ,florida who have suffered nervous breakdowns4 ,in ,california some go to pieces4 ,i have had many letters from people living there who have broken down4 ,people also break down in ,colorado and in ,new ,york2 in fact1 in every state in the ,union4 ,climate does not seem to make any difference so far as this trouble is concerned1 with the exception that in high altitudes ,i have observed nervous people are inclined to be more restless than elsewhere4 ,some years ago ,i went up ,pike's ,peak1 to the ,summit ,house4 ,i went to bed and spent the night there1 but ,i do not say ,i slept1 for in reality ,i slept only about half an hour4 ,i was not at all sick at the stomach1 as so many are who climb up there2 ,i had prevented this by eating a very light breakfast and chewing my food to a cream4 ,but ,i was extremely nervous4 ,i have found a great many other nervous people who do not feel quite right when in a high altitude4 ,as a general rule1 sea level is as good a place as a nervous individual can find to live4 ,but people break down there1 too4 ,the diet1 you see1 is the big thing4 ,and when ,i say diet ,i mean the way food is eaten and the amount eaten quite as much as ,i do the kind of food eaten4 ,and once more let me say1 systematic outdoor exercise also counts1 and you can't keep fit if you exercise only one1 two1 or three days a week4 ,some people who take long walks in the country on ,sunday think that will suffice4 ,but it will not4 ,you must have exercise every day and must have some play along with it4 ,gymnasium work is of very little value as compared to outdoor exercise4 ,in the summertime1 gardening is a splendid form of exercise4 ,and so is the care of a small flock of chickens1 which is possible for those living in the smaller towns4 ,it is always better1 when taking outdoor exercise1 to have something definite to do4 ,when walking it is a good plan1 if you can1 to have some definite place to go4 ,and if you have an agreeable companion to keep up a rapid-fire talk1 that will help also4 ,all these things are mentally stimulating4 ,then1 if possible1 sleep the year round on a sleeping porch4 ,if you don't possess a porch1 then1 have all the windows in your sleeping room wide open day and night4 ,if for a time you have to take physic1 it is best to take some hot mineral water half an hour before breakfast4 ,but adhering to dieting and exercise1 and eating enough apples1 usually overcomes constipation4 ,now1 there are some things about which a person must use his own good judgment4 ,for instance1 if you have any bad teeth you should at once go to a good dentist and have them attended to4 ,nobody with bad teeth can have good health4 ,again1 if your tonsils have become mere pus sacs you will have to go to a good nose and throat specialist and have them removed before you can expect to have good health4 ,this1 however1 applies to all people1 whether nervous or not4 ,the same thing is true with regard to your eyes4 ,if you are suffering from eye strain because you need glasses1 you cannot hope to get well of nerves until your eyes are properly fitted to glasses by some reliable eye specialist4 ,these are things that each individual must discover and do for himself4 ,he should consult a dentist1 an oculist1 an aurist1 or other specialist according to his particular need4 ,v4 ,,effect ,,of ,,right ,,living ,,on ,,worry ,,and ,,unhappiness ,neither melancholy nor any other affection of the mind can hurt bodies governed with temperance and regularity4 --,,cornaro ,a very sad thing about some nervous people is the fact that in their lives there are domestic or other troubles which no physician can overcome4 ,some of them live in depressing surroundings1 but for all these there is hope4 ,there is no doubt that if we can restore the brain to a perfectly normal1 healthful state the human being can bear more suffering than when the brain is affected4 ,perhaps when speaking of the spirit we had better call it that1 rather than the brain1 for that mysterious something we call spirit does make its home in the brain of man4 ,this has been proven scientifically4 ,so then1 in this life the temple of the spirit1 or soul1 does affect the mind4 ,and when ,i say this life1 ,i take the opportunity to say here that ,i not only believe in the immortality of the soul1 but now1 at #de1 ,i am as certain of it as ,i am of my own existence4 ,but for some reason--although as yet no one understands why it should do so--when this temple in which the spirit dwells is out of condition1 it affects the soul or spirit4 ,so1 you see1 if we can make the physical man or woman well1 we most certainly can help the spirit that dwells within the body4 ,and so ,i recommend dieting1 temperance in eating1 and the careful chewing of food to all those sufferers who unfortunately live in depressing surroundings and cannot get away from them4 ,when referring to the many pitiful letters ,i have received from poor human beings thus situated1 ,i realize that ,i am treading on sacred ground4 ,such things are written1 of course1 to a physician in confidence and the confidence must therefore be forever sacred4 ,i have not only had letters from these unfortunate people1 but have repeatedly come in contact with many of them in their every day life4 ,i know well what added suffering such conditions bring to them4 ,i know of nothing in this world more pitiful than a noble1 high-spirited1 ambitious woman1 pure and clean of heart1 who marries a man and becomes the mother of his children and is then condemned to live the life of a mere animal4 ,and all too frequently the opposite also obtains4 ,sometimes a man of high1 pure purpose finds that he has chosen as the mother of his children a coarse1 sensual woman4 ,now why in the world were these two people attracted to each other8 ,this is one of life's biggest puzzles to those who have thought much along this line4 ,in many instances extreme youth is the reason given4 ,while youth is mating time1 it also is the time of bad judgment4 ,thousands of young people have made this dreadful mistake simply because they married too young4 ,on the other hand1 youth is not altogether to blame4 ,when people1 young or old1 are courting1 each individual endeavors to appear at his or her best before the other4 ,without being actually aware of it1 under such circumstances both man and woman are doing all that lies in their power to deceive one another4 ,if people would do their courting in everyday clothes1 and if the girl would go about her housework while the man looked on1 or better still1 if he helped her with it for one or two years1 they would undoubtedly become better acquainted4 ,but1 after all1 except1 perhaps1 in unusual cases1 there is absolutely nothing by which people know that they are going to be properly mated4 ,if a man with a tendency to neurasthenia breaks down and is tied to a nagging wife1 that is usually the last straw in the way of his recovery4 ,this is just as true of the woman who breaks down and has a nagging husband4 ,there are1 ,i regret to say1 thousands of such cases all over the country4 ,on the other hand ,i have had a man come to me and say that he was willing to do anything on earth to aid his wife1 but he could not get her to diet or even to make a serious attempt to get well4 ,i am always tremendously sorry for such a man because he has a mighty heavy burden to bear4 ,such a wife should try to get well as much for the man's sake as for her own4 ,she should understand that she is needlessly torturing the one best friend she has on earth4 ,a woman of this kind should remember that1 no matter how much she may suffer1 she is hopelessly selfish if she will not do all in her power to diet and to obey other necessary rules that will enable her to get rid of the malady4 ,sometimes when a physician puts this before her kindly but firmly it results in her making a beginning and by and by getting well4 ,i have seen this happen many times4 ,and ,i wish to say right here that while ,i believe ,i was born with some natural tact1 yet if ,i had not gone through all this horrible suffering myself ,i should not1 ,i know1 be able to say the things that would induce these people to do that which it is their duty to do4 ,and here is one big difficulty ,i have always had to contend with4 ,some of these people have tried so many so-called nonsense cures--eating buttermilk tablets1 for instance--and have had no benefit from them1 that they are unwilling to try the one and only thing that will cure them--the thing that will cure them as sure as the sun shines4 ,i wonder why it is that since the time of ,christ people are always looking for a sensational or miraculous cure4 ,our life and everything pertaining to it is miracle enough1 if we only had the sense to see it4 ,the woman or the man with nerves is not going to get well eating buttermilk tablets or taking patent dope while lying on a couch and shut in a house4 ,you must bestir yourself4 ,you must get out of doors1 and above all1 you must eat right4 ,today thousands of these people are languishing in hospitals and sanitariums1 and most of them will come out only to go back again and again4 ,the institutional treatment is good for the beginning of the cure1 but if an individual with nerves is going to get well and stay well he must change his lifelong habits4 ,and ,i want to say again1 that any person1 man or woman1 in the midst of depressing conditions can triumph over them if he will eat as he should and live as he should4 ,there is something about the human soul1 if it is pure and fine1 and if proper attention is given to right living1 that will enable a person to meet great sorrow and triumph over it4 ,in fact1 no amount of sorrow can defeat a person who keeps his heart and body right4 ,and ,i would have you all realize that there is something far more to us than mere bones and veins and nerves4 ,i know the terrible tendency of the one with nerves to get angry4 ,but lay fast hold of yourself4 ,fight anger as you would poison1 because in reality it is poison to your nerves4 ,anger will hurt you2 it will hurt anybody4 ,but no matter how hard you find it at first1 get control of your temper4 ,if you succeed in doing this in a year you will have won one of the greatest victories man can win in this world4 ,i would rather meet a so-called plain man who has perfect control over his physical and mental faculties1 and sit and talk quietly with him1 than to meet the ,prime ,minister of ,england or the ,president of the ,united ,states if either lacked this control4 ,for ,i say to you that no matter what others may say1 the true measure of success does not rest in the position you occupy but in your having complete control of yourself4 ,if you are to gain this control it means that each day you are confronted by a mighty big task1 but if finally successful1 you will have accomplished the greatest thing a man can do in this life4 ,now1 here is something for you to take hold of1 you who all these years have believed that your life ambition has been thwarted4 ,but your ambition1 let me tell you1 has not been thwarted4 ,perhaps you have not done just what you wanted to do4 ,but it's quite possible that you had no business trying to do that special thing anyway4 ,most of us1 ,i find1 can be greatly mistaken about what we think we want to do4 ,at any rate1 we can never be happy unless we gain entire control of ourselves4 ,this is something the person afflicted with nerves most certainly can do1 and he can use this terrible thing as ,i myself and thousands of others have used it as a ladder to climb to the sunlit peaks where worry and clouds and storms cannot trouble4 ,and1 after all1 no matter who we are1 no matter how poor or how rich we are1 and no matter where we live1 life holds about the same general possibilities for all of us4 ,i mean by this that life affords to all the same opportunities for real happiness4 ,i know very well that there are those who will be quite unwilling to grant this1 but it is as true as the life we live4 ,many people in this old world still hold the notion that those who roll in wealth are the happy ones4 ,but ,i say to you this notion is all wrong1 and from knowledge gained through experience ,i know that in their hearts many of these wealthy people are dissatisfied and not one whit happier than you are4 ,the most restless people1 the most unhappy people1 and the most thoroughly dissatisfied people that ,i have ever met have been people who had everything that riches could give them4 ,andrew ,carnegie said he had noticed that after a man had accumulated a million dollars smiles were seldom seen on his face4 ,i cannot understand why people insist on going through life making themselves and all those they really love miserable just because they do not happen to have riches4 ,and a great many high-strung sensitive men are utterly cast down because they have failed to acquire wealth by the time they are forty-five or fifty years of age4 ,i wish ,i could make all such poor1 afflicted people see what goes to make up happiness and learn the only way to be happy4 ,in order to get well the thing we have to do is to follow nature's simple rules--rules our ,creator gave to us4 ,we must get control not only of our appetites but of all such passions as anger1 hate1 and envy1 which poison our bodies4 ,and let us also cast suspicion out of our minds4 ,this is a good rule to observe3 ,never suspect folks4 ,it is useless1 anyway1 for by and by what they are or what they do is always bound to come to the surface4 ,by gaining perfect control over yourself--and most certainly to do so is worth every effort you may make--you will also gain patience1 and that is1 ,i think1 one of the crowning virtues4 ,sometimes ,i think it the greatest of all virtues4 ,certainly it stands very high in the perfecting of character4 ,to the sufferer with nerves ,i would say3 ,have the courage to believe that you are going to get well4 ,then you can do it4 ,no matter how depressing or discouraging your surroundings1 do the very best you can every day4 ,then1 no matter what your ideas of success may have been1 you are really succeeding wonderfully6 ,see that you keep right on doing it6 ,if you are a mother and have children1 live for them4 ,or if you are a father and have children1 and have met with disappointments1 live for those children6 ,do everything in your power to make them happy1 high of heart1 and gallant of soul4 ,do not live for yourself1 live for your children4 ,if you have no children of your own1 look about and get interested in some other person's children4 ,you will find a lot of children all around you--blessed little beings--that you can help to make happy4 ,get your mind off yourself and your troubles and on the children of this world1 and keep it there4 ,when you were a child no doubt you had many happy days4 ,some of us had a very happy childhood1 while others may have been denied what their hearts desired4 ,but if we did not have a happy childhood that is all the more reason why we should be glad to help some other little ones have a happy one4 ,more and more each year ,i live ,i come to believe that it depends entirely upon grown people whether in this world children are happy or not happy4 ,if you had a happy childhood--and most people had--do you not recall the glorious times you had8 ,i know you do1 for we all do4 ,and ,i know1 too1 how much people affected with nerves dwell on those memories1 and how much they wish they might go back to those blessed days when the sun was always shining and the birds were always singing and the streams always beckoning them to play along their sands4 ,do you realize that you can live in those days again8 ,i do1 and ,i go back and dwell in them more and more the older ,i get4 ,i do not mean that ,i am not looking forward1 for ,i am1 tremendously4 ,how stupid we poor miserable creatures of this world become after we leave our childhood days behind us6 ,we really should never lose sight of them4 ,i have said that the person afflicted with nerves should not run4 ,i did not quite mean all that implies4 ,after such a man has recovered1 if he has a good heart1 he should run a little4 ,i run2 ,i can't help it4 ,i feel so good ,i have to run a little now and then to work off steam4 ,but you know very well when most people see a man running they at once think a house is afire somewhere4 ,it is almost unbelievable that we should actually surround ourselves with so many utterly senseless customs that tend to nothing but misery and unhappiness4 ,we should dress for comfort1 and we should have the courage to live in a youthful world where all may be happy4 ,if the blind lead the blind1 so the ,bible tells us1 both shall fall into the ditch4 ,we need so to live and act that we shall not fail to be happy4 ,happiness really is what everybody is chasing1 but how very far away from it most people are getting6 ,go back to the memories of your childhood4 ,be with children and play with them all you possibly can4 ,if you are a mother1 begin this very day to exercise more patience with your children1 recalling over and over again that when you were a child you were just as they are4 ,and remember1 for it is only too true1 that the day is fast coming when your little boy will no longer be a little boy1 he will be a man1 and will have gone away from you4 ,then many times you will wish him back1 and you will look back on those days when you thought your nerves were being ruined1 and feel a great swelling in your breast1 and breathing a sigh1 whisper to yourself1 ,dear ,god1 ,i hope ,i did all ,i ought to have done for him while he was little4 ,i know that any one can live with children and find happiness in being one with them1 and ,i know of no better thing to do4 ,after we have hold of ourselves with a firm grip we should endeavor to do this4 ,i have had people suffering with nerves tell me they had lost a little boy or a little girl1 and that it seems impossible to get over this loss4 ,i cannot tell you how much ,i long to help such people4 ,but ,i always urge them to go right on playing with other children and to remember1 for to me it is certain truth1 that they will meet that little child again4 ,there should be nothing to grieve about in such a loss4 ,to find compensation1 the one who has had such a grief has only to keep on playing the part of a true man or true woman4 ,childhood with all its pains and pleasures is everywhere about us4 ,and childhood is only the beginning of immortality4 ,late one night1 a number of years ago1 ,i was sitting in a little restaurant in a western town1 and was feeling very lonely and miserable4 ,sorrow weighed heavily upon me that night and the world never seemed blacker1 yet ,i think my belief in the immortality of the soul had never been more certain4 ,i looked up and high on the smoke-stained wall hung a painted picture of an old-time ship with many sails set4 ,this painting pictured the ship sailing through the darkness of night4 ,but through the dark1 seemingly restless clouds the moon gleamed brightly on the white canvas of the sails4 ,i had never before been so powerfully impressed by any picture4 ,it seemed fairly to speak to me4 ,i took an envelope from my pocket and set down the verses given here4 ,these verses were afterwards published in one or two metropolitan papers4 ,mr4 ,james ,bryce1 then ,english ,ambassador at ,washington1 saw them and wrote me a beautiful letter about them1 in which he said1 ,your little poem ',the ,last ,journey' attracts me very much4 ,you see he was beginning to grow old1 and ,i knew that was the reason these lines of mine had made an appeal to him4 ,not very long after this ,i also had a letter about the verses from ,dr4 ,osler1 then ,regius ,professor of ,medicine at ,oxford4 ,in it he said1 ,i have read your little poem ',the ,last ,journey' with unusual interest4 ,and again ,i knew why4 ,you see1 it does not matter very much what our rank or our station here1 no matter whether a human being is a king or what his station in life may be1 he still is a human being4 ,we are all reaching out after the same great thing4 ,the fine thing about the sentiment of these little verses is that although you wish to and may not believe it1 it is coming true anyway4 ---------------------------------------- ------------------------------- ,,the ,,last ,,journey ,one night when in a youthful dream1 ,i saw a moonlit sea1 ,and sailing o'er its dark expanse1 ,a ship of mystery4 ,the lonely traveler seemed to be ,on some great mission bound1 ,as o'er the darkened waters ,it sailed without a sound4 ,long years have passed2 old age has come3 ,the fire of life is low4 ,again ,i think of that strange dream ,of youth so long ago4 ,and in the ship that swiftly sailed ,that silent moonlit sea1 ,i seem to see a storm-tossed soul ,bound for eternity4 ,now to my mind this sweet dream comes1 ,a peaceful memory1 ,for soon ,i'll be ,a ,,youth again1 ,with ,immortality6