,transcriber's ,notes ,page numbers in this book are indicated by numbers enclosed in curly braces1 e4g4 #ii4 ,they have been located where page breaks occurred in the original book4 ,this book is derived from a copy on the ,internet ,archive3 http3_/_/www4archive4org_/details_/relig ionandheal#jbwalsgoog ,obvious spelling or typographical errors have been corrected4 ,inconsistent spelling of names and inventive and alternative spelling is left as printed4 ,extended quotations and citations are indented such as reports1 letters and interviews4 ,end ,transcriber's ,notes ,,religion ,,and ,,health ,,by ,,james ,j4 ,,walsh1 ,m4,d41 ,ph4,d41 ,sc4,d4 etc4 ,,medical ,,director ,,of ,,fordham ,,university ,,school ,,of ,,sociology1 ,,professor ,,of ,,physiological ,,psychology1 ,,cathedral ,,college ,,lecturer ,,on ,,psychology ,,and ,,sociology1 ,,marywood ,,college1 ,,scranton1 ,,pa41 ,,mt4 ,,st4 ,,mary',s1 ,,plainfield1 ,n4,j4 ,,boston ,,little1 ,,brown1 ,,and ,,company #aibj ,copyright1 #aibj1 ,by ,little1 ,brown1 and ,company4 ,all rights reserved ,published ,october1 #aibj ,norwood ,press ,set up and electrotyped by ,j4 ,s4 ,cushing ,co41 ,norwood1 ,mass41 ,u4,s4,a4 ,to ,,his ,,eminence ,,james ,,cardinal ,,gibbons ,,an ,,exemplar ,,of ,,religion ,,and ,,health ,,for ,,our ,,generation ,,contents ,page ,introduction #a ,,chapter ,i ,can ,we ,still ,believe8 #h ,,ii ,prayer #cc ,,iii ,sacrifice #ei ,,iv ,charity #hj ,v ,fasting and ,abstinence #aji ,,vi ,holydays and ,holidays #abj ,,vii ,recreation and ,dissipation #acb ,,viii ,mortification #adg ,,ix ,excesses #afh ,x ,purity #ahd ,,xi ,insanity #bje ,,xii ,nervous ,disease #bag ,,xiii ,dreads #bcd ,,xiv ,suffering #bed ,,xv ,pain #bfe ,,xvi ,suicide and ,homicide #bgg ,,xvii ,longevity #bid ,,xviii ,the ,bible and ,health #cjf ,,xix ,health and ,religion #cai ,index #ccc #a ,,religion ,,and ,,health ,,introduction ,physicians are agreed that there is no entirely satisfactory definition for health4 ,we all know quite well what we mean when we use the word1 but it does not admit of such exact limitations as would make a scientific formulation of its meaning4 ,religion is another of the words which1 in spite of its common use1 is extremely difficult to define exactly1 and it has often been said that we have no definition that will satisfy all those who profess religion and certainly not all those who have made a study of it from the standpoint of the science of theology4 ,as is true of health1 each of us knows pretty thoroughly what we mean when we use the word1 though our definitely formulated signification for it might not meet with the approval of others1 especially of those who are exacting in their requirements4 ,with the two principal words in the title incapable of exact definition1 it might seem that the subject matter of this book would be rather vague at best and unpromising in practical significance4 ,but all this indefiniteness is in theory4 ,there are no two words in the language that are more used than health and religion1 none that are less vague in practice and no two subjects have a wider appeal or a more paramount interest4 ,the linking them together for discussion in common because of their mutual influence will serve to #b throw light on both of them and undoubtedly help toward a better understanding of each4 ,ordinarily the most satisfactory definition of a word can be obtained from its etymology4 ,unfortunately in the matter of religion there is a very old-time division of opinion as to the derivation of the word which makes etymology of less definite significance than usual4 ,cicero suggested that religio came from relegere1 to go through or over again in reading1 speech or thought1 as prayers and religious observances generally are repeated4 ,on the other hand ,st4 ,augustine and ,lactantius insisted on deriving religio from the ,latin verb religare1 which means to bind again1 to bind back1 to bind fast4 ,the word obligation has an analogous origin and illustrates the meaning of religion as if its form from etymology should have been religation4 ,it is this latter derivation that has been most commonly accepted in the modern time4 ,a man may recognize the existence of ,god and yet not feel any particular obligations toward ,him1 but if he binds himself anew to the deity whom he recognizes1 by trying to make his life accord with the divine will as he views it1 then he practices religion4 ,james ,martineau said1 ,by religion ,i understand the belief and worship of ,supreme ,mind and ,will1 directing the universe and holding moral relations with human life4 ,what will occupy us in this book is the effect of this profound feeling and sense of obligation toward a higher power on health1 that is1 on that wholeness of body and mind which constitutes a normal condition for human beings4 ,there are many more relations between the two words than would at first be suspected or that most people #c might think possible4 ,the old high ,german word haelu or haelo1 from which our word health is derived1 meant also salvation4 ,the original root hal means haleness or wholeness and also refers to healing1 and curiously enough the word holiness is derived from the same root4 ,holiness has now come to refer to perfection1 or at least normality of soul1 while health refers to normality of body4 ,our word health is related more directly to whole than it is to heal1 in spite of the feeling there might be because of the spelling that the latter word must represent its immediate origin4 ,holiness of soul exactly corresponds in etymology with wholeness of body4 ,cardinal ,newman would1 ,i suppose1 be an authority on the subject of religion as satisfying for most people as could be found4 ,in his ,grammar of ,assent1 which he wrote in order to define as exactly as might be possible just how men came to admit certain propositions with special reference to the acceptance of religion1 he gave a definition of what he meant by the word in as simple words as it is possible to use1 perhaps1 to express so large a subject4 ,he said3 ,by religion ,i mean the knowledge of ,god1 of ,his ,will1 and of our duties toward ,him4 ,matthew ,arnold1 who represents among ,english-speaking peoples almost the opposite pole of thought to ,cardinal ,newman1 in what concerns religion1 suggested in ,literature and ,dogma that ,religion1 if we follow the intention of human thought and human language in the use of the word1 is ethics heightened1 enkindled1 lit up by feeling2 the passage from morality to religion is made when to morality is applied emotion4 ,both of these men1 in spite of their distance apart1 insist on duty as the essence of religion4 ,matthew ,arnold calls it ethics and says nothing as to the foundation of it2 the great ,english #d ,cardinal speaks very simply of our duties toward ,god4 ,newman says nothing of the emotions but appeals only to the reason1 while1 curiously enough1 the rationalizer in religion emphasizes the emotions4 ,between these two definitions there is a world of difference that we shall not attempt to bridge1 for we want to treat of the relations and above all the interaction of religion and health in the widest sense of these terms4 ,the ,century ,dictionary definition more nearly resembles that of ,cardinal ,newman than ,matthew ,arnold's formula1 but it generalizes in a way that would describe the practice of religion for a greater number of people and especially for those who still believe that there are more gods than one4 ,it runs3 ,recognition of and allegiance in manner of life to a superhuman power or superhuman powers1 to whom allegiance and service are regarded as justly due4 ,even this definition is not too broad for the subject matter of this book1 for ,i am one of those who believe that there is a blessing on every sincere effort of worship of the ,higher ,power1 no matter how groping it may be4 ,above all1 every regulation of life with reference to a power above us felt to have a ,providence over the world in which we live has an almost inevitable reaction on health and will lead to better things4 ,the sincere pursuit of good conduct as an end in life under a ,providence that is recognized will almost necessarily lead to better knowledge of our relations to the higher powers1 and also of our relations to ourselves and the world around us4 ,with these preliminaries we are ready to consider religion and health and their mutual influence1 but the inevitable question that suggests itself is1 ,is religion a living force in our time8 ,has not science given it its #e death blow8 ,while it walks the earth as yet1 is it not only as the ghost of an outworn phase of human interest8 ,is it any more than merely a superstition in the sense once suggested as the etymology of this word by ,james ,russell ,lowell as if derived from superstes1 a survivor1 representing1 as all superstitions do1 a survival from a previous state of thinking1 the reasons for which have disappeared1 though the mental inertia of human beings still keeps them in vogue8 ,a good many people in our time1 including not a few of those who are rather prone to consider themselves above the rest of the world1 have not hesitated to express the view that it is only old fogies and especially those ignorant of modern science who continue to think that religion can still be taken seriously4 ,some few of them have the best of good will in the world and appreciate how much of benefit was derived from religious belief1 benefit which they confess did good both for the mind and the body of man2 and they are even ready to express sorrow that it has outlived its usefulness1 but they feel that they must insist that religion is now only the wraith of its former self1 a misty congeries of old-fashioned beliefs which the ignorant alone reverence1 accepting it very much as they do ghost stories in general4 ,president ,schurman of ,cornell in an address before the ,liberal ,club of ,buffalo thirty years ago1 ,footnote #a reminded us that there are a number of people who are always ready to proclaim the end of religion and to weep for it4 ,religion continues to be as living a force and as lively as ever in spite of their proclamations1 and this has been true generation after generation practically since the beginning of ,christianity4 ,president ,schurman said3 #f ,every now and then we hear the requiem of religion chanted alike by the spirits who mock and by the pious souls who have 'no language but a cry4' ,i suppose we shall always have professional mourners4 ,but it is greatly to be desired that their services should not be prematurely given4 ,if there is anything in the world that is alive and active1 it is just this religious spirit1 for whose demise certain mourners go about the streets4 ,the body of religion changes1 the spirit and the life abide forever4 ,to the assertion that religion is defunct1 ,i reply by pointing to the intense interest which men to-day everywhere feel in religion4 ,it was recently stated by a ,massachusetts ,judge--,burke observed truly that we ,americans like to appeal to the law--that there is nothing in the world perennially interesting but religion4 ,the ground of this dictum is to be found in the constitution of humanity2 for the human soul which the things of sense fail to satisfy can attain its true home and its complete self-realization only in conscious communion with the ,spirit behind the veil4 ,footnote #a3 ,agnosticism1 ,scribners1 ,new ,york1 #ahie4 ,the recent death of ,mrs4 ,humphry ,ward recalled the experience with regard to her book ,robert ,elsmere4 ,in a certain narrow circle of intellectuals it was supposed that this novel represented a veritable death blow to a series of compromises which had permitted people familiar with modern progress and science1 and especially with the higher criticism1 to continue to practice their religion in peace in spite of the fact that belief had long since departed4 ,how amusing it is now and indeed how almost incomprehensible to learn that ,mrs4 ,humphry ,ward's husband1 a well-known ,english critic1 suggested shortly after its publication that her novel had #g shaken the very pillars of ,christianity4 ,it is surprising indeed how often the foundations of religion are supposed to have been completely undermined1 and yet the edifice itself continues to stand and to be the shelter for the vast majority of mankind from the buffetings of a world that without it would be almost shelterless for them and a place of trial too hard to bear4 ,men are incurably religious1 and just as no tribe has been found1 however low in the scale of savagery1 which has not formulated for itself some system of worship of a higher power and definite feelings of dependence on it1 so even those whose minds under the influence of certain phases of intellectual development lead them away from formal religion find deep in their hearts the belief and appreciation of their relations to a power that makes for good1 even though it may be difficult to understand the mystery of it4 ,long ago the ,scriptural expression was formulated that only the fool who thinketh not in his heart says there is no ,god4 ,due acknowledgment of the thought in practice1 however imperfect it may be1 is religion4 ,religion has been with us for all the period that we know anything about man1 for the very cave man buried his dead with manifest confidence in a hereafter1 and there seems no doubt that it will be with us until this stage of mundane affairs has passed4 ,it affects the body as well as the mind1 as indeed do all the great modes of thought1 and it deserves to be cultivated1 not only for its effect on the soul but also on the mind and heart and the bodily powers4 ,there is no doubt at all that it means very much1 and there is only the question of facing its significance for the whole man candidly and straightforwardly4 #h ,,chapter ,i ,,can ,,we ,,still ,,believe8 ,there is no doubt that man's quite instinctive attitude toward the mystery which surrounds him1 out of which he came and into which he goes1 has always so influenced his attitude of mind toward his body and its processes as to affect them deeply4 ,the medicine man with his appeal to the religious as well as the superstitious feelings of man always had a potent influence over the most primitive of mankind1 but culture has not obliterated this source of special reaction in men4 ,even now1 for the great majority of men it still remains true that no matter how vague their religious instinct may be1 it continues to affect1 to a notable extent1 their physiological and psychological functions4 ,an eclipse of the religious instinct is at the basis of the increase in suicide and also undoubtedly of insanity in our day4 ,the lack of an abiding faith in ,providence is the source of many dreads and worries that affect health4 ,every physician is sure to know of highly educated patients whose ills reflect their mental relation to the mystery of life and whose symptoms take on or lose significance1 according to their religious feelings4 ,the question that in our time1 however1 is coming insistently into a great many minds is1 ,can we1 as intelligent human beings1 reasonably in touch with man's recent progress in science1 be fair with ourselves and still continue #i to believe in the great religious truths that affected our ancestors so deeply8 ,while we may realize all the depth of the mystery in the midst of which we are1 can we1 with our little minds1 hope to fathom any of it8 ,this is the questioning feeling that will not down for a certain number of those who have had educational advantages4 ,must we not just confess our inability to1 know anything definite in reality with regard to it1 and feel that those who have thought that they held the key of the mystery were deluding themselves or allowing themselves to be caught by pseudo-knowledge1 an inheritance from unthinking generations1 instead of realities8 ,has not the modern advance in science made it very clear to us that all we can hope to say of man's origin and man's destiny is that we do not know just what all this mystery that surrounds us is about8 ,will not this very rational attitude of mind preclude at least the educated intelligent people of our generation from having their health affected in any way by their religion8 ,above all1 if religion is to influence health1 must there not be some regular practice of it1 and have not the scientists of the last generation made it quite clear that this is out of the question in any sincere and serious way for any one who knows enough of science and appreciates the present position of our knowledge of the facts of the relationship of man to the universe8 ,for a large and growing number of people1 as the result of the prevalence of this impression1 the practice of religion seems to be an interesting but entirely worn-out relic of an older generation when folk were more easily satisfied with regard to such things than we are in our enlightened scientific era4 ,religion is surely not something that our contemporaries1 with their broader #aj outlook on the meaning of life1 can be brought to conform to very readily4 ,the question ,can ,we ,still ,believe8 would seem then to have for answer in our time at best1 ,speculatively1 perhaps yes6 but practically1 no6 ,we may still feel the religious instinct1 but we can scarcely be expected to acknowledge religious obligations in any such strictness as would demand in our already overstrenuous daily life with its many duties the devotion of time to religious exercises4 ,we surely cannot be expected to assume any additional obligations or rebind ourselves to a divinity who seems to be getting farther away from us4 ,almost needless to say1 if all this be true1 then religion can have1 in our time1 only a very slight and quite negligible influence on health4 ,men may be incurably religious in the mass1 as yet1 but this instinct is manifestly passing1 for the educated at least1 and for sensible people is now without any significance for physical processes1 though it may at times even yet affect psychological states4 ,there is only one fair and practical way to reply to this question ,can ,we ,still ,believe8 especially for those who think that modern science has obscured the answer1 and that is to turn to the lives of the men who made our modern science and see how they answered it in their definite relations to religion4 ,the surprise is to find that while so many people1 and not a few of them professors in colleges and even universities1 are of the very often expressed opinion that science makes men irreligious or at least unreligious1 that is not true at all of our greatest scientists4 ,most of the men who have done the great work of modern science have been deeply religious1 and a great many of them have practiced their #aa religion very faithfully4 ,it is true that not a few of the lesser lights in science have been carried away by the impression that science was just about to explain everything1 and there was no longer any need of a creator or creation or of ,providence1 but that is only because of their own limitations4 ,francis ,bacon1 himself a distinguished thinker in science1 declared some three hundred years ago that his own feeling was that a little philosophy takes men away from ,god1 but a sufficiency of philosophy brings them back4 ,his opinion has often been reached by our deepest thinkers in the modern time1 and it is just as true for natural philosophy as it was for the metaphysical philosophy of the older time1 for ,bacon's aphorism had been more than once anticipated in the early days of ,christianity1 notably by ,st4 ,augustine1 and it would not be hard to find quotations from ,greek thinkers along the same line4 ,the ,scriptures said very emphatically1 ,only the fool who thinketh not in his heart says there is no ,god4 ,while young scientists then are so prone to feel that science and religion are in opposition1 and a certain number of scientific workers never seem to outgrow their youthfulness in this regard1 it must not be forgotten that the greatest scientists of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries have practically all been firm believers in religion4 ,lord ,kelvin1 at the beginning of the twentieth century1 at the moment when he was looked up to by all the world as the greatest of living physical scientists1 did not hesitate to say that science demonstrates the existence of a ,creator4 ,as president of the ,british ,association for the ,advancement of ,science he declared3 ,but strong1 overpowering proofs of intelligent and benevolent design lie all around us2 and if ever #ab perplexities1 whether metaphysical or scientific occur1 they turn us away with irresistible force1 showing to us1 through nature1 the influence of free will1 and teaching us that all living beings depend on one ever-acting ,creator and ,ruler4 ,once when particularly disgusted with the materialistic views of those who1 while denying the existence of the ,creator1 attributed the wonders of nature1 animate and inanimate1 to the potency of a fortuitous concourse of atoms1 ,lord ,kelvin wrote to ,liebig1 the great chemist1 asking him if a leaf or a flower could be formed or even made to grow by chemical forces1 and received the emphatic reply1 ,i would more readily believe that a book on chemistry or on botany could grow out of dead matter by chemical processes4 ,expressions similar to those of ,lord ,kelvin and ,liebig are commonplaces in the history of science4 ,sir ,humphry ,davy declared1 ,the true chemist sees ,god in all the manifold forms of the external world4 ,linnaeus1 to whom the modern world confesses that it owes so much in the organization of botanical science1 once exclaimed in what has well been called a spirit of rapture3 ,i have traced ,god's footprints in the works of ,his creation2 and in all of them1 even in the least1 and in those that border on nothingness1 what power1 what wisdom1 what ineffable perfection6 ,it would be very easy to make a long list of extremely great scientists who were firm believers4 ,clerk ,maxwell once said to a friend1 ,i have read up many queer religions2 there is nothing like the old one after all2 and ,i have looked into most philosophical systems1 and ,i have seen that none will work without a ,god4 ,pasteur declared in his address before the ,french ,academy1 when #ac admitted as a member1 ,blessed is the man who has an ideal of the virtues of the ,gospel and obeys it4 ,he had once said1 impatient at the pretensions of pseudo-scientists3 ,posterity will one day laugh at the sublime foolishness of the modern materialistic philosophy4 ,the more ,i study nature1 the more ,i stand amazed at the work of the ,creator4 ,i pray while ,i am engaged at my work in the laboratory4 ,kepler1 the great astronomer to whom we owe so many significant basic discoveries1 once said3 ,the day is near at hand when one shall know the truth in the book of nature as in the ,holy ,scriptures1 and when one shall rejoice in the harmony of both revelations4 ,sir ,isaac ,newton1 whose modesty was equaled only by the magnitude of his discoveries1 was so impressed with his own littleness in the contemplation of the wonderful works of ,god that he declared1 a short time before his death1 ,i seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore1 and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary1 while the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me4 ,dumas1 the great ,french chemist1 for many years the secretary of the ,french ,academy of ,sciences1 once suggested the great difference there is in the matter of religious belief between the original worker in science and those who know their science only at second-hand4 ,those who have acquired their knowledge of science easily have no idea of the difficulties which the original investigator had to encounter and how deep are the mysteries which he knows lie all around him4 ,the second-hand scientist becomes conceited over his #ad knowledge1 but the original investigator becomes humble4 ,dumas said3 ,people who only exploit the discoveries of others1 and who never make any themselves1 greatly exaggerate their importance1 because they have never run against the mysteries of science which have checked real savants4 ,hence their irreligion and their infatuation4 ,it is quite different with people who have made discoveries themselves4 ,they know by experience how limited their field is1 and they find themselves at every step arrested by the incomprehensible4 ,hence their religion and their modesty4 ,faith and respect for mysteries is easy for them4 ,the more progress they make in science1 the more they are confounded by the infinite4 ,professor ,p4 ,g4 ,tait1 professor of natural philosophy at ,edinburgh ,university for the last forty years of the nineteenth century1 and who was the co-author with ,lord ,kelvin of ,thomson's and ,tait's ,natural ,philosophy 7the well-known ,t,t7 summed up the question of the supposed conflict of religion and science rather strikingly and in a way that makes it easy to comprehend many modern misunderstandings4 ,he said3 ,the assumed incompatibility of ,religion and ,science has been so often confidently asserted in recent times that it has come to be taken for granted by writers of leading articles1 etc41 and it is1 of course1 perpetually thrust by them broadcast before their too trusting readers4 ,but the whole thing is a mistake1 and a mistake so grave that no true scientific man 7unless indeed he be literally a specialist--such as a pure mathematician1 or a mycologist or entomologist7 runs1 in ,britain at least1 the smallest risk of making it4 ,when we ask of any competent authority who are the #ae 'advanced'1 the best1 and the ablest scientific thinkers of the immediate past 7in ,britain71 we cannot but receive for answer such names as ,brewster1 ,faraday1 ,forbes1 ,graham1 ,rowan ,hamilton1 ,herschel1 and ,talbot4 ,this must be the case unless we use the word 'science' in a perverted sense4 ,which of these great men gave up the idea that ,nature evidences a ,designing ,mind8 ,lord ,rayleigh1 the physicist and mathematician1 professor of experimental physics at ,cambridge and then ,tyndall's successor as professor of natural philosophy at the ,royal ,institution1 who1 after having been secretary of the ,royal ,society for some ten years1 was elected to what has been called the highest official position in the scientific world--the presidency of the ,royal ,society--wrote in answer to a question3 ,footnote #b ,i am not able to write you at length1 but ,i may say that in my opinion true ,science and true ,religion neither are nor could be opposed4 ,a large number of 'leading scientists' are not irreligious or anti-,christian4 ,witness3 ,faraday1 ,maxwell1 ,stokes1 ,kelvin1 and a large number of others less distinguished4 ,footnote #b3 ,i owe this and a number of other quotations in this chapter to ,tabrum ,religious ,beliefs of ,scientists1 ,london1 #aiaa4 ,practically all the men whose names are connected with the evolution of electricity in the nineteenth century were thorough-going believers in revealed religion4 ,galvani1 ,volta1 ,coulomb1 ,ohm1 ,ampere1 ,oersted1 ,faraday1 ,sir ,humphry ,davy1 and many others are among the believers4 ,faraday once declared when the dark shadow of death was creeping over him1 ,i bow before ,him who is the ,lord of all1 and hope to be kept waiting patiently for ,his time and mode of releasing me1 #af according to ,his divine word and the great and precious promises whereby ,his people are made partakers of the divine nature4 ,earlier in life1 in the very maturity of the intellectual powers which made him immortal in science1 lest perhaps some one should suggest that he had lost his mental grasp toward the end1 he said3 ,when ,i consider the multitude of associate forces which are diffused through nature2 when ,i think of that calm and tranquil balancing of their energies which enables elements1 most powerful in themselves1 most destructive to the world's creatures and economy1 to dwell associated together and be made subservient to the wants of creation1 ,i rise from the contemplation more than ever impressed with the wisdom1 the beneficence1 and grandeur beyond our language to express1 of the ,great ,disposer of all6 ,it would be easy to multiply quotations such as this from the great original workers in modern electricity4 ,hans ,christian ,oersted1 for instance1 the great ,danish scientist1 to whom we owe the discovery of the magnetic effect of the electric current1 the demonstration of the intimate relationship between magnetism and electricity1 whose name all ,europe rang with in the early part of the nineteenth century1 was a man of really great genius and scientific penetration and yet of deeply fervent piety4 ,he did not hesitate to say that genuine knowledge of science necessarily produced a feeling of religious piety towards the ,creator4 ,lord ,kelvin once quoted some words of his in this regard on a memorable occasion1 which are particularly to our purpose here3 ,if my purpose here was merely to show that science necessarily engenders piety1 ,i should appeal to the great truth everywhere recognized1 that the essence of all #ag religion consists in love toward ,god4 ,the conclusion would then be easy1 that love of ,him from whom all truth proceeds must create the desire to acknowledge truth in all her paths2 but as we desire here to recognize science herself as a religious duty1 it will be requisite for us to penetrate deeper into its nature4 ,it is obvious1 therefore1 that the searching eye of man1 whether he regards his own inward being or the creation surrounding him1 is always led to the eternal source of all things4 ,in all inquiry1 the ultimate aim is to discover that which really exists and to contemplate it in its pure light apart from all that deceives the careless observer by only a seeming existence4 ,the philosopher will then comprehend what1 amidst ceaseless change1 is the ,constant and ,uncreated1 which is hidden behind unnumbered creations1 the bond of union which keeps things together in spite of their manifold divisions and separations4 ,he must soon acknowledge that the independent can only be the constant and the constant the independent1 and that true unity is inseparable from either of these4 ,and thus it is in the nature of thought that it finds no quiet resting place1 no pause1 except in the invariable1 eternal1 uncaused1 all causing1 all comprehensive ,omniscience4 ,but1 if this one-sided view does not satisfy him1 if he seeks to examine the world with the eye of experience1 he perceives that all those things of whose reality the multitude feels most assured never have an enduring existence1 but are always on the road between birth and death4 ,if he now properly comprehends the whole array of nature1 he perceives that it is not merely an idea of an abstract notion1 as it is called2 but that reason and the power to which everything is indebted for its essential nature are only the revelation of a self-sustained ,being4 ,how can #ah he1 when he sees this1 be otherwise animated than by the deepest feeling of humility1 of devotion and of love8 ,if any one has learned a different lesson from his observation of nature1 it could only be because he lost his way amidst the dispersion and variety of creation and had not looked upwards to the eternal unity of truth4 ,the great contemporary and colleague of ,oersted in the demonstration of the intimate relations between magnetism and electricity who was quite as outspoken as the ,danish scientist in his recognition of the relations of science and religion1 was the ,frenchman ,ampere1 whose name was chosen as a term for one of the units of electrical science1 because of his great original work in extending our knowledge of electricity4 ,this choice of his name was made by an international congress of scientists who felt that he deserved this very great honor4 ,ozanam1 to whose thoroughly practical ,christianity while he was professor of foreign literatures at the ,university of ,paris we owe the foundation of the ,conferences of ,st4 ,vincent de ,paul1 which so long anticipated the settlement work of the modern time and have done so much for the poor in large cities ever since1 who was very close to ,ampere and indeed lived with him for a while1 said that1 no matter where conversations with him began1 they always led up to ,god4 ,the great ,french scientist and philosopher used to take his broad forehead between his hands after he had been discussing some specially deep question of science or philosophy and say3 ,how great is ,god1 ,ozanam2 ,how great is ,god and how little is our knowledge4 ,of course this has been the feeling of most profound thinkers at all times4 ,st4 ,augustine's famous vision of the angel standing by the sea emptying it out with a teaspoon1 which has been rendered so living #ai for most of us by ,botticelli's great picture1 is but an earlier example of the same thing4 ,one of ,ampere's greatest contemporaries1 ,laplace1 reechoed the same sentiment1 perhaps in less striking terms1 when he declared that ,what we know is but little2 while what we do not know is infinite4 ,writing of ,ampere after his death ,ozanam1 who knew him best1 brought out this extremely interesting union of intellectual qualities1 his science1 his faith1 his charity to the poor which was proverbial1 and the charming geniality of his character1 as well as his manifold human interests1 in a passage that serves very well to sum up the meaning of the great ,frenchman's life4 ,in addition to his scientific achievements this brilliant genius has other claims upon our admiration and affection4444 ,it was religion which guided the labors of his mind and illuminated his contemplations2 he judged all things1 science itself1 by the exalted standard of religion4444 ,this venerable head which was crowned by achievements and honors1 bowed without reserve before the mysteries of faith1 down even below the line which the ,church has marked for us4 ,he prayed before the same altars before which ,descartes and ,pascal had knelt2 beside the poor widow and the small child who may have been less humble in mind than he was4 ,nobody observed the regulations of the ,church more conscientiously1 regulations which are so hard on nature and yet so sweet in the habit4 ,above all things1 however1 it is beautiful to see what sublime things ,christianity wrought in his great soul2 this admirable simplicity1 the unassumingness of a mind that recognized everything except its own genius2 this high rectitude in matters of science1 now so rare1 seeking nothing but the truth and never #bj rewards and distinction2 the pleasant and ungrudging amiability2 and lastly1 the kindness with which he met every one1 especially young people4 ,i can say that those who know only the intelligence of the man1 know only the less perfect part4 ,if he thought much1 he loved more4 ,ohm1 after whom another of the units of electricity is named1 was another of the scientists who realized very clearly the existence of ,providence and in one very disappointing circumstance in life1 when he found that some of his work at which he had spent much time was completely anticipated by a ,norwegian investigator1 he said very simply1 ,man proposes but ,god disposes2 and he chronicled the fact that without the bait of this discovery which he vaguely foresaw at the beginning he would not have taken up the work1 and yet during the time when he was at it ,a number of things of which ,i had no hint at all at the beginning of my researches have come to take the place of my original purpose and compensate for it4 ,when he undertook his next work he foresaw that he might not be able to finish it2 he had hoped against hope that he would1 and in the preface to the first volume he declared that he would devote himself to it at every possible opportunity and that he hoped and prayed that ,god would spare him to complete it4 ,this simplicity of confidence in the ,almighty is indeed a striking characteristic of the man of whose discovery of the law of electricity ,lord ,kelvin declared that it was such an extremely simple expression of a great truth that its significance is probably not confined to that department of physical phenomena1 but it is a law of nature in some much broader way4 ,professor ,george ,chrystal of ,edinburgh in his article on electricity in the ,encyclopaedia ,britannica 7,,ix ,edition7 says that #ba ,ohm's law must now be allowed to rank with the law of gravitation and the elementary laws of statical electricity as a law of nature in the strictest sense4 ,volta1 whom the international congress of electricity so deservedly honored by giving his name to one of the units of electricity1 is the genius who first constructed an instrument which would give a continuous flow of electricity4 ,the ,voltaic pile is a very great invention4 ,volta was much more1 however1 than merely an ingenious inventor4 ,he was a great scientist who made discoveries not only in electricity but in various other branches of physical science4 ,he was one of the eight foreign members of the ,french ,institute1 ,knight ,commander of the ,legion of ,honor1 one of the first members of the ,italian ,academy and the gold medalist of the ,french ,academy4 ,there was nothing he touched in his work that he did not illuminate4 ,his was typically the mind of the genius1 ever reaching out beyond the boundaries of the known1--an abundant source of leading and light for others4 ,far from being a doubter in matters religious1 his scientific greatness seemed only to make him readier to submit to what are sometimes spoken of as the shackles of faith1 though to him belief appealed as a completion of knowledge of things beyond the domain of sense or the ordinary powers of intellectual acquisition4 ,in ,volta's time as in our own some of the less important workers in science had their faith disturbed by their knowledge of science and attributed that result to science rather than to the limitations of their own minds4 ,one of them declared that though ,volta continued to practice his religion1 this was more because he did not want to offend friends and did not care to scandalize his #bb neighbors and especially the poor folk around him in his country home1 whom he did not want to be led by his example into giving up what he knew to be the most fruitful source of consolation in the trials of life1 rather than because of sincere conviction4 ,volta1 having heard this report1 deliberately wrote out his confession of faith1 so that all the world of his own and the after time might know it4 ,when he wrote it he was just approaching his sixtieth year and was in the full maturity of his powers4 ,he lived for twelve years afterwards1 looked up to as one of the great thinkers of ,europe and as one of the most important men of ,italy in his time4 ,if some of my faults and negligences may have by chance given occasion to some one to suspect me of infidelity1 ,i am ready1 as some reparation for this and for any other good purpose1 to declare to such a one and to every other person and on every occasion and under all circumstances that ,i have always held1 and hold now1 the ,holy ,catholic ,religion as the only true and infallible one1 thanking without end the good ,god for having gifted me with such a faith1 in which ,i firmly propose to live and die1 in the lively hope of attaining eternal life4 ,i recognize my faith as a gift of ,god1 a supernatural faith4 ,i have not1 on this account1 however1 neglected to use all human means that could confirm me more and more in it and that might drive away any doubt which could arise to tempt me in matters of faith4 ,i have studied my faith with attention as to its foundations1 reading for this purpose books of apologetics as well as those written with a contrary purpose1 and trying to appreciate the arguments pro and contra4 ,i have tried to realize from what sources spring the strongest arguments which render faith most credible to natural reason and such as cannot fail to make #bc every well-balanced mind which has not been perverted by vice or passion embrace it and love it4 ,may this protest of mine1 which ,i have deliberately drawn up and which ,i leave to posterity1 subscribed with my own hand and which shows to all and every one that ,i do not blush at the ,gospel--may it1 as ,i have said1 produce some good fruit4 ,signed at ,milan1 ,january #f1 #ahae1 ,alessandro ,volta4 ,silvio ,pellico1 whose volume1 ,my ,ten ,years' ,imprisonment1 is one of the precious little books of literature that seem destined to enduring interest1 had doubted in the midst of his trials and hardships the presence of ,providence in the world and the existence of a hereafter4 ,in the midst of his doubts he turned to ,volta4 ,in thy old age1 ,o ,volta6 said ,pellico1 the hand of ,providence placed in thy pathway a young man gone astray4 ',oh6 thou1' said ,i to the ancient seer1 'who hast plunged deeper than others into the secrets of the ,creator1 teach me the road that will lead me to the light4' ,and the old man made answer3 ',i too have doubted1 but ,i have sought4 ,the great scandal of my youth was to behold the teachers of those days lay hold of science to combat religion4 ,for me to-day ,i see only ,god everywhere4' ,in spite of traditions to the contrary great physicians in their relation to faith are like the great discoverers in electricity4 ,as a rule the greater they are as original workers in the medical sciences the more emphatic their expressions of their belief in religion and its efficacy in the relief of human ills4 ,the opinions of a few of our greatest physicians in the modern era of medicine are quoted here as examples of their attitude of mind4 ,sir ,richard ,owen1 probably the greatest anatomist of #bd the nineteenth century1 was a convinced ,christian and saw nothing in scientific truth inimical to the ,christian faith4 ,in an address before the ,young ,men's ,christian ,association1 he asked his fellow ,christians3 ,has aught that is essentially ,christian suffered--have its truths ceased to spread and operate in mankind--since physical doctrines1 supposed or 'declared contrary to ,holy ,writ'1 have been established8 ,allay1 then1 your fears1 and trust in the ,author of all truth1 who has decreed that it shall never perish2 who has given a power to man to acquire that most precious of his possessions with an intellectual nature that will ultimately rest upon due demonstrative evidence4 ,sir ,james ,paget1 sometime president of the ,royal ,college of ,surgeons of ,england and vice-chancellor of ,london ,university1 looked upon as one of the most distinguished of medical scientists in his time1 after whom a special disease described by him has been named1 in answer to the question as to the attitude of scientists toward religion said3 ,you will find among scientific men very few who attack either theology or religion4 ,the attacks imputed to them are made1 for the most part1 by those who1 with a very scanty knowledge of science1 use1 not its facts1 but its most distant inferences1 as they do whatever else they can get from any source1 for the overthrow of religious beliefs4 ,sir ,samuel ,wilks1 another of the presidents of the ,royal ,college of ,physicians and distinguished in many other ways among the physicians of ,great ,britain1 in his ,harveian ,oration expressed himself very definitely in this matter of the relations of science and religion1 and his quotation from our own ,oliver ,wendell ,holmes adds to the interest of what he has to say4 #be ,hear what a learned professor of anatomy1 ,wendell ,holmes1 can say3 ',science represents the thought of ,god discovered by man2 by learning the natural laws he attaches effects to their first cause1 the will of the ,creator'1 or in the poetic language of ,goethe3 ',nature is the living garment of ,god4' ,science conducts us through infinite paths2 it is a fruitful pursuit for the most poetic imagination4 ,we take the world as we find it and endeavor to unravel its mysteries2 but the ,alpha and ,omega we know not4 ,enough for us to look at what is lying around us2 it is a part we see and not the whole1 but we can say with the poet1 ',we doubt not1 through the ages one increasing purpose runs4' ,professor ,sims ,woodhead1 well known as one of the distinguished contributors to pathology in the nineteenth century and who was1 before being professor of pathology at ,cambridge the director of the ,laboratories of the ,conjoint ,board of the ,royal ,college of ,physicians 7,london7 and ,surgeons 7,england7 may very well be taken as a representative of the medical scientists of the last generation of the nineteenth century4 ,it has been said that where there are three physicians there are two atheists1 and perhaps this may be true among the smaller fry of the profession1 but it certainly is not among the most distinguished members of it4 ,such men as ,pasteur1 ,lord ,lister1 ,robert ,graves1 ,corrigan1 ,laennec1 ,claude ,bernard1 ,johannes ,mueller1 are the outspoken contradiction of it4 ,pathology and anatomy1 in both of which subjects ,professor ,woodhead was a teacher1 are often said to be rather serious in their inroads on the faith of the men who pursue them closely4 ,professor ,woodhead is on record categorically with regard to this subject of #bf the relations of the ,bible and religion1 and science and religion1 and his words are well worth while quoting here4 ,as regards the statement that 'recent scientific research has shown the ,bible and ,religion to be untrue'1 nothing is further from the real fact2 the more the ,bible is tested the more it is found to be made up of historical documents4 ,moreover1 it is recognized that the ,bible1 as a record of truths1 never falls foul of ,science in its search after truth1 and scientific men are too true to themselves to take the stand that they will not accept truth of any kind4 ,i agree with you that certain theories put forward in the name of ,science may be opposed to certain theological dogmas2 but men are certainly coming to see that between the facts of ,science and the essential teachings of the ,christian religion there is never any real opposition2 and by the ',christian ,religion' ,i mean the religion of ,christ1 not what some people have wished to read into it2 and by 'science' ,i mean a search for truth and knowledge1 and by 'men of science' ,i mean men engaged in that search4 ,professor ,john ,w4 ,taylor1 one of the distinguished physicians of ,great ,britain and president of the ,british ,gynecological ,society1 summed up the answer to the question ,can ,we ,still ,believe8 in words that show how devout a great medical scientist can be3 ,what can we 'hold by' as ,christians8 ,we can hold by the ,faith of the early ,apostles as enunciated in the ,apostles' and the ,nicene ,creeds1 and plainly foreshadowed in #a ,cor4 xv4 ,this was written within thirty years of our ,lord's crucifixion and must have been 'received' by ,st4 ,paul immediately on his conversion4 ,any one who will turn to that chapter of ,first ,corinthians will #bg find that it contains all the essentials of ,christian faith1 yet here is a great modern physician finding in it the expression of his own mental attitude toward religion in our time4 ,biologists1 in spite of popular impressions to the contrary1 have paralleled physicians in this regard4 ,to cite but one or two3 ,professor ,george ,romanes1 who was considered not alone one of the leaders of scientific thought in ,england1 but one of the foremost naturalists of modern times1 after expressions as a younger man that showed his deep and even devout belief in religion1 wrote somewhat later a defense of atheism on scientific grounds4 ,some years afterwards1 in the maturity of his powers1 he prepared a thorough-going recantation of this in the shape of a work designed to show the fallacy of his former atheistic views1 in which he said3 ,it is a general1 if not a universal rule that those who reject ,christianity with contempt are those who care not for religion of any kind4 ',depart from me' has always been the sentiment of such4 ,on the other hand1 those in whom the religious sentiment is intact1 but who have rejected ,christianity on intellectual grounds1 still almost deify ,christ4 ,these facts are remarkable4 ,unbelief1 ,professor ,romanes concluded1 is usually due to indolence1 often to prejudice1 and never a thing to be proud of4 ,in every department of science one finds the representatives of the various branches of scientific study in harmony on this subject of religion and science4 ,professor ,george ,boulger1 whose work has been mainly done in botany and who was a fellow of a number of the scientific societies of ,england and vice-president of the ,selborne #bh ,society1 has some very direct expressions in the matter that add to the significance of what has been said by others4 ,in philosophy1 in physics1 and in astronomy ,i am content to place myself on the side of ,bacon1 of ,newton1 of ,napoleon4 ,i believe1 with ,bacon1 that 'a little ,philosophy inclineth ,man's ,minde to ,atheisme2 but depth in ,philosophy bringeth ,men's ,mindes about to ,religion4' ,with ,newton ,i am content to 'seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore1 and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary1 whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me4' ,with ,napoleon--not a man of science but a man of the world1 a man of action--,i would say to our neo-,epicureans as he did to his sceptical officers1 pointing to the stars1 ',gentlemen1 you may talk all night1 but who made all these8' ,he recognized how many difficulties there might be for the scientist1 but felt1 as ,cardinal ,newman once said1 that hundreds of difficulties may not make a single doubt4 ,professor ,boulger has dealt with some of these cruder difficulties with trenchant directness4 ,i am perfectly aware of the temptation of the physiological laboratory1 when one is face to face with the facts of the localisation of brain-functions and the influence of purely physical conditions upon mentality1 until one is almost led to ,buchner's gross misstatement that 'the brain secretes thought as the liver secretes bile'2 but here1 as ever1 it is at the very base of the problem that the unsolved mystery shows itself insoluble4 ,force1 ,matter1 ,life1 ,thought1 ,will1--what are they1 whence come they8 ,science deals with their phenomena1 their manifestations4 ,with ,john ,ray ,i would term the study of nature a pious duty1 one suited to a ,sabbath day and not #bi improbably one of the main occupations of the endless ,sabbaths hereafter4444 ,but true science will never presume to say that it can deal with anything beyond these phenomena4 ,as ,i am as convinced that the ,christian ,faith is a ,divine revelation as ,i am that ',nature' is the creation of the ,divine ,first ,cause1 it is1 of course1 to me unthinkable that there could be any conflict between them4 ,not only the scientists themselves but the philosophic students of the whole range of modern thought who took the information imparted by the specialists and coordinated it for the purpose of finding the philosophic conclusions to be drawn from it all as to man's life and destiny and the meaning of it all have recognized the place of religion in ,life and its significance for humanity4 ,mr4 ,frederic ,harrison1 the well-known ,english apostle of ,comte1 whose ,positivism might possibly have been expected to lead him away from such ideas1 did not hesitate in the midst of that wave of skepticism which spread over ,europe shortly after the silly seventies when so many even of the well-informed thought that natural selection was going to explain everything for us and solve all the mysteries1 to utter some very strong words on the subject that well deserve to be recalled4 ,in his book1 ,the ,creed of a ,layman1 he said1 for instance3 ,i believe that before all things1 needful beyond all else1 is true religion4 ,this only can give wisdom1 happiness and goodness to men and a nobler life to mankind4 ,nothing but this can sustain1 guide and satisfy all lives1 control all characters and unite all men4 ,true religion must rule in every heart1 brain and will1 over every people of the whole earth2 inspire every thought1 hallow every emotion and be the guide of every act4 #cj ,and by what he termed the true religion ,mr4 ,harrison did not mean merely some vague deism or some shadowy belief in a vaguer power that made for righteousness1 but a very definite personal relationship to a personal ,god who was not only to be looked up to and reverenced but who was to be loved4 ,the paramount importance to ,man of ,religion--at once dominant over brain and heart--a living reality and working power--the necessity for this has not only never left me at any time but year by year has grown deeper as a conviction and more familiar as a rule of life4 ,but as the indispensable need of true religion grew stronger in my mind1 ,i more and more came to feel that religion would end in vague sentimentality unless it has an object of devotion distinctly grasped by the intellect and able to kindle ardent emotions4 ,the nature--if not the name--of the ,supreme ,being is in truth decisive4 ,unless the ,supreme ,power be felt to be in sympathy with the believer1 be akin to the believer1 be in active touch with his life and heart1 such a religion is merely a dogma2 it cannot be a guide of life in the spring of action--the object of love4 ,agnosticism1 so fashionable in educational circles at the end of the nineteenth century1 has practically disappeared1 or at least has suffered such an eclipse that its adherents are comparatively few4 ,there was a time in the generation that is still alive when a great many educators who felt that they were the leaders of thought in our time were quite sure that agnosticism would be the only mode of intellectual reaction which the educated man could possibly think of allowing to take place in him by the time the year of grace #aibj had come4 ,instead agnosticism1 like so many other movements of similar #ca kind founded on human thinking1 in accord with the fashion of the moment1 has dwindled into insignificance4 ,fortunately there were some educators who even twenty-five years ago recognized the real portent of it and stated their opinions so emphatically as to keep the educational world of their time from being entirely run away with4 ,president ,schurman of ,cornell said3 ,agnosticism is the apotheosis of skepticism4 ,it is skepticism as a creed1 as a system1 as an ultimate resting-place4 ,those who proclaim it strangely misread the processes and the conditions of our spiritual life4 ,they make the aimless gropings of the youthful intellect an ideal for the thinking of mature men4 ,only1 instead of the awful earnestness of the inquiring youth1 they often affect an indifference to the great problems which oppress him4 ,as though we could be indifferent to the highest interests of the human spirit6 ,so long as life lasts1 so long must we strive to grasp the ultimate truth of things4 ,to shut our eyes to problems is an ostrich policy4 ,man is called by an inner voice to strive1 and strive1 and strive1 and not to yield4 ,agnosticism would eradicate this noble endeavor4 ,its only justification1 so far as ,i can see1 is that men never attain the absolute truth1 but only make successive approximations to it4 ,such men seem to forget the great lesson that the differential calculus has taught us4 ,it represents one of the greatest developments of modern mathematics4 ,it does not solve problems by absolute solutions but by such approximations as make the answer which cannot be reached very clear4 ,it has been of immense value in adding to the knowledge of mankind and in giving science particularly a command over principles that would otherwise seem impossible4 ,religion requires #cb faith to complete it4 ,knowledge can never more than approximate conclusions with regard to many religious questions4 ,such approximations1 however1 like the answers in differential calculus1 represent real advances on the road to knowledge that are of great value in directing men toward what is best in life4 ,mr4 ,frederic ,harrison has answered this question ,can ,we ,still ,believe8 by insisting that belief in the hereafter is the most precious heritage that man has1 to be fostered above all else4 ,he said3 ,the great truth of a life beyond the grave is indeed one of the best possessions of ,man1 the fondest of all noble1 living and working doctrines on earth4 ,when ,paul first preached it in that sublime song of triumph over death1 which has so often thrilled us to the marrow as we stood round the coffined dead1 he gave the human race a new and imperishable hope to last while the planet endures4444 ,let us cherish and hold fast this glad tiding of good things4 ,any one who faces the question of religion seriously realizes that not only it is not a thing of the past but that the rationalistic tendencies of the later nineteenth century have had their usual inevitable reaction emphasized by the ,great ,war1 so that men are readier to be swayed by religious influences than ever before4 ,the more one studies the problems of health of mind and of body connected with religion1 and the strong factor that it is for the making of character1 the shaping of destiny and the cultivation of happiness1 the more one realizes the truth of ,napoleon's expression that if religion were to disappear we should have to reinvent it1 because of the immense benefit that it represents for mankind4 #cc ,,chapter ,,ii ,,prayer ,in spite of a very prevalent impression in the matter1 the all-important element of religion is not attendance at church or the public exercise of religious functions1 or even the joining in religious celebrations1 for all these may be accomplished by routine without an element of real devotion to the ,creator in them4 ,they may even be gone through with hypocritically while all the time one is thinking of merely worldly things1 or even of the effect that one is producing on others by the show of devotion1 though with such slight advertence as to make the devotions of extremely little value or even a sort of insult to the ,almighty if the negligent attitude of mind is assumed deliberately4 ,bodily participation in worship is a necessary adjunct of the expression of religious feeling1 but it is of course of just so much less importance than the mental worship of the ,creator as the body is less important than the mind4 ,mental adoration of the ,deity is accomplished through prayer1 which is the all-important personal element of religion4 ,prayer in the words of the old ,christian teachers is ,a raising up of the mind to ,god asking for help1 begging for forgiveness for past errors and thanking ,him for all that ,he has done for us4 ,real prayer is no mere formula of words1 and some very fervent prayers are made without being formulated into words at all4 ,i remember #cd once suggesting in a medical meeting that prayer was an extremely valuable adjunct to the treatment for certain milder forms of disturbed mentality and for the dreads and obsessions that haunt men and women1 that is1 in general for that very important class of diseases which in our day are grouped under the term psychoneuroses4 ,a physician friend1 in discussing the suggestion1 said that no words that he knew would dispel or be of the slightest help in any of these conditions as they came under his observation4 ,prayer is not1 however1 a formula of words1 but an act of the mind and the heart and the will1 for to be genuine1 it should contain acknowledgment1 affection and resolve4 ,my colleague's failure to appreciate the true meaning of prayer and his apparent persuasion that the words were the all-important element in prayer are not surprising1 for rather frequently it happens that the personal experience of the professional classes as to prayer is not calculated to be really enlightening4 ,professor ,james confesses that unfortunately comparatively few educated people have the real power of prayer2 those who have1 however1 possess a magnificent source of renewed energy that can be of the greatest possible service to them4 ,he says3 ,relatively few medical men and scientific men1 ,i fancy1 can pray4 ,few can carry on any living commerce with ',god4' ,yet many of us are well aware of how much freer and abler our lives would be1 were such important forms of energizing not sealed up by the critical atmosphere in which we have been reared4 ,there are in every one potential forms of activity that actually are shunted out from use4 ,part of the imperfect vitality under which we labor can thus be easily explained4 ,one part of our mind dams up--even damns up6--the other parts4 #ce ,manifestly the well-known professor of psychology envied those who lived lives of prayer and felt that he was missing something in life from not possessing the developed faculty to enjoy their privileges4 ,like so many other of the good things of life1 prayer1 to be really efficient for all the good it can produce1 must be a habit and must be practiced as a rule from very early years4 ,otherwise it is hard to make it such a factor in living as is significant for the best1 and professional men commonly have not given enough time to the practice in their earlier years to make it of potency when it may be needed4 ,it is of course not long vocal prayers--though many people find not only consolation1 but strength for their work and the added capacity to bear their trials in these--but the frequent raising up of the heart and mind to the ,power above us1 striving to put our intentions in line with ,his in the hope to do our work so that it will not be unworthy of the best aspirations that ,he has put in our hearts1 that counts4 ,many of the saints have suggested that all our work should be a prayer begun with the right intention1 pursued1 no matter how difficult it may be1 with the feeling that this is what we ought to do here and now1 and finished with the offering of it to the ,creator who has lent us the energy to accomplish it4 ,ora et ,labora1 pray and work1 was the motto which ,benedict1 who revolutionized the social conditions of ,europe by bringing back the dignity of labor and lifting men's minds out of the rut of the cult of their bodies1 into which they had fallen at the close of the ,roman ,empire1 gave to the members of his order4 ,it was really not two things but one that he meant4 ,what his sons accomplished as the result of his great motto we are only just beginning to recognize4 ,they saved the old #cf classics for us1 kept the torch of education burning when barbarism might have quenched it1 passed it on to the new generation1 yet at the same time saved and developed agriculture so that1 as ,president ,goodell of the ,massachusetts ,agricultural ,college said1 they made some of the best agricultural schools1 in the best sense of that term1 that have ever been made1 and organized health and happiness for the country people as they have never been made possible before or since1 except in the very modern time4 ,in the chapter on longevity there are some statistics which might very well and easily have been increased in numbers with regard to the effect of ,st4 ,benedict's foundation on the length of life that men have lived4 ,even now1 in the midst of all our improvement in sanitation which has so lowered the death rate among mankind1 we find that nearly fifteen hundred years after ,benedict's work was first begun1 his direction to make life a compend of work and prayer is having its effect in prolonging existence for the followers of his rule to-day4 ,he himself would probably have said that it was the combination of these two that proved so effective in this important matter of lengthening life4 ,we find that people outside the monasteries work enough1 however1 but fail to pray1 so it would seem that prayer is a particularly important factor for monastic longevity1 at least4 ,length of life comes1 however1 from a healthy mind in a healthy body1 and nothing so conduces to the possession of a healthy mind as the habit of prayer1 since it enables man to throw off to some extent at least--and the deeper the prayer habit the more it will do it--the solicitudes and anxieties with regard to the past and the present and the future which disturb so many people4 ,as ,ignatius ,loyola1 the #cg wise founder of the ,jesuits1 said3 ,pray as if everything depended on ,god2 work as if everything depended on you2 but leave everything to the ,almighty1 for you might as well since ,his ,will will surely be accomplished anyhow4 ,it would be very easy to think that such habits of prayer in the midst of work would only be possible if the work that one was engaged at was not very interesting or was not taken very seriously and was being accomplished in more or less of a routine4 ,in particular many scientific students1 and especially those who are interested in psychology1 would probably feel quite sure that very great results could not be accomplished in any important work if distractions of this kind were allowed and above all encouraged4 ,it is interesting then to take some of the examples of men who are known to have formed and maintained such habits and yet accomplished very great work for mankind4 ,the list might be made a very long one2 we shall mention only a few of the most distinguished4 ,almost in our own time ,pasteur said1 as we have already quoted3 ,the more ,i study nature the more ,i stand amazed at the work of the ,creator4 ,i pray while ,i am engaged at work in the laboratory4 ,a distinguished contemporary of his in ,france in his earlier years was ,leverrier4 ,there is no doubt at all about his power of concentration2 he is the scientist who discovered the planet ,neptune by mathematics alone without the aid of a telescope4 ,he constantly kept a crucifix in his observatory and used to turn his eyes to it frequently for recollection and then go on with his calculations4 ,there is a well-known picture of ,vesalius1 who so well deserves the title of ,father of ,modern ,anatomy1 at work in his #ch anatomical rooms with a crucifix before him4 ,the composition is founded on the tradition that the great anatomist was a devout man who prayed as he worked4 ,he made a pilgrimage to the ,holy ,land in his older years in expiation for a fault committed4 ,in spite of traditions to the contrary1 a great many of our scientists of the last two centuries whose work has meant most for modern medicine have been men to whom prayer meant very much4 ,there are traditions of ,morgagni1 the distinguished father of modern pathology1 as ,virchow hailed him1 which show that never a day passed without his raising his heart in prayer4 ,volta and ,galvani1 whose names have become so familiar in modern electricity1 were both of them well known for their devotion to the practice of daily religious duties4 ,french scientists were not less devout4 ,laennec1 a ,breton by birth1 lost none of the devoutness of his early years so characteristic of the ,bretons even when he was in the midst of the great work which enabled him to write the greatest medical book in modern times4 ,ozanam has told us that when he himself felt thoroughly discouraged and ready to think religion something that any one who wanted to keep up with modern thought would have to give up1 he wandered into a church1 hoping that prayer might help him to dispel his doubts and difficulties and found there praying before the altar devoutly his great professor of science1 ,ampere4 ,deep thinkers1 whether of scientific temper of mind or not1 have recognized the value of prayer4 ,vesalius' great contemporary1 ,michelangelo1 who is perhaps the greatest intellectual and artistic genius that the world has ever known--sculptor1 architect1 painter1 poet1 and unsurpassed in all these modes of human expression #ci at their highest--was another for whom his crucifix meant much and who frequently turned to it4 ,one of his greatest sonnets is dedicated to the ,crucified ,one4 ,of ,leonardo da ,vinci's private life we we know less1 but on his death bed he left a sum of money to be used to provide candles to burn before the altar of the little village church at which he had prayed as a boy1 so that evidently something of that old fervor of spirit was his at the end4 ,leonardo da ,vinci's mind was one of the most acute in the whole history of mankind4 ,he was a great painter1 sculptor1 architect1 and also a great engineer1 a great scientific discoverer1 an inventor of all sorts of useful appliances and a veritable marvel of comprehensive appreciation of the significance of even the most obscure things4 ,he is a founder in half a dozen sciences1 paleontology1 biology1 anatomy1 physics and mechanics1 and nothing makes one feel the smallness of the ordinary man like reading a sketch of ,leonardo's achievements4 ,of course the clergymen scientists have been men of prayer1 but few people realize how many of them have made distinguished contributions to the domain of science4 ,poggendorf's ,biographical ,lexicon contains the names of nearly a thousand clergymen who have made such contributions to science as deserve that their fame should be thus enshrined among the scientists of history4 ,one of the greatest astronomers of the nineteenth century was ,father ,secchi1 a ,jesuit1 some of whose work was done for a time in ,america4 ,among the most distinguished names in modern science are ,abbe ,breuil and ,father ,obermaier1 who have taught the world so much about the cave man4 ,both of them are well known for their faithful performance of their religious duties in the midst of their scientific work4 #dj ,raising up the heart and mind in the midst of work1 instead of increasing distractions1 rather helps to control them4 ,distractions will come and may prove seriously wasteful of time1 but are caught in the habit of lifting up the mind occasionally1 and then the original work is taken up with renewed energy4 ,above all1 such a habit of prayer keeps people from getting into a state of irritable haste about their work in which they consume a lot of energy without getting much done and wear out their nervous systems by the feeling of nervousness that comes over them4 ,to do anything under a sense of pressure is nearly always to disturb the best efforts of the mind and skimp the work4 ,doing things in this way leads to that bane of modern existence1 nervous breakdown1 which has become ever so much commoner since men forgot that it is not labor for ourselves that counts so much as labor for others1 and that an over-anxiety to get things done for selfish reasons burns up nervous energy faster than anything else4 ,fussy1 irritable effort to work gets on the nerves sooner than any amount of calm effort would4 ,prayer as ,i have described would be the cure for it4 ,st4 ,theresa's well-known prayer is the antidote4 ,footnote #c ,footnote #c3 ,let nothing disturb thee1 ,let nothing affright thee1 ,all things are passing1 ,god never changeth4 ,who ,god possesseth ,in nothing is wanting4 ,alone ,god sufficeth4 7,longfellow translation47 ,when the life of the late ,cardinal ,vaughan of ,london appeared1 one of the most surprising things in it was the story of the distinguished ,english ,cardinal's habit of prayer4 ,almost needless to say he was an extremely busy man4 ,important problems in the administration #da of his immense archdiocese and in the relationship of the ,english ,catholics to their fellow citizens came before him every day4 ,he had to carry the heavy burden of responsibility and make his decisions promptly and thoroughly1 for a great many details necessarily devolved on him4 ,somehow he found time for hours of prayer during the day1 and those who knew him best felt sure he would have declared that so far from distracting him in his work or taking time from it in any real sense of the word1 it would have been quite impossible for him to accomplish all he did without this habit of prayer4 ,it was this which enabled him to keep a placid mind and make his decisions easily and firmly in the midst of his work4 ,he himself would undoubtedly have added that he felt he actually derived help from the ,infinite through prayer1 which enabled him to do his work ever so much better than would have been possible by his own unaided effort4 ,there have been many others1 and not a few of them who were not churchmen1 who have felt this same way even in our strenuous times4 ,a whole series of the generals in command of important departments of the ,french army were men who never let a day pass without prayer and who often raised their hearts and minds up to the ,power above them for help in their work and also for resignation that the will of the ,most ,high might be accomplished4 ,general ,pau1 for instance1 was one of these4 ,when1 during the war1 he was presented with flowers by the children of villages through which he passed1 he would say1 ,these must be for the altar1 and then he would ask the children to pray for the success of the ,french army and would insist that for victory we must pray very much4 ,general de ,castelnau was another of these men who #db found a resource and a real help in prayer4 ,he felt that the prayers of others helped him4 ,that is the index of real recognition of the value of prayer4 ,i beg you to implore ,him especially to give me light and courage2 there is no position where one is more completely in ,his hands than that which ,i hold4 ,he wrote to ,monsignor ,ricard1 ,archbishop of ,auch1 ,more than ever ,i find by experience the all-importance in war1 as elsewhere1 of the 'imponderables' and these 'imponderables' are manifestly in ,his hands ,who knows all and guides all4 ,we might go on with such examples4 ,for instance1 ,marshal ,petain1 who at the end of the war was in command of the ,french troops1 was another of these strong men of prayer4 ,earlier in the ,great ,war he had been in command at ,verdun1 transferred there just as it seemed almost impossible to believe that the ,germans could be kept from taking the place4 ,the words of his first order issued the day of his arrival--,they shall not pass--show the character of the man4 ,he was almost reckless in his bravery when it was necessary to impress his troops with the need to go on1 no matter what it cost4 ,alone and on foot he led his troops under a rain of ,german shells at ,saint ,bon2 after that he could ask anything of his men4 ,general ,gouraud1 whose masterly defense of the ,allied line when the ,germans made their great final unsuccessful attack stamps him as one of the greatest military leaders of the day1 had been wounded a number of times before this1 but refused to give up1 and when1 early in the war1 one of his arms had to be amputated and the surgeons were afraid that he would object1 he said very simply1 ,go on1 if you think it necessary2 ,i offer it to ,god for ,france4 ,his recovery from his several wounds at that time seemed almost impossible1 so in gratitude for it he #dc hung an ex-voto in white marble at the shrine of ,our ,lady of ,victories in ,paris4 ,general ,fayolle is another striking example of prayerfulness in a practical man4 ,he had intended to spend a year of his retirement1 which came just before the war opened1 in following the footsteps of ,st4 ,paul's missionary voyages4 ,he offered himself for service and proved a great leader1 yet a simple1 kindly man whom his soldiers called ,pere ,fayolle4 ,a letter of his directed to the ,mayor of ,mainz showed very clearly that while he remembered and realized all the cruelty of the ,german occupation of ,belgium and ,france1 there was no fear of reprisals from the ,french1 just though they might be4 ,he is a man of deep knowledge of his religion as well as of firm piety1 and he is famous for his matter-of-fact common sense4 ,he has all the qualities which some people1 because they have had so little experience in the matter1 assume are not to be found in a man who believes thoroughly in and practices prayer4 ,a good deal has been said in recent years about the practice of going into the silence and finding there renewal of self4 ,like so many other new modes of expression1 this is merely a new formula for that very old religious custom1 meditation1 and some of the old writers on spiritual subjects1 not only generations ago but actually many hundreds of years before modern history began1 laid down the rules for it rather carefully4 ,meditation can be a source of some of the most valuable suggestive1 helpful consolation as well as profound enlightenment in difficult problems that human nature has4 ,above all it generates a calm that makes for peace of mind and1 therefore1 health of body4 ,john ,boyle ,o',reilly recognized its deeper meanings a generation ago when he wrote3 #dd ,the infinite always is silent3 ,it is only the finite that speaks4 ,our words are the idle wave-caps ,on the deep that never breaks4 ,we may question with wand of science1 ,explain1 decide1 and discuss2 ,but only in meditation ,the ,mystery speaks to us4 ,most of the religious orders1 and it is in them particularly that the effect of religion on health and happiness and efficiency and increase of the power to achieve1 under the influence of profoundly religious motives1 can be studied1 require by rule that their members shall spend at least half an hour in meditation each morning2 and with many of them1 of course1 an hour or more is required4 ,they prepare for it the night before by reading some passage in the life of ,christ1 or by taking some special lesson from ,his teaching2 the next morning they reflect how this can be exemplified in their own daily lives and proceed to make certain practical applications of it to the everyday concerns with which they are occupied4 ,it is surprising how efficient in living up to their very best during the day this makes a great many of the members4 ,there are exceptions1 of course1 who fail to derive the proper benefit from the practice because they do not devote themselves to it with sufficient earnestness to secure its advantages1 but most of them1 as the result of this daily period of morning prayer1 are rendered capable of going through a monotonous round of hard daily work and succeed in getting excellent results and in keeping cheerful and light-hearted in the midst of what might otherwise seem a very trivial mode of life4 ,the motives thus imparted to them often make even the trifles of life of great interest and significant import4 #de ,as a result of their life of prayer1 members of religious orders have ever so many less complaints than people who live under corresponding circumstances1 largely within doors amid a rather monotonous round of existence4 ,it is extremely rare to find religious devotees who enjoy poor health as so many of the laity do4 ,having less complaints they suffer less from disease1 for after all discomfort depends on two factors1--one the irritation and the other the mode of its reception4 ,an irritable person will suffer tortures1 though under the same circumstances a placid1 composed person will be but very little disturbed4 ,whenever there is much reaction1 there is always an increase of the pain that has to be borne4 ,whenever much attention is paid to discomfort1 the concentration of mind on it multiplies by the law of avalanche the number of cells in the brain affected1 and this multiplies the actual discomfort felt4 ,a few thousand cells may be affected by a particular focus of irritation1 but if all the other cells of the brain are concentrated on this sensation1 each of them1 and there are many millions of them1 will share something at least of the discomfort4 ,besides1 concentration of attention sends more blood or rather opens the blood vessels in the irritated neighborhood somewhat in the way that a blush opens them up on the cheeks1 and this hyperemia increases the sensitiveness of the part4 ,the individual1 then1 who by the help of prayer lessens his complaints actually lessens his discomfort4 ,to stand a thing patiently for a high motive actually makes the pain suffered less than it otherwise would be4 ,when a man can look calmly forward to the future and say wholeheartedly1 ,thy ,will be done on earth as it is in heaven1 a great many things are easier to bear #df because of the recognition of the fact that they are the will of a ,providence who oversees everything that is being accomplished1 and that somehow1 somewhere1 all is to be for the best4 ,when men recall to themselves the words1 ,forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors1 or ,forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us1 word it as you will1 they are reminded of how much they owe to the ,father in heaven1 and1 therefore1 how much they ought to be willing to pay back1 not only for what they have been given but also for all the failures that they have made1 to say nothing of serious faults4 ,suffering then comes to have a real meaning that any one1 even the least intellectual1 can understand1 and by that very fact it becomes easier to bear4 ,i have often found that ,i could do a great deal for nervous patients by suggesting that they adopt some morning practice of prayer4 ,usually the best thing for my ,catholic patients was to advise them to go to ,mass4 ,for this they had to get up at a definite hour1 dress promptly1 and usually be some blocks away from home by eight o'clock4 ,some such duty as this1 requiring promptitude and taking the mind off oneself and the little troubles that often loom so large in the morning1 is an excellent thing for neurotic patients4 ,the great characteristic of the neuroses is that they make people feel depressed when they first awake4 ,they often feel tired and incapable and find it hard to begin the day well2 and beginning the day well often means more than anything else in dispelling nervous symptoms and dreads and inhibitions4 ,most nervous people realize that when they have to get up promptly at about seven o'clock1 as for instance after a night on a train1 they have almost none of the feelings of oppression that greet their arising #dg when they can turn over in bed and drowse a little longer and let the troubles which have awakened ever so much more promptly than their incentives to do things soak in and take possession of them4 ,to get up and accomplish a duty that gives some satisfaction soon proves to be a wide-open gate of escape from these early morning blue devils of which so many of the nervous complain so bitterly4 ,the differential diagnosis between merely nervous symptoms and the feelings of tiredness and incapacity which come from organic disease can often be made from the early morning symptoms4 ,nervous patients feel their worst in the very early morning4 ,they often wonder how they will be able to get through the day without breaking down4 ,after an hour or two they begin to feel somewhat better1 though life still looks blue enough4 ,on towards ten o'clock they think that the sun may shine for them again4 ,by noon1 especially if they have done something in the meantime1 they feel much better1 and after their lunch in the early afternoon they begin to be quite chipper2 toward evening they usually are persuaded that after all life may be worth living1 and by the time they are ready to go to bed--and unfortunately they are tempted to put off going to bed until rather late because they do feel so well--they are inclined to wonder how it is possible that they felt so depressed in the morning4 ,the sufferer from organic disease1 however1 always feels best in the early morning and begins to get tired toward noon2 the evening is his time of least enjoyment1 and he is quite ready to get to bed rather early4 ,for the neurotic patient waking to a sense of his troubles at once1 nothing is better than a prompt lifting up of his mind to ,god to offer ,him the new #dh day that ,he has given1 no matter how it may turn out1 and a readiness to take things as they come so that ,his will may be fulfilled4 ,in nervous patients one would almost have the feeling that their wills did not wake up nearly so soon as their memories1 or even quite so soon as their intellects1 such as they have4 ,their wills need to be aroused4 ,for men setting-up exercises of various kinds are particularly valuable because the will has got to be used in doing them2 many a young soldier who during the war was waked up at the unearthly hour of five o'clock and had perforce to get out of bed1 found himself full of pains and aches not only of body1 but of mind1 and wondered how he could stand it4 ,after ten minutes of setting-up exercises1 with the blood coursing through his muscles and deep breaths of outdoor air to oxygenate sluggish tissues1 he felt like another man4 ,the days seemed nothing to endure then4 ,for a good many nervous women the exercise of getting to church after prompt rising and dressing and then the occupation of mind with deep1 serious thoughts of prayer1 will do very much what the setting-up exercises did for the young soldiers during the war4 ,i have tried this so often on patients that ,i know whereof ,i speak1 and ,i can think of nothing that does them more good than to have some such enlivening incident that satisfies their hearts and minds and starts them at once doing something that will help them throw off the fear thoughts so prone to crowd in4 ,it is surprising often to learn what things are accomplished by people who find an unfailing resource for their powers physical and mental in prayer4 ,i had the privilege of knowing a frail little woman whose life seemed to be one long prayer1 so entirely was every #di action guided by what she felt ,god would like her to do at any particular time2 and during very nearly sixty years she directed the destinies of a community of women who did more for the charities and education of an important ,state than any other single factor that ,i know4 ,she organized hospitals1 multiplied schools1 built homes for the care of orphans1 established an academy with excellent standards in the days when educational criteria were low1 and put a climax to her work by building a college for women in which hundreds of young women are now being educated in the best sense of that word1--that is1 not only having their minds stuffed with knowledge1 but having their thinking powers aroused and1 in ,huxley's expressive phrase1 having their passions trained to come to heel by a vigorous will1 the servant of a tender conscience4 ,i am sure that ,huxley's further words might be used of the graduates1--that they have learned to love all beauty1 whether of nature or of art1 to hate all vileness and respect others as themselves4 ,the little woman who did all this1 frail little thing she often seemed1 would have said1 ,i feel certain1 that she derived the energy to do it all from prayer4 ,some years ago ,i wrote a sketch of another one of these women of prayer1 a little ,italian noblewoman who1 touched by the condition of the poor ,italians in ,america--only by ,america she meant both ,americas--came over here to help them4 ,she organized ,columbus hospitals in ,new ,york1 ,chicago1 ,seattle and ,denver4 ,she established literally hundreds of schools4 ,she gathered around her a band of several thousand young women who devoted themselves to the accomplishment of anything and everything that would help the ,italians in this country4 ,they were not all ,italians themselves1 but they were won to #ej the work by the ardent enthusiasm and the marvelously charming personality of this little woman4 ,the ,united ,states would seem to be field large enough for her zeal or for that of any one1 but she did not think so1 so she went down to ,south ,america and organized to similar good purpose down there1 having herself carried on one occasion across the ,cordilleras in a hamper on mule-back4 ,it seemed almost impossible that any one could have all the energy that she had and the initiative1 and yet with it charming tact1 winning ways and the prudence that enabled her to find her path in some of the most difficult circumstances4 ,she said over and over again that she owed her power to prayer4 ,many times when she was told that she must rest1 she just prayed and went on4 ,sometimes the stories of these old-fashioned1 prayerful women of our time will be told properly4 ,they hid themselves from publicity as sedulously as most people seek it4 ,i think it one of the most precious privileges of life to have known a score of such women1 ,east and ,west4 ,some of them actually seemed to achieve the impossible and even ventured to get up from sick beds to do what they felt they must do1 yet they pushed through successfully4 ,not infrequently they had to stand all sorts of hardships4 ,over and over again ,i have heard the story of pioneer work in the midst of privations that would surely seem must break down health2 yet many of these women lived to be well beyond seventy and sometimes even beyond eighty years of age4 ,they were strengthened1 consoled1 held up in trial by prayer1 and it enabled them to tap layers of energy in their physical beings which they themselves scarcely knew they possessed and concerning which other people were #ea so dubious that they felt sure the workers would die young of exhausted vitality4 ,many wondered why some of them did not suffer from nervous prostration4 ,men and women of prayer seldom suffer from nervous prostration in the ordinary sense of the word1 and what is called that in them is very often the manifestation of some organic ailment which has not been recognized4 ,as to the power of prayer to enable people to stand suffering and pain1 that is discussed in the chapters on these special subjects4 ,raising the mind and heart to ,god will do more to make even the extremity of pain bearable than anything else in the world4 ,i have known a man under an engine1 almost literally cooking to death from the steam that was escaping near him1 in poignant agony1 take on a quiet1 peaceful look after a priest had crawled under the engine to give him the last rites of the ,church2 and though his groans would still escape from him involuntarily1 it was mainly words of prayer that came and he was evidently in a very different state of mind from that which governed him but a few moments before when only the physical side of his case was occupying his mind4 ,many a soldier during the war found that when a dread came over him1 and he feared that his courage might leave him1 especially when men were falling thick and fast all around1 a little prayer would lift him up and give him new courage2 and when he was so tired that it seemed as though he could not go on any farther it would enable him to tap a new level of energy and get his second wind1 as it were1 and carry on4 ,there are a great many people nowadays1 and unfortunately they are ever so much more frequent among the educated classes than among those who have not had the benefit of an education1 who seem to think that prayer #eb is a confession of weakness4 ,when a man or a woman has recourse to prayer they would be inclined to say that it is because he or she has not the strength of character and personality that enables them to stand up under the trials of life and to face difficulties valiantly and hopefully4 ,impressions like this have been rather fostered among the modern intellectual classes who1 it must be recalled1 are not always intelligent4 ,we saw in the first chapter that while there is a very prevalent impression that somehow science is opposed to religion and that scientists find it utterly impossible to accept religious beliefs seriously and indeed can only pity those who continue to cherish such outworn superstitions1 practically all the greatest scientists of modern times have been deep believers4 ,what is true with regard to scientists and belief in religion is true also with regard to the strongest characters of the world and prayer4 ,the greatest moral force of the war1 the man who stood as ,horace long ago said the perfect man1 totus teres atque rotundus1 should stand1 unmoved1 even though the world is falling in pieces around him1 was ,cardinal ,mercier4 ,when they asked him at the luncheon given to him in ,new ,york by some two thousand of our most prominent commercial representatives how he1 a bishop1 brought up in the peace and quiet of a university1 should stand unmoved in the presence of the greatest military power on earth and insist on the rights of his country and his people1 his very simple reply was1 ,as a bishop1 there was nothing else that it occurred to me for the moment to do4 ,some of ,cardinal ,mercier's favorite maxims show how deeply he feels whence comes his strength4 ,he said1 for instance1 that the ideal of life is a clear sense of #ec duty4 ,his favorite quotation is from ,st4 ,theresa1 that well-known expression1 whenever conscience commands anything1 there is only one thing to fear and that is fear4 ,his maxim for daily life was ,the whole duty of man consists in doing ,god's will to-day4 ,i care to have no vain regrets with regard to the past and no idle dreams as to the future1 but ,i shall be quite satisfied if ,god gives me ,his grace to accomplish ,his ,holy ,will to-day4 ,it is easy to see from these that the ,cardinal feels his utter dependence on a ,higher ,power and the necessity for keeping as closely in touch with that ,higher ,power by prayer as possible4 ,there is no doubt at all about his supreme strength of character and his placid1 yet unbending resolution to accomplish what he sees as duty4 ,there is no doubt1 also1 that he feels that he draws his strength to accomplish whatever he can from prayer4 ,his daily recourse to it1 far from being a sign of weakness in any sense1 simply represents the man's own feeling of his inadequacy to accomplish what his conscience dictates unless he is strengthened from on ,high4 ,perhaps it is to be expected that a churchman would find his strength in prayer1 but it must not be forgotten that the greatest military leader of this war1 who because of the immense armies that he had to lead must be considered one of the greatest military geniuses of all time1 confesses also that the source of whatever power he had came from prayer4 ,over and over again during the time while he was the commander-in-chief of the ,allied armies4 ,marshal ,foch was discovered at prayer in some quiet chapel1 manifestly absorbed in communion with ,god4 ,when congratulated on what he had accomplished1 he said at once1 ,do not thank me1 but thank the ,author of all good to whom the victory is due4 ,he #ed was often known to ask for prayers and when on the morning of the first battle of the ,marne he met the chaplain of one of his regiments1 he said to him1 ,pray for us1 father2 we advance from here or die here to-day4 ,there is a story that comes from his own headquarters that when sometimes he was thought to be asleep he was found at prayer4 ,when his first decision as commander-in-chief of the ,allied armies had to be made1 and he had to determine whether ,amiens should be surrendered to the enemy and a defense made on lines behind that city1 both ,haig1 in immediate command of the ,british forces1 as well as ,petain1 the ,french commander1 are said to have advised retirement4 ,foch listened patiently to their reasons and then asked for twenty minutes by himself before making his decision1 declaring that he would give it in that time4 ,he spent those minutes walking up and down the garden in the slight rain that was falling1 very much in the concentrated manner that he was known to assume when praying4 ,at the end of twenty minutes he declared that ,amiens was to be held at all cost1--and it was4 ,this was the first great step in the breaking of the enemy morale4 ,when three months later1 on the #ahth of ,july--after the ,germans had tried for three days to come through his lines and had practically succeeded and then1 lacking in men and munitions had to stop--,marshal ,foch launched his counter-offensive which represented the beginning of the end of the war1 it was easy to understand the strain through which he had just passed and the immensity of the responsibility of the decision that he had to make4 ,after the orders for the counter-offensive had been sent out he said1 ,now ,i must rest4 ,as can readily be imagined he had slept #ee but little on any of the three preceding nights4 ,half an hour after he retired there came a dispatch which the high staff decided must be communicated to the general-in-chief4 ,they hesitated for some time to wake him1 but there was nothing else for it4 ,his adjutant found him on his knees4 ,the practice of prayer1 then1 instead of being an index of weakness of character1 is on the contrary a note that is found exemplified in a great many men who are distinguished for their strength of character4 ,it is the strong man above all who knows his own weakness and realizes how incapable he is of doing very great things of himself4 ,it is the conceited man who is confident that he can accomplish anything that he wants out of his own strength and often fails4 ,great generals almost as a rule have been men who turned aside from the immense calls made upon them by their military responsibilities to gain consolation and strength from the ,most ,high4 ,it is surprising often to find how devoutly they turn to the ,higher ,power in their trials4 ,field ,marshal ,lord ,wolseley carried a copy of ,thomas a ,kempis' ,imitation of ,christ with him always and read in it every day4 ,when they found ,chinese ,gordon dead at ,khartum there was a little copy of ,newman's ,dream of ,gerontius in which he had been reading and making some annotations during the days before the end4 ,for him1 too1 the ,imitation of ,christ was favorite reading1 as it was for ,stanley the explorer and many another thoroughly practical1 intensely brave and strong man whom the world has come to appreciate for his strength of character4 ,in our time there has been noted an extreme lack of delicacy and a diminution of that reticence which #ef characterized human beings at their best4 ,there has been a pouring out of the story of their woes and ills by men and women seeking sympathy which not only does them no good but which tends to break down their own character4 ,it was ,nietzsche who said1 in one of these striking aphorisms of his1 ,sympathy only makes us feel bad and the person for whom we sympathize feel worse than before4 ,in an older time when there was more faith and the practice of prayer was commoner1 the habit of prayer replaced this pouring out of the heart to others4 ,people let ,god know about it and in that way brought themselves into the mental attitude that somehow1 somewhere1 all was well1 for ,god's in ,his world and all is right with it4 ,this proved an antidote to that sympathy-seeking self-pity which is not only so fatal to character development1 but which actually makes the trials and sufferings of life harder to bear than they would otherwise be and will sometimes lift the little discomforts that are almost inevitably associated with living up to a plane of superconsciousness on which they seem to be torments4 ,prayer is often its own reward1 though any one who practices it in reality knows that there are other and much higher effects than this psychological influence which can of itself1 however1 neutralize many of the lesser disturbances of life that may be so readily exaggerated4 ,to many people in our time prayer seems a useless exercise except in so far as the state of mind which it engenders reacts upon the individual to console and strengthen him in trials and to hearten him for difficulties that lie ahead4 ,even if it had no other effect than this1 prayer would still be a very valuable factor for health in the midst of the difficulties and above all the #eg dreads of humanity which are so likely to disturb the proper functioning of organic life4 ,if this were all that it meant1 however1 prayer would not be a religious but a psychotherapeutic exercise4 ,as a matter of belief1 however1 prayer is much more than this and1 to the mind of the believer at least1 leads to help from on ,high that may prove of immense consequence in the development of individual life4 ,many people feel that it would be idle to think that prayer can alter the ordinary course of natural events and that these are rigidly connected with the causal elements which lead up to them and cannot be modified1 once the chain of causes has been set to work4 ,it is curiously interesting to realize that not a few of those who urge this inevitability of causation are just those who refuse to acknowledge the principle of causation as necessarily leading to the demonstration that there must be a first cause4 ,as suggested by ,sir ,bertram ,windle1 president of ,university ,college1 ,cork1 in his volume ,the ,church in ,science which has recently been awarded one of the ,bridgewater prizes in ,england1 it is not difficult to realize that the world is by no means so rigidly predetermined as many enthusiastic votaries of science would have us believe2 he adds3 ,there is room for free play2 chance has a real objective significance1 viz41 the intercrossing of independent causal chains1 and is not a mere cloak for ignorance4 ,not alone is a large part of natural occurrences within our own control1 but there is opportunity for ,god's special direction of events without any contravention of the laws of science4 ,we cannot see far ahead2 for aught we know1 a small change of present plans may result in far-reaching future consequences4 ,and many present #eh realities were once frail possibilities hanging on slender causal threads2 did not ,england's present mineral wealth and insular position originate in some chance-formed heterogeneity in a nebula8 ,all these life-histories of countries and individuals stand spread out to ,god's eternal gaze4 ,at each stage ,he sees the possibilities foreclosed or initiated2 ,he influences development by the primal distribution in the past and by direction and inspiration in the present4 #ei ,,chapter ,,iii ,,sacrifice ,the essence of religion is sacrifice4 ,st4 ,paul summed it up in his own inimitable fashion when he said1 ,i beseech you therefore1 brethren1 by the mercies of ,god1 that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice1 holy1 acceptable unto ,god1 which is your reasonable service4 ,the supreme exercise of religious feeling is the readiness to make sacrifices because one feels that it is the will of the ,deity that they should be made4 ,the ,century ,dictionary's definition of sacrifice1 the giving up of some prized or desirable thing in behalf of a higher object1 represents the state of mind that one must have if one is desirous of practicing religion sincerely4 ,the tendency to make sacrifices seems almost to be ingrained in humanity and to be a sort of instinct4 ,it is one of these precious manifestations of nature so difficult to understand and yet representing some great basic principle of humanity4 ,the feeling of satisfaction that comes with it represents that compensation for the exercise of a natural function which so often accompanies natural processes and is sometimes supposed to be a feature only of the physical yet is so invariably found also in the moral order4 ,from the very earliest times men have made sacrifices in the spirit of religion4 ,now that the story of the cave man is known not by inference but by actual discovery #fj of his remains in the caves of western ,france and northern ,spain1 we find that he was an artist who invented oil colors1 grinding the oxides of manganese and of iron in mortars and mixing them with the rendered fat of animals and painting some of the most vivid pictures of animals that have ever been made on the walls of his cave in order to make his home beautiful4 ,instead of being just a little better than the beasts1 he was an artist1 and an artist is at all times the flower of our civilization1 ahead of and not behind the rest of the race4 ,in the tombs of the cave men finely made tools have been found buried with the bodies1 demonstrating the belief in a hereafter and the readiness of those who were left behind to make sacrifices for their dead4 ,for these tools had been produced at the cost of no little labor1 and in the values of the time were precious4 ,in order that their dead friend might be happy in another world they were quite willing to make these sacrifices and to devote other efforts to securing happiness for him4 ,they devoted a good deal of care to the disposal of the body and even buried red coloring matter with the remains so that their dead friend might not look too pale in the next world and perhaps be the subject of remark1 because of that4 ,we rouge our corpses in our time again1 but with the idea of making them presentable for this world4 ,this state of mind which prompts man to make a sacrifice is1 almost needless to say1 extremely valuable for health and for happiness1 because it makes people ready to offer up their feelings in case of disappointment and even to be ready to accept trials that may come to them--and life is sure to have them--as representing opportunities for the making of sacrifices4 ,if one has set one's heart on something and has devoted great efforts to getting it #fa and then finds that owing to circumstances it cannot be secured1 nothing is so effective as the deep religious feeling of sacrifice to aid in keeping the disappointment from affecting health and strength4 ,we need it at the present time sadly1 and its eclipse through decadence of religion has been a great misfortune4 ,modern life has been very much disturbed by the fact that insanity and suicides are both on the increase to an almost alarming extent and that1 sad to say1 the average age at which they occur is steadily becoming earlier4 ,suicide happens at ever younger years just in proportion1 it would seem1 to the spread of popular education and the lessening of the influence of religion1 while at the same time the necessity for restraint for insanity and of internments in asylums is also coming at a younger age4 ,people used to go through with some of the very hard things of life before they were ready to give up struggling or broke down in mind1 but now some of the minor trials of early life--a petty setback in school examinations or disappointment in a youthful love affair--may bring about a very serious breakdown in physical or mental health and may even lead to suicide4 ,we need ever so much more training in the discipline of sacrifice even from very earliest youth1 but almost needless to say this can come practically only from religion1 and religious influences are waning for a great many people4 ,all young folks must be trained to give things up voluntarily so that when disappointment comes they are ready for it4 ,they must be taught to stand some of the disagreeable things in life so that they may have the will power to endure even the hardest ones1 if they should be called upon to do so4 ,such discipline1 instead of being cruel1 is really kind1 for constituted as life is and with #fb hardships and trials inevitable to the great majority of people1 it is all-important that we should be prepared for them4 ,it is the role of religion particularly to do this4 ,it can accomplish it without producing unfortunate reactions1 but on the contrary with personal satisfaction to the individual who has to be trained in endurance because of the feeling that the sacrifices have a worth beyond that of the merely material4 ,whole-hearted sacrifice will lift a character up to heights of heroism that are supremely admirable and make life exemplary1 though the failure to take the opportunities for sacrifice may lead to crushing of the spirit entirely4 ,almost inevitably this brings about disturbance of health as well as deterioration of character4 ,the loss of children by death1 particularly when there are but one or two children in a family1 as is so frequent in modern times1 often brings on a state of mental perturbation in which the health of mind and body1 especially of women1 may suffer severely4 ,religion1 with its development of the spirit of sacrifice1 whenever it is taken seriously1 is the best possible sheet anchor in such cases1 and the gradual diminution of religious feelings and abandonment of religious practice during the present generation have greatly multiplied the tendency to such severe breakdowns4 ,a distinguished scientist4 ,professor ,whittaker1 the ,royal ,astronomer of ,ireland1 dwelt on the scientific aspect of sacrifice for high purpose in a way that is illuminating and serves to make our generation understand better the enduring nature of sacrifice in creation and the place that it has in the up-building of what is best in life4 ,surrender to the will of ,god generally means the giving up of some of the delights of the world4 ,like the #fc coral island built up on the accumulations of its own past life1 the perfected kingdom is to be reached only by the sacrifice of countless generations of its own up-builders4 ,but--and this is the greatest of all evidence of the divine life within humanity--in all ages men have left the pleasures of their former life to obey the inward call4 ,the long procession that leads to the distant goal is reunited afresh in every generation3 and to-day millions have found the joy of a life centered round the words of the ,master1 ',repent'1 ',follow ,me4' ,a distinguished mathematician who is at the same time a very well-known physical scientist declared not long since that the formula for happiness may be expressed as follows3 h g_/w ,in this1 h stands for the amount of individual happiness and is equal to what the individual has got1 g1 divided by w1 what he wants4 ,if a man has a great deal but wants ever so much more1 his fraction of happiness may be comparatively small4 ,if he has got even a little but does not want much more1 his fraction of happiness may approach an integer4 ,if he has got anything in the world and does not want anything more1 according to the terms of the formula1 he is infinitely happy1 for one divided by zero equals infinity 7#a_/j;infinity74 ,what is important for men for their happiness then is not so much to try to increase the numerator by adding to or even multiplying their possessions1 but to decrease the denominator by lessening their wants and by decreasing the number of things without which they feel that they cannot be happy4 #fd ,almost needless to say the one element above all in life which enables men to reduce their wants and to live in satisfaction with few things is religion4 ,a great many men in the history of the race have for religious motives assumed the obligations of voluntary poverty and have greatly increased satisfaction in life and have found happiness thereby4 ,the multiplication of material wants which after a time become needs that actually cannot be dispensed with without a feeling of serious deprivation leads to such preoccupation with mere bodily concerns that no time is left to live the life of the spirit and really to enjoy the things of the mind and the heart and the soul with the supreme satisfaction which their experience gives to us4 ,the old pagan poet1 ,horace1 suggested long ago that he hated the apparatus of luxury because it took away so much of the simple enjoyment of life and consumed so much time in idle concerns4 ,nothing is so helpful in enabling men to simplify life as religious motives4 ,they learn to make the sacrifice of certain inclinations and feelings that would tempt them to rival other men and to be satisfied with a little for the sake of the lessened allurements to luxury that are thus secured for themselves and their children4 ,health comes as a by-product of this simplification of life as it is not likely to come under any other circumstances4 ,to all men there comes1 sooner or later in life1 the realization that the getting of things cannot bring happiness4 ,oscar ,wilde said in one of his well-known caustic epigrams1 ,there are two tragedies in life2 the one is not getting what you want and the other is getting it2 and of the two the latter is the worse4 ,quite apart from the pessimism and the exaggeration of the apothegm which constitutes only part of the humor1 there is a great deal of #fe truth in the expression1 as all men learn eventually4 ,what ,faust said to ,mephistopheles was that if ever a time shall come when ,i shall be willing to say to the passing moment 'stay you with me1 for ,i shall be satisfied with you forever' then you may have my soul4 ,all that the devil had to do was to make him happy1 but that is impossible1 for man never is1 but to be blessed4 ,there is no lasting satisfaction in getting1 for men increase their desires with everything they get4 ,men come to realize1 if they gather wisdom with the years1 that the fruit of striving and the quest after anything in the world1 be it riches or knowledge or honor or power1 is of itself but dust and ashes in the mouth once the goal has been reached1 for it is the quest and not the attainment1 the hunt and not the capture that counts in life1 and the only thing that can possibly give any genuine satisfaction to man is the cultivation of the spirit of sacrifice4 ,sacrifices made for a higher power give life a meaning that it would otherwise have lost4 ,for those who have reached the years beyond middle life1 the blessedness of giving rather than receiving1 of making sacrifices rather than seeking satisfaction1 means the renewal of life's hopes and aspirations4 ,it is making a virtue of necessity to cultivate the spirit of sacrifice1 but then it was a great philosopher who said that the only virtue worth while talking about is the virtue that is made out of necessity4 ,most of the things in life that are really worth while we have to do whether we want to or not1 and it is the spirit in which they are done that lifts them out of the rut of common-place1 sordid1 everyday actions into the realm of spiritual significance1 because they are done for a great purpose4 ,each act of sacrifice may thus be made an act of worship #ff of the ,deity and have almost an infinite value4 ,this makes even the minor acts of life produce a satisfaction not otherwise possible and gives a new significance to life when the novelty of living has worn off and when the taedium vitae1 the tiredness with life that comes to every one after a while1 if mere human motives prevail1 steals over us4 ,there is a passage in the ,scriptures1 the truth of which a good many people seem to doubt in the modern time1 though the experience of centuries has confirmed it4 ,it is more blessed to give than to receive4 ,those who have experienced the delightful satisfaction of giving whole-heartedly1 even when they did not have much to give1 realize the truth of this4 ,by comparison1 the poor are the great givers among men1 giving ever so much more in proportion to their means than do the rich1 almost without exception1 and it is to them particularly that these divine words have come home4 ,they are ready to make all sorts of personal sacrifices to help those around them1 almost as a rule1 and they know the blessedness of giving4 ,if the rich gave to others in anything like the proportion to what the poor so commonly do1 there would be no suffering from poverty4 ,the sacrifices which they make bring with them a satisfaction that is eminently conducive to health4 ,there is nothing like the sleep that comes with the consciousness of good accomplished for others1 and the poor enjoy that just in proportion to the sacrifice that their doing of good has entailed4 ,giving up has often meant much for others1 but it usually means more for oneself4 ,the consciousness of having relieved the necessities of others is probably the best appetizer and somnifacient that we have4 ,we talk of sleeping the sleep of the just1 and #fg the just man is above all the one who thinks of others4 ,feelings of depression and melancholy1 when not actually the consequence of organic disease or hereditary impairment of mentality1 are probably better relieved by the consciousness of doing good to others than in any other way4 ,this is particularly true when the doing of good entails some special sacrifice on the doer of it4 ,nervousness1 in the broad general sense of that word1 is at bottom very often a manifestation of selfishness1 that is1 oversolicitude about oneself and one's affairs1 and nothing so serves to neutralize it as personal sacrifices made for others4 ,sacrifice1 moreover1 is the fundamental element in most of the practices of religion4 ,it represents the underlying factor of charity and fasting and mortification1 for personal sacrifices have to be made of time and money and often of inclination and immediate personal satisfaction in order to accomplish these4 ,as they are treated in separate chapters1 they need only be mentioned here as representing component elements in that readiness to make sacrifices for the sake of others and oneself which ,providence seems to demand4 ,nothing requires so much sacrifice from men and women1 even to the giving up of life itself1 as war1 and yet when whole-heartedly entered into1 it becomes a magnificent discipline of humanity1 affording satisfactions that are supreme and leaving memories that are the most precious for the race4 ,above all1 men learn in time of war that there are things in life that are worth more than life itself1 and there is no knowledge in the world that is so precious for mankind as this4 ,how much war's sacrifices may mean for the development of character ,professor ,william ,james has #fh emphasized in his essay on the ,moral ,equivalent of ,war4 ,he confesses the paradox1 but he says3 ,ask all our millions1 north and south1 whether they would vote now 7were such a thing possible7 to have our war for the ,union expunged from history1 and the record of a peaceful transition to the present time substituted for that of its marches and battles1 and probably hardly a handful of eccentrics would say yes4 ,those ancestors1 those efforts1 those memories and legends1 are the most ideal part of what we now own together1 a sacred spiritual possession worth more than all the blood poured out4 ,yet ask those same people whether they would be willing in cold blood to start another civil war now to gain another similar possession1 and not one man or woman would vote for the proposition4 ,it must not be forgotten that strengthening of character1 war's invariable effect on the man of moral aims1 always diminishes the dreads of life4 ,they mean ever so much not only for the development of the psychoneuroses and the whole domain of neurotic symptoms so common in our time1 but also for the exaggeration of the symptoms of real physical disease which makes patients so uncomfortable1 or full of complaints1 and has led to so many useless operations in our generation4 ,professor ,james even ventured to suggest that the dread hammer 7of war7 is the welder of men into cohesive states1 and nowhere but in such states can human nature adequately develop its capacity4 ,the only alternative is degeneration4 ,he adds that the martial type of character can be bred without war1 but only under very special circumstances and where men have been willing to give themselves up to a great cause4 ,priests and medical men are in a fashion educated to it1 #fi and we should all feel some degree of it imperative if we were conscious of our work as an obligatory service to the ,state4 ,we should be owned1 as soldiers are by the army1 and our pride would arise accordingly4 ,we could be poor then without humiliation1 as army officers now are4 ,mr4 ,h4 ,g4 ,wells1 in one of his paradoxical moods1 has dwelt on how far the sacrifices needed for military life have lifted the life of the soldier above that of the civilian1 in so far as its social value is concerned4 ,when the contemporary man steps from the street of clamorous insincere advertisement1 push1 adulteration1 underselling and intermittent employment into the barrack-year1 he steps on to a higher social plane1 into an atmosphere of service and cooperation and of infinitely more honorable emulations4 ,here at least men are not flung out of employment to degenerate because there is no immediate work for them to do4 ,they are fed and drilled and trained for better services4 ,here at least a man is supposed to win promotion by self-forgetfulness and not by self-seeking4 ,the war spirit with its necessary sacrifices serves to lift men above the dreads that wear away other lives and makes it very clear what the spirit of whole-hearted sacrifice can accomplish in keeping life from being disturbed by fear thoughts of many kinds4 ,it might possibly be thought that the supreme call made upon nature's power to overcome such dreads1 when combined with the extreme physical efforts that war often calls for and the draft upon nature's resources that the healing of wounds demands1 would surely shorten the lives of military men1 and that soldiers and officers1 but above all these latter1 would have on the average much less expectancy of life than the rest of mankind4 ,apart from actual fatal #gj wounds1 this is not true1 however1 but on the contrary men who have suffered severely from wounds1 who have been placed under heavy burdens of responsibility and have gone through trials that would seem calculated to exhaust nature's powers1 have lived far beyond the average length of life and even long beyond the vast majority of men4 ,lord ,roberts1 wounded over and over again1 once shot almost to pieces1 getting his ,victoria ,cross for bravery of the highest type1 lived1 still active1 well past eighty and died from pneumonia behind the lines in the ,great ,war quite as any man of the generation after his might have done4 ,sir ,evelyn ,wood is another typical instance of this living well beyond eighty in the enjoyment of health and strength and power to be of use to his country4 ,the spirit of sacrifice for a great patriotic purpose is like the spirit of sacrifice from religious motives which blesses while it furnishes the highest satisfactions that can come to a man4 ,if men and women could be brought to exercise from religious motives in time of peace as much of the spirit of sacrifice as they do for war and patriotism1 the world would be a very wonderful place in which to live4 ,as it is1 there are a great many who do so and whose lives have become veritable blessings for others and yet sources of supreme satisfaction to themselves4 ,their thoroughgoing faith and trust are examples to others that make life not only ever so much easier in the midst of hardships1 but that give a new depth to the belief in immortality1 because these others whose lives are so admirable have such a supreme faith in it that they direct all their actions to its reflection4 ,as ,professor ,osler said in delivering the ,ingersoll lecture on immortality at ,harvard1 a great many of us believe #ga because there are around us persons1 often those whom we love dearly1 whose lives and faith mean so much to us that their confidence in immortality is imparted to us4 ,religion is above all the motive of sacrifice that makes life more efficient and is productive of the healthy mind in the healthy body4 ,it has quite equaled war in this regard1 and the lives of missionaries1 when lived under the most difficult circumstances1 have often lasted long beyond even the ,psalmist's limit of three-score years and ten4 ,i have in mind as ,i write a dear old missionary who is still with us who spent twenty years with the ,nez ,perces ,indians in the distant ,west1 sharing all the hardships of the tribe and yet accomplishing very little in the matter of winning them to ,christianity until at the end of that long time his leg was broken by a fall4 ,the manly1 uncomplaining courage with which he bore the accident won the hearts of the warriors1 and they were ready to become ,christians and to follow whole-heartedly the principles of religion which could make a white man so completely a man in every sense of the word as they had found their missionary4 ,his health in the midst of all this had been excellent1 and he is now in ,alaska1 past eighty1 standing the climate and the trials of that country4 ,it is surprising how weak women1 in the spirit of religious sacrifice1 accomplish what seems almost the impossible and actually live healthier lives after they have given up everything and there is nothing more for them to dread4 ,we have all heard of the story of ,father ,damien who so bravely went to ,molokai in order to care for the lepers1 but how many know that religious women have offered themselves for similar purposes1 and not only at ,molokai but at ,tracadie in ,canada and in #gb ,louisiana have given themselves up for life to the care of lepers8 ,i know from records that some of these women1 after having made the supreme sacrifice1 were actually better in health living among the lepers than they had been when apparently living under much more favorable circumstances in their city homes4 ,some of them have lived to be very old1 and none of them have contracted the disease4 ,the story of such a striking personal sacrifice as that of ,father ,damien among the lepers at ,molokai1 crowned by years of suffering and death1 attracts sensational attention1 but it must not be forgotten that he is only one of many who have given up all in similar spirit4 ,there were many like him1 though utterly unknown to the world1 who in ,china1 in distant ,india1 in ,central ,africa1 or among the ,indians in our own country1 have sacrificed everything that the world deems most satisfying just to give themselves to the care of their savage brothers4 ,i shall never forget dropping off years ago one day in the ,west at the then little station of ,missoula in ,montana to meet an old teacher of mine who had been famous for his knowledge of ,greek and of the ,aristotelian philosophy and who was then engaged in taking care of ,indians1 where none of these special intellectual acquirements were of any service1 but where his hearty good cheer made him the best of missionaries4 ,he had made his sacrifice2 he said there were plenty of others who could do the teaching of ,greek and philosophy1 and he felt the call to do something for others who needed his personal services4 ,he was in better health than he had been in years and in better spirits1 and there was a look about him which indicated that some of the hundred-fold promised to those who give to the ,lord was already coming back to him4 #gc ,many a man and woman in this country and in ,england has been lifted out of the depths1 even out of the very slough of despond where dreads abound and a healthy mind in a healthy body is almost impossible of attainment1 by reading about the work of ,doctor ,wilfred ,grenfell1 who has so nobly given himself and his professional services to the care of the poor fishermen on the ,labrador coast4 ,their sufferings are often so severe as to be almost unbearable1 especially during the winter time1 and yet they cling to their little homes on the rugged coast1 ready to bear through successive winters the vicissitudes of a climate and the bitter struggle for existence which seem almost beyond the endurance of human nature and where they need so much the sympathy and kindliness which have been extended to them by ,doctor ,grenfell4 ,any one who has come in contact with him personally learns that this spirit of sacrifice so finely exemplified and exercised to high achievement has made him a charmingly sympathetic man whom everybody who comes to know is sure to like1 and who exhibits the best traits of the race in some of their highest forms of expression4 ,withal he is a very practical1 common-sense individual grafted on the lofty idealist4 ,his sacrifices have done him good1 and the example of them has stimulated and helped an immense number of other people besides the special objects of his devotion on the ,labrador coast4 ,what marvelous examples men can give in this way1 examples which fairly quicken life in other and weaker brethren and set them at their tasks whole-heartedly to accomplish whatever they can when otherwise they would have been discouraged and downcast and apt to find excuses in poor health or weakness1 is well illustrated #gd by ,doctor ,grenfell's life and also by that of many others in our own day4 ,i count it as one of the privileges of life to have been a close friend for some precious years of the man of whom one of those who came in contact with him has told the story which ,i shall quote4 ,his example was all the more striking because it had for background that flagrant exhibition of the selfishness of men which a rush to new gold fields always presents4 ,he was engaged in quite a different quest that for him seemed much more important1 and he went on with his work in the midst of the excitement as calmly as if men all around him were not exhausting all their natural powers to the limit for a fancied prize which they were sure would make them happy4 ,all of us can remember the mad rush for gold to the ,klondyke1 out on the northern edge of the world4 ,nature has pushed her ice barriers far to the south of it and fringed them for leagues with impenetrable forest and towering mountain and treacherous river1 as though to guard her treasure4 ,men1 lured by the golden gleams1 essayed to break through4 ,in tens of thousands they plunged into the unknown wilderness1 pushing in frenzied haste through forest and canyon and river4 ,by thousands they fell and died1 and but a remnant crept out on the deadly ,yukon plain1 every step on which was a fight for life4 ,some of the first of these hardy adventurers were making their way across the frozen ,alaskan waste when they saw ahead something moving that stood out black against the blinding white of the snow4 ,stumbling through snowdrifts1 waist-deep in ice hollows1 jumping treacherous crevasses1 they pushed on1 and the dark spot gradually took shape4 ,it was a loaded dog-sledge1 and #ge in front1 hauling laboriously1 were a man and a dog4 ,he was alone1 and they stared in wonder at him1 as if to ask what manner of man was this1 so contentedly traveling in this land of dreadful silence1--a land that seemed to be the tomb of all living things that ventured into it4 ,he gave them cheery greeting as they passed by1 stopping not1 for here the race was to the swift and strong1 and wished them good fortune4 ,their guide knew him1 and they learned with astonishment that it was not love of gold that had made him risk his life on that frozen tundra4 ,that gray-haired man with the kindly face1 buffeted by the icy wind that cut like a whiplash1 and bent low under the sledge rope1 was the best-known man in the ,klondyke4 ,his sledge was loaded with medicine and food for poor sick miners1 'his boys'1 as he called them1 whom he kindly cared for in a hospital that with his own hands he had helped to build in the town in the valley of gold4 ,they saw him next day1 as he came down the street1 still harnessed to the sledge2 they saw the crowds that rushed from the canvas buildings on either side and pressed forward to shake his hand1 and laughingly take the sledge from him1 and swing along the street1 filling it from side to side1 to where at the far end stood his hospital2 they saw him enter1 and when they heard the shout of joy that burst forth from the inmates1 at the sight of the only man that stood between them and death1 tears sprang to their eyes1 and they too pressed forward to exchange a word with and press the hand of a hero4 ,too soon there came a day when the axe and the sledge rope fell from the once strong hands1 and he lay1 dead1 among the boys whom he loved4 ,they buried him ,in the frozen earth between his hospital and his church4 ,the making of sacrifices for religious motives1 that is1 #gf from a religious sense of duty1 is often followed by some of the most satisfying rewards of life4 ,physicians frequently have this brought home to them when they encounter people who1 because of unwillingness to make what seemed to be sacrifices in their earlier years1 have to go through some rather serious conditions later on in life4 ,the woman who1 having had opportunities to marry1 has refused them because she fears the cares of family life and dreads the dangers of maternity1 will very often suffer ever so much more during the years of involution and obsolescence in the second half of life as the result of the loneliness that will come to her and the lack of any heart interest in life which will leave her without the resources and satisfaction which come to the woman whose children are around her and whose grandchildren bless her4 ,the man who has remained a bachelor will very often1 unless1 perhaps1 some of his brothers and sisters have married and taken the trouble and had the joy of raising children1 be even more pitiable in his solitary old age4 ,this may not seem to mean much for health and happiness1 and there may appear more sentimentality than reality in it1 but the statistics of suicide and insanity among the unmarried1 which are ever so much higher than among the married1 demonstrate how much of hopeless discouragement and mental discomfort comes to those who have given no hostages to fortune and no pledges for the future1 by the sacrifice of some of the passing pleasures and selfish satisfactions of youth4 ,nearly the same thing is true of the married folk who have only a child or two in the family4 ,the children are almost inevitably spoiled4 ,a careful study of the single child in the family has shown very clearly how nervous and selfish the solitary child is likely to be and how #gg much unhappiness the mother prepares for her child by refusing to give it the normal companionship of brothers and sisters4 ,the real kindergarten of life should be the family of five ,footnote #d or six children raised together and learning to bear with each other and yield to each other and take care of each other as the highest kind of training in unselfishness4 ,even when there are two children in the family1 especially if these are of opposite sexes1 the boy and girl are likely to grow up with entirely wrong notions as regards their importance in life4 ,the whole household is centered around them1 and they learn how to impose on father and mother4 ,nearly always the parents prepare unhappiness for themselves as well as their children1 though there is usually the excuse that they will be better able to provide for fewer children1 afford them a better education1 and bring them up so as to secure for them more opportunities in life4 ,footnote #d3 ,dr4 ,karl ,pearson1 of ,london1 the well-known authority on eugenics1 has investigated rather carefully the health of children in large and small families1 and has demonstrated that children are healthiest when there are five to eight children in the family4 ,on the average1 first and second children are not as healthy as those who come later in the family1 and those who are in the best condition physically and mentally for life come after the fourth4 ,the early children in the family are more liable to epilepsy and certain serious nervous diseases1 and are often of unstable nervous equilibrium1 while the later children are more gifted and are likely to live longer4 ,the sacrifices of social pleasures and of passing ease and comfort in order to bear and raise four or more children in the family are1 as a rule of nature1 amply rewarded in the health and strength of both the children and the mother4 ,in my book on ,health through ,will ,power1 in the chapter on ,feminine ,ills and the ,will1 ,i have pointed out that in spite of the tradition which assumes that a woman's health is hurt if she has more than #gh two or three children1 the women of the older time1 when families were larger1 were healthier on the average than they are now1 in spite of all the progress that medicine and surgery have since made in relieving serious ills4 ,above all1 it was typically the mother of numerous children who lived long and in good health to be a blessing to those around her1 and not the old maids or the childless wives1 for longevity is not a special trait of these latter classes of women4 ,the modern dread of deterioration of vitality as the result of frequent child-bearing is quite without foundation in the realities of human experience4 ,some rather carefully made statistics demonstrate that the old tradition in the matter is not merely an impression but a veritable truth as to human nature's reaction to a great natural call4 ,while the mothers of large families born in the slums1 with all the handicaps of poverty as well as hard work against them1 die on the average much younger than the generality of women in the population1 careful study of the admirable vital statistics of ,new ,south ,wales shows that the mothers who lived longest were those who under reasonably good conditions bore from five to seven children4 ,here in ,america1 a study of more favored families shows that the healthiest children come from the large families1 and it is in the small families particularly that the delicate1 neurotic and generally weakly children are found4 ,alexander ,graham ,bell1 in his investigation of the ,hyde family here in ,america1 discovered that the greatest longevity occurred in the families of ten or more children4 ,so far from mothers being exhausted by the number of children that were born1 and thus endowing their children with less vitality than if they had fewer children1 it was to the numerous offspring that the highest vitality #gi and physical fitness were given4 ,one special consequence of these is longevity4 ,the spirit of sacrifice brings its own reward4 ,the realization from a religious standpoint that it is better to give than to receive is one of the greatest blessings that a man can have4 ,nothing is so disturbing to health and happiness--and real happiness always reacts on health--as selfishness1 the contradiction of the spirit of sacrifice4 ,all the great writers on the spiritual life have emphasized the fact that nervousness is at bottom selfishness4 ,conceit is the root of a great deal of unhappiness and consequent disturbance of the health of mind and body4 #hj ,,chapter ,,iv ,,charity ,charity is usually looked upon as a cure for social1 not personal ills4 ,its activities1 while recognized as supremely effective in fostering the health of people who have to live on inadequate means1 are not ordinarily considered as reacting to benefit the health of the individual who practices the virtue4 ,any such outlook is1 however1 very partial4 ,religion has always taught that the benefiting of others invariably served to bring down blessings on those who took up the precious duty of helpfulness1 blessings which are not reserved merely for the hereafter1 but are felt also in this world1 which affect not only the spirit but the mind of man4 ,blessed are the merciful1 for they shall obtain mercy are the words of the ,sermon on the ,mount1 and it must not be forgotten that that dear old-fashioned word1 mercy1 which is so often limited to forgiveness in our day1 meant in the old time acts of benevolence--works of mercy1 as they were called--and in ,luke it is stated that the neighbor unto him that fell among thieves was he that showed mercy on him4 ,the personal satisfaction which comes from the performance of these works of mercy represents one of the most active factors that we have for good health and especially for the creation of that background of contentment with life on which good health is commonly #ha developed4 ,the merciful garner some of their reward here in the shape of a less troubled life1 so far at least as their own worries might be sources of trouble1 and a fuller1 heartier existence in the consciousness of helpfulness for others4 ,the words encouragement1 discouragement1 in ,saxon ,english heartening and disheartening1 putting heart into or taking heart out of people1 have a literal physical as well as metaphysical significance that all physicians have come to appreciate rather thoroughly4 ,charity is a cure not only for the ills of the social body1 but it is also an extremely valuable remedy for the personal ills of those who devote themselves to doing their duty towards others4 ,vincent de ,paul1 that great organizer of charity1 or as we would call his work in our time1 social service--for during and after the great wars in ,france in the early seventeenth century he organized relief for literally thousands of people in the war zone and afterwards continued his great social work1 which was quite as much needed then as our post-war work is now1 in the large cities and towns of ,france--once used an expression in this regard that deserves to be repeated here because it emphasizes this reactionary effect of charity which means so much for health4 ,vincent said that ,unless the charity we do does as much good for the doer as it does for the one for whom it is done1 there is something wrong with the charity4 ,here is a phase of charity that has been forgotten only too often in the modern time4 ,it emphasizes the fact that the most important remedy for that very serious affection taedium vitae1 that sense of the unsatisfactoriness of life which comes to everybody at some time or other1 is the doing of things for other people with a whole-hearted feeling of helpfulness4 #hb ,it has been suggested that the doing of good for others1 with all the good effects which flow from it for the active participants1 may very well be accomplished without any appeal to religion1 and that sympathy alone suffices as a foundation4 ,sir ,w4 ,thistleton-,dyer1 in reviewing ,huxley's position in this matter in a critique of ,clodd's ,life of ,huxley1 suggests that the mystery would still remain as to how the sympathy is to be infused4 ,he adds3 ,my experience of human nature inclines me to think that it requires a more powerful appeal to the imagination than is afforded by a mere academic council of perfection of this sort4 ,as a matter of fact ,altruism1 as it has been called1 is a very different thing from charity in its effect upon the doer4 ,the deep feeling of the brotherhood of man and the fatherhood of ,god with which true charity is associated makes a profoundly impressive suggestion1 with a favorable emotional tendency which serves to give almost as a rule and quite naturally a sense of well-being4 ,the practice of charity from religious motives becomes1 then1 a very different thing from any mere feeling of sympathy with others founded1 as it is so likely to be1 on the selfish feeling of how painful it would be for us to be in like case1 or tinged at least with the consciousness of condescension toward those below us which vitiates most of the good motives of doing for others on any human grounds4 ,for those who feel that the new ,altruism may fully replace the old charity1 and that people can derive just as much good from the stirring of their sympathies from merely humanitarian motives as they can from religious love of their neighbor1 ,president ,schurman of ,cornell said some things that are very interesting3 ,it is a blessed characteristic of our own age that #hc religion has come to express itself so nobly in practical well-doing4 ,but beneficence is not piety4 ,to make the love of man the essence of religion is to misread the latter and to divest the former of its supreme spiritual dynamic4 ,if the religious man is a benediction to earth1 it is because his soul is bathed in the dews of heaven4 ,the relief of the serious physical sufferings of those around us1 together with the glimpse so often afforded while engaged in that work of the patience with which real ills are borne by others1 is the best possible dispeller of the dreads which are the source of so many psycho-neuroses and the neurotic symptoms which complicate other diseases of modern times4 ,these represent a much larger proportion of the ills of mankind than we were inclined to think4 ,the ,great ,war proved a revelation in this regard1 for one third of all the dismissions from the ,english army1 apart from the wounded1 were made because of neurotic affections4 ,manifestly they must occupy an important place also in civil life4 ,those who practice charity1 that is1 those who not merely supply material aid to be distributed through agents or almoners1 but give their personal service for those in need1 have the chance to be impressed with the thought of how much worse things might be with themselves than they actually are1 and how thankful they should be for their own conditions4 ,the best practical definition of contentment still continues to be the conviction that things might be worse than they actually are4 ,indeed1 it is this very satisfaction that comes from doing good that tempts people1 humanly speaking1 to do more and more of it1 and the personal service habit1 once formed1 is as hard to break as almost any other habit that a man can contract4 #hd ,the word charity has come to have in many minds a very unfortunate innuendo4 ,it is associated with the thought of doling out alms1 of pauperizing people and of making them dependent on others instead of arousing their power to help themselves4 ,there are a good many people who seem to think that never until our time did the question of organizing charity1 or social service as it is called1 come into men's minds in such a way as to prevent these unfortunate abuses of charity which do so much more harm than good4 ,the history of social service does not begin in our time1 however1 but goes back over all the centuries in the history of ,christianity4 ,religion has always furnished the incentive to do good1 but the ,church and common sense have helped people to regulate their charity in such a way as to make it really useful to men4 ,during the ,middle ,ages there were many legal regulations against sturdy vagrants who imposed on people and took the charity out of the mouths of those who deserved it and who abused the opportunities for treatment in hospitals or for lodging in places provided for the poor4 ,human nature has not changed much1 and the tramp and the wanderer have always been with us1 as well as the man who is willing to give up1 and let others take care of him4 ,charity1 as its ,latin etymology suggests1 means the dearness of others to us4 ,it is our personal interest in them that constitutes its essence and not at all the mere giving of something or even the doing of something in order to be relieved from the necessity of thinking about them4 ,dear old ,sir ,thomas ,browne1 in his ,religio ,medici1 put the whole question of charity very succinctly when he said1 this ,i think charity1 to love ,god for ,himself and our neighbor for ,god4 ,milton summed #he up the complete quintessence of religion in the single word charity quite as ,doctor ,browne did1 though with less aphoristic effectiveness4 ,our whole practical dutie in religion is contained in charitie1 or the love of ,god and our neighbor4 ,charity in this sense is a development of ,christianity1 and the personal service idea is almost unknown in ancient times4 ,lecky1 in his history of ,european morals1 says that the active1 habitual and detailed charity of private persons1 which is so conspicuous a feature in all ,christian societies1 was scarcely known in antiquity1 and there are not more than two or three moralists who have noticed it4 ,it is the love or affection that goes with whatever is done that is the real essence of charity4 ,it is this quality especially which makes the charity of benefit to the doer4 ,this helps him and above all her to eliminate that super-conscious preoccupation with self which has become the bane of existence in modern times4 ,it is at the root of more serious physical and mental symptoms than any other single factor that we have in pathology4 ,anything that will take people out of themselves1 that will interest them in others and keep them from thinking about themselves1 will do an immense amount of good in helping to maintain their good health1 but above all will keep people from exaggerating feelings of all kinds1 some of them scarcely more than normal1 a great many of them merely physiological1 into symptoms which seem to indicate serious disease and sometimes to portend extremely serious consequences4 ,charity that really touches the heart is a panacea for more ills than any remedy we have4 ,it will make even those who are sufferers from genuine disease often of severe or almost fatal character ever so much more comfortable1 and it has #hf furnished some invalids with such occupation of mind and heart as has enabled them to do a great deal of good in the world4 ,a great many of us know of one bedridden lady1 utterly unable to sit up1 who has succeeded in organizing throughout the country branches of an extremely valuable organization which helps the poor to provide proper clothing for their infants and has saved many lives and made many homes happier4 ,there are a great many people who are afraid lest they should do harm by their charity and who apparently fail to realize that it is their own selfishness which takes refuge in the excuse that doing things for others may possibly pauperize the objects of their beneficence4 ,as ,john ,ruskin reminded us in ,sesame and ,lilies1 it is extremely important not to let ourselves be deceived by any of the very common talk of indiscriminate charity4 ,he adds1 in one of those passages of his that only he could write and that are so full of the meat of thought for those who care to think about such subjects3 ,the order to us is not to feed the deserving hungry1 nor the industrious hungry1 nor the amiable and well-intentioned hungry1 but simply to feed the hungry4 ,it is quite true1 infallibly true1 that if any man will not work1 neither should he eat--think of that1 and every time you sit down to your dinner1 ladies and gentlemen1 say solemnly1 before you ask a blessing1 ',how much work have ,i done to-day for my dinner8' ,but the proper way to enforce that order on those below you1 as well as on yourselves1 is not to leave vagabonds and honest people to starve together1 but very distinctly to discern and seize your vagabond2 and shut your vagabond up out of honest people's way1 and very sternly then see that1 until he has worked1 he does not eat4 #hg ,works of charity under religious impulses have always constituted an excellent resource for people inclined to be overoccupied with themselves and who need the stimulus of contact with those in suffering to make them realize that their own troubles are largely the result of too much preoccupation with trifling discomforts of various kinds or even with symptoms of various affections which must be borne and which will cause much less suffering and general disturbance of health if there is the distraction of sincere and deep interest in others4 ,anything that will act as a brake on the working of the ,law of ,avalanche which is discussed in the chapter on ,pain and which serves to increase all suffering through subjective influences will do human beings a great deal of good4 ,as a rule nothing is so effective in this direction as preoccupation with the much severer ills of other people4 ,the seven corporal works of mercy1 as they were called1 that is1 the seven modes of succoring those in need which ,st4 ,paul suggested every ,christian should practice1 are particularly valuable for the neurotic individuals whom1 like the poor and needy1 we have always with us1 but who have multiplied so much more in this generation because a great many people have not enough to occupy their time properly1 but above all have not enough exercise of their heart impulses and their affections to satisfy this imperative need of humanity4 ,women particularly must be afforded1 as a rule1 the opportunity to mother somebody who requires their care4 ,if they have no children of their own1 and with the loosening of the bonds of religion more and more of them have not1 then they will seldom be happy unless the chance is provided for them to devote the emotional side of their #hh natures to other human beings who need them and whose needs constitute the best possible opportunity for the exercise of the spiritual side of this precious function4 ,the seven corporal works of mercy are3 7#a7 ,to feed the hungry2 7#b7 ,to give drink to the thirsty2 7#c7 ,to clothe the naked2 7#d7 ,to harbor the harborless2 7#e7 ,to visit and ransom the captive2 7#f7 ,to visit the sick2 and 7#g7 ,to bury the dead4 ,these represented a list of very definite duties which children were taught to repeat from memory when they were young2 and they were told very simply that if they did not take the opportunity to perform them they were really not doing their ,christian duty4 ,to visit the sick1 for instance1 meant not only to spend an hour or two with a sick relative1 but to seek out those who were sick and poor and had no one to care for them and make some provision for them4 ,some of the old hospital visiting customs in this regard are extremely interesting1 inasmuch as they reveal the resource that this must have been to people who are usually thought of as being occupied solely with social duties in the much narrower sense of the term4 ,martin ,luther tells in one of his letters that during his visit to ,italy about four hundred years ago1 one of the things that proved a great source of edification to him was the fact that the ladies of the nobility in the ,italian cities made it a custom to visit the hospitals regularly and to spend hours at a time there and do things for the patients with their own hands4 ,some of them wore veils while they were performing this beautiful service in order that they might not be recognized1 lest what they did should come to be talked about1 and they did not want to practice their charity for the sake of publicity4 ,the people of the old time were often as intent on avoiding publicity as our generation1 as a rule1 #hi seems to be intent on securing it4 ,almost needless to say ostentatious philanthropy is not charity and has none of the reactionary good effects for the doer to be found in real charity4 ,it must not be forgotten that whenever hospitals are visited regularly thus by the better-to-do classes there is very little likelihood of serious abuses creeping into them4 ,the care of even the very poor patients is kept at a high standard because these visitors see the beginnings of abuses and either bring about their correction at once1 or else devote themselves to some modification of hospital routine that will prevent the recurrence of such unfortunate conditions4 ,religion thus proved a stimulus to the better care of the ailing poor that was a distinct benefit to the health of the community4 ,it was when hospitals ceased to be the object of such attention on the part of the better-to-do people that they ran down into the awful condition which prevailed so generally in them even less than a century ago4 ,burdett in his ,history of ,hospitals has not hesitated to say that hospitals placed in the midst of cities and visited regularly by the well-to-do represent a great social instrument for the betterment of all sorts of social conditions4 ,the wealthy are kept from being selfish1 the poor from being envious1 the classes of the community are not so separated that they fail to understand each other1 and both of them are greatly benefited by the experiences which bring them together4 ,burdett has gone even further and insisted that the support of hospitals1 by the ,state1 because it removes opportunities for charity1 is an unfortunate development in modern times4 ,those who are well able to help the poor and the ailing get the feeling that due provision is #ij made for them out of the taxes1 and that1 therefore1 no further obligation rests upon them and the needs and requirements of the poor are no concern of theirs4 ,as a consequence1 he says1 an increasing number of people are being brought up on a wrong principle and are thus led to forget the privilege and to ignore the duty of giving toward the support of those who are unable to help themselves4 ,besides pointing out how much is lost of social value and social stimulus when private charitable institutions are replaced by ,state institutions1 ,burdett emphasizes not only how much of social good is accomplished by voluntary charity1 but also how much of personal relief is afforded to some of the trials of life that often prove the source of unfortunate pathological conditions4 ,he said3 ,apart from the evils we have briefly referred to1 there is a loss to the whole community in the lessened moral sense which ,state institutions create4 ,the voluntary charities afford an opening for the encouragement and expression of the best of all human feelings1--sympathy between man and man4 ,they give to the rich an opening for the display of consideration toward the poor which is fruitful in results4 ,they create a feeling of widespread sympathy with those who suffer and impress on the population the duty of almsgiving to an extent which no other charity can do4 ,they constitute a neutral platform whereon all classes and sects can meet with unanimity and good feeling4 ,they provide a field of labor wherein some of the most devoted and best members of society can cultivate the higher feelings of humanity and learn to bear their own sufferings and afflictions with resignation and patience4 ,i have made it a practice for years1 now1 when women #ia who were without children and without any special outlet for their affections suffered from neurotic symptoms1 to prescribe that they get in touch with the ailing poor in some way4 ,especially for those trying patients who complain of inability to sleep well1 a feeling of depression when they awake1 a lack of appetite1 but also a lack of incentive to do anything and a tendency to stay much in the house and by themselves1 a condition which not infrequently develops in childless women shortly before and after what is called the change of life1 no prescription is so valuable as hospital visiting1 or where that is impossible for some reason1 at least to make it a rule to visit sick friends regularly4 ,i have seen women suffering severely from neurotic symptoms that made life miserable for them become not only quite reconciled to existence1 sleep better and eat better1 but actually find some of their first real satisfaction in life as the result of discovering that they could visit the orthopedic ward of a hospital regularly1 tell stories to the crippled children and bring them little toys1 help to make ,easter and the ,fourth of ,july and ,thanksgiving ,day and ,christmas and ,new ,year's happier for them4 ,i have known women who thought after some serious domestic affliction that they could never be happy again1 to find1 if not happiness1 at least satisfaction in life after they had visited a cancer home regularly for some time and had seen with what cheerfulness patients could face the inevitably fatal affection which they knew was gradually sapping life and carrying them day by day into the shadow of death4 ,no therapeusis that ,i know is so valuable for the stony grief without tears that some women exhibit after a great loss as the ward for crippled children or some regular visiting of incurable patients4 #ib ,to visit and ransom the captives1 that is1 to visit prisoners and help them in any way possible1 is a work of mercy that comparatively few people in our day seem to think they are under any obligations to do merely because they are ,christians4 ,they took this duty very seriously in the older time1 however1 and the result was excellent for the prisoners as well as for those who visited them4 ,when condemned to serve a sentence and then left to wear out prison existence for years as best he can1 seeing only his fellow prisoners and his keepers1 a prisoner is very likely to grow bitter4 ,in not a few of the prisoners1 health of body and even of mind gives way under these hard conditions4 ,if the prisoners were visited at definite intervals by some one willing to listen a little patiently to their story1 for there is always another side to every story--even though the other side may not be very true--and who would occasionally bring them little things like tobacco as a solace or reading matter to occupy idle hours1 and who would promise to interest himself in securing any favors that were possible and to see that they were given advantage of every benefit allowed them by the law1 they would have less of the feeling that they were outcasts of society4 ,it is because the corporal works of mercy as representing serious ,christian duties somehow have come to be neglected that we have had this rather disturbing social problem of the bitter-minded prisoner so likely to get into prison again thrust upon us4 ,but it is also because of the lack of such a fine human interest as is afforded by contact with prisoners who show some hope of reform that many an overoccupied business man suffers from such profound weariness of life that rest cures and special vacations have to be prescribed for him4 #ic ,i once had a bachelor friend whom ,i had known for many years come to me as a patient1 and though he had been a model of common sense1 whom ,i had been accustomed to think of as utterly without nerves1 ,i was surprised to find how many neurotic symptoms were gradually developing in him4 ,he had lost his sister who had made a home life and a heart interest for him1 and he had no near relatives2 he had nothing but his business to occupy him2 he had no hobby and no interest in that direction that seemed likely to develop1 and ,i wondered what ,i should advise him to occupy himself with to keep him from getting further on his own nerves4 ,he had an extremely important and correspondingly difficult position involving the carrying of a heavy burden of responsibility for a great many rather complex details of a huge business4 ,a chance remark of his own in pity for a young fellow whom his corporation had found cheating and had felt itself compelled to prosecute--for example's sake--led me to suggest the visiting of prisoners4 ,for years that man spent several hours on two or three ,sundays of every month visiting the prisoners of a large city4 ,he gathered around him a group of men who found a good deal of satisfaction in that work4 ,he himself began to sleep better and wiped off the slate of life a series of dreads and obsessions that he was beginning to foster4 ,men often talk of the blue devils getting hold of them1 but it is often just a case of the devil finding work not for idle hands but for idle hearts4 ,especially at ,christmas and ,easter he used to have as good a time1 in the best sense of that expression1 with his little brothers of the prison as any father and mother ever had with a house full of children4 ,he once told me some of his experiences in a way that revealed his tactfulness in the #id handling of these sensitive fellow mortals that was one of the most interesting revelations of the ,christian gentleman ,i think ,i have ever had given me4 ,to harbor the harborless as a work of mercy1 when stated in this form1 seemed to me as a child1 when ,i learned it in the catechism1 some wonderful exhibition of charity for shipwrecked mariners4 ,i could not help but think that it must be harborless sailors who needed to be harbored4 ,stories of even two or three generations ago here in ,america show how seriously this ,christian duty of the old-fashioned words was taken4 ,there are still many country places1 in the mountains of ,kentucky and ,tennessee particularly1 where a family will take in a stranger for the night if he happens to be in their neighborhood4 ,they will give him his supper and breakfast too--or they would a few years ago--and likely would be insulted if he offered to pay for them4 ,they have performed a simple duty of hospitality which comes down to them by tradition from the older time4 ,a man who is still alive told me that when he was young1 and two or three of his brothers slept in the bed with him1 occasionally they would find1 when they woke in the morning1 that father had taken in a stranger during the night1 and since there was no other place for him than the children's big bed on the floor1 the children had been crowded over and room had been made for him with them4 ,this happened not in the south1 but in ,pennsylvania4 ,i know that my old grandmother long ago1 living in a one-roomed house with an attic1 used to take in the greenhorns from ,ireland in this manner and give the men shelter and food until they could get a job2 and give the girls who came a lodging and a chance to learn something about plain ,american cooking and the care #ie of a house until they would be ready to take a place in service4 ,almost needless to say1 this exercise of hospitality proved a very interesting diversion for people whose lives were rather monotonous4 ,i feel sure that it must have meant much for the relief of that dissatisfaction with life because it lacks variety which is so often the first symptom of a neurosis4 ,the stranger brought the news from a distance2 the greenhorns brought news from ,ireland1 and many things were talked over while they ate their meals or sat around the fire in the evening1 and it proved real entertainment4 ,this was not the motive for which the charity was offered1 for that was1 as a rule1 as ,christian as it could be1 but it represented that reward which is so often--it cannot but be divinely--attached to a good deed and which brings so much satisfaction with it4 ,our entertainment of guests1 as a rule1 is very different4 ,above all it entails no personal effort4 ,even when people are invited to dinner nowadays1 hostesses seem to consider it necessary to ask somebody to entertain them1 for if they should be permitted to entertain themselves or be asked to make an effort to make their own conversation entertaining1 they would probably be almost bored to death4 ,is it any wonder that our fulfilment of so-called social duties often proves nerve-racking and a season of it must be followed by a rest cure while old-fashioned hospitality did good to the doer and the recipient8 ,ours is the selfish striving of social aspirations2 theirs was an exercise of real charity1 an external expression of the dearness of fellow mortals4 ,above all1 the presence in a household of an occasional guest who is not a relative is good for family life4 ,it #if relieves the monotony1 often relaxes domestic tension1 gives a new zest to living and cements personal friendships4 ,to feed the hungry1 to give drink to the thirsty and to clothe the naked were1 in the ,christian ritual of corporal works of mercy1 not obligations to be accomplished by writing one's name on a piece of bank paper and passing it over to a social service society of some kind1 nor by handing a few bills to some almoner who distributes condescendingly your dole to the poor4 ,some one has very well said that the only action calling for any reward in such activities is the effort required to write one's signature or reach into the pocket for the money4 ,the rest of the transaction is only a matter of debit and credit on a bank balance and makes practically no difference in most cases to the individual who gives it4 ,the most compelling motive for charity in our time is that you might as well give up to fifteen per cent of your income1 for if you do not the government will take it anyhow4 ,so have the satisfaction of getting ahead of ,uncle ,sam4 ,charity in the older time was thought to be actual1 personal work for others4 ,it is this personal service which carries its reward with it1 often by provision of needed physical exercise1 always by happy occupation of mind1 affording the opportunity for the satisfaction of heart impulses with the many other personal reactions which enter into true charity4 ,religious teaching furnishes an abundance of examples of even kings and queens and the higher nobility and of wealthy merchants and their wives who devoted themselves to personal service in the performance of these works of mercy4 ,st4 ,louis of ,france1 ,st4 ,ferdinand of ,castille1 ,st4 ,catherine of ,siena1 though she was only a dyer's daughter in this group of notabilities1 #ig ,st4 ,elizabeth of ,hungary1 ,st4 ,margaret of ,scotland and the good ,queen ,maud her daughter1 ,dick ,whittington 7of the cat71 ,lord ,mayor of ,london and many others1--all these were held up as symbols of what people ought to do in the matter of personal service4 ,there is often the feeling at the present time that when people give to charity it is not infrequently because they have heard some recent harrowing reports of the condition of the poor or have been brought in contact with some particularly pitiable case1 and that the memory of these is likely to recur to them and intrude on their social satisfactions unless they can do something to make them feel that they have at least tried to fulfill their duty in the way of affording relief4 ,a merchant on the way home from business who meets a beggar on the streets knows that as a rule1 if he gives money1 it will do harm rather than good1 but he knows too that when he is comfortably seated after dinner before the fire1 with his coffee and his cigar before him1 if the thought of the beggar that he refused comes to him1 it will make him uncomfortable4 ,to give with the idea of avoiding such discomforts is1 of course1 not charity1 but refined selfishness1 and it is no wonder that it lacks the surpassing sense of satisfaction which helps so much in making life more full of the feeling of usefulness4 ,this is not the charity that does as much good for the doer as for the receiver of it4 ,in our time settlement work1 neighborhood houses and the like have represented this personal service which religion in the older time listed under the various titles of the corporal works of mercy4 ,many physicians have learned that young women particularly who had not very much to do1 indeed perhaps no definite duties and yet #ih had an abundance of vital energy which had to be expended in some way1 found very interesting and satisfying occupation of mind in connection with settlement work4 ,above all they secured an opportunity for the exercise of the heart impulses1 so natural to women1 and which must almost as necessarily be expended on something as the physical energies which they develop every day must be employed in some sort of labor if they are not to be short-circuited and make them miserable4 ,it is perfectly possible and even easy to pervert heart impulses which might be the source of good for self and others1 into sexuality of various kinds1 whether that be exhibited in philanderings with the male dancers employed by the hotels to make thes dansants interesting for feminine youth--and also idle middle age--or in love affairs with the family chauffeur4 ,they will find an issue some way almost inevitably4 ,it may be that writing notes to the latest matinee idol or even letting one's feelings be properly harrowed up at performances of sex-problem plays may prove sufficient for a time1 but something more will be demanded before long1 and there must be something real to satisfy natural cravings4 ,there is probably no better safeguard against the tendency of the young heart to overflow on unworthy objects than to give it the opportunity to exercise itself on unselfish aims which lead up to the fine satisfactions to be derived from helpfulness for others4 ,settlement work and cognate personal activities have so organized the opportunity for this that young women do not have to travel in perilous neighborhoods except under such circumstances as reasonably assure their safety from insult or aggression of any kind4 ,the charity that prompts occupation with such activities often leads to #ii a development of character1 while at the same time affording such exercise of body and mind as greatly promotes that eminently desirable end1--the possession of a healthy mind in a healthy body4 ,there is much discussion at the present time over sex dangers for young people1 but it must not be forgotten that these are mainly due to the sexual incitements which we are fostering in the dance hall and the theater and the cabaret supper room1 while the best possible corrective for sexual erethism is to be found in contact with some of the misery of the world4 ,the remedy is at hand1 but unfortunately it is not made use of as a rule1 and we wonder why evils increase as selfishness becomes more rampant4 ,john ,ruskin summed up the situation with regard to the young women of our time in his address on ,the ,mystery of ,life and its ,arts 7,sesame and ,lilies71 in words that deserve to be in the notebook of every one who hopes to be able to help the young over some of the difficult parts of their path through life in our time4 ,you may see continually girls who have never been taught to do a single useful thing thoroughly2 who cannot sew1 who cannot cook1 who cannot cast an account1 nor prepare a medicine1 whose whole life has been passed either in play or in pride2 you will find girls like these1 when they are earnest-hearted1 cast all their innate passion of religious spirit1 which was meant by ,god to support them through the irksomeness of daily toil1 into grievous and vain meditation over the meaning of the great ,book1 of which no syllable was ever yet to be understood but through a deed2 all the instinctive wisdom and mercy of their womanhood made vain1 and the glory of their pure consciences warped into fruitless agony concerning questions which the laws of common1 serviceable life #ajj would have either solved for them in an instant1 or kept out of their way4 ,give such a girl any true work that will make her active in the dawn and weary at night1 with the consciousness that her fellow creatures have indeed been the better for her day1 and the powerless sorrow of her enthusiasm will transform itself into a majesty of radiant and beneficent peace4 ,the friendly visiting of the poor is an old-fashioned ,christian practice which had lapsed1 unfortunately1 until it was restored to some extent at least by the great work of ,frederick ,ozanam of ,paris4 ,the conferences of ,st4 ,vincent de ,paul organized by him in ,paris while he was professor of the university there about one hundred years ago had for their principal object the visitation of the poor1 not so much for the purpose of giving them alms as of helping them with advice1 making them feel that there are people interested in them1 and giving them a new sense of human dignity2 though also providing them with such necessaries as they might be in immediate want of and1 above all1 securing them occupations whenever they were needed4 ,i have known many men who have developed a new and vigorous sense of life as a consequence of learning that they could be so useful to others as the ,ozanam organization permitted them to be4 ,for a great many men some such escape from the sordid routine of daily business life is needed4 ,this is particularly true when they have passed a little beyond middle age1 which for me is not beyond fifty1 as so many people seem to think1 but thirty-five1 the period indicated by ,dante in the first line of his ,divine ,comedy as marking the mid-point of existence4 ,after forty1 particularly1 most men who take life seriously and do not merely try #aja to make money and kill the intervening time that hangs heavily on their hands in any way that they can1 as a rule lose their interest in reading novels and do not care for the trivial plays of our time4 ,they need diversion4 ,they are not likely to get it at the opera unless they are very musically inclined4 ,card-playing may prove an excellent diversion and one that personally ,i think ever so much better than the reading of trivial novels1 but there are a great many men to whom it has no appeal4 ,if they stay at home they are likely to fall asleep in their chairs over the evening paper or a current magazine1 and nothing in the world makes one feel so uncomfortable or so spoils an evening as to go to sleep in that way4 ,if they are particularly occupied with business affairs these may intrude themselves on their evening hours1 but they very soon learn the lesson that it is dangerous to take business home with them4 ,they need some serious occupation of mind quite different from what occupies them during the day4 ,professional men find something of this in the meetings of professional societies1 but they too need a heart interest1 a sympathy interest for their fellow man quite as well as the women4 ,many of them find it with their children as these grow up around them1 and family life will help very much4 ,but as the children grow older and have their own interests in the evenings1 father is more and more likely to be left by himself1 and then he needs something that will occupy him in some broad1 human way4 ,a good hobby of any kind would be a saving grace1 but hobbies1 to be effective1 should be cultivated from early in life4 ,one cannot be created easily at need after forty4 ,for such men friendly visiting of the poor1 for it is only in the evenings that the man of the house can be #ajb seen1 since he is always at work during the day1 will often prove a most valuable resource4 ,in a number of instances ,i have suggested to men who were beginning to get on their own nerves that they interest themselves in this way and have been rather well satisfied with the results when they took the advice seriously4 ,in a few cases ,i have seen really wonderful results when it seemed almost inevitable that men were drifting into dangerous neurotic conditions because they were living lives too narrow in their interests and above all so self-centered that they were dwelling on slight discomforts and exaggerating them into symptoms of disease4 ,contact with the suffering that one sees among the city poor is a wonderful remedy for neurotic tendencies to make too much of one's own feelings1 for the poor almost as a rule face the real ills of life with a simplicity and a courage that inevitably causes any one who is brought close to them to admire them and to feel that his own trials are trifles compared to what these people undergo with very little whimpering4 ,there is another phase of charity1 probably unintentional in its activity and almost unconscious1 that is extremely interesting and has a very definite place in a discussion of health and religion4 ,some men who have made a success in life far beyond their neighbors have preferred to continue dwelling in their old home rather than move into the quarter of the city to which their changed circumstances would have permitted them to go4 ,such families represent the very best possible kind of settlements in the poorer quarters of the city and help more than anything else to keep a neighborhood from running down in such a way as to make life harder for the poor who dwell there4 ,the old walled cities are often #ajc said to have been almost intolerably unhealthy because of the inevitable crowding of the population which they compelled1 and undoubtedly they were a fruitful source of disease and ills of many kinds for the population2 and yet it is doubtful whether any old-time city was ever so insanitary as the slums of our modern crowded cities were a generation ago or are even in many places at the present time4 ,there was one feature of the old cities whose obliteration one cannot help but regret4 ,the better-to-do families often lived on the front part of a city lot while the less well-to-do1 often indeed the men who worked for the proprietor of the house in front1 lived on the back of it4 ,this was true particularly in many foreign cities and continued until a few generations ago4 ,this arrangement kept the conditions of living1 so far as regards the middle class of the poor1 from being so markedly indifferent as they are at the present time4 ,those who lived in the rear knew all the happenings1 the births and deaths among their employers1 while the family in the front took an interest in the events1 the births and deaths and illnesses in the families in the rear4 ,this proved to be valuable for social reasons1 and it kept conditions of health among the poor from degenerating in anything like the way that has happened in modern times4 ,the mutual personal interests did a great deal more to make life more satisfactory and more full of good feeling than the relationships of classes to each other do in our time1 and this reacted to make a state of mind much more conducive to health than would otherwise have been the case4 ,such associations would seem to be almost impossible in modern days1 and yet the late ,mr4 ,thomas ,mulry1 #ajd president of the ,immigrants ,savings ,bank1 at a time when1 ,i believe1 it was the largest savings bank in the world1 continued to live down among the poorer folk to whom so much of his life was devoted for years after families of his standing in the financial world had long moved out4 ,our present governor of ,new ,york has declared his intention of continuing his residence among his friends in the old ,seventh ,ward1 and undoubtedly his presence there will mean much not only for the health of those around him1 but also for the health of his family because of the simple life which is so likely to be perpetuated in these surroundings4 ,for such social work as this1 religious motives are probably the most efficient impulses4 ,nothing is quite so direct a denial of the brotherhood of man that religion teaches as the tendency for people to move away from old neighbors into the better quarters of the cities just as soon as they are any way able4 ,such reasoning may seem idealistic and impractical1 but then religion is the typically ideal and impractical thing in life which teaches that self-advantage is not so important as advantage for all those around one1 and that man's principal duty in life is to love his neighbor as himself4 ,how often has it happened that the building of the new house in a new neighborhood proves the last straw which serves to make an end of the good health and heartiness of life which the head of the family had enjoyed up to this time4 ,the new habits that are necessitated1 the interference with the active life which had been customary up to this time and above all the more luxurious living1 very often with less exercise1 which come under the new conditions bring about deterioration of health4 ,the move is made for the sake of the #aje young people1 but it takes the old folks out of the precious1 simple habits of a life-time which meant much for the preservation of health1 so that it is no wonder that many a physician has had a patient whose breakdown in health followed not long after the move to a new and handsome house that carried people away from their old associations and their old neighbors and left them without those heart resources which are so important for the preservation of a healthy mind in a healthy body4 ,it is men1 not things1 that count in life1 though that lesson is hard for many to learn4 ,for a while1 toward the end of the nineteenth century1 owing to a misunderstanding of the significance of the struggle for existence1 there came to be the feeling that sympathy and helpfulness for others was somehow contrary to modern scientific principles and that it represented at best a sentimentality that could scarcely hope to be effective and was indeed sure to fail in the long run because it was in opposition1 though to but a very slight degree1 to nature's inevitable elimination of the weak4 ,further investigations in biology1 however1 have revealed the fact that while the struggle for existence is an important factor in whatever evolution takes place1 mutual aid is another factor of scarcely less importance in general and of supreme significance within the species4 ,while one species preys on another1 the members of the same species usually possess certain deep-seated instincts of helpfulness4 ,only at times when there is famine or when a mother is seeking food for her young do members of the same species seriously interfere with each other's activities1 or injure each other1 while a great many of them have mutually helpful instincts that are extremely precious for personal as well as generic developments4 #ajf ,the smaller living things1 as the insects1 dwell together in communities and perform their duties constantly with the community benefit rather than personal satisfaction in view4 ,it might be said perhaps that these small creatures would have to be gifted in some such way to secure their preservation in the struggle for existence and their defense against their enemies4 ,the larger animals1 however1 have the same helpful instincts4 ,wild horses run in droves and when attacked by a pack of wolves--the wolves hunting in packs because they can thus secure their prey better--the horses gather in a circle with their heads facing in and the young foals and the mares in the center1 and only a battery of heels is presented to the attackers4 ,even such large animals as elephants travel in herds1 with the huge bull elephants on the outskirts of the herd ready to hurl back any of the big cats1 the lions or tigers who might spring to get one of those toothsome morsels1 a baby elephant1 traveling with its mother near the center of the herd4 ,smaller animals live in villages and groups of various kinds1 and those of the same species are often helpful to each other in many ways4 ,manifestly the great law of charity in a certain basic way at least pervades all nature4 ,nature may be red in tooth and claw1 but brother animals very often have by instinct a fellow feeling that is a factor in the preservation of the race4 ,the idea that the discovery of the struggle for existence and the preservation of favorite races in that way has in any fashion neutralized the law of charity is entirely a mistake4 ,men in their selfishness have occasionally asserted this1 and above all those who felt uncomfortable because their own selfish successes were1 as they could plainly see1 causing a great deal of discomfort and sometimes the ruin of others4 ,it was #ajg once suggested that when the nurseryman wants to grow specially beautiful ,american ,beauty roses he is careful to eliminate all except a few buds1 so that these may have an opportunity to grow to the greatest possible perfection1 and that this same policy pursued in human affairs led to the production of such great institutions as the ,standard ,oil ,company4 ,this was a particularly odorous comparison2 it was made some twenty years ago4 ,almost needless to say every one sees the absurdity of it now1 though at that time there were not a few who thought that the biological principle of the struggle for existence justified even the hurting of rivals in order to secure success4 ,the ,great ,war completed the elimination of such ideas4 ,it was undertaken with the thought that any nation or people who could dominate the world was bound to do so1 because that was manifest destiny for the benefit of the race4 ,just as it took our ,civil ,war to end the defense of slavery in the ,united ,states1 so it has taken the ,great ,war to end such pretensions and bring out the fact that mutual aid1 and above all charity undertaken out of real love for others through a divine motive must be the rule for men1 while its symbol1 mutual aid among the members of the various species1 constitutes an important element for the preservation of the various races and the working out of the great laws that underlie all nature4 ,we in our generation were the inheritors of a philosophy of life which1 for a time in what has now come to be called the silly seventies1 people thought could do away entirely with the necessity for a ,creator and with the idea of a ,providence because it seemed to them as though the suffering in the world around them contravened their notion of an all-wise ,power capable of #ajh relieving suffering and yet not doing so4 ,the doctrine of the survival of the fittest seemed to many a demonstration that victory was to the strongest or to the swiftest1 and that the rest must simply go to the wall or lag behind in the race of life4 ,the doctrine of the superman seemed to be the very latest discovery of science1 but now1 after having fought a great war to overthrow that doctrine1 the world is much readier to go back and take up the thread of the philosophy of the race before the theory of the struggle for existence came to figure so largely in it4 ,we have come to realize that everywhere in nature there is a great law of mutual aid within its species impressed upon all living things1 and this is even more applicable to the human species than to those of the lower orders4 #aji ,,chapter ,v ,,fasting ,,and ,,abstinence ,practically all religions have enjoined fasting as a part of their practice1 either as a sacrifice made to higher powers or a recognition of the fact that occasional voluntary abstinence from food gave man a power of control over himself which represented a real religious gain in his relations with the deity4 ,we have heard not a little in modern times of the evils to health consequent upon the abuse of fasting and of the limitation of food generally4 ,appetite must rule the quantity to be eaten1 and this must not be interfered with by religious motives or health will suffer4 ,undoubtedly imprudent fasting1 like the abuse of anything else1 no matter how good in itself1 has done no little harm4 ,so much has been said1 however1 of the hysterical and neurotic conditions which resulted in women particularly1 who out of an exaggerated sense of piety ate less than was necessary to support their bodies properly1 that a rather violent prejudice has been created in many minds with regard to fasting as if it were an old-fashioned superstitious practice which our progress in knowledge and in the proper understanding of man1 and his relations to the higher powers had enabled us to see the foolishness of and do away with for good and all4 ,careful observations made in the course of the advance of modern scientific medicine have1 however1 made it #aaj very clear that periodical abstinences from food1 or at least certain foods1 especially among people who are accustomed to eat rather heartily1 instead of being in any way a detriment to health1 are practically always a distinct hygienic advantage4 ,physicians are not likely to take seriously such expressions as that most people dig their graves with their teeth or that eating too much is the bane of the race1 but they appreciate very well that there are a great many people1 especially among the better-to-do classes1 who eat more than is good for them4 ,it is just the people who have least exercise and need the least food who are tempted by the variety and tastiness of modern food to eat too much4 ,any practice that would limit this would undoubtedly be good4 ,fasting and abstinence1 because periodic1 would be especially valuable1 for they are likely to do less harm than any continued limitation of food4 ,the one phase of modern sanitation and hygiene1 as made clear from the mortality records of the departments of health of our cities1 that has been seriously disturbing in recent years1 has been the increase in mortality among people above the age of fifty4 ,we have been very properly proud of the fact that we have reduced municipal death rates and made the average length of life much longer than it used to be4 ,we have done this1 however1 by saving more young children and by greatly lessening the infectious diseases among young adults1 but the deaths from apoplexy1 ,bright's disease and heart disease1 just when life is at its most valuable stage1 have increased and not diminished4 ,the tendencies to these serious degenerative diseases are due1 it is well understood1 ever so much more to overeating than to undereating4 ,this is particularly true as regards the overeating of meat and other foods #aaa rich in proteid materials which have been the special subject of religious fasting regulation4 ,religion then1 by inculcating the practice of fasting and abstinence from flesh meat at certain times1 has conferred a great benefit on the race4 ,one fish day in the week1 for instance1 all the year round1 has in the minds of a great many physicians given nearly as much rest to the digestive tract and certain of the more delicate metabolic processes of the body as ,sunday freedom from labor has given to the mind and the body generally4 ,the fact that a large part of our population will eat no meat on ,friday and must have fish leads to a commercial provision of fresh fish on that day in the week1 of which practically all the community1 including those who feel no religious obligation in the matter1 takes advantage4 ,abstinence from meat1 however1 is quite a different thing from fasting1 and ,friday is a day of abstinence and not of fast4 ,the fast days come at certain periods of the year1 as in ,advent and ,lent1 and certain days which are specially designated4 ,the keeping of ,lent1 during which for forty days people are expected to eat one third less than they have been accustomed to1 is a very valuable institution4 ,i am not one of those who think1 that everybody eats too much and who like to be constantly insisting that people are destroying their lives by overeating1 but ,i know very well that considerably more than half of humanity eat more than is good for them4 ,i know1 too1 that about one fourth of humanity does not eat enough for its own good1 and that unfortunately a good many of these are taking the warnings with regard to eating to heart1 though those who need them most are neglecting them4 ,practically everybody who is overweight is eating too much and exercising too little4 ,a #aab good many people who are underweight are eating too little4 ,considerably more than one half of adult mankind1 however1 would be benefited by keeping rather strictly the regulations for the ,lenten season4 ,the fact that the ,sundays are not in ,lent and that good1 hearty meals can be eaten on that day gives assurance that people are not likely to be hurt by the fast4 ,i think that most of the physicians of the world would agree that the great majority of men and women would be benefited by the rest and change which their metabolic processes receive as a result of limitation of eating1 and the observance of ecclesiastical regulations as to the modification of food4 ,the reduction in meat eating and the production to some extent of a taste for the white rather than the dark foods generally1 for butter and eggs and creamed vegetables rather than the meat soups and meat sauces and the dark1 heavy meats1 so rich in the irritative extractives1 is undoubtedly of distinct hygienic advantage4 ,of late years particularly1 probably much more meat than is good for people has been eaten4 ,the better-to-do classes have gradually come to the fashion of removing the fat1 cutting off all the connective tissue portions of their meat and serving it or eating it in solid muscular masses1 which is neither conducive to good digestion and elimination nor to the proper building up of the body4 ,too many irritant materials are thus consumed1 and it is no wonder that that properly dreaded disease1 arterio-sclerosis1 the hardening of the arteries1 representing premature lessening of the elasticity of the tubes which convey the blood on which vital processes depend to so great a degree1 has begun to be much more frequent than it used to be4 ,there is agreement among physicians that #aac a rich meat diet has much to do with this and that excessive meat eating is a growing evil in our time4 ,only religion could accomplish a change in this tendency1 for there is an allurement about meat which grows as more of it is taken4 ,this can be noticed in children very readily1 and human habits in civilized countries have unfortunately followed a direction in this matter that requires some profound influence to modify them4 ,not that meat is of itself a deleterious substance1 nor one that should not be eaten1 for there is no reason in nature for vegetarianism2 but excess in eating it1 like excess in anything else1 may do serious harm4 ,nature1 and when we use the word we mean nature's ,god1 set an index that is infallible as to the variety of our diet when we were given cutting and tearing as well as grinding teeth4 ,the presence of both these varieties of teeth1 though the meat-eating animals have only the incisors and canines1 while the plant-eating animals have only the molars or grinders1 makes it clear beyond all doubt that human beings were meant to eat meat1 but in this1 as in everything else1 excess must be avoided1 and if it is not serious consequences follow4 ,a great many are inclined to think of abstinence as representing abstinence from food alone1 but it must not be forgotten that as understood in connection with religion it represents abstinence from all the harmful things4 ,for instance1 it represents abstinence from sleep when that is being taken to excess1 and as a rule any healthy human being above the age of twenty and under sixty who sleeps more than eight hours in the day needs to practice such abstinence4 ,there is literally such a thing as oversleeping and thus accumulating more energy than one has use for4 ,the surplus energy is then used up #aad within the individual to the disturbance of functions of various kinds4 ,many a woman who has no children and who lives in an apartment hotel and has no duties that she has to get up for eats breakfast in bed1 and does not rise until after eleven o'clock1 after having gone to bed the night before sometime around midnight1 and then wonders why she feels so miserable4 ,nothing would do her more good than to be out a little after eight in the morning briskly walking somewhere with the idea of helping some one else4 ,she needs to practice abstinence of a very definite kind4 ,then there are others who abstain too much from exercise4 ,whenever they go out they ride either in a trolley car or in a machine2 the idea of walking a mile is disturbing to them and walking three or four miles seems utterly out of the question4 ,some of them are gaining in weight and are already overweight2 they are wondering why they cannot bring themselves down and perhaps they are practicing abstinence of all kinds for that purpose4 ,the famous ,english statesman4 ,lord ,palmerston1 who lived in good health to be a very old man and was for sixty years very prominent in ,english politics1 was well known for the amount of exercise that he took4 ,his maxim with regard to it should be very well known4 ,he said1 ,every other abstinence will not make up for abstinence from exercise4 ,there are a great many people who are abstaining too much from exercise and need to abstain from rest4 ,if they would do so for religious motives1 and there are a number of people who keep themselves going when they are tired by these motives1 they would not only accomplish a very great deal for their health1 but they would at the same time make their religion mean ever so much more in a practical way in life4 #aae ,the religious custom of setting a day of fasting before a feast day and of introducing three ,ember ,days before some of the larger feasts and at certain seasons of the year when1 owing to the abundance of food provided for the day of rejoicing1 people are likely to overeat1 has been extremely beneficial as a simple matter of health conservation and prophylaxis against the effects of overeating4 ,it has always been the custom to provide better and ampler meals on the feast days and if these are prepared for by a day of fasting1 when one third less at least than usual is eaten1 the stomach and digestive tract generally come to the full table much more ready for the feast4 ,an old medical friend once suggested that the only things in the world worth while considering in matters of health are contrast and microbes4 ,from the fast to the feast one gets the contrast and the variety in life distinctly makes for better resistance against microbic invasion4 ,the ,church believes in the satisfaction of reasonable appetites and encourages the feast days and their celebration by a larger provision of good things1 but conserves health and disciplines the moral character at the same time by inserting the fast days before them4 ,the occurrence of feast days at regular intervals so that a special gratification of the appetite is looked forward to has been declared by most physicians who have considered the subject to be an excellent thing for health4 ,monotony of diet begets sluggish digestion4 ,in some very serious diseases1 as for instance occasionally in ,bright's disease and rather more frequently in diabetes1 fasting periods of short duration have been found particularly valuable as therapeutic measures4 ,in certain forms of digestive disease fasting is also a valuable adjuvant1 though it needs to be used under the #aaf direction of a physician1 for people who prescribe their own fasting often fail to realize that they may weaken their digestive organs rather seriously by the process4 ,the stomach has a very good habit of passing on to the other organs the nutritious materials that come to it and will sometimes drain itself of necessary nutrition in following out this good habit in this matter4 ,people who are overweight particularly are often benefited by a fasting period1 though here too care must be exercised4 ,ecclesiastical regulations which have introduced fasting at intervals1 but with proper interruptions on ,sundays1 even when there is a prolonged period of fasting1 have certainly been beneficial to mankind4 ,the loosening of the bonds of religion in modern times and the very general persuasion that somehow we are not capable of standing such abstinence from food as was insisted upon for the people of long ago are almost surely mistakes4 ,all the nations of the world found during the war that their men could stand a great deal more than either they themselves or any one else thought they could4 ,the soldiers taken out of the comforts of our cities lived in uncovered ditches in the open fields winter and summer1 spring and fall1 rain or shine1 hail or snow1 often with wet feet and clothes frozen upon them1 with coarse food and not too much of it1 taken at irregular intervals often in cold and unappetizing form1 with interrupted sleep amid war's alarms and yet they actually came out of it in better health than they were before4 ,we hear much of hurting human nature by deprivations1 but it seems very probable that the old-fashioned habits of religious discipline with even fasting rigorously enforced1 for all who are in normal health1 would do good rather than harm4 ,not only could men stand them1 though so #aag many fear they could not1 but they would be actually benefited by them4 ,nothing is so relaxing to the physical fiber of mankind as overindulgence1 especially if continued persistently4 ,undoubtedly the old-fashioned ecclesiastical regulations would do good to the moral as well as the physical side of man and also to his mental power4 ,an over-abundance of food sets up irritations of many kinds which make people restive in mind and body and adds fuel to passion4 ,the expression in the ,scripture is ,my beloved waxed fat and kicked4 ,the people who kick over the traces of the ordinary rules of conduct in life are much oftener well fed than underfed4 ,i refer1 of course1 to the sins against self and others rather than to the sins against property4 ,fasting was always recognized as an extremely valuable adjunct in helping in the control of the passions4 ,the practice of it made a man much more capable of controlling himself4 ,the passions are all serious for health when permitted to get beyond bounds4 ,many a case of indigestion is dependent on that irritability of temper which so often develops in good feeders and then proceeds to form a vicious circle of influence1 perpetuating itself4 ,irritability of tissues is often in direct ratio to irritability of temper1 and not a few men owe both conditions to overindulgence in the pleasures of the table and failure to acquire1 to some extent at least1 such habits of self-control as the practice of fasting at intervals would help them to secure4 ,the bodily passions1 especially those related to sex1 are particularly likely to be influenced by overeating and to be brought under subjection by fasting1 while at the same time the practice of this gives strength to the will in overcoming appetites which is a very valuable auxiliary #aah for self-denial and self-control4 ,all the authorities in the spiritual life1 that is to say1 to use a modern way of putting it1 all the students of psychology in the olden time who devoted themselves to finding out how man could best regulate his instincts and train his will to self-control are agreed in declaring fasting particularly valuable for the proper regulation of certain very natural physical tendencies that may readily prove the source of serious temptations involving danger to health as well as to morals4 ,if fasting had done nothing else in the olden time but help men to control tendencies to sexual excess1 religion1 by its encouragement of the practice1 would be a great creditor to health4 ,one of the reasons why young folks1 particularly nowadays1 find it so hard and indeed some of them seem to think almost impossible--to control their sexual impulses1 is that they have had no practice in building up habits of control of bodily appetites and no exercise of their will power to help them to suppress the natural tendencies1 whenever these threaten their own good or that of those around them4 ,perhaps modern hygiene may in the course of time find it advisable to reintroduce days of abstinence from certain foods and definite periods of fasting into the year for the sake of their mere physical benefit1 just as holidays have been reintroduced in the last generation or so to replace the lost holydays of the older time4 ,there are undoubtedly corresponding benefits for humanity in both movements4 ,some of these have been indicated more in detail in the chapters on ,purity1 ,mortification and ,suffering1 so that the specific benefits of the practice of self-denial with regard to food and drink which religion has always encouraged may be seen in them4 ,religion #aai has always counseled plain food for growing young folks1 pointing out the dangers particularly of overeating1 feeding the sex impulses1 or at least making them extremely difficult to repress4 ,this is particularly true as regards the richer foods specially prepared with condiments that tempt the appetite and lead to the accumulation of heat-forming materials for which there is no natural outlet except hard physical exercise4 ,sugar and the sweets generally are particularly undesirable in this respect1 hence the benefit of the pious practice which makes many young folks abstain from candy during ,lent4 #abj ,,chapter ,,vi ,,holydays ,,and ,,holidays ,if religion had done nothing else for mankind than insert holydays into the year1 which came to be holidays in the best sense of the word1 the health of mankind would have a great deal for which to thank it4 ,humanity is deeply indebted for the breaks in the routine of labor which came as the result of the institution of ,church holydays of various kinds and especially for the ,sundays4 ,that every seventh day man should be free from labor was indeed a blessing4 ,how few there are who realize that the ,sundays1 taken together1 fifty-two of them1 make seven weeks and a half of vacation in the year4 ,seven weeks of continuous vacation are usually too much for most people to enjoy properly2 so long an interval palls on them4 ,coming once a week1 however1 the ,sundays are probably the most wonderful aid to health and the conservation of strength and the keeping of people in good condition that we have4 ,one of the things for which we find it hardest to forgive the ,french ,revolution is that when men tried to rule themselves by what they thought was pure reason1 they changed the observance of ,sunday every seventh day into a day of rest every tenth day4 ,there seems to have been no other reason for that except that the ,french were introducing the decimal system1 and ten seemed to be #aba the number that appealed to them4 ,perhaps there was the feeling that seven was a sort of mystical number often mentioned in the ,scriptures and deeply connected with religion4 ,their thoroughgoing reaction against the mystical made them reject it4 ,seven is1 however1 a much better number on which to regulate the day of rest than ten1 and the seventh day has been extremely valuable for mankind4 ,practically every one who has thought about the subject has recognized this1 and yet it usually needs to be called particularly to their attention to have people generally appreciate it properly4 ,mr4 ,gladstone once emphasized the great benefits which he himself had derived from it and which he felt ought to be accorded to every workingman4 ,believing in the authority of the ,lord's day as a religious institution1 ,i must1 as a matter of course1 desire the recognition of that authority by others4 ,but1 over and above this1 ,i have myself1 in the course of a laborious life1 signally experienced both its mental and its physical benefits4 ,i can hardly overstate its value in this view2 and for the interest of the working-men of this country1 alike in these and other yet higher respects1 there is nothing ,i more anxiously desire than that they should more and more highly appreciate the ,christian ,day of ,rest4 ,macaulay1 the well-known ,english historian and essayist1 emphasized particularly the fact that the rest of ,sunday1 instead of proving a detriment to mankind1 was actually an advantage4 ,during the war the ,british had to learn that lesson over again4 ,men and women in munition factories were at the beginning1 owing to the high wages1 but with the full approval of the government #abb authorities1 encouraged to labor in the factories on ,sunday as well as on other days in the week4 ,it was very soon found1 however1 that continuous labor1 instead of enabling the operatives to keep up a greater production than before1 was soon followed by a diminution in the power of production which sadly reduced the output4 ,the restoration of the ,sunday rest was promptly followed by an increased output1 for nature seems to need such a rest1 or after a while there comes a lassitude and relaxation of muscular power which actually prevents men and women from accomplishing their tasks with anything like the energy that they have under a regime of six working days followed by a day of rest4 ,only the most menial of routine labor1 requiring no thought for its accomplishment1 can be kept up without definite days of rest for relief and recuperation of forces4 ,macaulay declared3 ,we are not poorer but richer because we have1 through many ages1 rested from our labour one day in seven4 ,that day is not lost4 ,while industry is suspended1 while the plough lies in the furrow1 while the exchange is silent1 while no smoke ascends from the factory1 a process is going on quite as important to the wealth of the nation as any process which is performed on more busy days4 ,man1 the machine of machines--the machine compared with which all the contrivances of the ,watts and ,arkwrights are worthless--is repairing and winding-up1 so that he returns to his labours on the ,monday with clearer intellect1 with livelier spirits1 with renewed corporeal vigour4 ,during the ages when organized religion had the power to regulate human life much more than it has at the present time1 there were many more days of rest than the ,sundays4 ,it is surprising now to find how many days #abc in the year there were on which the ,church forbade servile labor4 ,all the ,holydays of ,obligation1 so-called1 were days of rest4 ,from the very earliest time in ,christianity there were at least two dozen of these in the year4 ,the feast days of the ,twelve ,apostles1 for instance1 were twelve holydays of obligation with no work1 and then there were of course nearly another dozen important celebrations in honor of the ,lord4 ,christmas1 and ,new ,year1 the ,annunciation on ,march #be1 ,holy ,thursday1 ,good ,friday and usually two or three days in ,easter week1 ,whitmonday and1 as time went on1 certain feast days in honor of the ,mother of the ,lord were added and then certain local saints' days in particular regions1 as for instance the patron saint of the church of the place and often of the country4 ,all together there were some thirty of these ,holydays of ,obligation1 that is one extra day every two weeks and a little more than that was a holiday1 on which no work was done4 ,as the vigils of all first-class feasts were free from labor after the vesper hour1 two in the afternoon1 and as no work was done on ,saturday afternoons after the same hour1 there were actually well above one hundred days in the year free from labor4 ,one of the awful things that happened in the social order in modern history was the obliteration of these holydays shortly after the ,reformation4 ,we are engaged1 now that we have waked up to the necessity of working people having days of recreation1 in putting the holidays back into the year4 ,we in this country have ,lincoln's ,day1 ,washington's ,birthday1 ,decoration ,day1 ,independence ,day1 ,labor ,day1 and in most of the ,states ,columbus ,day1 ,election ,day1 and ,thanksgiving ,day as well as ,christmas and ,new ,year4 ,in ,england1 in #abd order to make up for some of the holidays that have been lost1 or rather so unwarrantably taken away from the working classes1 they put in the bank holidays four times in the year1 having them occur on ,monday always1 so that from ,saturday afternoon until ,tuesday morning people are free from the obligation of laboring4 ,we know now how wise1 from a human and merely natural as well as the divine and spiritual aspect was the insertion of holydays in the year4 ,we must have more holidays2 there should be at least one every month1 and the old custom of having at least one every two weeks would be much better4 ,there are not a few people1 especially in our strenuous time1 deeply intent on human productiveness rather than on human life and happiness1 who seem inclined to think that so many holidays in the year sadly hamper the power of humanity to get things done and1 therefore1 represent a very serious waste of time4 ,those who think that1 however1 are usually in quest of some personal advantage of some very sordid kind and are not interested in the real achievements of humanity4 ,after all1 human accomplishment1 like personal advance1 depends not on how much we get done but how well it is done4 ,it is not from extremely tired1 overwrought mortals1 whose physical forces are always in tension because of the almost continuous strain to which they are subjected that we can ever expect to get any products that are really worth while4 ,slave labor may be exploited thus1 and it is possible to build barracks and railroads and even pyramids in this way1 but to erect structures of any noble kind which comprise in material form beautiful expressions of the artistic feelings of mankind1 there can be no rush of tired human beings1 but time must be taken4 #abe ,the late ,mr4 ,standish ,o',grady of ,dublin1 to whom probably more than to any one else is due the modern revival in ,irish literature which has been such an incentive for better poetry throughout the ,english-speaking world1 once discussed this question of the achievement of mankind when men are released from the obligation of continuous labor and are free to think and have the opportunity to invite their souls and be inspired to higher things4 ,it was at a dinner here in ,america1 and he was remarking the fact that every one whom he met over here in this country was busy1 busy1 ,,busy6 ,they did not apologize for the fact1 as a rule1 but on the contrary seemed to be proud of it and to think that it must be the normal state of man to be so occupied with what he was about that he was ever deeply intent on it4 ,he reminded his ,american audience that leisure was the foster-mother of nearly everything that mankind had ever done that was worth while1 for the worth-while things must have thought in them1 and thought requires time and leisure for its fulfillment4 ,mr4 ,o',grady recalled the fact that twice in the world's history when men accomplished results so great that the world will never willingly let die the monuments then created1 the most important feature of life was its leisure4 ,actually one third of the time of the men of ,greece in the ,periclean period1 that ,golden ,age of achievement1 was spent in the preparation for and the celebration of religious mysteries4 ,their greatest architectural monuments were their temples2 their finest sculptures were the figures of the gods and goddesses1 but what is not usually realized is that their literature was the product of the leisure afforded for competitions in their great religious festivals1 and their painting had a similar origin4 ,the #abf ,greeks1 like the medieval ,christians1 had a great many feast days during the year1 and on these they held games and contests of various kinds1 not only athletic but poetic1 dramatic and literary of all kinds1 for ,herodotus read his great history before the assembled multitude in the celebration of a religious festival at ,athens and was awarded a prize equivalent very probably to ten thousand dollars in our time4 ,what was true of the ,greeks was true also1 as has been said1 of the ,middle ,ages4 ,the generations which made the great ,gothic cathedrals which we have come to look upon as such triumphs of construction1 which built the magnificent abbeys and town halls and hospitals of the later ,middle ,ages1 enduring monuments of their genius in construction1 spent one third of their time in the celebration of and the preparation for religious festivals4 ,twice in the history of the world1 once in the later ,middle ,ages and in the older days in ,greece1 dramatic literature originated anew in religious mystery and morality plays4 ,the men who gave us ,magna ,charta and all the great charters of liberties that lie at the basis of modern rights and privileges in practically every country in ,europe had the time to think out the solutions of their problems in the leisure afforded by the fifty-two ,sundays and thirty ,holydays of ,obligation which they were accustomed to celebrate4 ,the undying literature of the thirteenth century1 the ,cid in ,spain1 the ,arthurian legends in ,england1 the ,nibelungen in ,germany and ,dante all came at a time when men set apart days for religious meditation and a contemplation of higher things than the sordid concerns of everyday life4 ,so far from one day of leisure in three interfering with human productivity in the best sense of that word1 the #abg custom actually added to it4 ,men who work continuously from day to day without intermission can make a quantity of trivial things1 but they cannot make anything that would be enduringly interesting1 for they have not the time4 ,i have often said that ,i thought that the greatest expression in ,american literature is those famous words of ,thoreau as to the relation of time and money4 ,the ,sage of ,walden found that by working about one half a day in the week he could support himself1 and he used the rest of the time for the study of nature around him and for inviting his soul in the woods and along the streams4 ,he feared that the business of making a living might keep him from really living4 ,it is easy to understand that his thrifty ,yankee neighbors failed utterly to comprehend any such attitude toward what they conceived to be a workaday world4 ,especially at harvest time when they needed help it seemed a shame to see ,thoreau wandering apparently lazily and aimlessly while they were working so hard and looking for workers whom they were willing to pay what they thought was very good wages4 ,they stopped ,thoreau and offered him better pay than they were usually accustomed to offer1 but ,thoreau replied very simply1 ,i have no time to make money4 ,there seem to be a great many people in our day who apparently are of the opinion that the only reason for which time is given is to make money4 ,the ,sundays and holydays1 as arranged by the religious authorities1 made excellent recreation days4 ,after their morning spent in church1 listening to a sermon by some favorite preacher1 but having the eye and the ear and even the nose appealed to by the rest of the celebration1 the people were then free for recreation4 ,the old ,church had no ,puritanic scruples about people playing on the #abh ,sabbath2 there were sports of various kinds on the green in front of the church and their parish priest might be the referee2 neighboring parishes held contests in archery or at bowls or in what the ,irish call hurling and the ,english call shinney4 ,at certain seasons the guilds offered prizes for these contests2 the young were encouraged to go into training for them for weeks beforehand1 and the prizes were conferred rather gloriously before all those whom the young folks most loved and respected4 ,these ,church holidays were associated with various celebrations1 such as ,may ,day1 the ,feast of the ,innocents or ,fools2 the beating of the bounds when in procession the parishioners on the ,rogation ,days walked round the various properties of the parish and asked the blessing of heaven on the crops2 the carnival time when1 before abuses crept in1 the ,church encouraged the celebration that would mark the beginning of ,lent and make everybody ready to bid good-by to the pleasures of life for a while4 ,then the various fairs and markets were usually so timed that they immediately followed some important festival day in the year and afforded people an opportunity for a little vacation and an outing in connection with the feast1 while at the same time they were able to buy what they needed4 ,above all1 religion insisted that some part of these days of recreation1 the holydays of the years1 should be spent not merely for one's own selfish pleasure1 but in bringing pleasure to others4 ,it was suggested1 for instance1 that there could be no better occupation for a portion of ,christmas and ,easter or of some ,sunday afternoons than visiting the sick or prisoners or bringing consolation to those in need4 ,kings and queens washed the feet of the poor on ,holy ,thursday1 and there were #abi similar practices at other times in the ecclesiastical year4 ,the people were encouraged to bury the dead reverently and then to keep their graves green and to visit them occasionally on the holydays as a sign that their memory had not faded1 though also as a reminder of the fact that sometime they hoped to be with their dear friends in another world4 ,this may seem a rather solemn occupation for recreation1 but taken in the open air1 while the children played around the graves and the old folks sat and tallied1 it was ever so much better than that unconquerable tendency to crowd together in hot1 dusty places which afflicts people on our holidays4 ,the old graveyards represented the parks in even the smallest towns1 and the inhabitants had a pride in keeping them in order and found a pleasure in visiting them occasionally4 ,in the unfortunately crowded conditions in which they often lived1 the only lungs for some of their villages were to be found in the churchyard4 ,there was scarcely a town in this country two generations ago that had anything approaching a public park1 except its cemetery4 ,there is a constant tendency to encroach on the ,sunday rest for commercial and industrial reasons of one kind or another1 and only religious influences have saved the ,sabbath for mankind4 ,even as it is1 the decadence of religion in many countries has led more and more to neglect of the ,sabbath-day rest1 and in certain of the ,european countries particularly1 ,sunday1 instead of being a day of rest for the small tradesman1 is sometimes his busiest day4 ,here in this country religious influences were the only factors that kept the saloons more or less closed on ,sunday and kept the rest day from being an orgy of dissipation for many people4 ,selfishness continues to encroach on the precious day of rest and various #acj forms of trade try to present some necessity for their being open on the ,sabbath4 ,this has always been the way1 and the religious sanction in the matter has been the most precious safeguard4 ,at the present time1 there are a good many stores open for a while or for the whole day on ,sunday for which it is hard to find any necessity4 ,some of the fresh food and milk stores have a certain justification1 but why tobacco stores should be open1 seeing that their product will keep perfectly and that any man can rather easily lay in a store to carry him over a day at least1 is indeed hard to understand4 ,footnote #e ,footnote #e3 ,there are probably several hundred thousand men in this country who have to work on ,sunday because the tobacco stores are open4 ,this is an abuse corresponding to that with regard to the saloon1 which will almost surely bring about a reaction in the public mind against the traffic in tobacco generally4 ,another abuse of the public confidence is the opening of all drug stores on ,sunday4 ,as a consequence hundreds of thousands of men are deprived of this day of rest in the week4 ,drugs are extremely important and should of course be available at all hours1 but there is no more reason for all the drug stores to be open every ,sunday than there is for all the drug stores to be open all night4 ,certain drug stores should be open1 but as ,st4 ,antonius suggested five hundred years ago1 there is no good reason why there should not be an arrangement by which the drug stores should be open in rotation on ,sundays1 so that drugs would be always available and only the absolutely necessary articles needed for emergencies should be sold on that day4 ,there is no reason at all why the modern department store annex of the large drug corporations which happens to have a small corner of its store space set off for the filling of prescriptions should #aca do business on ,sunday than for an immense department store to put in a prescription department and then sell goods all over the house because they have to keep their drug department open on ,sundays4 ,only the religious element in life will save us from this commercial invasion1 with the harm which it does in depriving so many people of their day of rest4 ,the future of the ,sunday as a needed day of rest is dependent more on religion than on any other factor4 ,the insidious selfish quest for money will find excuses for the violation of the day in one way or another4 ,the institution and maintenance down the ages of the ,sabbath day of rest is a wonderful example of what religion can accomplish for man in the face of the corroding power of selfishness and is the best demonstration of its living influence for the bodily as well as the spiritual and mental health of mankind4 #acb ,,chapter ,,vii ,,recreation ,,and ,,dissipation ,as has been suggested in the last chapter on ,holydays and ,holidays1 religious institutions have been the most effective organizers of recreations sane and safe for the mind as well as for the body of man1 and recreation is one of the most important factors for the preservation of human health4 ,the man who does not take the time for recreation and above all who does not know how to recreate is almost inevitably drifting toward a premature aging of tissues1 or often is laying the foundation for an acute breakdown in health4 ,recreation is an absolute need of humanity1 adding to health1 strength1 efficiency1 length of life1 and power of accomplishment4 ,instead of being a waste of time1 it is a time saver and above all a saver of suffering1 mental and physical1 as the years roll on4 ,dissipation is1 however1 the very opposite of recreation4 ,what corresponds to these two words in human conduct is confounded in the minds of a great many people probably as often as the activities which respond to those other much abused words1 liberty and license4 ,recreation1 as the etymology indicates so clearly1 means the building up of energy1 while dissipation signifies the scattering of it1 usually to no purpose4 ,it is extremely easy for what is meant to be recreation to become #acc dissipation1 and religion has been the most important factor in life in controlling the tendency to dissipation which exists among men1 not only from the moral but also from the intellectual aspect of life4 ,religious motives have succeeded better than any other factors in lessening this tendency and securing such genuine recreation as would serve to rebuild men's minds and bodies after they had been more or less worn out from work1 and at the same time tend to keep them from immorality and afford such relief from the strain of serious occupation as would provide real reconstruction for them4 ,unfortunately in our time1 just in proportion as religion has lost its hold on men1 recreation has become largely a matter of dissipation of mind when not also dissipation of body4 ,more and more barbaric or merely bodily modes of recreation are preoccupying the leisure time that men have outside of their regular occupations in life4 ,it must not be forgotten that the way a man or a generation spends its leisure is the best possible index of the character of the man or the generation4 ,it is the way that a man spends the time that he is free to use any way that he wishes which reveals what he is4 ,it was a great philosopher who said1 ,tell me what a man does with his leisure1 and ,i shall tell you what sort of a man he is4 ,we all have to work a certain portion of our time1 and often what we work at is not a matter of choice but necessity4 ,what we do during our leisure1 however1 is dependent on ourselves and represents our tastes4 ,the recreation of our time reveals that people are ever so much more interested in their bodies than they are in their minds and hearts and souls4 ,very often the recreation of the older time consisted of hours spent with all the advantages of outdoor air1 exercise1 and fine #acd satisfaction of mind1 perhaps in visiting the poor or the prisons or the hospitals1 or in encouraging the sports of children1 or in arranging for outings of various kinds in which the pleasantest of social intercourse between friends and neighbors was associated with such recreation of body as gave a good healthy weariness after a day's outing4 ,more and more these old-fashioned modes of recreation are passing1 and sophistication has brought in occupation of mind with a lot of unworthy things4 ,instead of taking an active part in what is supposed to recreate them people must now be amused4 ,whenever this happens and participants pay for the amusement1 the character of the amusement degenerates because it must appeal to as great a number as possible4 ,as a consequence1 in our day recreation1 especially for young folks who ought of course to be actively engaged in sport and not merely onlookers1 consists in attendance at shows and games4 ,the shows have an appeal merely to the senses1 they have not an idea lost in them anywhere2 the music is a caricature of real music founded on the fact--which the most primitive of savages have always discovered for themselves--that a rhythm appeals to men and gives them a certain bodily satisfaction1 probably because of some ill-understood interaction with the heart beat4 ,the main feature of appeal is really the sex element that enters into the show and produces feelings4 ,the lyrics are1 if that term for them were to be taken seriously1 a crying shame1 for the words of the songs usually mean absolutely nothing4 ,the rule is to take certain words that rhyme1 like kiss and bliss1 and love and glove1 and for the rest to talk about the moon and some sentimental twaddle4 ,there is not a glimpse of poetry about them in any sense of the word4 #ace ,the attendance at games of various kinds in which people watch other people exercise is a favorite occupation in our time1 but it is only the shadow of recreation4 ,it is usually associated with feelings aroused by the desire for one side to win1 either because of betting or some other sentiment often entirely artificial4 ,whenever anything occurs to disappoint the desire1 there is likely to be an exhibition of some of the ugliest feelings of mankind4 ,men invade the field1 take up quarrels1 and sometimes not only threaten but actually attempt bodily injury of the players and particularly of the umpire4 ,probably nothing could be more unworthy as recreation for human beings than this passive interest in the exercise that other people take1 and the elevation of the contests of paid professionals into something to occupy men's minds seriously and even arouse their feelings deeply4 ,more and more bodily interests are drowning out higher interests1 and prize fighting and wrestling command ever larger audiences1 while the sums of money that are paid for such exhibitions grow in size1 showing the importance of bodily interests to the general public4 ,there is an old story of ,cimabue's ,madonna causing the stoppage of business in ,florence in the old days1 but the transport of no mere picture along the street1 no matter how beautiful it might be1 would have any such effect nowadays1 though the arrival of a prize fighter who had just won a heavyweight contest1 if his coming were announced beforehand1 would almost surely interfere seriously with business for some time in the neighborhood of the station4 ,just as in the days of ,rome when the amphitheater was the center of attraction1 recreation is becoming mere barbaric dissipation for a great many people4 #acf ,the cultured1 intelligent ,romans--at least many of them were educated--went to see gladiators fight with wild beasts or with each other unto the death1 or to get a special thrill by seeing the ,christians thrown to the lions4 ,the other shows they attended were mainly the dancing of slave girls scantily dressed1 whose actions were meant to excite sex feelings4 ,at ,rome the women had no virtue and the men no courage2 they were interested in their bodies and degeneracy had come4 ,no wonder the real barbarians came to replace their counterfeit presentments in the pseudo-refined ,romans4 ,even our mental occupations are very largely taken up with bodily interests4 ,reading is supposed to be an intellectual diversion1 but it has become a matter of attention to sex and other bodily emotions4 ,my friend4 ,doctor ,austin ,o',malley1 suggests that one of the most important criteria of intelligence is contained in the rule the book that you like is like you1 to which may be added1 of course1 that the play that you like is like you and the magazine that you like is like you4 ,if our generation is to be judged by its occupation of its leisure1 the estimation will not be very high4 ,most of the leisure time of men is spent in reading the newspapers4 ,indeed1 it may be said without exaggeration that the greater part of civilized mankind now spends the major portion of its hours of relaxation over the newspaper4 ,news was defined by an old-fashioned editor succinctly as sin4 ,the definition has enough of truth in it to give us pause when we consider that every one is occupied with the newspaper for an hour or more each day4 ,we want to know the last details of the ugly sex crimes and the misfortunes of various kinds that have happened to people1 perhaps with a feeling that things might be worse for us #acg than they are1 but the suggestive effect is almost the worst that could well be imagined1 and the recreation of mind becomes a sad dissipation of mental energy4 ,religion brought the holydays1 which were in our modern sense holidays1 into the year1 but did ever so much more than this by suggesting1 organizing and encouraging such occupation of them as afforded recreation for men and women in definite contradistinction from dissipation4 ,on all the ,sundays and holydays men rose to attend services and usually spent some hours in this occupation4 ,attendance at religious services in our time has become very largely a matter of duty1 requiring considerable self-denial and control for its accomplishment4 ,the religious ceremonials of the older time were1 however1 extremely interesting1 and people looked forward to them4 ,they had to attend them as a matter of duty1 but the great majority of them found a pleasure in the duty because of the appeal that the ,church ceremonial made4 ,various societies associated with religion in one way or another organized the recreations for the afternoon of the holydays or for the vigils or eves of the great festivals1 on which there was no work done after the vesper hour4 ,the guilds1 for instance1 most of which received saints' names1 and many of which built chapels of their own and were closely affiliated with the ecclesiastical authorities1 offered prizes for athletic exercises among the young folks1 both boys and girls1 and arranged contests in archery1 in the pitching of quoits1 in the old-fashioned form of hockey and the like1 between the inhabitants of neighboring villages1 and then there were also individual athletic contests of various kinds4 ,banquets were held four times a year on the special feast days1 to which a man was expected to bring either his wife or his #ach sweetheart4 ,they did not believe that it was good for men to be alone in their feasting1 and realized that there was likely to be much less of excess and ever so much less of a tendency to quarrel if the women were present4 ,the banquets were held in the afternoon1 and there was dancing on the green afterward for the young folks and games of various kinds1 all of which were meant to give the young particularly innocent enjoyment and bring them together for proper matchmaking4 ,religious authorities have always recognized the necessity for recreation4 ,besides1 they have always tried to keep recreation on that higher plane where it may do good and not harm4 ,dancing1 for instance1 has very often had a place in religious ceremonials4 ,rhythmic movements of the body can add to the significance of even the deepest thought4 ,they may1 of course1 be reduced merely to the expression of sensuality or constitute an invitation to it4 ,david danced before the ,ark1 and dancing has always had a place in the expression of religious feelings4 ,the old ,greeks employed dancing to great effect1 even in their higher religious ceremonials4 ,the great ,greek dramatists wrote choric odes which are among the most beautiful lyric poems ever written4 ,they were on such subjects as life and death and man and fate and all the other great mysteries with which man is confronted4 ,the chorus1 in singing them1 danced1 and the reason for the dance was that it added to the significance of the beautiful words that had been written4 ,the ,greek plays were staged as a part of the religious ceremonial in celebration of the festivals of ,dionysus2 his name has been translated by the supposed ,latin equivalent ,bacchus1 but the ,greeks meant the god of inspiration and not the god of intoxication4 #aci ,religion then proved a source of a great deal of genuine recreation4 ,it emphasized the joys of existence rather than merely the pleasures of life4 ,it encouraged family participation in everything and found a place for the children4 ,there is a great distinction between joy and pleasure that is often missed when religion is in decay4 ,joy is a profound feeling usually associated with the performance of simple duties and rather easily attainable by every one4 ,pleasures are often expensive1 frequently are followed by remorse1 and more often than not do harm rather than good to those who indulge in them1 especially to any excess4 ,joy1 however1 inspires human beings to the further accomplishment of duty1 gives a supreme sense of well-being1 brings light-hearted sleep and is very precious in the memory4 ,joys are usually associated with domestic duties and religious observances and the celebration in family groups of the great festivals4 ,what religion did in bringing joy into life is one of the most precious factors for real recreation that we have4 ,the main feature of religion's work for recreation1 however1 consisted of the development of dramatics4 ,twice in the world's history1 as ,i have noted in the chapter on ,holydays and ,holidays1 dramatic literature has developed out of religious ceremonials4 ,these ceremonials very naturally take on the dramatic form1 and the evolution of this in the course of time led to additions to religious services which soon came to occupy so much attention as to deserve a place and time for themselves1 and then they were transferred to the temple porch in the older time1 or to the open space at the foot of the steps1 or in the ,middle ,ages to the churchyard or the green in front of the church4 ,this encouragement of recreation with a deep appeal #adj to the emotions and the higher feelings which at the same time brought satisfaction for the intellect1 proved of the greatest possible service for health4 ,men need to have thoroughgoing diversion of mind from their ordinary occupations4 ,such diversion of mind is1 in my opinion1 even more important than exercise of body4 ,the effort in our time is concentrated on doing nothing with the mind1 as a rest for it1 or doing something that is so trivial that it is supposed to provide opportunity for mental recreation4 ,almost needless to say it is impossible to do nothing with the mind4 ,the mind will keep right on thinking about something or other1 and unless thought is diverted it is very inclined to recur to the last worries and troubles which the individual has experienced4 ,the attempt to occupy the mind with trivial matters does not divert it4 ,to read the newspaper or some popular magazine or a light novel will enable the person to kill time1 but up through the print will always come obtruding itself the worry or anxiety that occupied it before4 ,what is needed for true recreation is that the mind shall be interested in something very different from its ordinary occupation4 ,this interest must be deep and abiding and holding1 or it will not prove so successful as would otherwise be the case4 ,some form of intellectual hobby makes the very best recreation1 but not every one has either the time or the money and above all the intelligence to cultivate a hobby that will be absorbing in its appeal4 ,religion1 then1 with its universal appeal1 its deep touching of the feelings1 its sense of supreme satisfaction when people believed1 its presentation of ceremonies that have even a sensory attraction1 formed in the past a fine avenue of escape from the sordid considerations of life for a great many #ada people and can still be an invaluable resource for those who take it seriously4 ,in the midst of trials and hardships the folk of the older time learned to turn to religion as a consolation that occupied their minds and promised them divine help in their difficulties4 ,religion as organized in the later ,middle ,ages1 with its great celebrations on the festival days in the beautiful ,gothic churches1 on the background of great art1 served this purpose of diversion of mind extremely well4 ,if that had been its only purpose it would have been quite unworthy of the great intellectual and artistic accomplishments which religion aroused4 ,but as a secondary consideration this must not be forgotten1 and the absence of an appeal of this kind makes for that tendency to dissipation of mind which is so unfortunate because it is so unworthy of human nature and at the same time proves so ineffective as providing any real recreation of mind4 ,in the old days when the ,puritans went to a sermon two hours long1 they listened with rapt attention to the preacher1 and in so doing their minds were occupied with an entirely other subject from that which ordinarily attracted their attention4 ,such a diversion1 even though it may seem to be pretty hard work1 represents a real mental rest because the part of the brain that is usually occupied gets its rest1 the blood being diverted to other parts of the brain4 ,this may seem a paradox to some people until they are reminded that men who have lived very long lives have usually been men who turned from one form of mental work to another for diversion and rest4 ,gladstone1 for instance1 who was ,prime ,minister of ,great ,britain when past eighty years of age1 was an intensely hard intellectual worker all his life1 but found recreation from his political cares in the study and #adb discussion of the problems of ,greek literature4 ,leo ,,xiii1 who lived to be ninety-three1 concerned to the very end with the administration of the ,church--an immense task--found his recreation in the writing of ,latin poetry1 though that might seem to some people too hard work of itself to be classed as rest4 ,for a great many of these hard-working1 long-lived people1 as was true of both ,leo ,,xiii and ,gladstone1 prayer was a recourse in time of trial that made anxiety less and took the edge off solicitude and occupied the mind with the profound thought of the ,providence that overrules and somehow cares for us4 ,i have often said before medical societies1 and in articles for medical journals1 because the expression represents a definite medical conclusion in my mind1 that the reason why nervous and mental diseases were growing commoner in our time was that men and women had no real mental recreation4 ,they go to trivial shows of various kinds1 vaudeville1 musical comedy and the movies1 and they laugh a little and feel a great deal1 but think almost not at all4 ,they try to forget their ordinary occupations and worries1 and indeed plays and novels are now advertised as the kind that make you forget1 but they do not succeed very well in this effort and their minds are not really diverted4 ,for diversion the mind should become occupied rather deeply with some other subject1 so that the blood which has been going to a particular part of the brain in order to call up the memory of things associated with the special interests of the individual may be diverted to another part4 ,this will give the portion of the brain previously occupied a rest as almost nothing else will4 ,doing nothing with the mind is impossible1 though some people apparently come very #adc near it4 ,doing very trivial things will not divert the current of attention so as to allow of real rest4 ,attention is probably a matter of increased blood circulation to a particular set of brain cells4 ,these will go on working in spite of the wish to stop1 unless the blood is actually diverted elsewhere in the cerebral tissues or the individual sleeps1 with its accompanying brain anemia4 ,for believers religion has this deep appeal and strong interest which represents very definite diversion of mind4 ,of itself1 then1 it may afford genuine recreation1 though so little associated with recreation in the modern sense of the term4 ,it is the most cogent reliever of worries4 ,it affords the best neutralization of such intense preoccupation with merely sordid concerns as may prove dangerous for health4 ,religion has always insisted that idle dissipation of mental and physical energy was an extremely dangerous thing4 ,the devil finds work for idle hands is an expression that has come from very early ,christian times4 ,while the ,church has appreciated thoroughly the necessity for occupation of mind and enjoyment and amusement and has put the holydays into the year in large numbers and made true holidays of them1 it has also recognized clearly the dangers there might be in recreations of various kinds4 ,fashion has often been strong enough to override religious counsels in the matter1 but at least they have served to restrain to some extent1 and they have always pointed out the dangers so that young folks have not gone into them unseeing and unthinking2 thus a good many have been saved from grave risks and absolute moral and physical injuries which might have proved serious as the result of religious regulations and advice4 #add ,dancing has always been one of the modes of recreation with regard to which religion has felt the need to exercise surveillance and inculcate the necessity for proper supervision4 ,there has been no unthinking opposition to it and no mere bigoted intolerance4 ,the dance has always been recognized as an excellent exercise of the body and a very definite mode of expressing beautiful thoughts in graceful postures and movements2 the dance has actually been used in ,church ceremonies1 and its symbolism made to lend significance to the body's share in worship or in the expression of beautiful thoughts4 ,when graceful dancing was to a great extent discarded and the essence of the dance came to be the intimate contact of two persons of opposite sex in the lively movements of modern dancing measures which were almost sure to arouse passion1 no wonder that religion counseled prudence in order to prevent harmful developments which are often the source of so much danger for health of body as well as for holiness1 that is wholeness of spirit4 ,the restraint exercised in this way over the control of occasions that might lead to serious consequences makes religion an important factor for health4 ,it is quite true that religion does not often succeed in her well-meant efforts in controlling such tendencies to dissipation and sometimes seems utterly to fail1 but that is largely because in recent years there has been an unfortunate decadence of religious influence1 and people do not live up even to the principles of religion which they themselves hold4 ,among those who still maintain the religious life1 the restraint exercised as regards many of these unfortunate dissipations means a very great deal for health of body and mind4 ,certainly social evils would be much worse only for the presence of a great #ade conservative institution exercising restraint and calling on people to practice self-control and self-denial in these matters1 no matter how alluring they might be nor how much they may have met with the approval of what is called society4 ,probably the most important element for health in the modern time is the conservation of the distinction between recreation and dissipation4 ,almost inevitably recreation becomes dissipation2 that is1 the relaxation of mind and body so necessary for health becomes a dissolution of physical and mental forces to the serious detriment of the individual1 unless there are strong1 impelling motives to prevent the degeneration4 ,such motives may be drawn from human respect or from the desire to maintain the body in healthful vigor1 but these lower motives very often fail of their purpose and at best apply only to a comparatively few among mankind4 ,for the great majority of men1 motives with a deeper appeal than mere self-respect or the respect of others or even the preservation of the body from impending disease are necessary4 ,in youth particularly bodily degeneration seems a distant possibility1 almost surely to be escaped without much difficulty1 especially if one has any luck1 and even if serious disease be incurred it will surely be cured rather easily by the means that science now has at her command4 ,the general appeal that is necessary to give men a fixed point of support in maintaining recreation on a high level and not letting it slip down into dissipation is to be found in religion4 ,the reason why recreation and dissipation have so often come to be confounded in our time1 or at least that recreation has sunk to a much lower level than it used to occupy1 is the diminution of religious influence over a #adf great many people4 ,the old religious family life made it much easier to maintain such discipline in the lives of growing young folks as kept them from the tendencies to dissipation almost sure to develop unless there are strong safeguards in the household4 ,where the young folk themselves are firm believers in the great truths of religion1 their control is much easier and is exercised much more by themselves than by any external measures4 ,it is the having a fount of incentive to what is good and deterrents for what is evil within oneself that is the best possible auxiliary for the neutralization of tendencies to evil that are as natural as they can be and that represent one inexplicable phase of that mystery of evil by which we are surrounded in the world4 ,the only satisfactory explanation of that is to be found in faith1 and it is from this that strength can be derived to prevent the lower nature of man which shares so many animal proclivities from governing the individual to the detriment of both sides of his being4 #adg ,,chapter ,,viii ,,mortification ,mortification is a word with an interesting etymology4 ,it means literally the dying or more properly the putting to death of one part of an animal body while the rest is alive4 ,from this it has come to mean1 to quote the ,century ,dictionary1 ,the act of subduing the passions and appetites by penance1 abstinence or painful severities inflicted on the body4 ,it has had this signification from the very earliest times of ,christianity1 for the early ,fathers spoke of dying to self to have a higher and a nobler life4 ,it is used exactly in this sense in the old medieval ,latin as well as by that first great prose writer in modern ,english1 ,sir ,thomas ,more1 for he spoke of the mortification of the fleshly woorkes in just this signification4 ,after all our recent ,poet ,laureate1 when in ,in ,memoriam he summed up so much of the current thought of our time1 expressed the same ideas as the earlier religious authorities when he said that we rise on stepping stones of our dead selves to higher things4 ,it was a favorite idea of the ,greeks of the classical period that the way to get most out of life was to repress the body and give the mind and soul a chance4 ,aristotle said1 ,the vanities of the world are a hindrance to the soul1 and he paraphrased by anticipation that expression which came to mean so much during the war that our #adh rising generation learned the precious lesson that there are things in life worth more than life itself when he said1 ',t is better for the soul's sake to suffer death than to lose the soul for the love of this life4 ,socrates had said before him1 ,a wise man ought to look as carefully to his soul as to his body1 and ,plato1 going straight to the point1 declared1 ,whoso desireth the life of his soul ought to mortify the body and give it trouble in this world4 ,no one knew better than ,plato that the desire of having things did more than aught else to make the higher life impossible4 ,he did not hesitate to say1 and the expression constitutes one of the most striking commentaries on our time that we could have1 the soul is lost that delighteth in covetousness4 ,pythagoras long before the group of the classical period had said1 ,order thyself so that thy soul may always be in good estate2 whatsoever become of thy body4 ,it would be easy to find almost as many expressions commending mortification among the old ,greek philosophers as among the ,fathers of the ,church4 ,plato said1 ,he obeyeth many that obeyeth his body4 ,and ,aristotle said1 ,he that hath bound himself to follow his fleshly delights is more bound than any caitiff1 which after all1 is only another way of wording ,plato's expression1 the worst bondage is to be subject to vices4 ,seneca1 five centuries afterwards in ,rome1 declared1 ,too much liberty turneth into bondage1 doubtless imitating1 as he did so often1 ,euripides1 who declared1 ,better is it to be free in heart and bond in name than to be free in name and bond in heart4 ,in spite of this very respectable ancient lineage which would indicate an agreement for many centuries among thoughtful people that mortification has a definite place #adi in life1 many in our time seem inclined to think that the idea underlying the word is a mistake1 and that the virtue attributed to it does not actually work out in practice4 ,hence mortification is at present considered by a good many to be only one of the good old ways of life evolved in an earlier day when men were less capable of judging of the significance of things than they are now1 but which humanity ought to set definitely back in the lumber room of discarded notions1 now that an era of really rational development of humanity has come4 ,the old-fashioned idea that in this way the passions can be controlled is looked upon as a sort of worn-out superstition1 good enough for people who did not know as much as we do and who did not understand as we have come to understand the profounder psychology of humanity4 ,we are apparently quite sure in our time that sweet reasonableness must be the only rule for mankind and that anything so crude as self-inflicted suffering is not needed by generations which have not sounded the depth of human nature as we have done4 ,nothing is commoner than to read tirades of various kinds against the practices of mortification that were in vogue in the older times4 ,a great many writers who think themselves well informed feel assured that the people of the olden time performed the most difficult acts of penance and inflicted intense self-suffering on themselves with no other purpose in view than to curry favor with the ,almighty quite as if they felt that the ,creator delighted in the suffering of ,his creatures4 ,they do not seem to realize at all that the real reason why the older peoples thought such self-inflicted suffering might be looked upon with favor from on ,high was that the efforts required to perform these acts strengthened their wills #aej so as to enable them to repress their passions and inordinate desires and to control the tendencies to do wrong which are in every nature and which require constant watching and subjection1 or they prove extremely difficult to master4 ,before the war1 when the world generally was rather inclined to take a good deal of its psychology from ,germany1 the scoffing tone with regard to mortification was particularly rife in academic circles4 ,while other nations as a rule did not adopt the ,german idea of the superman1 they were usually much more tinctured with that teaching than they suspected4 ,nietzsche's great teaching was that a man must follow his instincts and develop his personality to the highest1 regardless of the consequences to others4 ,one of his famous parables is that of the soft coal and the diamond4 ,the soft coal is heard complaining to the diamond1 ,we are brothers1 why then do you scratch me8 and the diamond replies1 ,since we are brothers how is it that ,i can scratch you2 why are you not as hard as ,i am1 and then all would be well between us8 and ,nietzsche's conclusion was1 ,for ,i preach to you a new doctrine2 be ye hard4 ,as ,germany had more professors of psychology than any other nation1 it is easy to understand what far-reaching influence her teaching had4 ,a very few were conservative1 but most were radical1 and the only consolation that we have now is to realize that the nation which had the most professors of psychology least understood the minds of men1 as was demonstrated very clearly by the egregious blunders which the ,german government made with regard to the neutral nations during the course of the war4 ,the modern psychologists who have thought most deeply about human nature do not share at all the #aea supercilious contempt for mortification and even the habit of performing frequent acts of self-repression1 though they may cost effort and suffering1 which so many thoughtless people are ready to express4 ,professor ,william ,james1 who was surely not at all a medievally minded individual and who is recognized as one of the leaders of thought in modern psychology1 did not hesitate to express his conclusions on this matter in a paragraph that should be very well known3 ,as a fine practical maxim1 relative to these habits of the will1 we may1 then1 offer something like this3 ,keep the faculty of effort alive in you by a little gratuitous exercise every day4 ,that is1 be systematically ascetic or heroic in little unnecessary points2 do every day or two something for no other reason than that you would rather not do it1 so that when the hour of dire need draws nigh1 it may find you not unnerved and untrained to stand the test4 ,asceticism of this sort is like the insurance which a man pays on his house and goods4 ,the tax does him no good at the time and possibly may never bring him a return4 ,but if the fire does come1 his having paid it will be his salvation from ruin4 ,so with the man who has daily inured himself to habits of concentrated attention1 energetic volition1 and self-denial in unnecessary things4 ,he will stand like a tower when everything rocks around him1 and when his softer fellow mortals are winnowed like chaff in the blast4 ,above all in youth there is need of enduring hard things in order to form character and enable people to control themselves and deny themselves4 ,this is sometimes supposed to be a medieval idea1 but ,goethe1 with all his leaning toward the ways of the old ,greeks and his liking even for the ,olympian religion1 did not hesitate to say #aeb that the most important thing in the world for a man was self-denial4 ,entbehren sollst du1 sollst entbehren4 ,you must deny yourself1 must deny yourself4 ,there is only one way to do this1 and that is to practice it by a succession of acts until it becomes habitual4 ,the great world teacher of this practice is and has always been religion4 ,sacrifice has been preached as the very essence of ,christianity4 ,to many people it may seem as though mortification1 that is1 the practice of doing a series of things that are hard to do and even painful to accomplish1 in order to increase one's power over oneself may be beneficial and even necessary for weak characters2 but that surely strong men and women can dispense with any such artificial support of their personalities4 ,such an expression must probably be considered an excuse that enables people to escape the difficulties and self-denial of practices of mortification1 but not at all as a real reason4 ,some of the strongest men who have ever lived have recognized the necessity for the insurance policies of little acts of supererogation that require real will power to accomplish in order to keep their strength of character at its top notch of efficiency4 ,probably few men in history have ever had a stronger character than ,sir ,thomas ,more4 ,all his life he was noted for the absolute purity of his motives and the thoroughgoing righteousness of his life4 ,he is the only man in the history of ,england who ever cleared the docket of the ,court of ,chancery4 ,he was the first lay ,lord ,chancellor that ,england ever had4 ,the opportunities for using his high office for his own benefit are well illustrated by the expression of ,lord ,campbell1 who declared of ,more in his lives of the ,lord ,chancellors3 ,i am indeed reluctant to take leave of ,sir ,thomas ,more1 #aec not only from his agreeable qualities and extraordinary merits1 but from my abhorrence of the mean1 sordid1 unprincipled chancellors who succeeded him and made the latter half of the reign of ,henry ,,viii the most disgraceful period in our annals4 ,nearly a hundred years after ,more's death when ,lord ,bacon was impeached by the ,english ,parliament1 he made as the excuse for having taken bribes that he was the best ,lord ,chancellor that ,england had had for fifty years4 ,very probably he was2 no one knew that better than he4 ,yet ,sir ,thomas ,more had gone unscathed through the fire of temptations such as these to which every ,lord ,chancellor for a hundred years afterward yielded2 but ,more went farther1 and when it was a question of conscience he died for what he felt was the right4 ,it did not matter to him that others had been able to compound with their consciences2 he even told the jury that condemned him that he hoped to meet them in heaven1 but right was right and even death was not too high a price to pay for its fulfillment4 ,one of ,more's practices at times during his life had been the wearing of a hair shirt2 even when in prison--and ,god knows the ,tower of ,london1 with the shadow of the scaffold hanging over it1 would seem to be mortification enough--he wore his hair shirt1 and it was found among his possessions after his death4 ,i suppose to-day1 after a generation of contemptuous scoffing at mortification1 it may be necessary to explain to many people what a hair shirt is4 ,it is a very coarse undergarment woven of hair to be worn next the skin1 and the discomfort of the skin surface is so great that until one gets a little used to it one can scarcely think of anything else except the constant irritation4 ,it was #aed a very common practice to wear it in the ,middle ,ages1 and we have the story of one mother who felt that perhaps nothing would do her boys more good than to learn to stand something like this in order that they might be able to withstand youth's temptations4 ,she was ,mabel ,rich1 the mother of ,edmund of ,canterbury1 who has come to be looked upon as one of the great characters of ,english history4 ,for years he suffered in exile rather than give up to the king the rights of his people and the ,church2 this great scholar1 professor of ,oxford that he was and leader among men1 who might have had all sorts of favors from the king had he yielded1 spent fifteen years in poverty and hardships rather than yield a point of conscience4 ,he tells that when he and his elder brother went off to the university1 where they were to be gone for four or five years1 their mother packed with their clothes a hair shirt for each of them4 ,she asked them to wear them occasionally for her sake and to remember that they had to stand many things in life in order to keep on the right path4 ,this ,london tradesman's wife of the early thirteenth century knew as well as any city mother in modern times the dangers her boys were going to encounter and which they would have to go through successfully or lose health of soul and body4 ,there is apt to be a feeling in many minds that these problems have only come to be realized in our day1 but that is due only to failure to project our knowledge of human nature into the past4 ,mabel ,rich1 like a good sensible mother1 did not make an hysterical appeal that might cause her boys to feel her fear that they could not keep right1 but she asked them1 partly for her sake but mainly for religious motives1 to submit to voluntary sufferings sometimes so that they might have the strength #aee to bear any temptation that came to them4 ,edmund of ,canterbury declared1 toward the end of his life1 that he owed more to his mother and her example and training for whatever his character had enabled him to accomplish in life than to any other single factor4 ,in the chapter on ,purity ,i have quoted distinguished authorities in psychology who insist that the one way to strengthen the young man and the young woman against the allurements of impurity and thus help them to avoid the extremely serious dangers to health involved in yielding to such temptations is to have them practice self-denial in little things4 ,mortifications of one kind or another are to be undertaken1 and the young folks build up self-control by the doing of things which are hard1 though not obligatory1 with the one idea of enabling them to perform even harder things in self-control whenever it may be necessary4 ,there are some who seem to think that such practices may weaken men's powers of accomplishment1 as if personality might be impaired by self-control1 but there is no reason to think that4 ,foerster1 the well-known ,german writer on ethics1 knowing well how much contempt has been thrown on asceticism in recent years1 did not hesitate to say that the fear of weakness is all due to a misunderstanding4 ,the ascetic is not a stunted human being who has mutilated himself1 or prevented his development lest by any chance he might wander so far away from the path to his heavenly home that he might not get back4 ,asceticism has for its derivation the ,greek verb ,greek text which means to exercise1--that is1 not to decrease but to increase power4 ,the ascetic exercises his will power so that he will be able to follow the straight path that he wants to tread1 no matter how many difficulties present themselves to him4 #aef ,no matter how steep the hills1 he will not turn aside to the pleasanter paths that lead so gently downward because he wants to carry on4 ,professor ,foerster said3 ,asceticism should be regarded1 not as a negation of nature nor as an attempt to extirpate natural forces1 but as practice in the art of self-discipline4 ,its object should be to show humanity what the human will is capable of performing1 to serve as an encouraging example of the conquest of the spirit over the animal self4 ,the contempt which has been poured upon the idea of asceticism in recent times has contributed more than anything else towards effeminacy4 ,nothing could be more effective in bringing humanity back to the best traditions of manhood than a respect for the spiritual strength and conquest which is symbolised in ascetic lives4 ,with regard to that anxiety of mothers to help their boys and girls in the very serious matter of sex temptation which has become so prominent a social feature in recent years1 ,foerster has a passage that is well worth putting before every mother3 ,there are plenty of modern mothers who are aware of the necessity for instruction in matters relating to sex1 and who are perhaps anxiously awaiting the suitable moment3 it is a great deal more important1 however1 that they should make their children acquainted with what ,sailer called 'the strategy of the ,holy ,war'1 that they should train them every now and then to deny themselves some favourite article of food1 or to accomplish some heroic conquest of indolence1 or to practise themselves in ignoring pain4 ,the outstanding feature of sexual education should not be an explanation of the sex functions1 but an introduction to the inexhaustible power of the human spirit #aeg and its capacity for dominating the animal nature and controlling its demands4 ,joseph de ,maistre once said3 ,everything that hinders a man strengthens him4 ,many a man of thirty years of age is capable of successfully resisting the allurements of a beautiful woman because at the age of five or six he was taught voluntarily to give up a toy or a sweet6 ,mortification in little things seems to many people too trivial in its effects to be of any real significance4 ,if there is anything in the world that has been brought home to us in medicine in the modern era it is that little things count immensely4 ,microbes so small that we not only cannot see them1 but never hope to be able to increase the powers of the microscope in such a way as to be able to get a sight of them1 may cause the most serious epidemics4 ,one of these ultramicroscopic microbes is probably the cause of infantile paralysis1 which we know to have been in existence over five thousand years1 because the mummy of a princeling of one of the early dynasties in ,egypt shows that its possessor suffered from it as a child4 ,another of the ultramicroscopic microbes is perhaps the cause of influenza which carried off in a few months more victims among young people than the greatest war in human history did in over four years4 ,no wonder that little things count in the moral order then1 since they may mean so much in the physical order4 ,whenever anything affects living beings1 then it cannot be counted small4 ,four hundred years ago ,michelangelo declared that trifles make perfection1 but perfection is no trifle4 ,no one had a better right to an opinion in the matter than he1 for he was the greatest sculptor since the time of #aeh the ,greeks1 one of the greatest architects who ever lived1 perhaps the greatest decorative artist in all history1 as the ,sistine ,chapel demonstrates1 and he wrote sonnets of the highest quality4 ,if in the mind of so supreme an artist soul little things count so much in making a great work of art1 surely they must count for a very great deal in making a moral masterpiece1 or anything that approaches it4 ,michelangelo himself recognized over and over again in life what bearing the trials and troubles of existence might have on building up character for him and bringing him other than an earthly reward4 ,he once said to one of the popes1 ,if these fatigues which ,i endure do not benefit my soul ,i lose both time and labor4 ,there is a famous sonnet of his in which he begs pardon of his ,crucified ,god if he had ever attributed to himself any of the glory which he ought to have given to his ,maker4 ,if ever a man lived who had the right to have some conceit of himself it was ,michelangelo4 ,when we look around and see the little whippets who have monumental conceit and then think of ,michelangelo's deprecation of himself1 it is easy to understand how he must have suppressed--or1 as they said in the older time1 mortified--his pride in order to keep his humility and not let any self-exultation run away with him4 ,mortification in its true sense is indeed much more a question of the mind and the heart than of the body4 ,cultivating detachment from the things around us means more than anything else4 ,this mortification of the spirit of man so that material possessions are not allowed to crowd out the genuine good things of life is particularly important4 ,nowadays people are so afraid to be poor1 or indeed to lack anything that their neighbors have1 that #aei the principal efforts of life are expended in keeping up with the ,smiths1 or with some other utterly insignificant people who happen to be making a display4 ,i suppose that every physician in a large city has known people who actually denied themselves some of the necessaries of life in order to wear a little better clothes1 and of course every physician everywhere sees people who deform their feet and disturb their organic health in other ways trying to keep up with the fashions4 ,the fear of being thought to have less than other people and of having to deny oneself something that happens to be fashionable is particularly rife in our time and plays sad havoc with mental equanimity and with such satisfaction with life as is the best safeguard of continued health4 ,there was a time centuries ago1 under the ,roman ,empire1 when money had come to be as much thought of as in our own time1 when the wealthy went down to ,naples in the winter1 up to ,como in the summer1 had a house at ,ostia as well as a palace in ,rome4 ,it is easy to understand that the people then as now failed to comprehend how any one could possibly choose to be poor1 even though thus he succeeded in putting off the cares of wealth and gave himself an opportunity to live his life for the sake of higher things4 ,religion raised up men who went into voluntary poverty and restored the dignity of labor1 when manual work had become almost a disgrace1 by deliberately electing to occupy themselves with it for a certain number of hours a day4 ,their example proved very precious1 and as it was mainly the young men who did it1 they influenced deeply a series of generations4 ,the sons of the nobility as well as of professional classes were represented among #afj these reformers who believed first in reforming themselves1 but along with them were young men of all classes1 and the barriers between the classes were thus lowered4 ,the cultivation of religious poverty proved the greatest kind of blessing in the social order and has always meant much for the amelioration of social conditions which it brings with it4 ,i suppose that the greatest possible benefit for health that could be conferred on mankind at the present time would come from the eradication of the mad strife for the possession of money which has taken possession of so many men's minds4 ,our recent ,great ,war was precipitated by the struggle for markets and favored nations among whom to distribute surplus industrial products so that certain nations might go on piling up money4 ,this is so badly distributed that serious social disorders are impending4 ,men spend their lives getting money and then leave it to their children1 to hurt them physically and morally4 ,they take away incentive1 and they provide the greatest possible facilities for temptations4 ,justice ,hughes said some years ago1 when governor of ,new ,york1 ,the main occupation of men in our time seems to be the raising of a corruption fund for their children4 ,we need some of that poverty of spirit which ,christianity brought in with it when it was so sadly needed and which was cultivated with so much success during the later ,middle ,ages1 when the great scholars and saintly characters who most deeply influenced the times were mainly members of the mendicant orders1 that is1 of associations of men who refused to own any possessions in order that they might have the time to devote themselves to higher things and who depended on the #afa work of their hands and the beneficence of the public to enable them to continue their work4 ,their motto was plain living and high thinking1 and it is surprising how much they accomplished4 ,the spirit which made ,st4 ,francis of ,assisi choose the ,lady ,poverty for his bride and delight to call himself ,il poverello di ,dio1 the little poor man of ,god1 would seem to be entirely too impracticable and utterly idealistic to have any interest for our time1 and yet literally more than a score of important lives of ,st4 ,francis have been written during our generation4 ,we are beginning to wake up to the realization of the fact that things are in the saddle and ride mankind1 and that things seem ever so much more important than thoughts1 though it requires no special intelligence to understand what an utter contradiction of real values any such state of mind represents4 ,what is now needed above all is such detachment from the things around us that we shall be poor in spirit4 ,this is the element above all that religion supplies4 ,in the ,sermon on the ,mount1 that greatest sermon ever preached1 the ,master said1 ,blessed are the poor in spirit1 for theirs is the kingdom of heaven4 ,certainly there is no straighter road to heavenly peace than that1 for a man may have great possessions and yet be poor in spirit because he is detached from them and has mortified his feelings with regard to them so that they do not puff him up and make him vain 7what striking old ,saxon words those are71 so that he is able to use them not for himself alone but for the benefit of the community4 ,the expression poor in spirit is not popular in our time and has often been spoken of contemptuously4 ,there are some who think that actual poverty1 as well as poverty of spirit1 has a paralyzing effect on human #afb incentive1 but it is well to realize that there are a good many serious thinkers in our generation who do not agree with this impression but on the contrary feel that detachment from temporal goods may well prove a source of the highest and best stimulation to the accomplishment of what is really worth while in life4 ,some of them express themselves rather strongly on the subject1 and perhaps no one has stated his mind more emphatically with regard to it than ,professor ,william ,james1 who did not hesitate to declare just when money had come to be apparently the most important thing in modern life3 ,among us ,english-speaking peoples especially do the praises of poverty need once more to be boldly sung4 ,we have grown literally afraid to be poor4 ,we despise any one who elects to be poor in order to simplify and save his inner life4 ,if he does not join the general scramble and pant with the money-making street1 we deem him spiritless and lacking in ambition4 ,we have lost the power even of imagining what the ancient idealization of poverty could have meant3 the liberation from material attachments2 the unbribed soul1 the manlier indifference2 the paying our way by what we are or do and not by what we have2 the right to fling away our life at any moment irresponsibly--the more athletic trim1 in short1 the moral fighting shape4 ,when we of the so-called better classes are scared as men were never scared in history at material ugliness and hardship2 when we put off marriage until our house can be artistic1 and quake at the thought of having a child without a bank account1 it is time for thinking men to protest against so unmanly and irreligious a state of opinion4444 ,i recommend this matter to your serious pondering1 for it is certain that the prevalent fear of poverty among the #afc educated classes is the worst moral disease from which our civilization suffers4 ,all the great religions have preached mortification4 ,some of them have made it apparently of value in itself as working merit1 but this was practically always an abuse of the original idea that a man learned to control himself by practicing hard things4 ,our generation resents even the term hard things and does not like to hear hard sayings1 though even that gentlest of human beings1 the ,divine ,master1 felt that ,he had to use them4 ,there can be no doubt at all1 however1 about the benefit to be derived from enduring hard things4 ,every trainer who hopes to have a winning team in any department of athletics knows that he has to put them through hard things in order to enable them to acquire power and make their energies available when they are needed4 ,somehow people do not seem to realize that exactly the same thing is necessary with regard to training of the will as for training of the muscles1 and that indeed training of the muscles is of itself effective largely because of the training of the will connected with it which makes the nervous system capable of reacting according to the desires of the individual4 ,while we are so intent on making things easy for the young1 let us not forget that the best authorities on the subject of man's development of his powers so as to make them available for life's purposes are practically all agreed that the most important element in the formation of character--and on character depends destiny--is the having to go through hard things when one is young4 ,in the chapter on ,suffering ,i have quoted ,thucydides in this matter and its approval by ,gladstone and ,john ,morley in our own time4 ,we hear much of a favorable #afd environment for young folks but most of what is so called represents the worst possible set of influences for the development of character4 ,professor ,conklin of ,princeton1 in his volume on ,heredity and ,environment1 which consists of lectures delivered on the ,harris ,foundation of the ,northwestern ,university and afterwards at ,princeton1 and which therefore must be taken to represent the scientific thought of our time1 does not hesitate to say3 ,how often is it said that the worthless sons of worthy parents are mysteries2 with the best of heredity and environment they amount to nothing1 whereas the sons of poor and ignorant farmers1 blacksmiths1 tanners and backwoodsmen1 with few opportunities and with many hardships and disadvantages1 become world figures4 ,probably the inheritance in these last-named cases was no better than in the former1 but the environment was better4 ',good environment' usually means easy1 pleasant1 refined surroundings1 'all the opportunities that money can buy'1 but little responsibility and none of that self-discipline which reveals the hidden powers and which alone should be counted good environment4 ,many schools and colleges are making the same mistake as the fond parents2 luxury1 soft living1 irresponsibility are not only allowed1 but are encouraged and endowed--and by such means it is hoped to bring out that in men which can only be born in travail4 ,above all1 mortification1 that is1 the suppressing of the natural inclinations1 must be practiced for health's sake as regards the bearing of ills that have to be suffered anyhow1 and in the forbearance from passion when that would certainly prove physically disturbing4 ,bear and forbear has been sometimes set down as the most #afe important formula for life1 and it is certainly as valuable for the physical as for the moral side of humanity4 ,the repression of the natural tendencies is an extremely valuable practice for the prevention of the many excesses which have so much to do with the undermining of health4 ,the man who controls himself and compels his instincts to submit to correction and modification1 even when that is unnecessary1 so far as any serious consideration is concerned1 will surely find himself in a position to resist natural proclivities to evil which may easily be serious from the standpoint of health1 whenever they assert themselves4 ,austerity is supposed to be old-fashioned and out of date1 but all those who want to get anything really worth while done in the world know that they must deny themselves and their inclinations and work out their ideas in lonely vigil and by hard work4 ,nothing that is easy counts4 ,when men do things that will be remembered they have devoted themselves whole-heartedly to them to the exclusion of more attractive occupations4 ,matthew ,arnold1 in his splendid sonnet on ,austerity as the poet must practice it1 has brought this out very forcibly4 ,he tells the story of ,jacopone da ,todi1 the author of the ,stabat ,mater1 who1 on his wedding day1 saw his bride of the morning killed by the fall of a stand at a spectacle and found beneath her bridal robes a penitential garment4 ,he was so deeply impressed that he became a ,franciscan and subsequently the author of the famous hymn4 ,certainly pathos was never more wondrously expressed than by this man whose own austerities1 initiated by the example of his beloved bride1 made him ready to strip himself of every trivial interest in the cult of the eternal verities4 #aff ,that son of ,italy who tried to blow1 ,ere ,dante came1 the trump of sacred song1 ,in his light youth amid a festal throng ,sate with his bride to see a public show4 ,fair was the bride1 and on her front did glow ,youth like a star2 and what to youth belong-- ,gay raiment1 sparkling gauds1 elation strong4 ,a prop gave way6 crash fell a platform6 lo1 ',mid struggling sufferers1 hurt to death1 she lay6 ,shuddering1 they drew her garments off--and found ,a robe of sackcloth next the smooth1 white skin4 ,such1 poets1 is your bride1 the ,muse6 young1 gay1 ,radiant1 adorn'd1 outside2 a hidden ground ,of thought and of austerity within4 ,so far from mortification being in any sense of the word an old-fashioned1 worn-out practice1 good enough for the foolish people of the dark ages who had nothing better to think of1 it is1 in so far as it brings about training of the will and exercise in self-denial and self-control1 the most important element in education at all times4 ,we have unfortunately been neglecting it1 but that neglect is the real trouble with our modern education4 ,nearly every one who talks about education has some mental panacea for it2 but the trouble lies deeper than that4 ,it is the education of the will that has unfortunately been neglected and that requires1 to cite once more the ,century definition1 the subduing of appetites1 even though painful severities should have to be inflicted on the body4 ,huxley1 in his address on ,a ,liberal ,education2 and ,where to ,find ,it1 delivered before the ,south ,london ,workingmen's ,college1 has a passage in which he brings this out very well4 ,almost needless to say ,huxley was the farthest possible from being medievally minded1 and #afg yet he placed the essence of a liberal education in will power over self rather than in intellectual development1 or above all the accumulation of information4 ,he said3 ,that man1 ,i think1 has had a liberal education who has been so trained in youth that his body is the ready servant of his will1 and does with ease and pleasure all the work that1 as a mechanism1 it is capable of2 whose intellect is a clear1 cold1 logic engine1 with all its parts of equal strength and in smooth working order2 ready1 like a steam engine1 to be turned to any kind of work and spin the gossamers as well as forge the anchors of the mind2 whose mind is stored with a knowledge of the great and fundamental truths of nature and of the laws of her operations2 one who1 no stunted ascetic1 is full of life and fire1 but whose passions are trained to come to heel by a vigorous will1 the servant of a tender conscience2 who has learned to love all beauty1 whether of nature or of art1 to hate all vileness1 and to respect others as himself4 ,such an one and no other1 ,i conceive1 has had a liberal education2 for he is1 as completely as a man can be1 in harmony with nature4 #afh ,,chapter ,,ix ,,excesses ,the most important rule of conduct for health is the avoidance of excesses of any and every kind4 ,men have recognized this fact for as long as the memory of the race runs4 ,the instruction of ,ptah ,hotep1 the letter of advice from a father to his son1 written by the vizier of ,king ,itosi in the fifth dynasty in ,egypt1 something over five thousand years ago1 which is often called the oldest book in the world1 emphasizes particularly the necessity for the avoidance of excess in all things4 ,self-control and self-denial are held up as the highest attributes of man4 ,one of the seven wise men of ,greece adopted as his contribution to the wisdom of mankind avoid excess4 ,a favorite maxim of the ,romans was ne quid nimis1 let there be nothing too much2 and another favorite expression of theirs was in medio tutissimus ibis1 you will go most safely if you follow the mean 7and not either extreme74 ,the most powerful factor for securing the avoidance of excess among men has always been religion4 ,the four cardinal virtues are prudence1 justice1 fortitude and temperance1 and the last is considered by no means the least4 ,almost needless to say1 by temperance was meant not only abstinence from excessive drinking and eating1 but that moderation and self-control in all things which the ancients recognized as the most important factor in human life1 and which religion1 trying to perfect #afi nature by grace1 set forth as one of the cardinal or hinge qualities on which the whole of a good life swings4 ,when reason and not impulse1 when virtue and not passion1 when strength of character and not weakness rule a man's life1 the motives which impel him or1 as we would rather say in our modern knowledge of psychology1 stimulate him to action and enable him to accomplish what he desires in so important a matter are drawn much oftener from religion than from any other source4 ,religion has done more than anything else to make people rational in their lives and not merely the sport of their impulses and instincts4 ,men are animals1 but possessed of reason1 though reason can be obscured to a great extent or even almost completely eclipsed by the impulses that arise from the lower nature of man4 ,religion has above all helped to make men think of others who are so often hurt by their unreason rather than themselves1 and has helped to keep them from self-indulgence4 ,abernethy1 the distinguished surgeon who impressed himself so deeply on the history of medicine in ,london at the beginning of the nineteenth century1 was accustomed to say that the two great killing powers in the world are stuff and fret1--in a word1 eating too much and worrying about things1 most of which will never happen4 ,satisfying the desires of mankind and fostering their dreads will do more to wear out life before its time than anything else4 ,religion represents the ever present signpost pointing away from travel in either of these directions4 ,men do not heed her warnings very often until they have gone so far on the road of life that some of their powers have been lost because of their neglect1 but at least they can recognize then that the signposts are #agj always in place1 and that they saw them1 and that it was their own fault if they did not follow them4 ,homer1 three thousand years ago1 told the poetic story of the men who had been turned into swine by ,circe and who1 though swine1 knew that they were men1 but could not get back to the use of their reason4 ,the similitude lies so close that it is perfectly clear that the idea behind the old myth of the goddess who invited men to share swinish pleasures and secured such control over them that they could not get back their reason again was the goddess of lubricity4 ,ulysses himself had to abstain from the indulgence that had captivated his men1 and then he had to come to their assistance with the herb moly which1 revealed to him by one of the gods1 enabled him to turn ,circe's victims back to men again4 ,the old ,fathers of the ,church used to emphasize the fact that this herb moly represented grace1 for without divine assistance it is almost impossible for men who have given themselves over to the pleasures of the body to win back self-control again4 ,men may recognize their unfortunate state yet be unable to set themselves right4 ,no wonder the ,church ,fathers proclaimed the story as told by ,homer to be one of the prefigurements of ,christian symbol which showed that the old poet was1 in a certain way at least1 a messenger from celestial powers carrying on the tradition of ,providence in the world4 ,it is a commonplace among physicians that the so-called pleasures of life indulged in to excess are much more prone to be followed by ill health than is the hard work of existence1 no matter how apparently trying the work may be4 ,we hear much of hard work shortening life and of bringing on states of exhaustion in which health is at a low ebb1 but physicians find it very difficult to collect #aga cases that illustrate any such effects of hard work4 ,some of our hardest workers1 men who have devoted themselves to half a dozen different difficult tasks with an ardor that made other men wonder how they could possibly stand it1 have lived to even advanced old age4 ,i have personally known about a dozen physicians who lived to eighty-five or beyond1 and all of them without exception had been very hard workers when they were young4 ,distinguished generals often live to a good old age2 though not infrequently they have been shot to pieces when they were young1 wounded a number of times during life1 yet1 like ,lord ,roberts1 ,sir ,evelyn ,wood and ,von ,moltke1 they have lived well beyond eighty years of age1 active and capable until the very end4 ,the ill effect of hard work is a fetish created by people who are themselves afraid of hard work4 ,hard play has killed many more men than hard work4 ,concentrated efforts to compress into life all the possible pleasure that one can secure will break a man down sooner than anything else in the world4 ,such a breakdown is usually thorough and seldom is followed by complete and enduring recovery4 ,hard physical work1 on the contrary1 performed under any reasonably favorable circumstances1 is a factor conducive to health and strength and long life1 and this is particularly true if it is accomplished in the open4 ,the devotee of pleasure is notably shortlived4 ,work1 according to the ,scriptural expression1 was imposed as a curse on man1 but it has been very well said1 if when the ,lord curses they turn to blessings this way1 what must it not be when ,he blesses8 ,no wonder that we say1 ,blessed is the man who has found his work4 ,the more experience a man has had1 the more he recognizes this truth4 ,work is one of the most precious #agb resources for men in the world1 while pleasure1 unless carefully guarded from excess1 can be the worst of curses4 ,though so costly1 so much sought after and so often even looked forward to as the reward for work1 pleasure is but seldom satisfying and is often followed by remorse which proves disturbing to both mind and body4 ,the deterioration of constitution brought about by the physical consequences of pleasures indulged in to excess must be counted among the most serious factors for ill health to which humanity is subject4 ,doctor ,carroll1 in his ,mastery of ,nervousness1 says very well1 the danger of overwork is far less common than that of underwork4444 ,close observation brings the conviction that the great majority claiming overwork as the reason for their nervous deficiency are the victims not of earnest productive work itself but of defective methods of work discounted by haste1 stress and strain1 by impatience1 worry and fear4 ,in a word nervous breakdown1 when it comes to a busy man or woman1 is due ever so much more to the irritable state of mind into which they get in the midst of their press of work than to the work itself4 ,the feeling of haste is ever so much more dangerous than the actual hurry4 ,the mistakes that are made under these circumstances are great wasters of time and of energy and disturbers of morale1 until a feeling of impotence grows on one and then becomes inveterate4 ,as a matter of fact a great many people who break down do so not during the stress of work but afterwards1 when they have the leisure to look back on it and think about it and wonder why they did not break down1 and while their friends keep sympathizing with them and they have the chance to let their self-pity cause the crumpling of their character4 #agc ,premature old age1 that is1 the precocious hardening of the arteries1 for a man is as old as his arteries1 came particularly1 the older physicians used to say1 to the devotees of the three pagan deities1 ,venus1 ,bacchus and ,vulcan4 ,that is1 senility came before it was due in the order of nature to those who indulged in venery or in wine and its almost inevitable accompaniment1 overeating1 and then to the man who did such hard physical work as the blacksmith does1 for ,vulcan1 it may be recalled1 was the blacksmith among the gods4 ,in this enumeration two out of three of the factors unfavorable for health come from the pleasures of life2 but ,i think there is no doubt in the minds of physicians that if a comparison in the number of patients whose ailments were the consequences of the worship of the deities named were to be made1 there would be found ten times as many men who became prematurely old or suffered from the development of organic affections because of wine and venereal disease as from hard physical labor4 ,aneurysm is the one form of arterial degeneration to which the hard worker is particularly liable1 and the more we have learned of that the more we have come to realize very clearly that while the hard work was the immediate occasion1 the real underlying cause of the degeneration of arteries that led to the development of the aneurysm was to be found in some overindulgence4 ,the ,french physicians sometimes said satirically that overwork of the heart much more than of the head or the hands laid the foundation on which aneurysm developed1 for it occurs oftenest on a luetic basis4 ,practically all the degenerative diseases affecting heart1 arteries1 kidneys and brain are due to excesses4 ,the excesses of life are counted by religion among the deadly #agd sins4 ,pride1 anger1 covetousness1 lust1 gluttony1 envy and sloth1--all these represent indulgence in evil passions that very readily affect the body4 ,religion has constantly used all its influence to overcome them and has succeeded better than any other single factor in life4 ,it is perfectly possible to have a veneer of religion and be a miser or a glutton or a very devil of pride1 but real religion of the heart1 while it does not eradicate the tendency that exists in human nature toward these unfortunate qualities1 helps the possessor of them materially to control them and to keep his passions in subjection4 ,in this control of excesses religion has been an extremely important factor for health4 ,it is true that many other factors1 human respect1 worldly consideration1 preservation of one's own dignity and similar non-religious factors have had a like influence4 ,occasionally indeed it would seem as though mere respectability had more to do with preventing men and women from making exhibitions of themselves by the public commission of sin than even religion itself4 ,this would appear to be surely true if different strata of society were compared with each other4 ,if1 for instance1 the working classes who practice their religion and the better-to-do classes who perhaps neglect it were to be compared in these regards1 the contrast would favor the latter as a rule1 but any such comparison would be eminently odious4 ,there is no doubt that mere human motives can be effective1 but the value of religion should be gauged from its effect on people who are living in the same circumstance4 ,the vast majority of the very poor have found religion a sheet anchor of veritable salvation under circumstances where sin would have been not only not a disadvantage but actually have proved of material benefit to them4 ,while1 on the other hand1 many #age a well-to-do person lacking religion has fallen into sin in spite of the fact that every human motive spoke emphatically against their commission of it4 ,religion has been particularly helpful in the neutralization of temptations to excess in the matter of alcoholic liquor4 ,father ,matthew's great crusade in ,ireland1 ,england and this country enlisted millions of people under the banner of temperance and helped marvelously in enabling the world to understand that the serious evils connected with the liquor traffic were by no means inevitable1 but could be repressed to a great extent by simple personal appeals which called to the manhood of men and made them understand their own power to throw off the shackles of what to them seemed an unconquerable habit by a serious act of the will4 ,the immense amount of suffering that was thus saved to the women and children of men who had been accustomed to drink a considerable portion or sometimes practically all of their wages and leave their families to get on as best they might is almost incalculable4 ,a still more important result of ,father ,matthew's work was the demonstration that men who are the victims of even such a habit and craving as that which is produced by indulgence in liquor may break it completely by a single powerful act of the will1 when to that is added the strong suggestion that they will surely be helped by divine favor to accomplish what they have purposed4 ,literally hundreds of thousands of men under ,father ,matthew's inspiration1 and touched by the example of others around them1 broke off once and for all from liquor habits to which they had been enslaved sometimes for years4 ,professor ,william ,james in his essay on the ,energies of ,men first published in the ,american ,magazine under #agf the title of ,powers of ,men 7,october1 #aijg7--;it was originally the presidential address delivered before the ,american ,philosophical ,association and therefore written not for popular reading1 but as a serious contribution to science--has on this1 as on many other subjects1 a paragraph that is valuable in this regard4 ,it is not only interesting but is eminently suggestive with regard to the effect that can be produced on a man by deep emotion1 and when that emotion is based on profound religious feeling it can be not only immediate but extremely enduring in its effect4 ,this is what proved to be the case for the vast majority of those who took the pledge from ,father ,matthew4 ,professor ,james said3 ,the normal opener of deeper and deeper levels of energy is the will4 ,the difficulty is to use it1 to make the effort which the word volition implies4 ,but if we do make it 7or if a god1 though he were only the god ,chance1 makes it through us71 it will act dynamogenically on us for a month4 ,it is notorious that a single successful effort of moral volition1 such as saying 'no' to some habitual temptation1 or performing some courageous act will launch a man on a higher level of energy for days and weeks1 will give him a new range of power4 ',in the act of uncorking the whiskey bottle which ,i had brought home to get drunk upon1' said a man to me1 ',i suddenly found myself running out into the garden1 where ,i smashed it on the ground4 ,i felt so happy and uplifted after this act1 that for two months ,i wasn't tempted to touch a drop4' ,nothing is so capable of giving a fillip to a sluggish will1 arousing it to efforts that even its possessor never dreamt it capable of1 as religion4 ,the change of life known as conversion has not infrequently revolutionized an existence that seemed hopelessly and helplessly committed #agg to the baser aims of living4 ,instances are in every one's experience1 and the veriest self-missioned exhorter has many of them to his credit4 ,religion has listed temperance among the four cardinal virtues1 and though it is usually named the last--prudence1 justice1 fortitude and temperance--it is considered by no means the least in importance1 and the cardinal virtues1 as the etymology of their descriptive epithet signifies1 are literally the hinge virtues on which the religious life depends4 ,religion has not1 however1 ever favored that complete prohibition of the use of the milder alcoholic beverages which have such a definite place in life4 ,life is1 as a rule1 too hard a thing for most people without the opportunity for escape from the tension of existence represented by mild alcoholic stimulation4 ,at the very beginning of ,christianity ,paul advised his disciple ,timothy to take a little wine for the stomach's sake1 and in this religion is only helping nature1 provided there is no abuse1 for natural digestion is accompanied by the production of a certain amount of dilute alcohol4 ,absolute prohibition of very natural indulgences that are not in themselves wrong is so likely to be followed by a reaction in the opposite direction that abuses are almost sure to occur4 ,temperance and not prohibition represents the true religious aspect of this question4 ,unfortunately very serious abuses had followed the interesting developments of modern human ingenuity in the making of strong liquors4 ,natural processes only make liquors of various kinds that do no harm unless taken in great excess and that have a very special place in the human economy4 ,from the abuses no argument holds against the use1 but it was the very reaction produced in religious minds against the serious associations of #agh the drink traffic that led to the enactment of laws against it4 ,in themselves they represent a great benefit for humanity1 for it is perfectly sure that we shall never want the saloon back again1 nor the free consumption of strong alcoholic liquors which are not stimulants but narcotics and have done not so much physical harm as moral harm4 ,they have caused the workman to neglect his family and bring them very often to the point of starvation2 they have filled our jails1 have made the need for charity greater than it would otherwise be2 have fomented passion and only too often encouraged vice1 and we must never have them back4 ,even the exaggerated religious reaction has done great positive good1 and when it settles down to moderation in prohibitive laws we will set a magnificent example for the rest of the world1 the first hints of which are already manifest4 ,what is true for the alcoholic craving can be just as true for addictions of all kinds and particularly for drug addictions4 ,in our day a great crusade is needed for the relief of this evil1 for in spite of efforts at repression1 drug addictions are growing in frequency rather than decreasing4 ,we have tried to use material repressive measures and have failed4 ,it is time for us to realize that there remain moral and religious motives1 appeal to which can produce almost incredibly strong effects4 ,these can prove effective against many of the most unfortunate habits of mankind which are likely to turn out extremely deleterious to health if persisted in4 ,religion can thus be a source of power--virtue is the word the ,romans used for this and its full form is not translated by our ,english word virtue any more--to help in the neutralization of human tendencies more prone than any others to shorten life or be the origin of serious disease4 #agi ,it would be too bad to reduce religion to the role of merely a scavenger of bad habits1 a sweeper up of the unconsidered trifles which if allowed to act tend to the deterioration of physical existence1 but what happens when religion does bring about improvement in the victims of these unfortunate habits is that a great new incentive is given to life1 and men1 realizing what they have been rescued from1 may now turn the new energies they have found to great purposes4 ,some of these at least have learned to devote themselves unstintedly to work for others which proves a source of the greatest possible good4 ,how many a rescued drunkard has1 after reform1 given himself whole-heartedly to helping others out of various unfortunate conditions in which both body and soul were being pulled down to the very lowest that was in them4 ,some of these rescued ones for twenty or more years devoted themselves1 in the midst of what might have seemed almost inevitably compelling temptations to their former habits1 to the care for others until their names became household words in the great cities of their time because of the good they were accomplishing4 ,jerry ,macaulay was an example of this that ,new ,york will not soon forget1 but we have had many humbler fellow workers of his4 ,the human will1 stimulated by religious motives1 can change the whole course of man's life when his character would seem to have made it inevitable that this could not be changed for the better4 ,how true the maxim of conduct in life is3 plant an act and reap a habit2 plant a habit and reap a character2 plant a character and reap a destiny4 ,what seemed the almost unescapable destiny of many men has been changed by the influence of religion over habits1 so that a natural disposition which by habit #ahj had become a personality fraught with evil for self and others has been changed into an individual that proves an asset instead of a liability to the community4 ,not only in the matter of substances harmful in themselves1 but in those which though good and even necessary when taken in moderation1 yet are greatly harmful when consumed in excess1 the regulations of religion have been particularly helpful to mankind4 ,fasting has been encouraged and indeed set down as an absolute obligation for all those who are in health4 ,mortification1 that is1 self-denial with regard to things that people like very much1 was counseled and the counsels so often repeated that people were almost sure to practice some of them and many were taken quite seriously to heart4 ,moderation in eating was advised at all times1 and any serious excess set down as gluttony1 one of the seven deadly sins4 ,how much the religious counsels against excess may be needed nowadays even with regard to things quite harmless or even valuable for mankind will perhaps be best appreciated from the present status of sugar consumption in the world4 ,one hundred and twenty-five years ago a few thousand tons of sugar supplied all the needs of mankind4 ,now nearly twenty-five million of tons are scarcely sufficient to maintain prices for the commodity at a level low enough so that people may continue to buy it in the quantities they desire4 ,sugar is an artificial product made from starchy substances1 not unlike alcohol in certain ways and capable of doing at least as much physical harm as alcohol4 ,there are at the present time half a million people in this country who either have now or will have before they die1 diabetes4 ,this is a serious disease2 when it occurs under thirty it is practically always fatal4 ,under forty it may shorten life #aha seriously4 ,it always greatly weakens the individual and makes him subject to certain other serious diseases4 ,we need self-control in the use of sugar2 the habit of taking it grows on one4 ,the use of sugar and milk in tea and coffee is an occidental abuse that the orientals who originally began the drinking of these substances find it extremely difficult to understand4 ,tea with milk and sugar in it a ,chinaman would be likely to think of as sweetened milk soup4 ,the reason for adding milk and sugar was to cover up the defective qualities in poor tea or coffee1 or mistakes in their making by which certain bitter astringent principles not meant to be in solution had their taste covered up by the sweet milkiness4 ,the habit of using tea without sugar often formed by the practice of a little mortification would probably result in more good than merely the absence of the sugar4 ,every one of the seven deadly sins represents excesses in bodily or mental propensities against which religion set up the attitude of utter disapproval and pointed out their inevitable tendency to part a man from what was best in him4 ,teaching children from their early years that pride1 covetousness1 lust1 anger1 gluttony1 envy and sloth were serious offenses made for an early realization of the necessity for guarding against them4 ,all of them represent extremely unfavorable factors for health4 ,pride goes before a fall1 and the disappointments which it almost inevitably brings with it represent more occasions for depression and melancholic tendencies than almost anything else4 ,the inordinate desire for money has brought down on many a man serious nervous prostration4 ,with regard to lust and its awful consequences to health nothing need be said here1 and not much needs to be said #ahb even in the chapter on ,purity4 ,we have had its baneful effects dinned into our ears particularly in recent years4 ,anger is not so serious1 and yet many an older man especially has shortened his life quite materially by giving away to ungovernable bursts of temper4 ,nervous people who do not control their tempers often suffer from serious lack of nerve control as a consequence of their lapses of temper4 ,gluttony has already been touched on and needs no illustration as to its extremely bad effect on health4 ,envy often makes most of the functions of the body perform their work incompletely because nothing so disturbs even such apparently purely physical functions as digestion and nutritional metabolism generally as the wearing of a grouch4 ,the grouchy man almost never digests well and quite inevitably his state of mind interferes with other functions4 ,little need be said about sloth and its effect upon health but the fact that from the very earliest times religion has pointed out that the mere doing of nothing could of itself become a serious1 even capital offense1 for a healthy person represented an excellent stimulus to that activity of mind and body which is so important for health4 ,it is only lately that we have come to realize how dangerous a remedy rest may be1 to be prescribed with great care1 for it is a habit-producing remedy nearly as risky as opium and never to be prescribed on any general principles4 ,there has been ten times as much harm done to health by rest as by vigorous exercise or even hard work4 ,the hard workers are nearly all long lived1 but the sons and daughters of rest pass away from the scene1 not of their labors1 but of their languors1 rather early1 as a rule4 ,religion then has been an extremely valuable factor for the control of excesses1 or at least for their limitation1 #ahc and thus has been of great significance for health4 ,religious counsels and prohibitions have not entirely prevented excesses even in those who were adherents of religion1 for man is so constituted that it is not quite possible to have all men follow the wiser course4 ,even the best of men have to confess1 like ,st4 ,paul1 that sometimes1 though they know the better path1 they follow the worse4 ,if to do good were as easy as it is to know what it is good to do1 life would be a much simpler matter4 ,not knowledge1 but will power is needed1 and religious practice builds this up and strengthens the will so that it is able to resist many temptations that would otherwise prove difficult to surmount4 ,the contest between good and evil has gone on in spite of religion1 and will go on1 but there is no doubt at all that evil would have accomplished much more of harm only for the help that religion has been to mankind1 and this has been particularly manifest in the limitation of the excesses which so often prove detrimental to health4 ,the old saw of ,english tradition which in some form or other is many centuries old is well worth recalling in this regard4 ,virtue1 temperance and repose ,slam the door on the doctor's nose4 ,we hear much of the vicious circles that are formed by which things go from worse to worse1 one unfavorable factor helping on another1 but we forget apparently that there are virtuous circles according to which all things work together for good4 ,this means good not only for the soul and the mind1 but also for the body and for health4 ,religion makes for health and health promotes religion1 and the virtuous circle is completed4 #ahd ,,chapter ,x ,,purity ,nothing has worked so much detriment to the health of mankind for many centuries as the habits that may be generalized under the term impurity4 ,until recent years it has been the custom to suppress the knowledge of the immense physical evil that was being worked to humanity by the venereal diseases4 ,a generation ago it was only imperfectly known1 but now we recognize that no set of diseases are more important for the race and its health than those which usually occur as the direct result of violations of the moral code4 ,their ravages have increased just in proportion to the gradual diminution of the influence of religion during the past few generations4 ,they have probably worked greater havoc on the better classes than on the poorer classes4 ,there are nations like the ,irish1 over whom religion has a strong hold1 in which the injury worked by these diseases has been almost negligible4 ,there have been classes of men like the clergymen1 deeply under the influence of religion1 who have escaped almost entirely the awful1 destructive effects of these affections4 ,we have only just waked up to the realization of how much this element of conduct1 so profoundly influenced by religion1 has meant for suffering and death among men4 ,in spite of the fact that there was a conspiracy of silence with regard to the venereal diseases1 something of their #ahe fearful effectiveness in adding to mortality lists came to be known1 at least by those who were interested in the subject1 a generation ago4 ,though every possible excuse was taken not to list death as due to these diseases during the twenty-five years before nineteen hundred1 when1 just after the smug mid-,victorian period1 the conspiracy of silence was at its highest and was particularly hide-bound in ,england1 no less than sixty thousand deaths from venereal disease were registered by the ,english registrar general4 ,nearly twenty-five thousand of these were females4 ,over two thousand deaths a year is a pretty heavy toll1 but such statistics give only the very faintest hint of the awful ravages of these diseases4 ,it is not alone death that occurs as a consequence of them but long years of suffering and crippling of various kinds1 the blinding of children and the birth of dead or idiotic children1 or of other poor little ones who grow up to be epileptic or to become insane in early adult life1 or to exhibit other sad marks of the diseases of their parents4 ,civil statistics of these diseases mean very little1 especially in ,english-speaking countries1 because of our prudery with regard to them4 ,army medical statistics1 however1 have had to be rigorously kept because of the amount of military inefficiency due to these affections4 ,the statistics of the last generation in ,england show that it was not an unusual thing for nearly one in four of the soldiers in a regiment to be admitted to the hospital each year because of venereal disease4 ,actually nearly one in five of the effective strength of regiments was constantly in a hospital because of these diseases4 ,it is improbable that soldiers are notably more immoral than civilians of the same class1 except that perhaps there has been in the army a tradition of greater contempt for these affections4 ,so #ahf far as large cities are concerned1 many good medical authorities are convinced that the average young men of the population suffer to about the same extent as soldiers4 ,actually something more than three out of five in the ,english army suffered at some time from these diseases1 and as they are extremely difficult to cure and often continue to have serious effects for years1 as well as being contagious for others1 we get some idea of what an immense amount of harm has been worked by them4 ,it might possibly be thought that conditions in ,america were better than in ,europe in this regard1 but our experience during the war did not justify any such optimism4 ,nearly six per cent of the men mobilized for the army in the ,united ,states actually showed signs of these diseases when they were admitted for examination on arrival in camp4 ,this percentage does not include those who had been cured prior to their examination4 ,from some of the cities of this country the proportion of young men actually suffering at the time of their enlistment from these diseases was more than one in ten1 and from certain of the southern cities it actually approached very close to one in five4 ,according to the statement of the ,surgeon ,general of the ,war ,department1 diseases due to impurity constituted the greatest cause of disability in the army4 ,when the physicians were given the opportunity to make a more careful examination of the second million of the draft than had been possible for the first1 the percentage of diseased men ran up notably1 in spite of the fact that warnings in the matter led a great many of those who were drafted to seek proper treatment before presenting themselves at the camps4 ,we have waked up at last to something like the full significance of these diseases in the destruction of the race4 #ahg ,the ,american ,social ,hygiene ,association in its ,publication ,no4 #bej1 ,conquering an ,old ,enemy1 dared to tell the story of these affections very straightforwardly4 ,there are many physicians connected with this association and its opinions are thoroughly conservative and not at all hysterical4 ,we get a striking idea of the destructiveness of these diseases from an early paragraph of the publication3 ,in these ,united ,states and in this year of peace #aibj1 more lives than the whole empire of ,great ,britain lost during any year of the ,great ,war will be flicked out by two diseases which are curable and preventable diseases4 ,nor will the year #aibj stand alone4 ,in the four and a half years of intensive warfare between #aiad and #aiah1 the fifteen civilized nations which fought at ,armageddon gave to these twin scourges a heavier toll than they did to bullets1 shells1 gas1 air-bombs1 all the ghastly1 wholesale killers of modern battle4 ,the more important of these diseases is estimated by authorities to kill annually in the ,united ,states more than #cjj1jjj people4 ,it is far more deadly than tuberculosis and carries off every year nearly1 if not quite1 as many lives as influenza at the height of its epidemicity4 ,france lost during the four years and four months of ,armageddon #a1cej1jjj lives in battle4 ,we lost almost as many during the same time from this affection which a few years ago we were ostrich-like hiding from ourselves by refusing to look at it4 ,the other of these affections is probably responsible for more serious suffering in women and female complaints that require operation as well as blindness in children than any other single factor that we have in modern life4 ,there is no element that has so seriously interfered with the simple joys of existence1 the #ahh raising of children and family life in peace and happiness1 as this affection4 ,when it is realized how many complications and sequelae may develop from these diseases1 but above all how much harm may be done to innocent wives and children1 some notion of the suffering that has thus been inflicted on mankind will be obtained4 ,the one significant factor in the control of this source of ill health has been religion4 ,just in proportion as religion has lost its hold over the rising generation1 there has been a marked increase in this particular mode of ill health4 ,the only effective brake on human passion has been religious feeling1 but above all religious training4 ,if religion had done nothing else than limit to a noteworthy extent the irregular living consequent upon yielding to passion1 that would be sufficient of itself to make not only personal but community health greatly indebted to religion4 ,other motives have at times been appealed to and sometimes with apparently good results for the time being1 but never with any enduring effectiveness against the flood tide of feeling which comes over those who have had no practice in self-repression and who have not learned to appeal to the higher motives to help them in this matter4 ,for a great many young men1 sowing their wild oats has been sowing a crop of seeds whose products have meant the ruination of their own lives1 but unfortunately also only too often of the lives of their future wives and their unborn children4 ,we know now that the great majority of all the blind children in our blind asylums owe their blindness to one of these venereal affections4 ,three out of five at least of the imbeciles and epileptics in our institutions derive their mental trouble from the other #ahi of these diseases4 ,we hear a good deal about young folks seeing life1 but for many the process which has been thus lightly glossed over should be described literally as seeing death4 ,since the unfortunate breakdown of religion to a considerable extent in the last few generations and its tendency to change into a mere social influence at most1 there has been a great increase in the prevalence of these diseases4 ,some of this is undoubtedly due to our modern city life and its temptations1 but the individual attitude toward life means more4 ,st4 ,theresa said1 ,when the individual is well grounded in faith1 the temptation means little4 ,an attempt has been made to control the power of temptations and repress the passions of men by other means4 ,above all1 knowledge of the awful sex disease dangers which they were running has been turned to as a hopeful remedy in this matter4 ,it was thought that young folks could be terrified by the knowledge of the hideous possible consequences of their acts into avoiding the lapses which occasion them4 ,in spite of the fact that practically all of our prominent psychologists have opposed any such method as this1 a great many people who have very little right to an opinion have insisted that this policy must be followed in our schools4 ,there is probably nothing that could do more harm than this4 ,the diffusion of the knowledge of the immense amount of serious1 even fatal1 disease consequent upon sex irregularities suddenly thrust upon the world has made a great many people a little hysterical and has tempted them to turn to remedies which are not only not likely to be helpful but are almost sure to be vicious in their consequences4 ,it is like finding #aij that a child has swallowed some poison and in the excitement administering another with the vague hope that one may neutralize the other4 ,professor ,foerster of the department of psychology and ethics at the ,university of ,munich does not hesitate to say that such teaching is sure to do harm and not good4 ,he has suggested that in making use of the intellect to restrain sex instincts there is every danger of the intellect itself1 through excessive familiarization with details of such knowledge1 being captured and employed in the service of the enemy4 ,he praises the older teachers1 ,the great educators of the past who have all been instinctively aware of this truth and have hence strongly insisted on the importance of cultivating a sense of shame2 for they have realized that the chief task of sexual education is not to attract the attention of the young to sex matters1 but as far as possible to distract them from it4 ,professor ,muensterberg of ,harvard ,university took very strong ground against the teaching of sex hygiene in public schools and stated his opinion quite as emphatically as ,professor ,foerster that such teaching1 even though it be given with the best of intentions1 is sure to do much more harm than good4 ,he said3 ,the cleanest boy and girl cannot give theoretical attention to the thoughts concerning sexuality without the whole mechanism for reinforcement automatically entering into action4 ,we may instruct with the best intention to suppress1 and yet our instruction itself must become a source of stimulation which unnecessarily creates a desire for improper conduct4 ,the policy of silence showed an instinctive understanding of this fundamental situation4 ,even if that traditional policy had had no #aia positive purpose1 its negative function1 its leaving at rest the explosive sexual system of the youth1 must be acknowledged as one of those wonderful instinctive procedures by which society protects itself4444 ,a nation which tries to lift its sexual morality by dragging the sexual problems to the street for the inspection of the crowd without shyness and without shame1 and which wilfully makes them objects of gossip and stage entertainment is doing worse than ,munchausen when he tried to lift himself by his scalp4 ,it would be perfectly easy to give many other quotations from prominent psychologists who agree with ,foerster and ,muensterberg in this matter4 ,what is forgotten is how large a role suggestion plays in all matters relating to conduct1 but particularly sex conduct4 ,the exhibition of such ordinary crimes as second-story work1 climbing porches in order to steal while the family are at meals1 the picking of pockets and the like1 on the reels of moving pictures has been found to be followed over and over again by the occurrence of such crimes among the boys and even the girls in the neighborhood where the exhibition was given4 ,girls see a woman's reticule cleverly rifled in a street car or on a crowded corner and1 tempted by the cleverness of it1 they are led to imitate the action4 ,in many cities the police refuse to allow such reels to be exhibited unless the punishment for the crime completes the picture4 ,even with this1 however1 it has been found that such exhibitions prove criminally suggestive1 for the young folks remember the cleverness and think of the fun that one can have with the money1 while the punishment is1 if not forgotten1 at least so pushed into the background of memory as to have comparatively little deterrent effect4 #aib ,if this is true with regard to indifferent actions of this kind1 the temptations to which are more or less artificial or but of comparatively slight allurement1 it is easy to understand how serious and profound can be the suggestive power of sex knowledge for which there is likely to be so prurient a curiosity and with regard to which there are in the best-regulated healthy individuals1 bodily stirrings almost as soon as the mind begins to be occupied with them4 ,for that is the danger1--that even in the best of men the physical sex impulse may be awakened4 ,in those who for professional reasons are quite familiar with sex matters1 as for instance the physician1 the dwelling on sex subjects even in matters of disease may arouse physical elements in the system1 and these may react to deepen the attention until other considerations may be quite pushed into the background of consciousness4 ,if this is true for older people1 how much more so for the young1 who have not yet been disillusioned on sex subjects and whose inhibitions are likely to be so much weaker4 ,a great many of the people who are so intent on sex education apparently do not realize that their very tendency to occupy themselves with this subject so much is due to unconscious physical stirrings within themselves1 consequent upon the preoccupation of mind with these subjects to the exclusion of healthier considerations4 ,the imparting of knowledge often serves only to awaken sleeping passions unsuspected before in the organism4 ,everyday experience shows how little knowledge helps4 ,the people whose sex divagations get most frequently into our courts are those between thirty-five and fifty years of age4 ,there is no question at all that they know enough to keep them right if knowledge made #aic for righteousness4 ,i have said elsewhere1 and ,i know it to be true1 that medical students1 in spite of their knowledge of the consequences of venery1 are not better1 but on the average a little worse in these matters than other students in the universities4 ,their knowledge1 like all knowledge1 acts as a suggestion to evil much more than as a protection against vice4 ,when temptation comes they are likely to think of the possibility of avoiding the worst evils and of the powers of medicine1 and anyhow youth always feels in the expressive ,french phrase4 ,on meurt6 les autres6 ,people die6 ,oh1 yes1 other people4 ,the one factor in life that will give the most precious aid in the protection of humanity against sexual temptations is religion4 ,all the higher religions have emphasized the virtue of purity1 that is1 of freedom from sex vice1 as of the greatest importance4 ,for ,christianity this has been a corner stone of the spiritual life without which righteousness1 to use the good old-fashioned word which indicated that a man went right in life1 was impossible4 ,we are a little afraid of these old-fashioned religious words in our time1 and we use such expressions as go straight1 somewhat as during the war the soldiers used the expression go west in order not to have to mention the solemn word death1 but the old-fashioned words express exactly the meaning that we want1 and they often carry valuable suggestion with them4 ,in the ,sermon on the ,mount1 ,christ held out ,his highest rewards in heaven for those who practiced purity4 ,he insisted1 however1 not on purity of body alone1 but on purity of mind and heart when ,he said1 ,blessed are the clean of heart1 for they shall see ,god4 ,the head master of ,harrow1 the great public school #aid in ,england1 proclaimed a very great truth that we all know1 but need to be reminded of1 when he said to his young men at ,harrow that ,the ,bible does not so much speak as thunder against impurity1 and it is no injustice to a secularistic morality to say that purity received from the lips of ,jesus ,christ a dignity1 nay1 a paramount authority which it cannot receive from human lips4 ,nor is personal chastity the same thing if it be taken to be a sanitary1 or conventional1 or moral practice1 as if it be a duty resulting from the sanctity of the body as the temple of the indwelling ,spirit of ,god4 ,doctor ,norman ,porritt1 in his book on ,religion and ,health1 does not hesitate to say that religion is the only factor that can be helpful in this extremely important matter of the prophylaxis of sex disease4 ,he goes so far as to say that ,give to the tempted the reinforcement of religion1 and you place him in a position well-nigh impregnable4 ,it has been well said that if the man who first wrote honesty is the best policy meant that people should be honest because that was sure to rebound to their own benefit in the end1 he was a rascal at heart4 ,in something the same way ,doctor ,porritt suggests that to teach that purity is the best policy is to take an extremely low motive for the purpose of combating one of the most alluring temptations that man has4 ,he says very emphatically and yet surely with a great deal of common sense3 ,and what is to be the remedy for the scourge which is incapacitating and crippling a fifth part of the nation's manhood1 checking the natural expansion of population and sweeping unknown thousands to untimely graves8 ,there are many remedies4 ,we may look to the creation of a public sentiment which shall regard immorality as a disgraceful thing1 to be #aie ashamed of rather than proud of2 we may learn to point the finger of scorn at the tempter as readily as we spurn his victim2 we may prove1 both by precept and our own example1 that chastity is compatible with health1 and that impurity--even when no gross disease follows--tends to deterioration and disorder2 that the reasoning which gives a sanatory sanction to immorality and vice is a subtle sophistry4 ,we may cultivate the manly exercises and stamp out impurity by wholesome books1 elevating amusements1 and noble ambitions2 we may endeavour to check the spread of these diseases by legislative restrictions2 we may inculcate teetotalism and banish enervating habits and too stimulating foods4 ,each of these measures may do something4 ,some of them may do much4 ,but all of them have one fatal defect4 ,they are all tarred with the brush of expediency4 ,expediency1 and not wrong-doing1 is the danger signal they show4 ,and when the hot blood surges through young veins in the struggle with an imminent temptation1 what becomes of expediency8 ,many people are ready to declare that the conspiracy of silence which has characterized the old-fashioned attitude of mind with regard to sex matters generally is due to the ,church more than to any other agency4 ,i think that from what we have said the ,church's insistence on reticence with regard to sex subjects as the policy most likely to do good in the long run is now recognized by psychologists as being founded on motives that are the basis of natural defense by human nature in an extremely thorny matter4 ,ignorance is not innocence1 but a saving lack of knowledge may spare a great many evil suggestions that would otherwise work harm4 ,you cannot neutralize sex temptations by the #aif provision of knowledge1 you cannot even minimize them1 and you may tactlessly add not a little to their danger4 ,there is a prudery which is not proper reticence that is cultivated by some people who happen incidentally to be religiously inclined4 ,they would not call a spade a spade for the world4 ,they would not hint at the fact that conjugation is always the origin of life for worlds4 ,they would not use certain plain words that must be used in order to express very definite ideas without the feeling that they had smirched themselves by saying such things4 ,if they had gone through ,europe in the old days and seen the public comfort arrangements1 they would have collapsed then and there4 ,all this is sheer prudery and when applied to sex matters represents really a neurosis of excessive precaution and inhibition with regard to some of the most natural things in the world4 ,any one who understands even a little of the religious attitude toward marriage will appreciate readily that such a state of mind is as far as possible from being that of the ,church4 ,marriage is termed holy and blessed1 and the ministers of the sacrament are the married persons themselves4 ,only those who fail to comprehend religious teaching in these matters have suggested that religious reticence with its conservation of that supreme reverence which even the great pagan teacher ,quintilian recognized as due to youth represented an unfortunate cultivation of harmful ignorance4 ,on the contrary1 it is a part of that great tradition of age-long reticence which represents the highest wisdom of humanity4 ,hence the reversion to that mode of dealing with the question which has characterized the teaching of conservative psychologists in the last few years4 #aig ,the greatest safeguard of purity with all that it means for the preservation of health and strength is the practice of self-denial with regard to the luxuries of life4 ,no element in life has emphasized that and encouraged its practice so much or so constantly1 and so persistently tried to train her children in it from youth as religion4 ,it is almost impossible1 for young people particularly1 to keep right in this matter if they constantly indulge in luxuries4 ,the very word luxury has come to be defined as lust and lasciviousness and indulgence in lust1 because there is such an almost inevitable connection between the exuberance of animal spirits which develops in connection with indulgence in luxuries of various kinds that the two words have almost necessarily come to have an intimate association4 ,the word is applied to the friskiness or wantonness of animals1 and it is very easy to understand its application4 ,men as well as animals who take more food than their occupations in life enable them to dispose of properly become similarly wanton or out of control4 ,in ,scriptural words they wax fat and kick4 ,religion has encouraged innocent enjoyment of every worthy sort as a distraction of mind and an outlet for youthful energy1 but has discouraged in every way possible that complete gratification of the senses or of bodily desires which is so likely to be fatal to such strength of will as will enable people to control themselves4 ,clarke says1 ,luxury does not consist in the innocent enjoyment of any of the good things which ,god has created to be received with thankfulness1 but in the wasteful abuse of them to vicious purposes in ways inconsistent with sobriety1 justice or charity4 ,professor ,foerster1 whose books on the subject of the #aih training of youth and especially on sex matters in youth attracted so much attention shortly before the war1 faced frankly this problem of the necessity for the practice of mortification1 or as he did not hesitate to call it1 genuine asceticism1 the exercise of the virtues of self-control and self-denial as the most important factor for the protection of youth4 ,he said3 ,all solutions of the sex problem which tend to emancipate sex feeling from the control of moral and spiritual law 7instead of making it the chief aim to place the spirit in a position of mastery over the sex nature7 are essentially hostile1 not only to our whole social evolution and to the development of individual character1 but to actual physical health in the sphere of sex4 ,to secure the mastery of man's higher self over the whole world of animal desire is a task1 however1 which demands a more systematic development of will-power and the cultivation of a deeper faith in the spiritual destiny of humanity than are to be found in the superficial intellectualistic civilization of to-day4 ,to achieve such a result it will be necessary not only to have recourse to new methods and new ideals1 but to make sure that we do not allow what is valuable and in any way worthy of imitation1 in the old1 to be forgotten4 ,the ascetic principle in particular is to-day in danger of being undervalued4 ,the cult of the body which has become so much the occupation of the present generation1 which refuses to make the necessary effort of mind to secure intellectual pleasures1 has always been the special deprecation of the ,church4 ,a great many of the words in the language show the effect of that religious attitude very clearly4 ,sensuousness1 while its original meaning is only anything connected with the senses1 has come to mean the quality #aii of being particularly alive to the pleasure that is received through the senses and therefore by implication1 at least1 not particularly intellectual4 ,the ,edinburgh ,quarterly reviewer long ago1 in the famous article which ,byron suggested as having snuffed out the fiery particle of ,keats' soul1 hurt him most by suggesting his lack of intellectuality and declaring that he was too soft and sensuous by nature to be exhilarated by the conflict of modern opinions1 hence he found an opiate for his despondency in the old tales of ,greek mythology4 ,sensuality even more than sensuousness has come to mean under the sway of the senses and the bodily desires rather than of the mind4 ,pope spoke of men sensualized by pleasure like those who were changed into brutes by ,circe4 ,there is probably no epithet that a man of intelligence resents more than to be called a sensualist4 ,goldsmith summed it up when he spoke of the vulgar satisfaction of soliciting happiness from sensual enjoyment alone4 ,religion has particularly emphasized the danger and the actual degradation of human nature which this brought about4 ,bishop ,atterbury declared that ,no small part of virtue consists in abstaining from that in which sensual men place their felicity4 ,longer ago ,shakespeare summed up the degeneration of the sensualist when he said ,those pampered animals ,that rage in savage sensuality4 ,this is quite literal degeneracy1 for as man is both animal and rational1 overindulgence in the pleasures of the senses drags him down toward his animal nature1 that is1 toward the genus below the genus homo to which man belongs4 ,no wonder men resent the epithet degenerate4 #bjj ,as the result of the influence of religion other words such as carnal1 worldly1 have come to be stamped with a meaning which makes people understand much better than would otherwise be the case the real significance of indulgence in bodily or mere earthly pleasure4 ,the words are no longer fashionable1 but that is because the deeds which they represent have become quite fashionable1 and those who affect them do not want to have the innuendo of decadence and wrongful indulgence which necessarily goes with them applied to their acts4 ,religion has thus created a state of the public mind that has been extremely helpful against sensual pleasures and their power to ruin health1 so long of course as religion held its place of influence over men4 ,above all religion has insisted1 and it is almost the only agency which continues to do so1 that there can be no purity with its power for good for the health of both mind and body if the excitants of sensuality are indulged in4 ,there must not only be no doing of evil1 but there must be1 as far as possible1 no thinking about it1 and especially there must be no dwelling on sensual pleasure1 for bodily cravings will almost surely be aroused that make temptation almost insuperable4 ,to think of delicate viands when one is hungry causes a flow of saliva1 making the mouth water1 but we know now that it causes a flow of what are called the appetite juices in the stomach which adds materially to the feeling of hunger and would make it very hard to resist taking food if it were placed before one1 even though there might be some rather serious dangers connected with its taking4 ,the thirsty soldier finds it extremely difficult to obey military laws with regard to not drinking any water that has not been examined and declared wholesome by the medical regime #bja of the army1 and if he should dwell much on his thirst it would make it ever so much harder to restrain if water from outside military sources should be offered to him4 ,other pleasures of sense are even more likely to become the subject of almost insuperable temptations if the objects of them are dwelt on4 ,religion therefore has insisted1 and is still insisting1 on the necessity of avoiding attendance at such theaters as quite inevitably set up sensual excitation4 ,fashion1 which is another word for the world--and religion has always pointed out that the three great enemies of the development of the spirit of man are the world1 the flesh1 and the devil--has always set itself in opposition to religion in the approval of sensual gratification4 ,that conflict is unending4 ,a great many people declare that they would rather be out of the world than out of fashion1 and it is surprising what insensate things fashion leads people to4 ,the present fashion for the slow dance with the partners closely wrapped in one another's arms1 for that is of course the essence of all the modern dances1 no matter what their varying names may be1 is only another development of the unending opposition between fashion and religion4 ,here once more1 as with regard to the theater1 religion presents the only serious protest4 ,dame ,fashion insists that she sees no harm in it1 but that is of course only a fashion of speech4 ,it is quite impossible for a physician to watch the dancing without becoming convinced that human passions must be aroused by such close contact of human bodies of opposite sexes4 ,in this1 however1 as in so many other phases of life1 only religion can interfere or protest with any hope of success4 ,her protest remains often unheard2 fashion #bjb may be almost all powerful even against the higher calls of duty as well as against common sense4 ,certainly religious influence has had more to do with keeping a great many women from following the dictates of fashion in emphasizing their sex and therefore exciting the men with whom they come in contact than any other single factor4 ,it has not been entirely successful1 it never will be2 the conflict will go on and worldliness will constantly come to the surface in some form or other1 often to the detriment of health2 and religion when properly vital will continue to be the most important factor in keeping evil from gaining such ascendancy as would be seriously detrimental to the healthy mind in a healthy body4 ,religion is the only agency in the modern time that tries to regulate the reading of young folks and indeed of others in this dangerous matter of sex excitation4 ,a great many books seem to be written at the present time for no other purpose than to excite sex feeling1--and thereby to make money4 ,they depend for their sale entirely on the fact that for a great many people there is a distinct physical pleasure in reading about sex subjects4 ,this is particularly true of women4 ,a great many of them1 and especially those who have not very much else to do and who therefore have no proper outlet for animal spirits and for the energies that tend to accumulate in them because they feed well and sleep long1 are prone to indulge in this sort of luxury4 ,most of them would resent the suggestion that it was wrong for them to indulge their feelings in this way1 but religion has always taken a decided stand and insisted that the fomenting of desire and the toying with alluring thoughts and the inviting of temptation are of themselves actually sinful4 ,as ,john ,boyle ,o',reilly said1 #bjc ,temptation waits for all1 and ills will come2 ,but some go out and ask the devil home4 ,physicians have always insisted that the sexual erethism which is excited by the reading of books on sex subjects1 the attending of sex problem plays and of shows of various kinds is the worst possible background for healthy living4 ,such frequent titillation of delicate nervous mechanisms plays sad havoc with general nervous control4 ,unfortunately just those who are indoors a great deal1 who take very little exercise1 and who live on dainties are most likely to indulge in these habits of life with regard to reading and the theater and dancing and the like which are most harmful for them4 ,they are irritable in the nervous sense and excitable1 and this erethism increases their nervous instability which responds by craving further excitement4 ,a vicious circle is formed which very often leads to nervous breakdown4 ,just now we are hearing much about sexual repression as the cause of nervous disorders1 but sexual repression is as almost nothing in its tendency to produce neurotic or psycho-neurotic affections compared to the partial tantalizing1 sexual indulgence which comes from sensual reading or lascivious shows4 ,the plays that are seen1 the jokes that are heard1 the sex problems that are dwelt on1 the stories that are read must get more and more spicy and contain more and more sex pep to afford any satisfaction1 and the consequence is a disturbance of delicate parts of the nervous system which react more or less seriously to lessen the control over the whole nervous mechanism of the body4 ,when ,doctor ,s4 ,weir ,mitchell pointed out two generations ago that not only headache1 but rather serious nervous disturbance involving often the gastro-intestinal #bjd tract and sometimes other large organs like the brain itself1 as well as even mental operations1 might come from so small a cause as disturbance of accommodation in the eye1 most physicians refused to believe that such far-reaching symptoms could come from what was apparently so trivial a factor4 ,the accommodation mechanism of the eye is extremely delicate1 however1 and requires such nice adjustment that any interference with it causes a waste of nervous energy that is likely to make itself felt at almost any part of the nervous system4 ,in our day disturbances of the eye are confessed by all to be extremely important4 ,in something of the same way disturbances of the sexual system of the body are reflected throughout the whole nervous system4 ,religion has counseled1 commanded and thundered against any practices1 however simple they might seem in themselves1 that would serve as excitants for the sex feelings4 ,without her influence even more harm would have been done than has been4 ,it is the waning of religious power over public morality and public opinion that has led to the orgy of indulgence in sexual excitation1 which has had such bad effects and which unfortunately so often leads to sexual acts which are fraught with the hideous dangers of venereal disease1 because passion excited will find its satisfaction4 ,society heedlessly arouses passion but apparently cares not what happens afterwards4 #bje ,,chapter ,,xi ,,insanity ,there is a very prevalent impression that religion is a common1 even rather frequent cause of insanity4 ,this is founded on popular experience4 ,it has often been noted that not a few of the people who go insane have delusions on religious subjects4 ,it is also a very common observation that those who are on the road to insanity and have finally to be placed in an asylum have for some time been making themselves conspicuous by their excessive practice of religious observances of one kind or another4 ,it is not surprising then that the familiar fallacy post hoc ergo propter hoc1 after this therefore the result of this1 should have come to be applied in these cases1 and that religion should be set down as a prominent factor of mental disease and perhaps one of the commonest causes of the condition4 ,those who have given most study to the subject1 however1 know very well that this conclusion is quite as unjustified by the facts of the case as the corresponding one with regard to religion being a frequent source of nervous diseases4 ,we will discuss that in the chapter on ,nervous ,diseases1 and almost necessarily the closely related subject of mental disturbances is touched on somewhat there4 ,of course it is well understood that a great many of those who are on the road to such mental alienation #bjf as will eventually require their internment in an asylum will give many external manifestations of religious feelings1 some of them exaggerated beyond reason1 as perhaps the very earliest striking symptom of their mental alienation4 ,religion1 as we said in the ,introduction1 is one of the most universal interests of men4 ,when people go insane1 some interest will receive exaggerated attention4 ,the delusions of their insanity are dependent on what the deepest interest of the individual was4 ,if he was interested in money1 he will believe himself the richest or perhaps the poorest of men4 ,if he is interested in science1 his delusions will be associated with that subject4 ,delusions concerning some phase of science are probably even more common in our day than those based on religion4 ,electricity is the source of more delusions than anything else1 though hypnotism and telepathy and other sensationally exploited modes of so-called psychology are a close second in this respect4 ,if the patient has recently suffered a severe loss by the death of a friend1 sorrow will be the central idea of his mental disturbance2 if there has been a disappointment in love1 that will be the focus of his mental troubles2 if there has been a money loss1 that disappointment will be the core of the depression4 ,almost any human interest may thus become the root of excitement or discouragement leading to mania or melancholia4 ,the ,great ,war gave us some very interesting material as to mental as well as nervous disease4 ,in nothing was that more interesting than as to the causes from which insanity develops4 ,it might very well have been expected that a great many people would break down under the awful conditions in which they were placed during the war4 ,for instance ,poland was fought over some six times1 #bjg and portions of ,austria overrun three times1 and ,servia was1 between war and the ravages of famine and disease1 a veritable shambles of its people for three or four years4 ,it is easy to understand the awful states of anxiety and solicitude and almost continuous terror to which the inhabitants of ,belgium1 occupied by the ,germans1 were subjected1 particularly in the smaller places where they were utterly at the mercy of the ,german officials whose one idea1 fostered by their military teaching1 was that the end of the war would be brought about or at least greatly hastened by a policy of frightfulness4 ,literally many millions of people were subjected to conditions which would seem to be impossible for human nature to stand for any length of time1 and yet they had to bear them continuously for four years or more4 ,the records of the development of insanity among these people have been rather carefully gathered1 and they reveal the astounding fact that the insanity rate was very little higher among all these intense sufferers from the war than it would have been under the ordinary conditions of civil life4 ,manifestly a certain number of persons had the insanities which would have developed in them in later years anticipated by the trials and the hardships of wartime conditions1 but only those suffered from insanity as a rule who might have been expected to do so because their family or personal history revealed tendencies in that direction which would almost surely have made themselves manifest sooner or later even under the inevitable vicissitudes of peace time4 ,what modern medicine has revealed to us is that apart from certain infectious diseases which produce degeneration of the physical basis of mind and the absorption of certain poisons--alcohol is a typical example--which #bjh cause a corresponding degeneration to the infections1 the supreme factor in insanity is the inheritance of a predisposition to the affection4 ,two things have become perfectly clear in the course of modern medical investigation1 that insanity and longevity run in families1 and that there is almost no other basis on which the two conditions may develop4 ,infections or intoxications in the broad sense of the word may produce conditions to foster or impair respectively either of them1 but even they are of minor significance compared to the original inheritance in either case4 ,clouston1 the well-known ,english authority on mental diseases1 whose opinion is founded on many years of personal observation1 in his book on ,unsoundness of ,mind ,footnote #f has put the relationship between religion and mental disease very clearly4 ,he said3 ,it is true that religion1 touching as it does1 in the most intense way the emotional nature and the spiritual instincts of mankind1 sometimes appears to cause and is often mixed up with insanity4 ,but in nearly all such cases the brain of the individual was originally unstable1 specially emotional1 oversensitive1 hyperconscientious and often somewhat weak in the intellectual and inhibitory faculties and1 if looked for1 other causes will usually be found4 ,he had said just before1 ,to talk of 'religious insanity' as if it were a definite and definable form is in my judgment a mistake4 ,footnote #f3 ,methuen1 ,london1 #aiaa4 ,so far from prayer--the principal exercise of religion1 that is the raising up of the mind to ,god1 either in petition or in resignation--unsettling people's minds1 it has exactly the opposite effect4 ,professor ,william ,james1 whom most people are not inclined to think of as likely to be an overstrenuous advocate of religion1 in his #bji well-known essay on ,the ,energies of ,men has a paragraph in which he quotes from a physician who had had long experience in the care of a great many insane and who did not hesitate to say that prayer was a benefit and not in any sense of the word a detriment to his patients4 ,doctor ,thomas ,hyslop1 of the great ,west ,riding ,asylum in ,england1 said last year to the ,british ,medical ,association that the best sleep-producing agent which his practice had revealed to him was prayer4 ,i say this1 he added 7,i am sorry here that ,i must quote from memory7 purely as a medical man4 ,the exercise of prayer1 in those who habitually exert it1 must be regarded by us doctors as the most adequate and normal of all the pacifiers of the mind and calmers of the nerves4 ,it is recognized as a general rule in asylum practice that when patients begin really to pray1 a turn for the better has come in their condition1 and they are on the high road to recovery4 ,this does not mean1 of course1 noisy1 wordy praying1 but quiet raising of the mind to ,god and acts of resignation to their condition so long as they may be affected4 ,there is a very general impression among those who have had most to do with the insane as well as among psychologists in general that religion1 instead of favoring the development of insanity1 rather inhibits it4 ,professor ,muensterberg1 in his ,psychotherapy dwells particularly on this4 ,almost needless to say ,professor ,muensterberg did not wear the special favor of religion in the lists and was in no sense her champion4 ,he is proclaiming simply what he knows and feels to be true4 ,a very curious reflection on the relations of religion and insanity is to be found in the fact that the marked increase in the insane among the population of all the #baj great modern civilized countries and most striking among our own has come since the decay of religion and the decrease of religious belief4 ,the statistics of that increase in the number of the insane are very startling to those who are not familiar with the subject4 ,during a single generation the number of the insane in our institutions has increased to five times what it was before in proportion to the population4 ,there is no doubt that this is due to some extent to the fact that people are much less ready to care for their insane relatives outside of institutions than they were a generation and especially two or three generations ago4 ,we are much less ready to make the personal sacrifices needed to keep our friends at home1 which is probably also due to the lowering of our religious sense of obligation in the matter4 ,fortunately our insane asylums are much better conducted than they were1 and this has made people more willing to confide their relatives to them4 ,giving all due allowance for this1 however1 there has been an enormous increase in the number of the insane4 ,such commonwealths as ,california and ,massachusetts1 in which there are very large proportions of educated people1 present the highest increase in the number of the insane4 ,there are certain critical spirits who would say that it is our education without ,god and without religion that has fostered this state of affairs1 and that it is particularly people of a certain limited intelligence who1 when overeducated1 lose their faith1 who are most prone to lose their minds4 ,the most important single factor in insanity1 not dependent on constitution or heredity but on conduct1 is that degeneration of the brain which brings on paresis or general paralysis of the insane4 ,taken by and large throughout the world generally1 nearly one in five of all #baa those who die in insane asylums die from this affection4 ,it is the result of an infection usually consequent upon sexual immorality4 ,the disease is inevitably fatal and once it begins it is steadily progressive from the delusions of grandeur so common at the beginning through various delusional states up to absolute dementia and death1 which usually takes place in a little more than three years from the beginning of the disease2 five years is a long time for a patient to survive4 ,nothing has done so much to limit the occurrence of this disease as religious influences1 and it has increased to become the modern scourge that it is just in proportion as religion has lost its hold upon the mind of the rising generation4 ,the disease is particularly infrequent among clergymen1 and while lues from which the disease develops may be contracted innocently1 it is very evident that a regular moral life such as is led under the sway of religious principles is the best possible safeguard against the spread of the disease4 ,after paresis the most serious form of acquired insanity in modern life is that known as alcoholic insanity1 due to excess in the taking of spirituous liquors4 ,it is not necessarily inevitable that a man who frequently indulges to excess in alcoholic liquors will become insane any more than that he will suffer from alcoholic neuritis1 but a large number of individuals prove susceptible to the toxic effects of alcohol in these ways4 ,there is an inherent liability in their brain and nervous system to degenerate under the influence of alcohol acting as a poison4 ,this is an extremely common form of insanity1 but almost needless to say it occurs much less frequently in those who have any religious principles than in those who are without them1 because religion protects from the excesses that predispose to these conditions4 ,clergymen #bab very rarely suffer from them and though occasionally clerical patients have developed alcoholic insanity or alcoholic neuritis1 these cases on careful investigation oftener proved to be due to certain patent medicines which contained alcohol in large percentage than to any direct consumption of spirituous liquor4 ,religion by its calming influence keeps a good many people who have hereditary tendencies to insanity from developing outspoken symptoms of the disease4 ,religious conviction has a definite efficacy in making people humble instead of conceited1 and this is an excellent factor for preventing the tendency to insanity4 ,nearly always the preliminary sign of insanity is an exaggeration of the ego and a hint at least of delusions of grandeur4 ,people who overrate their importance are often on the road to the asylum4 ,religion1 by inculcating humility1 at least lessens this tendency and puts off developments that are inevitable so that many more years of reasonable sanity are enjoyed than would otherwise be the case4 ,probably the worst thing in the world for those who have any inherited tendency to disequilibration of mind is to have an occupation in life which involves strains and stresses of emotion4 ,the gambler1 the speculator1 the man who risks his all on some attempt to make a great deal of money1 are much more prone to develop insanity than those who have occupations in life at which they work from day to day for a moderate wage1 and who get their joy in life out of the fulfillment of domestic duties4 ,almost needless to say religion has always discouraged gambling and such speculation as resembles it very closely1 and the whole tendency of religious influence is to make people so satisfied with their lot in life that they will not take the risks which involve the #bac vehement mental emotions so likely to disturb those with inherited predispositions toward irrationality4 ,undoubtedly religion has in this way saved a great many men from serious developments in mental alienation which might have come had they felt themselves free to take up the riskier avocations in life from which they were deterred by the feeling of religious disapproval4 ,after the tendency to exaggeration of the ego and delusions of grandeur1 the most common symptom of incipient insanity is delusion of persecution4 ,as regards this1 once more1 the religious feeling of trust in ,providence and the conviction that ,god will somehow take care of them keeps many people from allowing their delusions of persecution to manifest themselves so soon or so violently as would otherwise be the case4 ,only comparatively rarely do religious minded people in the midst of their delusions of persecution commit crimes1 being deterred therefrom by the underlying consciousness of the wrongness of their acts in taking judgment on their persecutors into their own hands1 even though they may have yielded to a belief in their delusions4 ,it is true that a certain number of religious-minded people do commit crime under the influence of delusions1 but these are rarer than the cases which occur in people who have never had any sense of religious morality4 ,in a word religion has meant a very great deal for the limitation of insanity and the tendency to it1 for putting off its development and giving patients years of sanity they might not otherwise have enjoyed1 and it has had a very definite effect in limiting the crimes consequent upon insanity4 ,it has a very marked tendency to create the atmosphere of placid trust and confidence which means so much for the preservation of sanity4 ,far from being #bad a provocative of irrational tendencies it soothes patients' minds1 prevents them from running into such excesses of emotion as are dangerous for mental balance1 and it predisposes those who allow themselves to be deeply influenced by it to live such quiet satisfied lives without inordinate ambition and disordered desires as make for health of mind and body during prolonged life4 ,it has often been said that religion unfortunately proved harmful to insanity and the insane in the old medieval days1 because ecclesiastics1 sometimes for the sake of the fees that they might secure for exorcisms1 taught very generally the doctrine that the insane were possessed of the devil1 and that the one thing to do for them1 besides exorcising the evil spirit1 was to chain them up and keep them in manacles in dungeons until there was assurance that they had been released from the devil that had gained possession of them4 ,in spite of the fact that this is a rather common teaching in medical books and is frequently asserted even by physicians and sometimes indeed by specialists in nervous and mental diseases who are supposed to know the subject on which they discourse1 there is very little foundation for this prevalent impression4 ,undoubtedly there was the belief in the possibility of possession by the devil and some such modern scientific minds as ,alfred ,russel ,wallace and ,professor ,barrett of ,trinity ,college1 ,dublin1 have reverted to that belief because of their studies in spiritism and some of the curious results that follow from overdevotion to the cult of spirits4 ,there was1 however1 a very definite recognition of the fact during the later ,middle ,ages that the insane were just ailing persons who had to be taken care of1 properly treated1 kept from hurting themselves or others1 just as delirious individuals #bae would have to be guarded1 but who must be looked upon as sick in mind1 just as a number of people were sick in body and with more than a hint that the bodily condition had more to do with the insanity than anything else4 ,i have discussed the subject at some length in my volume on ,medieval ,medicine recently published in ,london4 ,footnote #g ,paul of ,aegina wrote in the seventh century of melancholy as a primary affection of the brain to be treated with frequent baths and a wholesome and humid diet1 together with suitable exhilaration of mind and without any other remedy unless when from its long continuance the offending humor is difficult to evacuate1 in which case we must have recourse to more complicated and powerful plans of treatment4 ,paul was a very popular author much read in the ,middle ,ages4 ,footnote #g3 ,black4 #aibj4 ,the ,church's view of the subject of insanity is very well expressed in ,bartholomew's ,encyclopedia4 ,this was a work written particularly for the information of the clergymen of the time1 in order to explain to them all references in ,scripture and to give them such details of knowledge as were necessary for preaching and for the teaching of their flocks4 ,bartholomew was very widely read and went through many editions before printing1 was put into print very early1 and some of the editions are among the greatest of bibliophilic treasures4 ,bartholomew1 usually called the ,englishman--his ,latin name of ,bartholomaeus ,anglicus is well known--boiled down all the knowledge of insanity into a single paragraph4 ,he has nothing at all to say of possession by the devil1 and his discussion of the whole subject of madness is as modern as can be4 ,the causes of insanity which this clergyman writer #baf of the middle of the thirteenth century enumerates are those which psychiatrists of the present day are insisting on4 ,the symptoms of infection1 considering the brevity of the passage1 are very well and clearly described1 and the treatment suggested is the very latest in modern practice and consists of improvement of nutrition and the diversion of the insane4 ,with all our supposed advance in knowledge no physician1 even of the twentieth century1 could have expressed the whole subject of insanity any better than ,bartholomew did4 ,this paragraph is a complete refutation of the objections that the ,church by its insistence on diabolical possession as the principal cause of insanity did a great deal of harm4 ,bartholomew said3 ,madness cometh sometime of passions of the soul1 as of business and of great thoughts1 of sorrow and of too great study1 and of dread3 sometimes of the biting of a wood 7mad7 hound1 or some other venomous beast2 sometimes of melancholy meats1 and sometimes of drink of strong wine4 ,and as the causes be diverse1 the tokens and signs be diverse4 ,for some cry and leap and hurt and wound themselves and other men1 and darken and hide themselves in privy and secret places4 ,the medicine of them is1 that they be bound1 that they hurt not themselves and other men4 ,and namely1 such shall be refreshed1 and comforted1 and withdrawn from cause and matter of dread and busy thoughts4 ,and they must be gladded with instruments of music1 and some deal be occupied4 #bag ,,chapter ,,xii ,,nervous ,,disease ,just as with regard to insanity1 there is a very common impression that religion increases the amount of nervous disease in the world and is responsible for a great deal of what has been called hysteria4 ,not a few who think they have a right to an opinion in this matter1 and some of them are physicians--though usually they are rather young--are quite ready to assert that religion is a fruitful source of nervous symptoms and very often of rather serious nervous conditions4 ,we saw in the chapter on ,insanity how false is the prevalent impression as to religion producing tendencies to insanity1 though of course a great many insane people have religious delusions4 ,it is very much the same with nervous diseases4 ,many nervous people pay a certain amount of attention to religion1 and not a few of them cling to straws of hope that they may be able to overcome their neurotic tendencies by superficial attention to prayer or to some practices of religion which they seem to look upon about in the same light as patent medicines recommended for the cure of nervous diseases4 ,people who are deeply religious1 however1 very seldom suffer from nervous affections1 and they have in their religion the most beneficent of helpful resources1 if by nature1 that is1 by heredity or unfortunate development1 they have neurotic tendencies4 #bah ,so far from religion increasing nervous disease1 then1 it has exactly the opposite effect4 ,we have a number of testimonies to this purport from prominent neurologists1 many of whom were themselves not believers in religion but who recognized its influence for good over others4 ,such expressions are to be found in the writings of men of every nationality4 ,not infrequently1 in spite of their own religious affiliations1 they acknowledge what a profound influence certain forms of religion have over certain people4 ,these testimonies have been multiplying in our medical literature in recent years1 because apparently physicians have come to appreciate by contrast the influence for good of religion over some of their patients1 since they see so many sufferers from nervous diseases who have not this source of consolation to which to recur4 ,in ,america we have a number of such testimonies4 ,in his ,self ,help for ,nervous ,women1 ,doctor ,john ,k4 ,mitchell of ,philadelphia1 who may be taken to represent in this matter the ,philadelphia ,school of ,neurologists1 to which his father lent such distinction1 said3 ,it is certainly true that considering as examples two such separated forms of religious belief as the ,orthodox ,jews and the strict ,roman ,catholics1 one does not see as many patients from them as might be expected from their numbers1 especially when it is remembered that ,jews as a whole are very nervous people and that the ,roman ,catholic includes in this country among its members numbers of the most emotional race in the world4 ,of only one sect can ,i recall no example4 ,it is not in my memory that a professing ,quaker ever came into my hands to be treated for nervousness4 ,if the opinion ,i have already stated so often is correct1 namely that #bai want of control of the emotions and the overexpression of the feelings are prime causes of nervousness1 then the fact that discipline of the emotions is a lesson early and constantly taught by the ,friends would help to account for the infrequency of this disorder among them and adds emphasis to the belief in such a causation4 ,in writing a ,textbook of ,psychotherapy ,footnote #h eight years ago one of the appendices was devoted to the relations between religion and psychotherapy4 ,one of the paragraphs1 written for physicians1 and ,i may say that it has been read by many thousands of them1 puts my own opinion on the dual subject of the nexus between religion1 insanity and nervous disease1 as succinctly as ,i can hope to put it4 ,there is no doubt that an abiding sense of religion does much for people in the midst of their ailments and1 above all1 keeps them from developing those symptoms due to nervous worry and solicitude which so often are more annoying to the patient than the actual sufferings he or she may have to bear4 ,while religion is often said to predispose to certain mental troubles1 it is now well appreciated by psychiatrists that it is not religion that has the tendency to disturb the mind1 but a disequilibrated mind has the tendency to exaggerate out of all reason its interest in anything that it takes up seriously4 ,whether the object of the attention be business1 or pleasure1 or sexuality1 or religion1 the unbalanced mind pays too much attention to it1 becomes too exclusively occupied with it1 and this overindulgence helps to form a vicious circle of unfavorable influence4 ,footnote #h3 ,appleton4 ,while many people in their insanity1 then1 show exaggerated interest in religion1 this is only like other #bbj exaggerated interests of the disequilibrated1 and religion itself is not the cause but only a coincidence in the matter4 ,some who are interested particularly in this subject1 on reading this will at once revert to the fact that scruples are extremely common among the religiously inclined and that these are1 after all1 as a rule1 only nervous symptoms which are surely fostered by religion4 ,to say this1 however1 is to misapprehend the real meaning of scruples4 ,the word is a very old one and means a little sharp stone1 as if in trying to make progress the scrupulous found themselves hindered by having to walk over little sharp stones which so disturbed them that they were hampered in getting on4 ,above all1 scruples put them into a state of mind where they hesitate as to whether they can go on at all or not4 ,the subject of scruples was very thoroughly worked out and carefully described by the older spiritual writers centuries ago4 ,they wrote elaborate treatises on it1 while it was not until our own time that physicians by their careful study of corresponding conditions entirely apart from religion came to appreciate that these conditions of the spiritual life were only expressions of a rather common set of tendencies altogether independent of religion4 ,they are prone to develop in people with certain physical and mental characteristics who are possessed of dispositions and nervous systems particularly likely to be the subject of these hesitancies and doubts and difficulties for which there is very little basis in actuality4 ,the whole chapter of phobias and the other chapter on obsessions and the third on what the ,french call la folie du doute1 the doubting mania in our modern textbooks of neurology1 are really so many chapters in the #bba literature of scruples of the old time1 now transferred to the textbooks on functional nervous diseases4 ,some nervous people who are religiously inclined get into a very disturbed state of mind from the fear that they may commit sin almost unknown to themselves or that they may be in sin unawaredly and cut off from their ,creator1 and they become extremely miserable as a consequence4 ,this is1 after all1 a very familiar picture to the neurologist accustomed to see patients suffering from functional nervous diseases4 ,i have patients who suffer quite as much from the dread of dirt as these scrupulous people do from the dread of sin4 ,women often suffer from this dread of dirt--misophobia is the scientific name derived from the ,greek--to an exaggerated degree4 ,a woman patient of mine makes it extremely uncomfortable for the conductors on the street cars because1 for fear of contaminating her hands1 she dreads to touch the handle bars by which she could mount or descend easily4 ,this adds greatly to the risks she takes every time she boards a car4 ,she is constantly washing her hands to get the dirt off1 so that in cold weather she sets up severe skin irritations and makes herself very uncomfortable4 ,i have a male patient who would not touch the handle of my door for the world1 and whom successive maids have come to know very well because he stands outside the outer door and has to have that as well as the inner door opened for him4 ,he has said to me over and over again1 ,doctor1 don't ask me to shake hands with you1 because you shake hands with so many people4 ,i have seen him standing outside of a large department store with the temperature around zero1 waiting for some one to open the door so that he might slip in without touching it4 ,nor are such states #bbb of mind confined to the uneducated2 on the contrary1 they are commonest among those who have a good education and are quite sensible in other things4 ,obsessions were originally described as super-religious states of mind in which some idea assumed a terrorizing character4 ,the victims of them dread that they might commit some awful crime and as a consequence were profoundly miserable4 ,instead of being confined to religion1 such mental states are quite common in conditions altogether apart from religious feelings4 ,women read of a mother killing her child in some awful way or perhaps accidentally poisoning it or burning it badly with some escharotic external application4 ,they become obsessed with the idea that they may do something of this kind and fear that they may not be able to resist the suggestion4 ,medical literature is full of such cases4 ,a typical case is described by ,tangi in his textbook on insanity3 ,a young married woman suffered from nervous exhaustion after her first childbirth4 ,she watched day by day her husband cutting up meat for his parrots with a pair of scissors1 and the action filled her with disgust which later increased to positive horror4 ,thus a repulsive obsession was produced and this in turn engendered the morbid suggestion to cut the tongue of her dearly loved child in the same way4 ,the fear that she would not be able to resist this suggestion made the suggestion more vivid and the idea more imperative1 causing an agonizing struggle each time4 ,then there are accounts1 some of them most poignant1 from ,catholic patients of my own1 who were sure that sometime while in the midst of their devotions or even at the very reception of the sacraments they would #bbc blaspheme4 ,they are people who fear that every pious act of theirs may just expose them to the risk of committing some awful sacrilege4 ,almost needless to say such states have nothing at all to do with religion1 and when similar conditions occur among the religious minded1 they must be attributed to the general neurotic condition and not to the incidental religious tendencies4 ,the doubting mania occurs among the religious minded when they keep on fearing that they have not done something that they should do4 ,some of these individuals get into a profoundly miserable and disturbed state of mind1 but that must not be blamed on religion4 ,this sad state of mind in people who have no religion at all is extremely familiar to the neurologist1 and it has no necessary connection with religious practice or religious belief4 ,i have a patient who has been coming to me for many years now from a city in the ,middle ,west2 he is a broker1 and every time there is a panic in the money market ,i am almost sure to see him4 ,whenever he gets very much disturbed over business matters1 as is likely to happen in panic times1 he develops a very striking folie du doute1 or doubting mania4 ,he will take a letter to a post box and go back three or four times1 first to see if by chance he did not drop it on the way1 secondly to be sure that it did not get caught in the slot2 then1 if the letter is important1 he will go back to see if perchance there may not be some bolts or other obstructions at the top of the box that may catch it and delay its collection4 ,i have even known him to wait for some time at the post box to see if the postman might not possibly drop it when he came to collect the mail4 ,but then he does other things just as foolish4 ,occasionally he will #bbd get home from his office and suddenly have the feeling that he forgot to lock his safe4 ,he will go back and then get part way up town when he is overcome by the fear that he may not have locked the door after him as he came out4 ,at times when his folie du doute is at its worst1 he has been known to go back three or four times to close windows or for some other trivial reason4 ,when he is in reasonably good condition there is very little of this state of mind manifest1 but he can make himself supremely miserable when the obsession is on him4 ,it is often said that the declaration by the ,church of the idea of possession by the devil rather encouraged the development of certain mental and nervous states and thus fostered neurotic manifestations of many kinds4 ,this whole question of the possibility of direct diabolic influence over mankind1 that is1 of some evil spirit deeply influencing certain human beings1 is yet a matter that is not nearly so settled as a great many physicians who have not been following scientific work in allied lines seem to think4 ,so distinguished a scientist as ,alfred ,russel ,wallace1 the co-discoverer with ,darwin of the theory of natural selection1 had the feeling that spirits interfered much more in human affairs than a great many people were willing to admit1 and that the evil spirits probably could1 under certain circumstances1 deeply affect individuals4 ,professor ,barrett of ,trinity ,college1 ,dublin1 is even more outspoken in what he has to say in this regard1 and now there is a very general feeling among those who have investigated spiritistic phenomena most carefully that if spirits do actually communicate directly with men1 it is commonly not the spirits who claim to do the communicating who are actually present4 ,almost needless to say any such conclusion as this would1 #bbe if maintained1 throw even scientists back to the old idea of diabolism1 which the ,church1 on the strength of many centuries of experience1 still teaches4 ,one thing is perfectly sure3 that if overzeal on the part of certain ecclesiastics rather encouraged neurotic manifestations because of the alluringly suggestive quality of the thought of diabolic possession1 they did no more than physicians did in more modern times by their suggestive methods in the study of hysteria4 ,a great ,french neurologist of to-day has pointed out that major hysteria as studied by ,french neurologists of a generation ago has practically disappeared1 or occurs very rarely in our day because it is no longer unconsciously suggested to patients by physicians that these major symptoms are being looked for4 ,overzeal in medicine raised up a whole series of symptoms that had no existence except in the heated imagination of their patients under the influence of strong suggestion4 ,another extremely interesting phase of this subject is that in the old days many of the sensible ecclesiastics and some of the civil authorities came to recognize that people supposed to be possessed of evil spirits could be cured of their condition not infrequently by roundly whipping them4 ,sir ,thomas ,more particularly called attention to how much good could be effected in this way4 ,in writing an article on ,psychoneurosis and the ,war 7,international ,clinics1 ,volume ,,ii1 ,series #bi7 ,i called attention to this in a paragraph that may be helpful in the understanding of the discussion of diabolic influence4 ,it has been the custom for many years now1 indeed for more than a generation1 to think that the old-fashioned methods of treating many of the psychoneuroses by #bbf punishment and the infliction of pain were founded on an entirely wrong principle4 ,sir ,thomas ,more1 for instance1 tells the story of a number of folk in his time who suffered from rather serious complaints2 some of them were dumb and some deaf1 and some thought they could not see1 and others could not walk4 ,he says that some people considered them possessed of the devil1 and that it was the presence of this very undesirable spirit that hampered their activities in various ways and made it impossible for them to use their powers properly4 ,the description of the cases makes it very clear that he is referring to hysterical conditions of various kinds and the sequel as to the successful treatment which he says was frequently employed on them more than confirms the inference of hysteria and demonstrates the very definite hysterical character of the affection4 ,many a physician down through the ages has been inclined to think that these people were possessed of a bad spirit of some kind1 even though he might not be quite ready to think that a personal devil had taken hold of them and was seriously hampering their functions4 ,we recognize that the real trouble is with their own spirit1 to which may be applied whatever epithets come to mind1 and no one will think them exaggerations2 this spirit has lost its control of their activities1 rendering them incapable of exercising their functions properly4 ,there is a very widespread tradition1 which has found its way into medical literature especially1 that the fervent practice of religion in women has a very definite tendency to make them neurotic4 ,particularly when religious devotion is associated with mortification and fasting1 it is supposed to be serious in its effects4 ,it is the custom to make references to such pious women as ,st4 ,catherine #bbg of ,siena and ,st4 ,theresa of ,spain as typically exemplifying this neuroticizing tendency4 ,any one who really knows the lives of either of these women will not be likely to think that they were neurotic in any proper sense of that word at all4 ,both of them were not weak but had immensely strong characters1 veritable towers of strength in supremely difficult times1 supporting not only their own heavy burdens but helping others around them to bear theirs4 ,of ,catherine of ,siena1 ,swinburne1 the ,english poet1 surely not a sanctimonious person1 whose sentimentality might lead to admiration for the hysterical bizarre1 but who had studied her career because so many incidents in her life have been the subject of great paintings by a number of the greatest painters of ,italy1 said3 ,then in her sacred saving hands ,she took the sorrows of the lands1 ,with maiden palms she lifted up ,the sick time's blood-embittered cup1 ,and in her virgin garment furled ,the faint limbs of a wounded world4 ,clothed with calm love and clear desire4 ,she went forth in her soul's attire1 ,a missive fire4 ,the great hospital at ,siena was rebuilt in honor of ,catherine shortly after her death because of the fact that she had spent many years of her comparatively brief life there2 she died at thirty-two in personal service of all kinds to the patients suffering from every manner of disease1 even leprosy1 who were in the institution4 7,the lepers were housed apart from the others47 ,she placated so many feuds among the noble families of ,siena1 feuds that were the cause of as many murders as the worst #bbh of our own in ,kentucky1 that she was asked to be the envoy of peace when cities were at war1 and it was she who eventually by her influence brought the ,popes back from ,avignon to ,rome and thus put an end to the great disorders in the ,italian peninsula4 ,st4 ,theresa1 the great ,spanish mystic of the sixteenth century1 the other horrible example1 held up even by some neurologists1 of hysterical tendencies due to religion and mortification1 proves1 when studied in real life1 to have been at least as great and strong a character as ,catherine of ,siena4 ,she well deserves the name of saint as a leader in unselfishness1 but besides she had a fine sense of humor4 ,that is what neurotic people lack above all--a sense of humor4 ,all sorts of distinguished men in the ,spain of her time--and in the sixteenth century ,spain was by far the greatest country in ,europe1 her sovereigns ruling most of ,europe and the greater part of ,america1 and the nation gave birth to great art1 literature1 architecture and philosophy--turned to consult ,st4 ,theresa in their difficulties4 ,she wrote a series of books that have been republished in every cultured language in ,europe at least once a century ever since1 and our own generation has been sedulous in the study of ,theresa's writings4 ,no less than a dozen lives of her have been written in ,english in the twentieth century4 ,this ,spanish lady who died three hundred and fifty years ago is still a very living force in the world4 ,owing to the special conditions under which much of my work is accomplished1 ,i am brought in contact with a great many religious women every year4 ,for some twenty years ,i have spent some days each summer with groups of religious communities where large numbers were assembled for special intellectual and spiritual work4 ,the #bbi mother superior has often consulted me with regard to some of her daughters who had special nervous manifestations1 but it is a never-ending source of surprise to find how few of them suffer from the nervous symptoms so common in our time4 ,considering the fact that they spend their lives very largely indoors1 that they live on very simple food--and sometimes ,i have been inclined to think with scarcely enough nor sufficient variety to make them capable of the amount and demanding nature of work they have to do--fewer of them suffer from nervous symptoms or affections than women of the same class who are living at home and on whom the demands are not nearly so strenuous4 ,their religious duties1 instead of being in any way a drain on their nerve force1 though ,i have often heard it said that teachers ought not to be required to give quite so much time to their religious duties1 represent a reservoir of energy from which they draw strength and above all placidity of mind and consequent power to accomplish more than would otherwise be the case4 ,my duties often bring me into contact with numbers of sisters during their hours of recreation1 so-called1 and ,i do not think that ,i have ever seen a happier1 heartier group of people than they make during these periods of relaxation4 ,i have always considered it a privilege to share recreation after dinner or supper with a dozen sisters when ,i am lecturing in one of the smaller towns1 and we have often laughed so heartily together that ,i have sometimes wondered what the neighbors would think of us4 ,people with a sense of humor like this are not likely to have hysterical tendencies4 ,nervousness is at bottom selfishness1 and there is always a great deal of conceit in it4 ,religious women are likely to be humble1 and that means much in keeping them from various magnifications #bcj of their ego which so often result in nervous and mental symptoms4 ,i have often ventured to say that ,i was quite sure that a religious house1 especially where there were many young people1 in which laughter came easily and was heard frequently during the times appropriate for it1 was sure to be a place of real spirituality and happiness4 ,i have often dared to remind them that the one place where one hears no real laughter1 though sometimes sounds are made resembling it1 is an insane asylum4 ,people who are ready to laugh are usually eminently sane4 ,above all1 they do not take themselves too seriously4 ,it is taking one's self and one's feelings too seriously that is the root of a great deal of nervous and mental disturbance in this little world of ours4 ,certainly the discipline of heart and mind and body and the feeling of satisfaction from duty well done that comes in connection with that complete sacrifice of themselves in a great religious cause which members of religious orders make1 so far from predisposing them to nervous disease has just exactly the opposite effect4 ,nervous diseases1 instead of being fostered or fomented by religion1 are on the contrary repressed rather effectually and equilibrium given even to those in whom some hereditary elements might have proved disturbing4 ,this does not mean that all the religious minded are free from nervous symptoms1 and it must not be forgotten that not every one who says ,lord1 ,lord1 gets into the kingdom of heaven1 either on earth or hereafter1 but religion must be counted as an asset and not a liability in this matter4 ,it will not overcome strong hereditary tendencies1 and it will not help efficaciously those who do not submit to the discipline that true religious feeling entails1 and of #bca course religion is not a panacea for the ills of mankind1 though it must be counted a therapeutic adjuvant and not a nervous irritant4 ,professor ,foerster1 whom one is tempted to quote because of the thoroughgoing thoughtfulness of his treatment of many of these subjects and his wise conservatism founded on that deep consideration1 has discussed the question of repression of self in matters of purity as a possible source of nervous troubles of various kinds4 ,freudianism1 as it is called1 which has attracted so much attention in recent years1 would seem to suggest the conclusion that a great many of the nervous symptoms of humanity are due to the repression of sex impulses4 ,foerster has pointed out that just the opposite is true1 and that there never was a time when there was so little real self-repression and also never a time when there was so much functional nervous disease4 ,he said3 ,from this point of view there can be no doubt that the modern theory of 'living one's nature out' is largely responsible for the nervous degeneration of to-day1 and that the widespread hysteria in modern life does not spring from those remnants of discipline and idealism which are still operative amongst us4 ,one is compelled to ask indeed with astonishment1 with what right ,freud finds the dangers of repression so alarming in an age which is conspicuous for self-indulgence4 ,in reality there has never been an age which was less influenced by the spirit of abnegation and repression than is our own4 ,the present age is one of disintegration1 in which natural instincts have largely broken away from their controlling higher ideals2 if1 therefore1 it suffers to a peculiar degree from nervousness1 one can hardly look for the cause in the fact that it constitutes a high-water mark of control and #bcb discipline4 ,the precisely opposite conclusion would be nearer the mark4 ,professor ,foerster admits1 however1 that it is perfectly possible that people who have no good motive for self-repression and who suppress instincts only out of the merest human respect and cowardice as to results1 may very well suffer some of the consequences that ,freud has pointed out4 ,he says3 ,there is one point1 however1 in which one can entirely agree with ,freud1 or at any rate allow oneself1 through him1 to be led to the recognition of an important psychological and pedagogical truth4 ,there are to-day certain circles who cling to the old ethical tradition only through considerations of an outward description1 as the result of a species of timidity which keeps them from breaking with respectable customs2 and yet these people are1 at the bottom of their hearts1 believers in a view of life of a totally different description--one which attaches no value or meaning to self-mastery and self-denial4 ,almost needless to say this obscuration of religious motives with the result of leaving the individual too much at the mercy of the merely physical without adequate principles for self-control is not the fault of religion but of its very opposite--irreligion4 ,foerster's words are all-important for the understanding of an important phase of the discussion of the cause and cure of nervous and psychic symptoms of various kinds which has attracted much more attention outside of medical circles than it deserves4 ,the danger of the absence of religious motives in the world1 because of the persuasion that new discoveries are doing away with the necessity for faith1 has also been emphasized by ,professor ,foerster1 who said3 #bcc ,along with the disappearance of belief in a spiritual world arises the danger that even earnest and noble men and women will be influenced in their consideration of the deeper things of life by the newest and most tangible facts alone1 and will be inaccessible to all arguments going beyond the scope of mere practical sense and expediency4 ,it would appear as if the preponderance of an intellect directed towards external things destroyed not only belief in the invisible world in a religious sense1 but also undermined the power of grasping the full value and reality of certain imponderabilia in earthly life1 and of understanding the deep-growing spiritual injuries which may proceed from apparently harmless and even outwardly beneficial things4 #bcd ,,chapter ,,xiii ,,dreads ,the most fruitful source of neurotic affections and especially of what have come to be termed in recent years the psychoneuroses1 those disturbances of nerve function due to an unfortunate state of mind1 are the dreads or1 as they have been called1 the fear thoughts of mankind4 ,men as well as women develop1 in the sense of fostering1 often almost unconsciously to themselves1 a dread of the ulterior significance of some symptom1 or feeling1 or disturbance of function1 which serves to make them extremely uncomfortable4 ,the physical sensation which they experience and which is the basis and the source of the dread may be only a quite normal physiological feeling common to all humanity1 heightened by overattention to it1 but the fearsome state of mind will cause it to assume the significance of a definite symptom of some serious disease or1 what may be worse1 an indefinite symptom of some impending affection which1 in the opinion of the sufferer1 may be as yet too inchoate for the physician to recognize its real significance4 ,it is not a question of an imaginary ill1 as a rule1 and there is but seldom a real hallucination or creation by the fantasy out of nothing1 of the ailment from which these people suffer1 but there is an exaggeration of some slight or at least comparatively insignificant feeling to #bce an extent that makes it assume a serious aspect4 ,this inhibits normal function1 lessens appetite and exercise1 at times even disturbs sleep1 and so brings about some at least of the ailments that are dreaded4 ,not infrequently these dreads are very vague4 ,people wake in the morning with a sense of depression and the feeling that something is hanging over them4 ,as a result they feel out of sorts1 their appetite for breakfast is blunted and they begin the day very badly just because of this incubus of vague disturbance of mind4 ,almost anything that happens during the day will emphasize their depression2 as a consequence lunch may be skimped1 they do not get out as they should1 and a vicious circle of influences is begun4 ,perhaps they eat rather heartily for dinner and then fall asleep in their chair afterwards over the evening paper1 and then find that when they go to bed they do not sleep promptly as they expected to4 ,they worry over it1 feeling there must be something the matter with them1 since they cannot sleep lying down though they could sleep so well in the chair1 and if there should be a repetition of these feelings the next day1 it is easy to understand how a psychoneurosis would be started which might easily1 if eating and outing and exercise were to continue to be neglected1 develop into a serious condition4 ,many a case of nervous breakdown has a beginning as simple as this1 and people of nervous temperament must be constantly on guard against it4 ,such patients--and they are much more common than might be thought and they have been with us for thousands of years1 for ,plato describes some of them and the oldest prescription in the world is a fumigation that was directed to curing just such a neurotic condition--need to have faith in themselves and faith in their ,maker and to stop #bcf hesitating and doubting and thinking and dreading4 ,i have known men1 but particularly women1 who had been suffering in this way1 become converted so that they took up the practice of religion which they had neglected before and proceeded to get immensely better4 ,of course1 there are any number of hypochondriacs among people who profess religion1 but they are the exceptions which prove the rule that fewer people who have a real sense of religion and who take it seriously as a guide of life suffer from dreads and the symptoms which result from them than are to be found among the people who have given up the belief and practice of their religion4 ,this is particularly true of those who belong to the old orthodox forms of religion which require self-denial and self-control as part of the practice of religious duties4 ,as we have shown in the chapter on ,nervous ,diseases the ,quakers1 the strict ,methodists1 the ,roman ,catholics1 the ,orthodox ,jews1 get their reward for their submission to their religion even in this world by lessened solicitude about themselves4 ,indeed there is nothing that is more likely to dispel dreads than an abiding sense of religion4 ,if a man or a woman is convinced that there is a ,providence that oversees human life as well as the universe1 in ,whom we live and move and have our being and of ,whose infinite knowledge and power we can have no doubt1 the unreasonableness of dreads comes home to him4 ,the man who prays every morning1 ,thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven1 must have the feeling that ,his will will be accomplished1 and that is all that any of us can ask for4 ,somehow that is for the best1 though we may not be able to see just how4 ,if not a sparrow falls to the ground but your ,heavenly ,father knoweth1 and if1 as the ,master said1 ,are not five sparrows sold for two farthings and #bcg not one of them is forgotten before ,god8 ,but even the very hairs of your head are all numbered4 ,fear not therefore3 you are of more value than many sparrows1 surely the believer will keep himself at least from being overworried by dreads4 ,his disposition may be such that he cannot dispose of them entirely1 but at least the best source of consolation and strength is to be found in that strong faith for which there are so many strengthening expressions against the fears and dreads of life to be found in the sacred writings4 ,how many striking sentences there are in the ,scriptures to help against these solicitudes3 ,and which of you with taking thought can add to his stature one cubit8 ,if ye then be not able to do that thing which is least1 why take ye thought for the rest8 ,how one is tempted to quote others of the expressions in that same wonderful chapter of ,luke 7,,xii74 ,the life is more than the meat and the body is more than raiment4 ,consider the ravens2 for they neither sow nor reap2 which neither have storehouse nor barn2 and ,god feedeth them2 how much more are ye better than the fowls4 ,but rather seek ye the kingdom of ,god2 and all these things shall be added unto you4 ,fear not1 little flock2 for it is your ,father's good pleasure to give you a kingdom4 ,all over the ,scriptures are passages that are meant to be fear-dispelling and that have been for many men and women in many generations4 ,for fear is often the state of man unless he has something to cling to4 ,fear not1 ,i am with thee4444 ,fear ye not1 nor be afraid1 have ,i not told thee4444 ,fear not1 ,i am the first and the last1 for ,i the ,lord thy ,god will hold thy right hand1 saying to thee fear not1 ,i will help thee4 ,scientists have recognized that religion and science #bch were coordinate factors for the neutralization of the dreads that disturb humanity4 ,professor ,h4 ,d4 ,seeley1 who was for many years professor of geography1 geology and mineralogy at ,kings ,college1 ,london1 and who was a distinguished ,fellow of most of the important ,english scientific societies1 the ,royal1 ,linnean1 ,geological1 ,zoological and ,geographical1 stated in his little work1 ,factors in ,life1 his views as regards the place of religion in dissipating the fear thoughts of life1 and places it side by side with science itself in this respect4 ,he said3 ,to the religious neither life nor death has terrors1 and in freeing existence from its greater anxieties the influence of ,religion works on the same foundation of moral efforts as ,science4 ,the sciences are the sisters of ,religion in that they unfold something of the laws by which the universe is governed1 and by which man's life is directed4 ,they are thus far the stepping-stones of faith4 ,and those who have learned that health is the reward which man may gain by moral discipline1 that mental vigour may be augmented by the wise 7or moral7 use of food1 and that education is the systematic exercise of moral responsibility in any or all the affairs of life1 may find that in the practice and pursuit of the truths of ,science they are conscious of a religious education which is a light to the feet4 ,such matters are factors in life1 which may educate us in a reverent appreciation of religious truth and divine government of the world4 ,many physicians of large experience have recognized the value of an abiding religious faith as a remedy for many of these dreads and doubts which so pester mankind and make so many people suffer even from physical symptoms that seem surely to have only material causes as their basis because they so hamper the will to live4 #bci ,sir ,dyce ,duckworth1 the distinguished ,english physician1 once wrote to a friend3 ,what is always needed is a reverent study and a full acknowledgment of ,god as a ,father and as the great ',all in ,all4' ,in my experience the only solution of all our difficulties is to maintain a humble1 child-like faith and a confident trust in the perfect love of ,god1 who 'knows whereof we are made1 and remembers that we are but dust4' ,with that and perfect love1 there need be no fear1 and all will come right in ,his own time4 ,that is the faith to live by and to die with1 and the happiest people 7and the happiest of the dying7 are those who hold firm by that faith4 ,this is my experience after much thought1 much knowledge of human nature1 and not a little study of all the difficulties you relate to me4 ,but it must not be thought that these dreads cause only the trivial instances of nervous breakdown in which people never very capable give way before the strenuous call of commercial life in the large cities of our time4 ,nor must it be thought that education is dispelling them4 ,some idea of the important role that dreads may play in the production of human ills that seem to be very serious and that often prove quite incapacitating for mental and physical work1 even in men of fine abilities and proven powers1 may be gathered from what happened during the recent ,great ,war4 ,the ,allied nations had to maintain some fifty thousand beds behind the lines for the accommodation of patients suffering from functional nervous affections really founded on dreads4 ,at the beginning these cases were misunderstood1 and they were unfortunately called shell shock because they seemed so serious that it was thought that they were #bdj due to some concussion of the nervous system1 that is1 some shaking up of its elements that made it impossible for it to function normally1 even though there were no external signs of injury4 ,after a time1 however1 it came to be appreciated that the great majority of these patients were suffering from major hysteria due to loss of control over the nervous system as a consequence of the almost inevitable dreads which developed in the awful conditions of warfare in the trenches1 with its terrifying sights and sounds1 and with the intense strain put upon the nervous system because of the demands made upon physical energy almost to the point of exhaustion4 ,after loss of sleep and irregular eating1 wet feet for days at a time1 exposure to the inclemencies of the weather and then having to withstand an enemy attack1 often at dawn after a fearsome barrage had been laid down on them for hours1 it is no wonder that in many cases men's nervous control did give way4 ,they were not cowards1 they were not malingerers2 on the contrary they were often brave men who had volunteered for the service1 giving up important positions at home to take up the defense of their country2 and yet after a time their dreads dominated them and they suffered from all sorts of symptoms4 ,some of them could not see1 a number could not hear2 some could not use their legs1 and some could not employ their arms properly2 some walked with a limp1 some had tremor that made their usefulness as soldiers absolutely at an end4 ,nearly all of them had a series of complaints which they wanted to detail in all their minuteness to every physician who came near4 ,their stories of what had happened were mainly untrue or utter exaggerations of the actual events1 and yet these men were not liars and they were not the doddering idiots that they sometimes #bda seemed to be2 they were just fellow mortals who meant to do their best1 and who had been affected in this way because they were asked to stand what was beyond their strength of soul to withstand4 ,the educated suffered more than the uneducated4 ,there were four times as many shell shock cases among the officers of the ,british army in proportion to their number as there were among the privates4 ,neither ambition nor nobility nor any artificial distinction of any kind seemed to make any difference1 for all classes and conditions of men came down with it4 ,its frequence can be very well judged from the fact that one third of all the dismissions from the ,british army1 not counting the wounded1 was for shell shock1 which of course should be called by its proper name of major hysteria4 ,one seventh of all the dismissions1 if the wounded were included1 was for this reason4 ,it had been the custom to think before the war that only a comparatively few men1 mostly those of a certain feministic appearance and delicacy of constitution1 were likely to suffer from hysteria4 ,it was found1 however1 that college graduates who stood at the head of their classes1 athletes who held records1 broad-shouldered1 healthy men who had been considered to be the very acme of common sense1 men who were supposed to be without a nerve in their make-up1 all these proved to have nerves2 and when the war got on their nerves1 they suffered from the complaints which we have mentioned and many others1 including pains and discomforts of all kinds1 and inabilities and incapacities1 motor and sensory as well as of the memory1 of the mind or the will4 ,this recent significant experience will give some idea of how potent dreads may be in the production of #bdb symptoms which seem surely to be due to physical rather than merely mental conditions4 ,most people would probably be inclined to think that in so far as dreads produced diseases by the exaggeration of minor symptoms1 at most scarcely more than mental conditions of discomfort would result from them4 ,what are called the psychoneuroses1 that is1 the neurotic affections dependent on the state of mind1 may simulate almost any of the organic conditions and may seem to be serious diseases4 ,through the creation of unfortunate habits1 they may give rise to a great many rather severe physical symptoms4 ,the war neuroses emphasized this for us4 ,inability to use limbs1 either legs or arms1 is quite common in connection with them2 disturbances of sensation1 such as defective hearing and eyesight1 or even what seems to be complete blindness and deafness1 may develop4 ,tremors are quite common1 and pains and aches in connection with the disabilities of the limbs are extremely frequent4 ,a very usual experience is to find that a patient has as a preliminary suffered some injury4 ,this may not be very severe1 but it is enough to cause the sufferer to spare the limb that is affected2 and unfortunately physicians sometimes put a limb with a minor affection in plaster of ,paris or in a splint for a time4 ,the patient's own solicitude with regard to the hurt may cause almost as effective splinting of it as a plaster cast or wooden slat and a bandage4 ,whenever this happens1 the unused muscles lose some of their nutrition4 ,this is due partly to the fact that the circulation is interfered with because the active contraction of muscles1 especially of the legs1 is depended on by nature to help the venous or return circulation by bringing about compression of the veins4 ,the valves in the veins are so arranged that when the #bdc veins are compressed and the blood thus pressed out of them1 it cannot move away from the heart but is impelled onward toward the heart4 ,besides1 the sending down of nervous impulses for the active use of muscles increases the size of the arteries to the part by direct action on their walls1 and whenever there is failure to send impulses down1 the arteries do not carry as much blood as usual1 and the nutrition of the part suffers as a result4 ,if this inactive state of the muscles continues for a few days1 they will become somewhat flaccid1 and after a week or more will actually begin to decrease in size4 ,as a consequence of this1 they cannot be used to as good advantage as before1 and use of them sets up an achy condition as soon as the limb is set free for use1 whether it has been splinted by the physician or by the patient's mind4 ,if the patient is still solicitous1 he notices this condition of pain and concludes that it means that the muscles are not yet in the condition of health where they should be used1 and he puts on the splints1 metaphorical or literal1 once more4 ,the muscles grow more flaccid and eventually atrophic as a consequence1 until sometimes there will be a difference of more than an inch in the girth of two limbs at the same point1 and this atrophy may proceed much farther4 ,it seems almost impossible to believe that men and women could thus make a limb useless1 but this is actually what happens rather frequently4 ,the effects of the original injury will pass off in a few days1 but the effects of the disuse of the limb may remain for months or even years because of the disturbance of circulation and of nerve impulse4 ,it is probable that the nerves themselves have a trophic or nutritional--that is1 vitalizing--influence upon muscles4 ,some physiologists actually talk of there being #bdd trophic fibers in the nerves1 though it would seem more reasonable to think that the nerve trophic effect comes from the modification of the circulation to the part4 ,whenever muscles have to be increased in size or won back from an atrophic condition1 the individual to whom they belong must go through a period of soreness and tenderness in those muscles which often is very hard to bear4 ,the young fellow who1 after a rather relaxed summer1 begins training for the football team in the fall1 knows how sore and tender his muscles have become4 ,after the first day or two of training1 each time he wakes up at night he turns over in bed with the feeling that every bit of him is full of tenderness4 ,any number of people under similar circumstances are inclined to think that they must have caught cold4 ,they usually reason thus3 ,i got into a perspiration and sat down for a while and then took cold1 and that is the reason for all this painful condition that has developed4 ,that word cold is as unfortunate as shell shock4 ,there is no such thing as taking cold4 ,we catch infections1 but much more frequently in fall and spring than in winter4 ,the young man who is in training usually pays no attention to such unfavorable suggestions or dreads1 since he knows that he must take his medicine of further hard exercise until he has hardened and developed his muscles and then1 instead of their causing discomfort1 nothing in the world gives him so much satisfaction as their active exercise4 ,older people1 however1 and especially those who have what may be called a dready disposition1 do not call their muscle discomfort soreness and tenderness2 they speak of pains and aches4 ,the very words carry a suggestion of evil with them1 and above all they carry with #bde them an inhibitory suggestion which keeps muscles from being used normally4 ,if1 then1 certain older people get an injury1 even though it may not be very serious1 so long as it causes them to give up the use of a limb for a while1 or sets them to using the muscles of it a little differently from before1 a psychoneurosis on the basis of a dread1 but with the physical basis of somewhat atrophied muscles to keep it up1 may develop and persist for weeks and months and even years4 ,as a consequence of this state--much more of the mind than the body--men may walk lame or be very awkward in the use of one arm1 or they may have a little stoop1 or they may dread very much the using of some group of muscles4 ,such conditions occasionally occur in the neck or in various parts of the back1 and especially in the lumbar region1 with strikingly visible effects4 ,it might seem impossible that such conditions should develop and persist for any length of time in sensible and above all intelligent people1 and yet ,i suppose that every physician's case book contains a number of examples4 ,after he has been in practice for ten years or more this will surely be true1 if he has had much to do with nervous patients4 ,one of the most distinguished scientists that we had in this country1 possessed of one of the finest intellects of our generation1 thoroughly sensible and noted for his executive ability1 suffered from a slight attack of sciatica1 to which he had been predisposed by some unusual work in connection with a heavy fall of snow when he had to go out and do the shoveling himself1 since labor was not available4 ,he never quite got over it4 ,for some time he carried two crutches because he had so little confidence in putting down the foot on that side1 after having spared it for a #bdf while4 ,then for several years he carried a single crutch4 ,in the meantime he was examined by half a dozen of the best physicians in the country1 who could find nothing the matter with him except that disuse had rendered the muscles of that leg slightly atrophic1 and he would have to push through a period of soreness and tenderness while exercising them4 ,he carried a cane ever afterwards1 walked a little lame and favored that leg4 ,persistent sciaticas of this kind and lumbagoes are much more common than they are thought4 ,it was a case of this kind1 undoubtedly1 that brought about ,bernheim's interest in hypnotism at ,nancy and initiated that wave of attention to hypnotism at the end of the nineteenth century which did so much harm4 ,a patient who had suffered from sciatica for some years and walked a little lame as a consequence came under ,bernheim's care1 and he tried without success every therapeutic resource at his command to make him better4 ,finally his patient gave up calling on him1 completely discouraged4 ,he had gone to a great many physicians before ,bernheim1 and all of them had failed to do him any effectual good4 ,they could relieve his discomfort for a while1 but when he stopped taking drugs1 that returned and his limb could be used no better than before4 ,some months after ,bernheim missed the patient from his clinic he met him on the street one day1 walking perfectly straight without his cane and evidently entirely well4 ,he was so much interested that he stopped to ask what had cured him4 ,the patient told him he had gone around to ,liebault1 who1 almost alone in ,europe1 was still practicing hypnotism1 for the practice had been greatly discredited by certain exposures in ,england shortly after the middle of the century4 ,bernheim1 who had ignored #bdg ,liebault's work before1 now took an interest in it and found of course that hypnotism--or indeed1 though ,bernheim did not know that1 anything else that would give these patients the confidence to push through a period of tenderness and soreness in regaining the use of their muscles--would cure them4 ,the incident began that period of reawakened interest in hypnotism which now constitutes such a ludicrous series of events in the medicine of the end of the nineteenth century4 ,such cases are by no means so uncommon as they might be thought4 ,i have known the teacher of a high school to slip while coming out of school1 fall on his knee1 bruise it rather badly1 and then have this bruised condition heal very well1 only to develop in the course of a few weeks a distinct inability to use the muscles of that leg properly1 until he had to walk with a marked limp4 ,the circumference of the limb above the knee reduced distinctly in size1 it suffered more from cold than did the other one2 it perspired more freely2 it was distinctly more sensitive to the touch1 and it would seem as though there must be some serious underlying nervous condition4 ,he passed through the hands of several specialists1 including one who wanted to remove a cartilage in the knee joint which he said had been dislocated1 and another who insisted that he was suffering from a neuritis of a branch of the sciatic nerve1 and who wanted to inject water within the sheath of it or at least lay it bare and stretch it4 ,fortunately we persuaded him to join an athletic club and take more exercise than usual and above all exercise that limb4 ,he had had massage and passive movements for it1 but these are of very little service in these cases1 because the nervous impulses must come down from above4 ,it would almost seem as though the #bdh will sent down some of its own creative energy through the nerves which lead to the part4 ,he is now entirely well1 though he suffered for several years1 and absolutely nothing was done for him except to make him eat better and make him push through a period of soreness and tenderness--he used to call them pains and aches before we explained the condition to him--until he had properly recovered the use of his limb4 ,on the other hand1 ,i have known a good clergyman with a rather similar condition to this1 who had bumped his shin bone not far below the knee and after recovery from that had developed a marked psychoneurosis in the muscles above the knee1 refuse to be cured by any such simple procedure as merely exercising himself back to health4 ,he could not bring himself to think that it was only his own lack of will power that had caused the condition to develop4 ,above all he needed something external to cure him4 ,he finally went to a bone-setter1 one of these old fellows who claim to be the seventh son of a seventh son1 or something of that kind1 possessed of marvelous hereditary power and instinctive intuition in the matter of setting bones right1 and who cure nearly everything under the sun and a few other things besides by their supposed bone-setting processes4 ,my clerical friend was sure that he had been cured by the bone-setter1 but any physician would have told him that what had happened was that his faith in his healer had released his inhibition of his muscles and given him the confidence to go on and use them as they should be used1--that is1 of course1 as far as he possibly could at first4 ,then they were gradually restored to their former condition of health and strength4 ,that is what happened1 and he has had no recurrence4 ,he is quite #bdi sure1 however1 that the trouble was a subluxation of his hip joint1 which the bone-setter set right1 thus allowing nervous impulses and the blood to flow properly through the part once more4 ,his own will was the only obstacle and it was that alone that had to be overcome and used as a therapeutic agent4 ,these patients are the stock in trade of all sorts of irregular practitioners4 ,whenever they think anything is the matter with them they must be cured2 they never get better of themselves4 ,they need something or somebody to which to pin their faith4 ,it is the hardest thing in the world to find out what is the matter with a man who has nothing the matter with him except a state of mind and its consequences in his physical condition4 ,he must have his state of mind changed first of all1 and usually he requires some rather strong suggestion for that purpose4 ,what is likely to affect him most favorably is some novel or unusual method of treatment1 or some new discovery in science recently applied to medicine1 or some new method of healing1 or some supposedly new invention or discovery in therapeutics4 ,these patients are a veritable nuisance in medicine4 ,it is the cures of them1 made by all sorts of new-fangled remedies1 which make it so difficult for physicians to judge whether a new remedy has a positive favorable physical effect or only a mental influence4 ,very probably the best appreciation of the place of dreads in life and how much of good is accomplished by their neutralization can be obtained from the number of sufferers of all kinds who are cured by all sorts of new remedies which prove after a time to have no physical effect at all4 ,we have discussed this subject of the #bej remedies that have come and gone in medicine in the volume ,psychotherapy4 ,it has been very well said that the most important chapter in the history of medicine is that of the cures that have failed4 ,it illustrates very thoroughly how much influence the mind has over the body1 and particularly how much dreads have meant for the production of symptoms which have been relieved whenever the patient had his dreads lifted1 no matter what might be the agent to accomplish this purpose4 ,instead of decreasing1 dreads have increased just in proportion as popular education has spread and more people have been able to read and receive unfavorable suggestions of all kinds4 ,this has been particularly true with the diminution of the influence of religion over people's minds4 ,all sorts of religious substitutes which would give people enough confidence in themselves to enable them to throw off their dreads have gained vogue and have come to be very popular institutions in recent years4 ,dowie1 who claimed he was ,elijah returned to earth1 and ,schlatter1 who said that he was divinely inspired to cure people1 were as successful in the twentieth century as ,greatrakes the stroker1 who said that the ,holy ,ghost appeared to him in a dream and told him to heal people1 in the seventeenth4 ,metaphysical healing of all kinds has been successful1 and spiritualistic healing and new thought and magnetic healing1 with as little magnetism about it as ,mesmer's famous battery which had no electricity1--all these have cured people4 ,all sorts of healers are successful just because they lift the dreads and make people forget the inhibitions that they have been exercising over their functions4 ,indeed this state of fear thought is one of the most prolific sources of #bea symptoms1 or rather let us say of complaints1 that medicine has to do with at all times1 hence the importance of the chapter of the cures that have failed4 ,almost any religious feeling will be helpful in the matter1 but an abiding sense of rational religion will save many people from being imposed on by all sorts of upstart theories and religious systems which base their claim to recognition on these cures of human beings4 ,these patients furnish a great many of the cures made at shrines4 ,that is why at every shrine there are so many crutches and canes and braces and belts and splints and supports of various kinds to be seen4 ,they have been left there by grateful patients who were able to drop them as the result of the change of mind that came over them during their devotions4 ,many cures besides these occur at shrines1 and ,i have taken a good deal of pains to assure myself that most of the affections that are healed at them are quite different from these psychoneuroses4 ,over sixty per cent of the cures made at ,lourdes1 for instance1 are of tuberculosis processes4 ,many of these are of external visible lesions4 ,some of them1 after years of progress in spite of all sorts of treatment1 heal over in the course of twenty-four hours4 ,i have seen this happen to a lupus1 at ,lourdes1 during my stay there1 and ,i do not know how to explain that incident by any natural process4 ,to me it seemed surely supernatural4 ,i know that there are some physicians who suggest that we do not know all the possibilities of the therapeutic effect of the mind on the body1 and somehow there may be included in the psychotherapeutic armamentarium the power to heal tissues rapidly1 even when they have been the subject of a chronic granulomatous process for years1 but ,i cannot but think that is #beb merely an effort to retain what seems to me plainly miraculous within the domain of the natural4 ,i know too that ,doctor ,boissarie's experience1 so carefully noted and written out in his clinic at ,lourdes1 shows that there are cases of real joint trouble which have been cured with similar rapidity1 but these are very rare4 ,most of the halt and crippled who are cured at shrines have simply been the victims of an attitude of mind which has affected their muscles and their use of certain joints unfavorably1 so that they had to carry crutches or canes or wear braces4 ,the deep influence of religion will cure them very often1 but it is not a miracle in any supernatural sense of the word1 though it is a wonderful event1 and that is all that miracle means by etymology4 ,indeed1 professors of neurology have occasionally foretold that certain of these patients would perhaps be cured at shrines1 and their prophecies in specific instances have been fulfilled4 ,the cures are examples of what faith can do in lifting a dread1 but that faith may be exercised with regard to much less worthy objects than are presented at shrines and yet work successfully4 ,when ,george ,cohan1 in the ,miracle ,man1 had the cure that attracted attention to the new prophet occur with regard to a lame boy1 he was eminently wise in the selection of just the type of case that could very readily be cured that way1 and yet the fact that the boy had been lame for years and now walked perfectly made the healer seem a veritable wonder worker4 ,dreads have always been with mankind1 and their effects upon human bodies have been the stock in trade of the medicine man in primitive tribes and among savages and of his successors in suggestive medicine among educated and even cultivated people down to our own #bec time4 ,they can be conjured away by almost any impression that is deep enough to produce a favorable suggestion4 ,religion of all kinds has been appealed to successfully to neutralize them4 ,the one rational cure for them is a deep sense of confidence in the ,almighty and in an overruling ,providence which serves to dissipate the phobic state of mind with its inevitable inhibitions on bodily functions4 ,it may be necessary for its successful working that the correction of many minor physical ills should be secured1 but the all-important basis of successful treatment for the psychoneurosis and the many ailments of mankind which are complicated by psychic states is a thoroughgoing belief that ,god is in ,his heaven and all is well with the world1 even though there may be difficulties to be overcome1 hardships to be borne1 and many things that are far from easy to understand4 #bed ,,chapter ,,xiv ,,suffering ,the problem of the meaning of suffering and evil in the world is the greatest natural mystery that man has to face4 ,it has raised the question as to whether life is worth living or not in some minds4 ,it causes a great many people to be disturbed about the meaning of life and has led some sensitive people to conclude that there cannot be an overseeing1 all-wise ,providence since otherwise ,he would surely prevent all the needless suffering there is in the world4 ,biologists1 owing to their occupation with the thought of the struggle for existence in current theories of evolution1 have been particularly inclined to say that they could not think that there was a ,providence because there was so much of carnage in nature1 so much ruthless destruction of life amid suffering for which it would be hard to find any satisfactory reason4 ,there has been no little exaggeration in this view1 for a calm review of conditions as they obtain in nature shows not so much of active contest as a healthy competition for the means of existence1 in the midst of which death comes to the weakling without anything like the suffering so much emphasized4 ,it must not be forgotten that the supersensitiveness of the sedentary student must be taken into account in the appreciation of the significance of such a declaration1 #bee for the recluse scientist often shrinks from trials that the active outdoors man finds only a stimulus to action1 which serve to develop powers and give satisfaction rather than any real suffering4 ,the incentive to have life and to have it more abundantly which this affords to heartier natures makes the poet's expression1 forsan et haec olim meminisse juvabit1 perhaps we shall be glad to recall these hardships in the time to come1 easy to appreciate4 ,life without suffering would lack that contrast which saves it from the dull monotony that might tempt to waste of energy in dissipation4 ,perhaps the best illustration of the actual benefit to man which accrues from suffering is to be found in the fact that one of the surprising results of the presence of the mystery of suffering in the world is that meditation over it has given rise to the five greatest dramatic poems that were ever written4 ,men contemplating it have been led to the expression of the deepest thoughts that have ever stirred minds4 ,these great poems have come at longer and shorter intervals during four thousand years1 from ,job1 the essential ideas for which probably date from about #ahjj ,b4,c41 though its literary form is much later1 through ,a,eschylus' ,prometheus1 ,shakespeare's ,hamlet1 ,calderon's ,the ,wonder-working ,magician1 down to ,goethe's ,faust4 ,of these five dramatizations of the mystery of human suffering1 recurring poetic impersonations of ,hamlet's ,the time is out of joint3 ,o cursed spite1 ,that ever ,i was born to set it right6 the greatest1 as conceded by all the critics1 is not--as might be expected from the very prevalent impression that man makes wonderful progress down the ages--the #bef last one1 ,goethe's ,faust1 but is the first one1 ,job4 ,no one has ever expressed so well the only reasonable attitude of mind that man must take in the presence of evil and suffering as this man of the land of ,hus whose name was ,job and who was simple and upright and fearing ,god and avoiding evil1 yet who had to bear some of the severest trials that man has ever been called upon to undergo4 ,mr4 ,h4 ,g4 ,wells has recently1 in one of his thought-stimulating novels1 shown us that verisimilitude of the most modern type could be woven into a story which followed the outlines of the book of ,job very closely1 so that far from being dead1 even the novelty-seeking fiction readers of our generation have brought home to them the fact that ,job is still a very living piece of literature4 ,job's answer to the mystery of evil is that man must confess his inability to understand it1 but he can trust the ,god who thunders wonderfully with ,his voice and doth great and unsearchable things1 who commandeth the snow to go down on the earth and the winter rain1 who knoweth what ways the light spreads and heat divideth on the earth1 who joins together the shining stars1 the pleiads1 and can stop the turning about of ,arcturus and who created behemoth and leviathan and can bind the rhinoceros and has fashioned the ostrich4 ,all that ,job can say is1 ,i know that ,thou canst do everything and that no thought can be withholden from ,thee1 therefore for any impatience that he may have displayed over his suffering he reprehends himself and promises to do penance in dust and ashes1--and after this ,job lived one hundred and forty years and saw his sons and his sons' sons1 even four generations4 ,so ,job died1 being old and full of days4 #beg ,in any consideration of suffering1 above all in connection with the related subjects of health and religion1 we must not forget that suffering has always been a badge of the race1 the common lot of men1 so that this very community of it greatly reduces human reaction toward it1 since the sufferer cannot help but note that every one else must submit to it as well as himself4 ,at times among those who fail to think deeply enough this may be doubted4 ,the poor may even envy the rich because they suppose that they must by their riches escape suffering1 but most physicians soon learn to appreciate very well that the mental discomforts of the wealthy1 their disappointed social ambitions1 their thwarted aspirations after greater wealth1 their envy of their more successful neighbors1 but above all their frequent disappointment in their children1 though it is almost invariably their very wealth that has spoiled the children and brought their greatest griefs on them1 are really the source of much more genuine suffering than the poor have to bear4 ,the worries of life increase with possessions1 not decrease1 as is fondly hoped1 and as the author of the ,romance of the ,rose said some seven centuries ago3 ,and he who what he holds esteems ,enough1 is rich beyond the dreams ,of many a dreary usurer4 ,and lives his life-days happier far2 ,for nought it signifies what gains ,the wretched usurer makes1 the pains ,of poverty afflict him yet ,who having1 struggleth still to get4 ,suffering must ever remain a mystery1 especially when we take into account the fact that all of us are profoundly possessed by the desire for happiness4 ,we can never #beh probe to the bottom of the mystery and know all its meaning1 but at least we can readily understand that in the vast majority of cases1 instead of being an evil1 it is a good4 ,nothing so deepens and develops character as suffering4 ,take the case of our young men who went to the war--so many of them scarcely more than boys1 feeling but little of the responsibilities of life--and see how they have come back to us matured by the hardships and sufferings through which they had to go4 ,thucydides said nearly twenty-five hundred years ago1 ,there is very little difference among men1 only a few of them rise above the great mass because they have gone through hard things when they were young4 ,it would seem as though we had changed all that1 for we are deeply intent on making things just as easy as possible for the young1 but a generation ago ,gladstone repeated ,thucydides' expression with heartiest approval1 and twenty years ago ,john ,morley1 writing the life of ,gladstone1 agreed with both of them4 ,i wonder if there are two men in our time who have known men better than ,gladstone and ,morley4 ,in that sense suffering is no mystery1 and it is easy to see how it is quite literally true that ,whom the ,lord loves ,he chastises4 ,it is the chastisement of suffering that brings out the powers of men4 ,any one who has not had to suffer in life is nearly always a self-centered egoist without sympathy1 but above all without that fellow feeling that comes only from having gone through similar experience4 ,he who has not suffered has not really lived below the surface of his being at all1 and he does not know himself4 ,to know thyself is the most important thing in the world and the only way to know others4 ,the men who have done great thinking for us #bei have nearly always been men who had to suffer much4 ,it was a blind ,milton who wrote ,paradise ,lost4 ,when ,camoens wrote what ,german and ,french critics think--and when ,germans and ,french agree about anything there is probably a deep underlying truth in it--the greatest epic in modern time1 he was starving in a garret1 and his old ,indian servant was begging for him on the streets to secure enough to keep body and soul together until the great work was finished4 ,cervantes wrote what ,lord ,macaulay called incomparably the greatest novel ever written in a debtor's prison1 out of which it seemed he might never be able to secure his release4 ,dante wrote what many think the greatest poem ever written during a long exile in which he learned how bitter it is to eat the bread of other's tables4 ,poeta laudatur et alget1 the poet is praised and starves1 is as true in our time as when ,horace said it three thousand years ago4 ,goldwin ,smith has brought out very clearly the fact that suffering and evil are really a necessity in the world if this is to be a place of trial1 as every one believes1 for of course such a belief represents the only satisfactory explanation of life as we have it4 ,man must have something to strive for and against if there are to be stepping stones of our dead selves to higher things1 and so it is not surprising that ,doctor ,goldwin ,smith should have said3 ,at the same time1 so far as we can discern1 character can be formed only by an effort which implies something against which to strive2 so that without evil or what appears to us evil1 character could not be formed4 ,the existence of evil in fact1 so far as we can see1 is the necessary condition of active life4 ,suffering has been with us from the beginning and it will always be with us2 instead of an evil it is one of ,god's #bfj great gifts to man1 and yet it sometimes makes little souls bitter and swamps the efforts of those who cannot rise above its trials4 ,religion is the one element that is supremely helpful in this4 ,above all in the terminal sufferings of mankind1 when there is no longer any question of pain that has to be borne in developing character for this life1 the only consolation is that to be derived from religion and a firm belief in a hereafter and an acknowledgment of the fact that somehow ,god knows best and all is for the best4 ,without this the awful suffering from cancer which is increasing rather than diminishing1 and which seems to be so rooted in human nature that we shall probably never solve its mystery or at least be able to secure human nature against it1 as well as ever so many other chronic sources of pain that will never cease entirely until the end of life comes1 become hideous specters for humanity1 and suffering has very little meaning4 ,no matter what our attitude of mind may be with regard to suffering1 there is no question but that we have to stand it under present conditions in this little world of ours4 ,during the next twelve months scarcely less than one hundred thousand persons will die of cancer in this country and a million and a half victims of the disease will breathe their last throughout the world4 ,when we add up all the accidents in industry and transportation1 all the wounds in war and civil life1 and then add the affections which in one way or another cause mechanical stoppages of processes in the body1 for these are the exquisitely painful conditions1 it is easy to understand that we need consolation for suffering4 ,an old medical axiom is that the doctor can seldom cure but he can often relieve and can always console4 ,there are a good many physicians1 however1 who feel their ability to console sadly #bfa hampered by the fact that so many men and women in our time do not believe in a hereafter for which their sufferings in this world can be a preparation1 and that therefore the terminal suffering of existence1 of which there is and manifestly always will be such an amount1 can mean nothing for them except just so much pain that has to be borne without any good reason that they can see1 except that somehow or other things were so arranged in this world that there is ever so much more of pain and suffering than of joy in it4 ,two thousand years ago ,cicero said in his own oratorical way that it was better for all of us to believe in immortality1 for if there was no immortality we should never live after death to know it--which comes very near being an ,irish bull by anticipation--while if there was1 and we had not believed in it1 there would come a very rude awakening to the truth of things4 ,something of the same problem has been put in much more flippant and yet very expressive way in modern slang4 ,if there is no other world than this1 then some one handed us an awful lemon when we were sent into existence4 ,that is1 ,i suppose1 one answer to the mystery of suffering so sure to come to all men in some way or other1 and it is one that counsels us to seek the only real consolation for suffering1--that which is to be found in the religious feeling that somehow or other1 somewhere1 there is some one who knows and understands1 and suffering has its meaning4 ,god's in ,his heaven and all's well with the world in spite of the fact that nature red in tooth and claw works such sad havoc with her creatures4 ,what the belief in immortality and the feeling that this life is merely its portico can accomplish in giving a man equanimity in the face of disappointments and patient #bfb fortitude under even atrocious pain is very well illustrated by what ,professor ,william ,james has to say of ,thomas ,davidson in his essay on him4 ,footnote #i ,davidson died of cancer at a comparatively early age1 considering the length of life that many scholars enjoy1 and for many years he had prepared a large amount of material for that history of the interaction of ,greek1 ,christian ,hebrew and ,arabic thought on one another before the revival of learning which was to be his ,magnum ,opus4 ,davidson was destined never to finish the work4 ,professor ,james1 who had been an intimate friend and was so close to him in the organization of the ,glenmore ,school of the ,culture ,sciences on ,hurricane ,mountain at the head of ,keene ,valley in the ,adirondacks1 had felt the possibility of this accident of destiny and had inquired of ,davidson with regard to his great prospective work4 ,footnote #i3 ,memories and ,studies1 ,new ,york1 #aiaa4 ,knowing how short his life might be1 ,i once asked him whether he felt no concern lest the work already done by him should be frustrate1 from the lack of its necessary complement1 in case he were suddenly cut off4 ,his answer surprised me by its indifference4 ,he would work as long as he lived1 he said1 but not allow himself to worry1 and would look serenely at whatever might be the outcome4 ,this seemed to me uncommonly high-minded4 ,i think that ,davidson's conviction of immortality had much to do with such a superiority to accidents4 ,on the surface and toward small things1 he was irritable enough1 but the undertone of his character was remarkable for equanimity4 ,he showed it in his final illness1 of which the misery was really atrocious4 ,there were no general complaints or lamentations about the personal situation or the arrest to his career4 ,it was the human lot1 and #bfc he must even bear it2 so he kept his mind upon objective matter4 ,only a profound conviction of personal immortality will enable a man who feels that he is cut off in the midst of his work to bear with patience the final ailment which by its very progress is precluding the possibility of accomplishing the task that he had set himself4 ,yet this interruption of their chosen labor inevitably comes to a great many men2 for death1 no matter how late it may seem to onlookers to occur1 happens untimely to most of humanity1 even though they may count up years far beyond the threescore and ten of the ,psalmist4 ,the greatest resource in the midst of the suffering caused by the war for soldiers and civilians has been religion4 ,it was sadly needed1 but it was magnificently employed4 ,any one who saw how much their religion meant to the soldiers who really had faith will appreciate very well how valuable it was for them4 ,many a man who had given up his faith1 and this was particularly true of the ,french1 found a new power to dare and to do1 and also to bear and to carry on in the religion that it had seemed they could so readily dispense with before4 ,colton1 writing a series of aphorisms in ,lacon1 a century ago1 declared that there are three arguments for atheism more effective than any others1--health and wealth and friends4 ,when we have our health and an abundance of money at command1 besides many and powerful friends who seem willing to do everything that they can for us1 we feel but little need of ,god and then many men refuse to believe in him4 ,necessity is a very precious thing1 the mother not only of invention1 but of reverence and many other good qualities4 ,but when suffering comes1 especially if wealth1 and in that case of course1 #bfd friends1 have disappeared1 ,god is a very firm support to lean on4 ,many a man has found his faith again under such circumstances and has realized how flimsy were the veils which he had allowed to come between him and his recognition of his obligations to his ,creator4 ,the presence of suffering and evil in the world has provided us with one of the most striking arguments for the existence of ,god and of a hereafter that we have4 ,as ,goldwin ,smith said3 ,this at all events is certain3 if death is to end all alike for the righteous and for the unrighteous1 for those who have been blessings and for those who have been curses to their kind1 the ,power which rules the universe cannot be just in any sense of the word which we can understand4 ,doctor ,carroll1 in ,the ,mastery of ,nervousness ,footnote #aj has summed up the value of suffering as a revealer of power and a bracer of strength in words that are worth remembering4 ,none knows his real strength till he has faced failure and tasted the bitterness of defeat4 ,physical and mental suffering and soul pain come to all that endurance may be developed1 for without this the strength which conquers can never be4 ,the master man laughs in the face of personal hurts2 offenses fail to offend1 insults fail to embitter2 he turns with shame from the so-called depths of suffering2 for him honor and majesty of soul are found upon the heights of suffering4 ,in a word the really brave man does not let himself sink under the burden of suffering but maintains his place and stands up firmly under it4 ,under these circumstances suffering1 instead of being an evil1 is a good4 ,after the showing of mercy1 man is likest to ,god when he stands suffering bravely and brings good out of evil even as ,providence does4 ,footnote #aj3 ,macmillan1 ,new ,york1 #aiah4 #bfe ,,chapter ,,xv ,,pain ,pain is one of the very hard things of life which most people find it extremely difficult to bear with equanimity4 ,i suppose that the majority of human beings1 especially when they are young1 do not feel nearly so much dread of death as they do of the possibility of years of discomfort preceding it or even a short period of very acute pain when nature is preparing for dissolution4 ,older folks learn to bear physical pain better and come to appreciate how much harder to stand is mental anguish4 ,modern life1 with its cultivation of comforts and conveniences and the elimination of discomforts of all kinds1 has greatly fostered the dread of pain4 ,we hear much of the progress of humanity founded on the increase of comfort1 but that way lies degeneracy and failure to take life seriously4 ,human character develops under the stress of pain and even the body acquires self-control through it and is trained under the discipline of pain not to react so disturbingly as is the case when there has been no experience with it or but very little4 ,we find it almost impossible to understand1 now that we have cultivated the comforts of life so sedulously1 how men and women stood the discomforts to which they were subjected in the ordinary run of life practically every day two generations ago4 ,a great many of them slept #bff in little stuffy attics with scarcely any chance for the free movement of air on the hot days of summer1 often immediately underneath a roof which had been exposed to the direct rays of the sun all day long4 ,in the winter not infrequently they broke the ice in their pitchers to secure water for washing4 ,their heating arrangements were so imperfect that in the colder months at least there was very little possibility of comfort4 ,a grate fire makes a very charming ornamental addition to a room which is heated by steam or some other modern heating arrangement1 but when it is the only means of heating it is not very efficacious except in milder weather4 ,on very cold days an open fire will heat one side of the individual1 but not the whole person1 and at best the feet are likely to be cold because the open fire must be fed with an abundance of air and the draft runs along the floor in order to get to it4 ,the story is told of an ,english public school in the old days where the head master met one of the smaller boys crying because of the cold2 on being told what was the matter1 the head master simply remarked that this was no young ladies' seminary1 and young gentlemen are expected to stand things without tears4 ,twenty years later in ,india1 during the ,mutiny1 just before that boy who had cried from the cold led a forlorn hope of a charge with the idea of saving the lives of women and children1 he remarked to his commanding officer who was himself also from that same public school1 ,this is what old444 --naming the head master--would have said is no young ladies' seminary4 ,and then he went out without more ado to accept death in a great cause4 ,it is extremely difficult for us to understand how the people of the older time1 young and old1 endured all these #bfg trials and hardships1 though it is not difficult to comprehend that if one were exercised daily in standing things of this kind it would be much easier to bear pain and even serious discomfort than it is at the present time1 when many people can bear only the touch of silk on the skin and the sybarite's complaint of his utter inability to sleep because there was a crushed rose leaf underneath him has become almost a literal reality4 ,more and more we are eliminating discomforts from life and making things as comfortable and easy as possible4 ,from the carefully tempered water of the morning bath to the warm foot bath just before sleep1 in a bedroom where the temperature makes it possible to undress for bed without a shiver1 all is arranged for the avoidance of the slightest discomfort4 ,pain has become a veritable nightmare to most people as a consequence of the lack of the necessity to stand things in life1 and it is therefore all the more interesting to see what an effect religion can have in enabling people to stand pain4 ,in my volume ,health through ,will ,power ,i have told the story of the second last ,general of the ,jesuits and the very serious and intensely painful operation which he insisted on standing without an anaesthetic4 ,the story is worth repeating here as showing what a habit of prayer and practice of self-control can do for a man in the face of some of the severest pain a human being is asked to stand4 ,generals of the ,jesuits have usually found their way into literature for very different reasons from this4 ,he had developed a sarcoma of his upper arm and was advised to submit to an amputation at the shoulder joint4 ,as he was well on in the sixties the operation presented an extremely serious problem4 ,the surgeons suggested #bfh that he should be ready for the anaesthetic at a given hour the next morning and then they would proceed to operate4 ,he replied that he would be ready for the operation at the time appointed1 but that he would not take an anaesthetic4 ,they argued with him that it would be quite impossible for him to stand unanaesthetized the elaborate cutting and dissection necessary to complete an operation of this kind in a most important part of the body1 where large nerves and arteries would have to be cut through and where the slightest disturbance on the part of the patient might easily lead to serious or even fatal results4 ,above all1 he could not hope to stand the exaggerated pain that would surely be produced in the tissues rendered more sensitive than normal by the increased circulation to the part1 due to the growth of the tumor4 ,he insisted1 however1 that he would not take an anaesthetic1 for surely here seemed a chance to welcome suffering voluntarily as his ,lord and ,master had done4 ,i believe that the head surgeon said at first that he would not operate4 ,he felt sure that the operation would have to be interrupted after it had been begun1 because the patient would not be able to stand the pain1 and there would then be the danger from bleeding as well as from infection which might occur as the result of the delay4 ,the ,general of the ,jesuits1 however1 was so calm and firm that at last it was determined to permit him at least to try to stand it4 ,the event was most interesting4 ,the patient not only underwent the operation without a murmur1 but absolutely without wincing4 ,the surgeon who performed the operation said afterwards1 ,it was like cutting wax and not human flesh1 so far as any reaction was concerned1 though of course it bled very freely4 #bfi ,professor ,william ,james has noted this same power with regard to that most painful of all diseases in which pain seems so much harder to stand because it is hopeless1 and there is no possibility that the endurance of it can lead eventually to any improvement4 ,the patient must just stand being racked to pieces until the end comes4 ,no wonder then that the professor of psychology should note with commendation the effect of religion in bringing about a sense of well-being in spite of the constantly progressive physical condition which was so painfully eating life away4 ,he said3 ,the most genuinely saintly person ,i have ever known is a friend of mine now suffering from cancer of the breast--,i hope that she may pardon my citing her here as an example of what ideas can do4 ,her ideas have kept her a practically well woman for months after she should have given up and gone to bed4 ,they have annulled all pain and weakness and given her a cheerful active life1 unusually beneficent to others to whom she has afforded help4 ,her doctors1 acquiescing in results they could not understand1 have had the good sense to let her go her own way4 ,many physicians1 ,i am sure1 have had the opportunity to witness instances very like that which is thus recorded with whole-hearted sympathy by ,professor ,james4 ,i count it as one of the precious privileges of life to have known rather well a distinguished professor of anatomy at ,professor ,james' own university4 ,he suffered from incurable cancer and two years before the end knew that nothing could be done for him and that it was just a question of time and pain and the most poignant discomfort until the end would come4 ,he continued his lessons at the university2 he finished up a book that he #bgj had long wished to write and had begun several times2 he maintained his simple1 social relations with friends in such a gracious spirit that none of them suspected his condition and continued until the very end bravely to go on with his work quite as if there were nothing the matter4 ,i shall never forget how shocked ,i was when ,i once presumed to invite an addition to his labors by asking him to make a public address1 and he told me1 as a brother physician1 just how much he had to be in the trained nurse's hands every day so as to keep himself from being offensive to others4 ,i had met him at lunch in the bosom of his family and spent several pleasant hours with him afterward without ever a thought of the possibility of the hideous malignant neoplasm which was constantly at work making a wreck of his tissues and which no one knew better than he would never be appeased with less than his death4 ,he himself would have said that whatever there was of courage in his conduct was due to the strength that came to him from prayer4 ,it was his consolation and the sources of the energy which enabled him to stand not only the pain he had to suffer but to suppress any manifestations with regard to it and keep on with his work4 ,there is an impression in many minds that as time goes on and medicine and surgery advance and science scores further triumphs1 pain and ill health generally will decrease1 and there will not be nearly so much necessity for standing pain as there is even at the present time4 ,besides1 it is thought that the discovery of new modes of stilling pain will still further eliminate the necessity for patience4 ,as a matter of fact1 all our advance in hygiene and sanitation and scientific medicine has served #bga rather to increase than lessen the amount of pain4 ,people now live longer than they used to4 ,they live on to die of the degenerative diseases which are slow running and often involve a great deal of pain over a prolonged period4 ,one reason1 probably the most important one1 for the great increase of the number of deaths from cancer in recent years is the fact that ever so many more people now live on to the cancer age than before4 ,every year beyond forty which a human being lives increases the liability of death from cancer in that individual4 ,there are some enthusiasts in the field of medicine who are inclined to think that we may discover the cause of cancer and eliminate the disease1 but after a generation of special effort in that direction with absolutely no hopeful outlook1 this is at least a dubious prospect4 ,indeed1 there are many good authorities on the subject1 who are inclined to feel that cancer more often represents an embryologic or developmental defect than almost anything else and that in so far as it does we can scarcely hope ever to eliminate it4 ,while the death rate from other acute diseases has been decreasing in recent years and especially from the infectious diseases1 the mortality from affections of the kidneys1 heart and brain has been increasing4 ,almost needless to say1 these affections are practically always chronic1 involve definite discomfort when not positively acute suffering1 and not infrequently produce bodily states in which people must bear patiently a great deal of discomfort1 sometimes for years4 ,when people live beyond middle life they become more and more liable to be affected by these diseases1 so that instead of needing less consolation for pain1 our generation and the immediately succeeding generations at least are going to #bgb need more4 ,it is particularly the people who are stricken with chronic disease who need the consolation afforded by religion1 above all when they know that their affection is essentially incurable and that the only absolute relief they can have will come from death4 ,it is with this as with regard to hospitals and charity4 ,the greater the advance in medicine and the longer people are kept in life1 the more need there will be for hospital care and consequently for the exercise of charity in the best sense of that word and also for patience in pain and suffering4 ,in these matters1 as with regard to knowledge1 science1 instead of lessening the need of religion and its influence1 is multiplying it4 ,there is not the slightest reason for thinking that a man will ever make here on earth a heaven in which he may be perfectly happy1 and even those enthusiastic advocates of modern progress who are inclined to think of the possibility of this set the date of it so far forward in the future1 especially since the disillusionizing process of the ,great ,war1 that even the fulfillment of their prophecy is not likely to do very much good for our generation or for many subsequent generations4 ,we are going to need the consolations afforded by religion even more than our forefathers did in the past1 now that physicians are able to prolong life and yet cannot entirely do away with suffering4 ,above all it must not be forgotten that the cult of comfort and convenience and what may well be called the habit of luxury in the modern time has greatly increased sensitiveness to pain4 ,there are two elements that enter into suffering1 as we have said in the chapter on that subject4 ,the one is the irritation of a sensitive nerve and the other is the reaction to it in the mind of the sufferer4 ,if1 for any reason1 the nerve has been rendered #bgc insensitive1 or the mind put in a condition where it cannot receive the irritation1 the subject will not feel the pain4 ,if anything has happened to increase the irritability of a nerve1 as happens1 for instance1 when continued irritation has brought more blood to the part than usual and the affected area is hyperemic and swollen1 the pain will be greater because the nerve is more sensitive4 ,if anything happens to make the mind more receptive of pain1 and especially if the pain message that comes up along a nerve is diffused over a large part of the brain because there is a concentration of attention on it1 then too the pain will be ever so much worse4 ,we are1 in various ways1 adding to this subjective element of pain and therefore increasing it4 ,we are going to need then all the possible consolation that can be afforded by religious motives4 ,in an article written for the ,international ,clinics1 ,footnote #aa on ,neurotic ,discomfort and the ,law of ,avalanche1 ,i called attention to how much even comparatively mild pains can be increased by concentration of attention4 ,footnote #aa3 ,series #bc1 ,vol4 ,,iv4 ,the law of avalanche is a term employed by ,ramon y ,cajal to indicate the mode by which very simple sensations at the periphery of the body may be multiplied into an avalanche of sensations within the brain4 ,in a lecture of his for ,international ,clinics ,footnote #ab ,professor ,ramon y ,cajal said3 ,impressions are made upon single cells at the periphery4 ,as the result of the disturbance of the single cell1 an ever-increasing number of cells are affected as the nervous impulse travels toward the nerve-center4 ,finally the nervous impulses reach the brain and are spread over a considerable group of pyramidal cells in the cortex4 ,footnote #ab3 ,series #aa1 ,vol4 ,,ii4 ,in his paragraphs on attention he says that if conscious #bgd attention is paid to the sensation a great many other cells throughout the brain become affected by it4 ,it may be that every cell which subtends consciousness will at a given moment of intense attention be tingling from a single sensation4 ,if it is unpleasant1 the unpleasantness is multiplied to a very serious degree4 ,the law of avalanche has a very large place in disturbing the lives of those people who have much time on their hands to think about themselves and who are always solicitous lest some serious condition should be developing4 ,our self-conscious generation1 as religious impressions have been diminished in recent years1 is making its pains ever so much more difficult to bear than they were before4 ,paying attention to slight discomfort will quite literally turn it into a veritable torment4 ,prayer of itself1 by distracting the attention1 will act in an actual physical manner to reduce the pain1 and the habit of prayer could accomplish very much in that direction4 ,the feeling that somehow the pain that is being borne is not merely a useless torment but has a dual beneficial effect in strengthening character and storing up merit for the hereafter1 as the religious minded believe1 will do a very great deal to make the pain more bearable4 ,as we are not going to have less pain for humanity1 and suffering and death are to be always with us1 not even the most roseate dreams of medical scientists contemplating their elimination1 it is easy to understand how valuable religious motives will continue to be4 ,meantime physicians have abundance of experience of how much religion can do to make life1 even under the most trying circumstances1 not only useful for self and others1 but even satisfying for those who would otherwise find it an almost intolerable burden4 #bge ,probably the most fruitful source of consolation to be found in life is contained in the profound conviction that the ,lord and ,master said to those who would come after ,him that if they would be ,his disciples they must take up their cross and follow ,him4 ,one of the very great books of world literature is ,the ,imitation of ,christ1 the keynote of which is contained in its title4 ,this little book1 which has chapters bearing such titles as ,that a ,man ,must not be over ,eager about his ,affairs and ,that a ,man has ,nothing ,good of ,himself and which suggests ,that ,true ,comfort must be ,sought in ,god ,alone and ,that ,all care ,should be ,cast upon ,god and ,that ,worldly ,honor must be ,held in ,contempt and ,that ,all ,things1 however ,grievous1 are to be ,borne for the ,sake of ,eternal ,life and ,that a ,man ought to ,consider ,himself more ,worthy of ,chastisement than of ,consolation1 has been the favorite reading of more of the men and women whose opinions are worth while in the world's history than probably any other1 with the exception of the ,bible itself4 ,it has been placed next to ,homer and ,dante and ,shakespeare among the books which scholars would preserve if1 by a cataclysm1 all the other books in the world were to be destroyed4 ,when1 some years ago1 there was a spirited discussion in the ,english newspapers and magazines as to the ten books which should be selected if one were to be on a desert island for the rest of life with only these ten books for company1 the ,imitation of ,christ almost invariably found its way into the list and usually among the first five4 ,if the little book which emphasizes the pain and suffering of life has come to be looked upon as one of the greatest books of the world1 by the very fact of its #bgf profound treatment of this subject in lofty poetry1 then it is easy to understand the place that pain bears in life4 ,it is at the very heart of it4 ,nothing so reveals its meaning and makes it so bearable as religion4 ,just as it is true with regard to suffering1 as stated in the chapter on that subject1 that the five poets who at long-separated intervals in the world's history dared to take the mystery of suffering in the world for the subject of their poems1 made by that very fact the greatest dramatic poetry that has ever been made1 so this humble member of the ,brethren of the ,common ,life1 ,thomas a ,kempis1 working just as the ,renaissance was beginning1 and writing the spiritual conferences for those humble-minded patient teachers and thinkers as ,hamilton ,mabie said1 whose devotion and fire of soul for a century and a half made the choice treasures of ,italian palaces and convents and universities a common possession along the low-lying shores of the ,netherlands1 composed what his contemporaries called ecclesiastical music1 and what all subsequent generations have agreed in thinking the most wonderful expression of the significance of life in terms of ,christianity that has ever been written4 #bgg ,,chapter ,,xvi ,,suicide ,,and ,,homicide ,no book on religion and health would be complete without a discussion of the effect of religious influence on these two very important factors in modern mortality statistics1 especially in our own country1--suicide and homicide4 ,one of the most disturbing features of public health work is the occurrence of such a large number of deaths every year in our great city life from murder and self-murder4 ,it is discouraging to have the death rate from nearly every form of disease coming down while these are going up4 ,any factor which promises1 however modestly1 to remove even to a slight degree this stigma from our modern civilization is worthy of consideration4 ,the moral factors in life are most important in this regard and over these religion has the most direct and potent influence4 ,one of the most disturbing features of our modern life is the fact that in spite of the notable progressive increase of comfort in life far beyond what people enjoyed in the past1 there has been a steadily mounting growth in the number of suicides every year in civilized countries4 ,comforts and conveniences have become widely diffused1 so that the luxuries of the rich in the older time have become the everyday commonplaces of the poor or the simple necessities of the middle class1 and life would #bgh seem to be ever so much more easy than it used to be4 ,yet more and more people find it so hard that they are willing to go out of life by their own hands to meet untimely the dark mystery of the future4 ,it has become quite manifest that comfort of body and peace of mind are by no means in such direct ratio to one another as is usually thought1 but rather the contrary4 ,our suicides take place more frequently among the better-to-do classes than among the poor who might possibly be expected to find life so hard that they could not stand it any longer4 ,even chronic suffering does not cause so many suicides as the various disappointments of life1 most of which are only transitory in their effect4 ,perhaps the most disturbing feature of the suicide situation lies in the fact that the average age of those who commit suicide every year is constantly becoming younger4 ,suicide used to be the resort particularly of the discouraged beyond middle life1 but now it is becoming ever more and more the mode of escape from an immediate future of unhappiness which ever younger and younger folk foresee for themselves4 ,disappointments in love have always been occasions for suicide1 but other causes have multiplied in recent years to an alarming degree1 and now high-school children with the suggestion of sensational newspaper accounts of suicide in their minds turn to self-murder over failures in examination or setbacks in school work or over a scolding at home4 ,even below the age of fifteen suicides are reported rather frequently1 because children have been punished or have been refused something that they had set their hearts on4 ,the generation is engaged in producing many oversensitive young folk who cannot stand being disturbed in their hopes and aspirations4 #bgi ,suicides have increased just in proportion to the decrease of attention to religion and the absence of religious teaching and above all of religious training1 that is1 of such practice of self-denial and of mortification for religious motives as leads to formation of character4 ,when children and young folks are always given their own way and are not taught that denying themselves is of itself a virtue because it leads to strength of will power and enables one to stand the inevitable hardships of later life1 no wonder that their first serious disappointments come to them as such disturbing misfortunes that they can scarcely picture to themselves a time when they shall be happy again4 ,above all a great many of them have no real belief in immortality and therefore face the future life with no feeling as to its mystery and no proper sense of their obligation toward a ,creator who gave them life to use to the best advantage possible and who wants them to play the game of life fair1 taking the ill with the good and carrying on4 ,the lack of religious feeling has left them with nothing to cling to in the midst of their trials1 and though they may have friends1 all human beings are eminently alone1 and we must go through what is hard in life by ourselves4 ,we never feel our loneliness more than when some severe trial comes4 ,we almost resent the pity of others1 and ,emerson's phrase that we are infinitely repellent particles becomes a very grave reality4 ,it is the easy custom of our time to blame nearly all the social ills on what is called our present-day strenuous existence4 ,there are a great many people who seem to think that men never worked so hard as they do now1 though as a matter of fact in what concerns the accomplishment of things worth while our generation is #bhj sadly backward4 ,he unfortunately grows preoccupied with trivial narrow concerns and keeps on working at them so continuously that we have become very fussy folk because we have no variety of occupation to relieve the strain of daily life4 ,it must not be forgotten in this regard that some of the men who have lived the longest have been extremely hard workers1 accomplishing so much in a number of lines of thought and endeavor that it has seemed almost impossible to understand how they did it1 yet they have been healthy and hearty in mind and body until fourscore years1 and sometimes1 like ,ranke1 the great ,german historian1 and ,pope ,leo ,,xiii and ,chevreul1 the distinguished ,french chemist1 even beyond ninety years of age and more4 ,the strenuous existence is a good excuse1 however1 and a great many people are sure that it is the overtiredness and the disturbance of health and the depression which comes in connection with this that causes suicide or at least contributes greatly to the increase of it in our time4 ,only a little analysis of suicide statistics1 however1 is necessary to make it very clear that it is not physical factors which contribute most to the increase of suicide1 but that it is the state of mind of the individual4 ,if the physical counted for much then it would be confidently expected that suicides would be commonest in the winter and least frequent in the summer1 particularly in the pleasanter months of the summer time4 ,the statistics show1 however1 that the month which has the most suicides is ,june4 ,june is probably the pleasantest month of the year in most ways in our climate4 ,july is likely to be very hot4 ,may often has cold and rainy days at the beginning1 but ,june has often a succession of almost perfect days4 ,james ,russell #bha ,lowell sang1 and it has been reechoed many times1 ,what is so rare as a day in ,june1 yet this is the month which more people take to put themselves out of existence than any other4 ,brides have chosen it as the favorite month for marriage because all nature looks so lovely and in sympathy with their own joy and because there are fewer rainy days in it than any other4 ,happy hearts are beginning a new existence with the brightest possible prospects just when so many others are voluntarily getting out of what seems a hopeless life4 ,december1 which has so many gloomy days and which naturally is likely to be so much more depressing than the succeeding months of the winter1 for the clear1 cold days of ,january and ,february are bracing1 might on physical grounds be expected to be the month with most suicides in it4 ,christmas with its celebrations and the announcement of peace and joy to men of good will might be expected to lower the number of suicides for the latter third of the month1 but even the joy of that occasion could scarcely be hoped to neutralize completely the depressing effect of the weather4 ,just exactly the contradiction of these anticipations is what happens4 ,suicides are least frequent in ,december of any month in the year1 and the last ten days of the month have the most of them because it is not so much the individual's own sense of hopelessness in life1 complicated by physical suffering and material trials of various kinds1 that tempts to suicide1 as the contrast of the joy of those around him with his own feelings which emphasize his depressed state of mind until he feels that he can stand it no longer4 ,june's gayety with its happy brides adds to the number of suicides and the ,christmas festivities have a like unfortunate tendency4 ,gloomy weather has exactly the #bhb opposite effect from what would surely have been expected on the general principle that the physical plays the most important role in the production of suicides4 ,this is brought out still more clearly by the careful review of the effect of the weather on suicide which was made some years ago by ,professor ,edmund ,t4 ,dexter ,footnote #ac of the ,university of ,illinois4 ,footnote #ac3 ,popular ,science ,monthly1 ,april1 #aija4 ,he followed out the records of nearly two thousand cases of suicides reported to the police in the ,city of ,new ,york and placed beside them the records of the weather bureau of the same city for the days on which these suicides occurred4 ,according to this1 which represents not any preconceived notions but the realities of the relationship of the weather to self-murder1 the tendency to suicide is highest in spring and summer1 and the deed is accomplished in the great majority of cases on the sunniest days of these seasons4 ,it is not at all a case of heat disturbance of mind or tendency to heat stroke1 for as has been seen ,june is the month of most suicides and while it often has some hot days it does not compare in this regard with ,july and ,august or even ,september as a rule4 ,his conclusions are carefully drawn1 and there is no doubt that they must be accepted as representing the actual facts4 ,all the world feels depressed on rainy days and in dark1 cloudy weather1 but suicides react well1 as a rule1 against this physical depression1 yet allow their mental depression to get the better of them on the finest days of the year4 ,professor ,dexter said3 ,the clear1 dry days show the greatest number of suicides1 and the wet1 partly cloudy days the least2 and #bhc with differences too great to be attributed to accident or chance4 ,in fact there are nearly one in three 7#ca7 more suicides on dry than on wet days and more than one in five 7#ba7 more on clear days than on days that are partly cloudy4 ,in reviewing the subject of suicide in my book on ,psychotherapy ,footnote #ad ,i suggested that this subject of depressed weather conditions as the contributing cause of suicide might be carried still further and the lack of the dispiriting influence of dark1 damp weather1 as a suicide factor1 could be seen very strikingly from the suicide statistics of various climates4 ,footnote #ad3 ,d4 ,appleton ,co41 ,new ,york1 #aiab4 ,the suicide rate is not highest in the torrid or in the frigid zones1 but in the temperate zones4 ,in the north temperate zone it is much more marked than in the south temperate zone4 ,civilization and culture1 diffused to a much greater extent in the north temperate zone than in the south1 seem to be the main reason for this difference4 ,we make people capable of feeling pain more poignantly1 but do not add to their power to stand trials or train character by self-control to make the best of life under reasonably severe conditions4 ,severe physical suffering of any kind1 provided it is shared by a whole people1 reduces the suicide rate4 ,famine1 for instance1 though it might be expected that people facing starvation would surely take the easier way1 rather reduces the tendency to suicide4 ,earthquakes followed by loss of life and intense suffering have the same effect4 ,it might possibly be thought that this would be true only among less well educated people1 the orientals or perhaps certain of the ,south ,americans where lack of education made them less poignantly sensitive to physical #bhd suffering than among the more refined people in our western civilization1 but the earthquake at ,san ,francisco demonstrated very clearly the effect upon average ,californians who1 ,i suppose1 must be considered to have been rather a little above than below the general run of ,americans in what we are accustomed to call civilization and education4 ,before the catastrophe1 suicides were occurring in that city on an average of twelve a week4 ,after the earthquake1 when1 if physical sufferings had anything to do with suicide1 it might be expected that the self-murder rate would go up1 there was so great a reduction that only three suicides were reported in two months4 ,some of this reduction was due to inadequate records1 but there can be no doubt that literally a hundred lives were saved from suicide by the awful catastrophe that leveled the city4 ,men and women were homeless1 destitute and exposed to every kind of hardship1 yet because all those around them were suffering in the same way1 every one seemed to be reasonably satisfied4 ,evidently a comparison with the conditions in which others are has much to do with deciding the would-be suicide not to make away with himself1 for by dwelling too much on his own state he is prone to think that he is ever so much worse off than others4 ,if life were always vividly interesting1 as it was in ,san ,francisco after the earthquake1 and if all men worked and suffered as the ,san ,franciscans did for a few weeks1 suicide would not end more than ten thousand ,american lives every year1 as it does now4 ,the one hope for the man who is contemplating suicide is to get him interested in others1 to arouse him to the realization of the fact that there are others suffering even more than himself1 but above all to get him to feel that he can relieve the #bhe suffering of others4 ,selfishness is the root of suicide1 usually pathological in its utter preoccupation with self as the most important thing in the universe1 but often only the result of a fostering of self-interest and a failure to train the mind to think of other people1 which is of the very essence of religion4 ,it is not when things are made easy for mankind1 but on the contrary when they are passing through times of difficulty and severe stress that the suicide rate goes down4 ,war always brings a striking reduction in the number of suicides4 ,our ,spanish-,american ,war reduced the death rate from suicide in this country over forty per cent throughout the country and over fifty per cent in ,washington itself1 where there was most excitement with regard to the war4 ,this was true also during the ,civil ,war4 ,our minimum annual death rate from suicide from #ahje 7when statistics on this subject began to be kept7 to the present time was one suicide to about twenty-four thousand people1 which occurred in #ahfd1 when our ,civil ,war was in its severest phase4 ,there had been constant increase in our suicide rate every year until the ,civil ,war began1 then there was a drop at once and this continued until the end of the war4 ,in ,new ,york ,city the average rate of suicide for the five years of the ,civil ,war was nearly forty-five per cent lower than the average for the five following years4 ,in ,massachusetts1 where the statistics were gathered very carefully1 the number of suicides for the five-year period before #ahfj was nearly twenty per cent greater than for the five-year period immediately following1 which represents the preliminary excitement over the war and the actual year of the war4 ,this experience in ,america is only in accordance with what happens everywhere4 ,mr4 ,george ,kennan in his article on #bhf ,the ,problems of ,suicide ,footnote #ae has a paragraph which brings this out very well4 ,he says3 ,footnote #ae3 ,mc,clure's ,magazine1 ,june1 #aijh4 ,in ,europe the restraining influence of war upon the suicidal impulse is equally marked4 ,the war between ,austria and ,italy in #ahff decreased the suicide rate for each country about fourteen per cent4 ,the ,franco-,german ,war of #ahgj-ahga lowered the suicide rate of ,saxony eight per cent1 that of ,prussia #aa4d per cent1 and that of ,france #ah4g per cent4 ,the reduction was greatest in ,france1 because the ,german invasion of that country made the war excitement there much more general and intense than it was in ,saxony or ,prussia4 ,above all the sense of patriotic duty1 the recognition of the fact that there are things in life worth more than life itself1 lifts men out of the depression into which they have permitted themselves to be plunged as a consequence of their utter absorption in themselves and their own narrow interests4 ,old-fashioned religion has a distinct effect in the reduction of the suicide rate1 and all over the world the orthodox ,jews who cling to their old-time belief and above all to their orthodox practices and mode of life have undoubtedly the lowest suicide rate of any people in the world4 ,this is true1 though almost needless to say a great many ,jews1 not only in the foreign countries but here in our own great cities1 have to live under circumstances that are the most trying that it is possible to imagine4 ,a great many of them live in slums1 doing intensely hard work in sweat shops--though1 thank ,god1 these are fewer now than they used to be--and yet the ,jews cling to life in the midst of trials that would seem almost impossible for human nature to bear4 ,the ,jewish #bhg suicide rate is the lowest everywhere in spite of racial differences1 for after all there are ,german ,jews and ,portuguese ,jews and ,russian ,jews who have lived among the respective peoples after whom they are called for centuries and who might therefore be expected to take on the characteristics which their environments have brought4 ,there is a very great difference in the suicide rate between the orthodox and unorthodox ,jews1 that is1 those who have given up the beliefs and religious practices of their forefathers4 ,it is in favor of the orthodox ,jews1 though of course the record is complicated by the prosperity of those who have given up their religion4 ,wealth and speculation greatly favor the occurrence of suicide4 ,it is well known that ,roman ,catholics the world over have much less tendency to suicide than their ,protestant neighbors living in the same communities4 ,it is true that where the national suicide rate is high1 many ,catholics also commit suicide1 but there is a distinct disproportion between them and their neighbors4 ,the suicide rate of ,protestants in the northern part of ,ireland1 as pointed out by ,mr4 ,george ,kennan1 is twice that of ,roman ,catholics in the southern part4 ,he discusses certain factors that would seem to modify the breadth of the conclusion that might be drawn from this1 but in the end he confesses that their faith probably has most to do with it and that1 above all1 the practice of sacramental confession must be considered as tending to lessen the suicide rate materially4 ,it is the readiness to give their confidence to some one on the part of these patients1 for that is what they really are1 that seems to the physician the best hope of helping them to combat their impulse1 and ,mr4 ,kennan's opinion is worth recalling for therapeutic purposes3 ,in view of the fact that the suicide rate of the #bhh ,protestant canton in ,switzerland is nearly four times that of ,catholic cantons1 it seems probable that ,catholicism1 as a form of religious belief1 does restrain the suicidal impulse4 ,the efficient cause may be the ,catholic practice of confessing to priests1 which probably gives much encouragement and consolation to unhappy but devout believers and thus induces many of them to struggle on in spite of misfortune and depression4 ,it is not surprising that in countries where attendance at church and adhesion to religious organizations has dropped very seriously1 the suicide rate should be higher than in countries where the great mass of the people are still faithful churchgoers1 take their religious duties very seriously and therefore are subjected to the deepest influence of religion over the heart and mind at regularly recurring intervals4 ,they find consolation in their suffering1 advice in their trials1 strength for their difficulties and a fount of hope almost for their despair4 ,above all they are deterred by the thought of another world than this and the possibility of punishment in it1 if they have not had the courage and the manly strength of soul to face their difficulties in this4 ,it has come to be the custom rather to minimize the effect of deterrent motives on human beings and to say that men cannot be scared into doing good or avoiding evil1 and it is quite true that a policy of frightfulness pursued out of mere malice to effect a human purpose will have exactly the opposite effect over the great majority of mankind1 but when men realize that they are bringing punishment on themselves by their own acts1 and that those acts are unjustifiable on any rational grounds1 they have a very different feeling as a rule with regard to punishments that may be impending over them for their conduct4 ,it #bhi is quite one thing to be unjustly punished and resent it and quite another to feel that the punishment we are incurring has justice in it1 though we may not be quite able to understand all the significance of it or plumb its mystery entirely4 ,shakespeare has ,hamlet discuss that whole question in his soliloquy so well that it deserves to be quoted here3 444 ,and by a sleep1 to say we end ,the heart-ache1 and the thousand natural shocks ,that flesh is heir to1--'t is a consummation ,devoutly to be wished4 ,to die1--to sleep3-- ,to sleep1 perchance to dream3--ay1 there's the rub2 ,for in that sleep of death what dreams may come1 ,when we have shuffled off this mortal coil1 ,must give us pause4 ,there's the respect1 ,that makes calamity of so long life3 ,for who would bear the whips and scorns of time1 ,the oppressor's wrong1 the proud man's contumely1 ,the pangs of despised love1 the law's delay1 ,the insolence of office1 and the spurns ,that patient merit of the unworthy takes1 ,when he himself might his quietus make ,with a bare bodkin8 ,who would fardels bear1 ,to grunt and sweat under a weary life1 ,but that the dread of something after death1-- ,the undiscovered country1 from whose bourn ,no traveller returns1--puzzles the will ,and makes us rather bear those ills we have ,than fly to others that we know not of8 ,thus conscience does make cowards of us all4 ,we have come to resent somewhat the suggestion of deterrent motives as helpful for the doing of good1 and the dread of punishment as unworthy of men1 but the religious beliefs of a hereafter of suffering for the coward who dares not face the trials of life are still and have always been #bij valuable in keeping people up to their duty4 ,the war restored some of the sadly needed old-fashioned attitude toward punishment as a help to discipline1 and we are now more in sympathy with old-fashioned religious ideas in the matter4 ,there has been an even greater increase of homicide than of suicide and for very similar reasons4 ,our homicide rate here in ,america is a disgrace to a civilized country4 ,ambassador ,andrew ,d4 ,white1 whose long experience in ,european countries made his opinion of great value1 declared that for homicide we were the worst country in the world1 with more killings of human beings to our credit than even vendetta-ridden ,corsica4 ,this is not due to any persistence of wild west conditions but obtains in the east as well as in the west4 ,indeed our large cities are by far the worst in this regard4 ,new ,york and ,chicago have many times as many murders annually as ,london has1 though there is no very great difference in the composition of the population of these cities1 for all of them house large numbers of foreigners of all kinds and they have about the same sort of slums and very nearly the same social conditions4 ,poverty is worse in ,london and if anything that ought to add to the homicide rate4 ,reverence for human life has very largely broken down1 and the taking of it is not considered to be anything like the serious crime that it was even a few years ago4 ,this increase in homicide in civilized countries1 like the increase in suicide1 has come after the serious breakdown of religion4 ,that the rise in the homicide rate is not a question of the familiar fallacy post hoc ergo propter hoc1 after this therefore because of this1 is the opinion of a number of men who have a right to have opinions #bia on this subject1 and who insist that it is the obliteration of religious feeling with its emphatic insistence on the awfulness of the crime of murder that has largely served to make homicide the very common event that it is4 ,one powerful factor in this matter is undoubtedly the failure to punish murder properly1 and as far as may be adequately1 that has developed in recent years in this country4 ,very few murderers are executed4 ,less than five per cent altogether of those who have committed deliberate murder are ever executed1 and in some ,states it is actually only two per cent4 ,when but two out of every hundred men who take life deliberately lose theirs1 it is easy to understand that men1 in times of intense anger1 will not have the restraint which would otherwise be exerted over them by the fear of prompt loss of life under disgraceful circumstances for themselves4 ,many a man will take his chances of having a long prison term for murder shortened by executive clemency or a pardon board who would hesitate very much over the thought of having to die himself by prompt legal measure4 ,i have heard a distinguished jurist say that they execute nine out of ten of their murderers in ,england1 while we execute a little more than two out of every hundred on the average of ours1 so that there is little reason for wonder why we have ten times as many murders4 ,the real reason for this decrease in the number of executions and the growth of the opposition on principle to capital punishment in this country is the increasing obscuration of the belief in immortality4 ,people have become afraid to do the irretrievable act of sending a man out of life because1 thinking only in terms of this life1 they feel he should have a chance for reform here and above all because they hesitate to think that men ever #bib have the right to deprive another of existence1 for if there is no other world than this1 the end of physical life means annihilation4 ,if life is but the portal to eternity1 however1 at longest a brief period of trial before entering upon another and much more important stage of existence1 then the execution of a criminal done with all the dignity of the law1 exacting a compensation as adequate as possible for a wrong that has been done1 instead of being a dreadful thing has a very definite nobility about it4 ,of course1 if there is no other world1 the question of execution becomes a very different consideration1--the obliteration of a fellow human being4 ,this feeling is often not consciously reflected upon1 yet it is effective in suggesting conclusions and ruling the mental attitude4 ,the old religious orders had a tradition that certain men1 because of the circumstances in which they died and above all the fact that they had sufficient warning as to the end of life and the chance to prepare themselves for eternity1 were predestined to heaven1 though they might have to go through a great deal of suffering1 quite as ,dante foresaw1 before getting there4 ,among these the most prominent classes were men and women afflicted with an incurable disease which it was recognized would surely bring on a fatal conclusion with but a few months' or years' delay1 and then those who were condemned to death had their weeks and months of preparation in prison for that event4 ,this intense belief in a hereafter made the outlook on both murder and execution a very different thing from what it is without it4 ,sentimentality reigns now where the sentiment of justice formerly ruled4 ,a man who has committed an ugly sex crime capped with murder or who has often1 after making her life miserable for months or years1 #bic murdered a poor wife in cold-blooded deliberateness1 will be the subject of sentimental compassion during his trial from a crowd of silly women who will send flowers to his cell to lighten his solitude and who1 if they can obtain permission1 will visit him in the death house4 ,they forget all that his victim suffered and the necessity for producing a definite effect upon the minds of others who might have the temptation to follow in his path1 and whose minds are of a caliber that they can only be deterred by holding up adequate punishment before them4 ,the gradual diminution of the place of religion in life has given rise to an unfortunate phase of popular psychology with regard to the effect of punishment in general on human beings4 ,the wisest writings that we have1 the ,holy ,scriptures1 which even those who might deny their direct divine inspiration would confess readily to contain the most marvelous knowledge of man and his ways to be found in literature1 have insisted particularly on the deterrent effect of punishment held up before men and the reforming value of it when properly inflicted4 ,probably nowhere in modern social life is a revival of religion more needed to save men from unfortunate tendencies in their natures than in what concerns the estimation of the value of human life and the prevention of a further increase in our awful statistics of suicide and homicide4 ,religion is almost more needed for this than for the so-called social diseases4 #bid ,,chapter ,,xvii ,,longevity ,in spite of the ,psalmist's warning that threescore years and ten are the years of man and that life beyond that is likely to be filled with all sorts of discomforts1 practically all men are anxious to live long lives4 ,they are satisfied to take the diseases of advanced years provided only there are surceases from pain at intervals and they are able to occupy themselves for some part of the time with their usual interests4 ,it is true that a certain sadly increasing number in our time shorten existence by their own hand1 and at an ever younger age on the average and that some at least of those who do so are not insane in any justifiable legal sense of the word1 but they are felt by all to be unfortunate exceptions who prove that the rule of love of life and desire to cling to it through sad and evil case is practically universal among men4 ,life may be1 in the words of the cynic1 a chronic disease1 whose termination is always death1 but most men prefer that the disease should last as long as possible4 ,the most important factor for long life is of course heredity4 ,the man who wants to live long should have been careful to be born of long-lived parents and grandparents4 ,doctor ,oliver ,wendell ,holmes once said that the physician would often like to be in the position to treat in the persons of his patient's grandparents a #bie number of the diseases that he sees in his consulting room4 ,whatever truth there may be in that1 there is no doubt at all that there is very little hope of a man living long if his parents and grandparents have been short-lived1 unless of course their taking off has been due to accident4 ,after family heredity1 however1 undoubtedly the most important factor for longevity is an abiding sense of religion4 ,a great many religious people live beyond the average age1 and a great many clergymen live to be very old men and yet retain their faculties and physical powers very well4 ,they are not longer lived than other professional men on the average1 because many of those who become clergymen are delicate by nature and only rarely so robust as other college men4 ,in recent years the insurance companies have come to recognize very clearly what is called the moral hazard in life4 ,a man who lives a quiet1 simple life without excesses in eating or drinking1 getting his full quota of sleep and his meals regularly without temptations to high living of various kinds is much more likely to outlive his mathematical average of expectancy in life than the man who does not follow that sort of existence4 ,almost needless to say it is seriously religious men--all clergymen do not necessarily come under this head--who live these very regular lives and do not allow themselves the occasional divagations in life which may not in themselves prove serious but which often lead to conditions and developments that impair health and shorten existence4 ,there are undoubtedly a good many men who have sowed their wild oats very freely when they were young and who have continued all their lives to be rather free livers1 and who yet have lived on to good round old age4 ,what we speak of here1 however1 is the average #bif length of life which in men who live without excesses and without over-solicitude about the future or the present is sure to be longer than in others4 ,the old proverb says that worry and not work kills men4 ,undoubtedly worry rather than work ages men before their time and breaks down their vital resistance and makes them much more susceptible to the many diseases that may shorten existence as the years go on than they would have been liable to had they lived regular lives4 ,religion is the great salve for worries4 ,when genuine it lessens the irritations of life1 makes them more bearable1 renders the disposition more equable and more capable of standing the stresses and strains of sudden trials or serious misfortunes than it would otherwise be4 ,religion does not change nature essentially1 but it lifts it up and modifies it to a noteworthy degree4 ,even ,christ did not come to change human nature2 ,he assumed it and showed men how to live4 ,religion does not make a passionate disposition mild1 but it confers upon the passionate man the power to control his passions to no small extent and often so thoroughly that even those who know him best have no idea of the storms which start to brew within him but are suppressed4 ,almost needless to say the moderation in all things which religion counsels and which its training fosters is extremely conducive to long life1 if there is any underlying basis for that in the nature of the individual4 ,religion is like oil for machinery4 ,it lessens the friction1 prevents the development of heat which would only be destructive and serve no useful purpose1 soothes the temper against reactions and smooths out life's ways4 ,some one once suggested that it represented the rubber tires of the modern automobile1 but that is not a good figure1 for the inflation #big on which a man is smoothly carried may blow out at any moment and leave him to run on the rim4 ,that is much better represented by sentimentality and the motives drawn from it rather than from religion4 ,the direct influence of religion on health can very probably be estimated best by the comparative death rate of occupations4 ,clergymen1 according to ,english statistics which are gathered rather carefully1 have the lowest death rate1 even below that of gardeners and nurserymen whose constant outdoors life gives them such an advantage and whose simple laborious occupation without excitement is so favorable for long life4 ,after these come the farmers and then the agricultural laborers1 and then a long distance afterwards the schoolmasters and grocers and mechanics generally4 ,the highest death rates in occupations occur not among the laboring classes occupied at the particularly unhealthy trades--plumbers and painters who are subjected to lead2 file makers and knife grinders whose lungs are seriously hurt by dust2 and earthenware manufacturers who are subjected to the influence of both dust and lead--but among the inn-keepers1 spirit1 wine and beer dealers and above all the inn and hotel servants among whom the moral hazards of life are greatly increased and over whom religion fails to have the influence that would be beneficial4 ,perhaps the best way to demonstrate the effect of religion in lessening the wear and tear of life1 thus proving conducive to its prolongation1 is to take the statistics of the lives of those who devote themselves so thoroughly to their religious duties that they are called by the name religious4 ,they give themselves not alone to the daily but almost to the hourly practice of religion1 and its influence has a thoroughgoing opportunity to exert #bih itself over their lives4 ,most of them live very simply and abstemiously1 and indeed many people would be inclined to say that they did not take quite sufficient food to nourish them properly and that they allowed their sleep to be interrupted by religious duties in such ways as not to afford themselves quite rest enough4 ,they are all very early risers1 at five o'clock in the winter at the latest and in summer at four1 while not a few of them get up at some hour during the night to sing some portion of the office1 the full round of which has to be completed every day4 ,their beds are usually rather hard2 there is no carpet on the floor in their cells1 their lives to most people would seem rather narrow and without adequate diversion1 and yet they are noted for living beyond the average age1 except in cases where work in hospitals or the like subjects them to the danger of infection4 ,the tradition with regard to this prolongation of life among the religious has existed since a very early time in ,christianity and indeed was noted before the ,christian era among the men and women who1 as among the ,buddhists1 lived in monastic seclusion lives of great abstinence and occupation with the contemplation of the hereafter4 ,in the very early days of ,christianity a number of the men who withdrew to live the lives of solitaries in the desert regions of ,egypt and of ,syria exceeded the ,psalmist's limit of life1 though the account of their neglect of food would seem to make that almost impossible4 ,a number of them lived to be beyond seventy and not a few beyond eighty and some of them over ninety4 ,st4 ,anthony1 who is often spoken of as the first hermit1 lived to be beyond one hundred4 ,it is a matter of never-ending surprise to find how many #bii people who dwell in monasteries1 where their occupation is mainly some simple work of the hands varied by long hours of reading and prayer during every day in the year1 live to be very old4 ,it might be surmised that their opportunities for introspection and thought about themselves would be so frequent and extensive that they would get on their own minds and probably be the victims of various nervous symptoms that would shorten existence through worries over trifles4 ,so far is this from being the case1 however1 that some of the most striking examples of group longevity among people who are unrelated are to be found in what are known as contemplative monasteries1 that is1 institutions where there is only enough active life every day necessary to maintain health and supplies for the simple physical needs of a monastery1 and the rest of the time is spent in reading1 prayer1 meditation and the saying of the ,divine ,office4 ,the modern religious orders1 which imitate some at least of the austerities of the old solitaries and those who in the early days of ,christianity lived in communities1 have a record of longevity quite equal to that of their forbears4 ,what an absolutely regular life under deep religious influences1 where practically every hour of the day has its allotted task1 where no meat is eaten and two ,lents a year are kept--that is one third less is eaten for about one fourth of the year--will do to prolong human life1 can be seen very well from the vital statistics of the well-known ,trappist ,monastery at ,gethsemane in ,kentucky1 which are before me as ,i write4 ,the average age at death of the members of this community for the last twenty-five years is nearly seventy-three4 ,a number of them lived to be beyond eighty1 and as the ,abbot has written to tell me1 the most satisfactory thing for the #cjj community lies in the fact that the old members1 even at fourscore years and more1 can practically always join in the common life of the community and do not need to be specially waited on or taken care of4 ,their death is likely to be quiet and rather easy1 the flickering out of the spark of life rather than its extinction4 ,one of the ,benedictines has furnished me statistics for that order here in ,america1 for there might be the feeling that in other countries life would be different and that longevity would occur for different reasons than those which occasion it in this country4 ,a great many among the ,benedictines live to celebrate their golden jubilee1 and life among them has been calculated to be at least ten years more than that of their brothers and sisters who remained in the world4 ,of course it might be said that only the people of very placid disposition who take things very quietly and are not inclined to worry would enter such institutions as these1 and there is some truth in the statement4 ,it is not nearly so true1 however1 as most people would imagine1 for a great many of those who enter convents and monasteries were rather lively and gay when they were younger2 indeed it has often been said that it was the liveliest1 happiest and most charming girls at the convent schools who were destined to enter the convents afterwards4 ,as regards the monasteries for men1 the same rule of longevity holds1 and yet a great many of these men were not only lively and gay1 but some of them had rather stormy careers before they settled down to the contemplative life after something of remorse over the foolishness which had led them astray in their younger years4 ,the men and women who enter religious orders are of course the more serious characters who take life rather #cja placidly1 and this adds to their expectancy of life1 for it is worry rather than work or suffering that shortens existence1 but it must not be forgotten that not a little of their placidity is not natural to their dispositions1 but is rather acquired as the result of their deep religious feelings and their recognition of the fact that ,god's ,will will be accomplished anyhow and there is no use worrying about things4 ,undoubtedly one of the principal reasons why the death rate among women at all ages is so much more favorable than might be expected1 in spite of their apparent tendency to worry more1 their nervousness about many things1 and the dangers of maternity as well as their weaker physical constitution1 is to be found in the fact that religious influences are much more profound over them and have a more calming effect than over men4 ,a very old expression calls women the devout female sex1 and the influence of their devotion to religion is reflected in their mortality statistics4 ,doctor ,woods ,hutchinson1 in his ,civilization and ,health1 ,footnote #af has a chapter on ,the ,hardy ,nerves of ,women in which he brings out the fact that women resist the corroding effect of the strenuous life of modern civilization better than men and are not subject to the factors which have made modern health statistics so disturbing4 ,for while we have been lengthening the average term of life and reducing the death rate in general1 we have been shocked to find that the mortality above forty-five has been increasing rather than decreasing1 so that men are being taken off just at the prime of life and at the height of their usefulness more than ever before1 in spite of all our hygiene and the development of sanitary science4 ,footnote #af3 ,boston1 #aiad4 #cjb ,the difference in mortality between men and women after the age of forty-five1 that is1 just at the time when religious feelings are likely to represent so much of a resource for the devout female sex1 is so striking as to deserve to be noted particularly1 and the contrast continues more and more to be emphasized as the years go on4 ,the average age at death has risen during the past generation from about thirty-three to slightly above fifty1 but this improvement has been chiefly effected by saving the babies and children from death from unclean milk and the acute infectious diseases1 and young adults from the great plagues of past generations1 typhoid and tuberculosis4 ,doctor ,hutchinson goes on to say3 ,naturally this preserves a much larger number of individuals to live to1 say1 the age of forty-five4 ,and1 as we must all die sometime1 we begin to drop off somewhat more rapidly after this point has been reached--that is to say1 the stupid and helpless creature1 man1 does4 ,woman1 however1 is far too shrewd for that4 ,while man's mortality1 after falling off markedly up to forty-five years1 begins after that period to increase distinctly1 woman's death rate1 on the other hand1 continues to decrease until fifty-five years of age1 beating man ten years2 then yields to the force of circumstances only to the extent of about one tenth of the increase man shows between fifty-five and sixty-five2 and after seventy proceeds to decrease again4 ,incidentally1 it may be remarked that the total increase of mortality after forty-five in man is only about six per cent2 besides which1 the race need not worry much about what happens to the individual after fifty-five or sixty1 provided he has done his share of the world's work4 ,but #cjc women pass men three laps to the mile1 for their increase of death rate after the age of fifty-five is barely one per cent1 or one sixth of man's4 ,the lessened death rates among women at all ages are notable1 particularly among those who have taken life seriously and religiously4 ,typical examples of similar longevity which they themselves would surely have declared to have been influenced more by their religious attitude of mind than by any other single factor are noteworthy in the lives of the two ,english cardinals of the nineteenth century1 ,newman and ,manning4 ,both of them were men who accomplished a very great deal of work in their younger years and who then went through the serious mental strain of giving up friends and ways that had been very near and dear to them and making a great revolution in their lives4 ,both of them lived to be well past eighty1 and indeed ,newman lived to be past ninety in the full possession of vigorous power of mind until the very end of life4 ,he himself had not looked for long life1 but on the contrary had felt that he was one of those fated to die rather young2 indeed1 in the sixties1 he had begun to think that he would give up work1 and his friends had settled down to the idea that he would not be long with them1 when an attack on his sincerity aroused him to a magnificent response that is one of the precious treasures of nineteenth-century literature and then for nearly thirty years longer he was a great intellectual force4 ,this same thing is very well illustrated in the lives of the ,popes of the nineteenth century1 that is1 during the period when modern hygiene and sanitation have developed to such an extent as to make the conservative influence of religion on health felt to the best possible effect4 ,the #cjd ,popes all down the centuries have lived far beyond the average of humanity1 in spite of the burdens of responsibility placed on them1 and even the shortening of life by martyrdom of so many of them at the beginning4 ,our nineteenth and twentieth-century ,popes have proved wonderful examples of what placidity of mind can do under the most difficult circumstances in keeping worries from wearing out life energies1 in spite of the fact that the life stream in some of the cases did not appear to be very strong at its source and long life seemed almost out of the question4 ,these long lives might very well be matched from the lists of old pastors from all the denominations and the sects who have outlived the years of the ,psalmist without incurring the physical evils which he prophesied4 ,old clergymen are particularly likely to retain the full possession of their senses and to live on to a quiet1 peaceful old age4 ,i once heard one of them say--,i believe that it was a quotation--that he used to think that all the pleasure of life was contained in the first eighty years1 but now at the age of eighty-five he knew that there was a great deal of life's satisfaction to be found in the second eighty years4 ,there are exceptions to the rule1 of course1 and most of us would think that they are the sort of exceptions that prove the rule4 ,there is an old saw in many languages which says that the good die young1 but physicians are likely to think that this old-fashioned expression is founded on nothing more than the fact that a good many of the weaklings born without very much vitality develop into harmless nonentities who have no strong impulses to either good or ill1 and who have but very little resistive vitality and die of the infectious diseases in early youth #cje or are carried off by tuberculosis a little later4 ,it must not be forgotten1 however1 that it is as much of an accident to run into a bacillus as into a trolley car1 and indeed often more serious1 and though all that too is in the hands of the ,lord1 in the order of ,providence secondary causes work out their destined effects4 ,quite contrary to the tradition that the good die young is the world experience that a great many of the good1 that is1 men of sterling character and worth who have proved thoroughly capable of doing what is best in life for the benefit of others rather than for themselves1 live on to be a source of inspiration to those around them for many1 many years of a long and physically active life1 even though sometimes they may run into the rule that whom the ,lord loves he chastens1 and they may have had many trials4 ,the ,scriptural promises made over and over again were that the years of those who should keep ,his word should be long in the land4 ,that promise has been fulfilled so often as to make it a commonplace4 ,three hundred years ago ,shakespeare summed up at least the physical effects of keeping the law when he had old ,adam say in ,as ,you ,like ,it3 ,though ,i look old1 yet ,i am strong and lusty2 ,for in my youth ,i never did apply ,hot and rebellious liquors in my blood2 ,nor did not with unbashful forehead woo ,the means of weakness and debility2 ,therefore my age is as a lusty winter4 ,frosty1 but kindly4 ,let me go with you3 ,i'll do the service of a younger man ,in all your business and necessities4 #cjf ,,chapter ,,xviii ,,the ,,bible ,,and ,,health ,from the very earliest times religious legislation has proved an extremely important factor for health4 ,the book of ,leviticus1 one of the very oldest religious documents that we have1 contains a sanitary code which is a marvel of completeness in its prescriptions for the maintenance of health and the prevention of disease4 ,it anticipates most of the modern discoveries in this matter and the faithful keeping of its regulations has made the ,jew the powerful personal factor that he has been so often in history1 notwithstanding the fact that he belonged to a despised subject race4 ,the orthodox ,jew has kept his health in spite of the unfavorable conditions in which he was placed much better on the average than the ,gentiles around him1 and it is for that reason that his nation has been preserved4 ,it would have seemed almost impossible for a people treated so badly as they were1 crowded into unhealthy ghettos1 often in the lowest and most insanitary parts of the towns1 with no municipal care exercised for their health--except when it was feared that epidemics might spread from them to the ,gentiles---to have maintained themselves for all these centuries2 but they have not only survived but have been the most vigorous of people1 at all times full of initiative and readiness to work far beyond the average of humanity4 #cjg ,the sanitary code of the ,jewish people which is contained in the ,old ,testament is one of the greatest triumphs of sanitary legislation that the world has ever known4 ,doctor ,alexander ,rattray1 in his volumes on ,divine ,hygiene1 ,sanitary ,science and ,sanitarians of the ,sacred ,scriptures and ,mosaic ,code1 ,footnote #ag has brought this out very clearly4 ,the ,scriptural motto of his work1 ,that ,thy way might be known upon earth2 ,thy saving health among all nations1 is an excellent text for what he has to say4 ,with regard to the sanitary code of the ,hebrews1 as compared with other ancient documents in sanitation4 ,doctor ,rattray says3 ,footnote #ag3 ,london1 #aijc4 ,indeed1 contrasted with the teachings of modern times1 the comprehensiveness and sufficiency of the rules and cardinal points comprised in the ,hebrew ,sanitary ,code1 primitive in time but not in practice2 ancient1 but not antiquated and obsolete2 comprising a treasure of infallible truth1 which is the admiration of all experts2 and altogether so remarkable as to be comparable to1 if indeed they do not surpass both in literary style and professional excellence1 extracts from the best modern works on hygiene4 ,so that savants1 notwithstanding their increased anatomical and physiological knowledge1 the accumulation of ages and the result of modern enlightenment and civilization1 bringing with them vastly improved facilities for medical study1 professional experience in hospitals and communities1 may still quote his model work with approval2 sit with advantage at the feet of the ,jewish sage2 and learn in language as concise and forcible as that of the best modern thinkers1 not only the great base facts1 but even many of the less important minutiae of the art and science which they #cjh study2 if they would not continue to despise this authority because he is a ,hebrew2 ignore his work because it is ,asiatic2 slight the book in which it is found because it is not a rare1 costly and abstruse volume2 spurn instruction on a scientific subject because it comes from a ,biblical source2 and neglect the ready-made and divinely inspired code because it is ancient and a non-professional publication4 ,the question of the place that this health legislation of the ,bible has in medical history is worth noting1 for it makes very clear that it was no mere human development but something divine4 ,doctor ,rattray said3 ,moses was no doubt learned in the medicine and surgery of that era1 and could at least have taught his old ,egyptian teachers1 both theoretically and practically1 especially in sanitary matters1 a science of which they knew little1 as the germ thought of preventive medicine had not then been begotten4 ,but it was not to be his role to indoctrinate the ,jews and ,mankind in the least important sanatory or healing branch of medicine1 but rather to initiate its higher and most philosophical department1 the sanitary or disease preventing4 ,and to shew both by precept and practice that this is the most philosophic and wisest policy to pursue regarding physical health1 as it also is in moral1 social and spiritual matters4 ,part of his beneficent and ,divinely inspired mission was to inculcate in those early days the lesson popularly taught in modern times by the trite yet true proverb1 'prevention is better than cure'3 and to illustrate it on the ,israelites2 to shew that its scope is not only of private but of national1 nay racial1 import2 and applicable not only to his day1 but all-time3 although grievously neglected in past ages even by medical men4 ,from its #cji ,biblical study does not medical science thereby appear in a new light1 and come in the garb of one of the most incontrovertible aids to human faith in the veracity of ,holy ,writ2 the truth of ,scripture as the inspired word of the ,almighty2 ,god's medical message to ,man1 sent in ,his own method1 at ,his own time1 and by servants of ,his own choosing8 ,the ,sinaitic or so-called ',mosaic' code and its hygienic sub-code1 more ancient by five or six hundred years than ,esculapius and the earliest human medical records1 was not written and interpolated by any modern or medieval medical sage1 but is as ,moses says1 an emanation of his era4 ,and yet1 as he himself affirms1 it was not his conception1 but strictly and entirely ,divine in elaboration1 codification1 and delivery to humanity4 ,its true ,author and ,deviser was ,jehovah1 and ,moses merely its earthly recipient1 editor and human expounder and applier4 ,for this most important educational information we are indebted to ,god's ,holy ,bible1 and to that alone4 ,what was the supernal object of the ,code8 ,it was humanitarian and tuitional4 ,the ,english physician discusses the origin of this code of laws and traces it to divine interposition3 ,viewed apart from its source1 the ,hebrew ,health ,code is an anachronism4 ,and it must be evident that ,moses was not a semi-barbarous ,jew1 but either a secularly scientific or an inspired man4 ,and if we cannot accept the former hypothesis1 and think it unlikely that imparted information and unaided intellect could have originated this consummate production2 then we must avow the latter conviction1 that he was truly 'a man of ,god4' ,but was the sanitary code that goes by his name1 or styled the ',sinaitic'1 his conception or not8 ,this #caj question ,moses himself answers indirectly and often2 and takes no credit for but disclaims it4 ,assuredly ,moses was not only a man of science and the foremost sanitarian of his own or any other age2 but also a man gifted by his ,maker with the faculty to discover and appreciate not only the great fundamental facts and elements1 but also many of the more important minutiae of private1 public1 and national sanitation4 ,still he takes no credit for the sanitary utterances of the ,pentateuch or even says or hints at their being partly1 chiefly or wholly self-generated2 and his own unaided creation2 or that we are purely indebted for them to the genius of their practical expounder4 ,over and over again he insists and reiterates that they are solely heaven-sent and of ,divine origin4 ,nay1 more1 what he says appears to suggest that his sanitary code was a premeditated and authoritative emanation1 which in its elaboration probably occupied more years than any work that has since been handed down to posterity4 ,in early times medical treatises were more slowly elaborated than now2 and swayed only by the double patriotism of zeal for his ,master and loyalty to his people1 ,moses had no need to give hasty and incomplete work to the world4 ,in the desert he would have ample time to write his book of the law and the early story of ,man and the ,earth leisurely4 ,from the ,holy ,bible alone we glean the great base facts about the ,mosaic ,law and its ,hygienic portion4 ,here we learn1 and by ,moses' own handwriting1 that he was not their author1 but ,jehovah ,himself2 that ,moses only gave or wrote the law as averred by the ,saviour 7,john1 vii4 #ai72 therefore1 that it is ,divine and inspired4 ,moses was merely its earthly recipient and transcriber and applicant4 ,this great fact practically #caa attested by over two millions of ,hebrews1 who heard the ,voice of ,god delivering the ,decalogue at ,sinai1 materially enhances the value of the bequest1 as its supernal nature and origin attests its truth and infallibility4 ,this great honour reserved for ,moses1 and the culminating fact in his earth history1 stamps his character and place in history4 ,taught by the ,divinity as no other man has yet been1 ,moses thus became ,earth's greatest sanitarian and the ,deity's ambassador and mouthpiece to ,man in sanitary as in many other matters4 ,what ,moses wrote was revealed4 ,he penned as he was inspired and wrote what ,jehovah dictated in the ,holy of ,holies4 ,moses himself attests this1 and thus wholly disclaims the authorship4 ,chapter after chapter begins thus1 ',and the ,lord said' 7,leviticus1 xvii74 ,and thus the ,hebrew leader and sage1 as has been recorded by his successor ,joshua1 himself 'full of the spirit of wisdom' 7,deuteronomy1 xxxiv4 #i71 fully deserves this record1 'there arose not a prophet since in ,israel like unto ,moses whom the ,lord knew face to face' 7,deuteronomy1 xxxiv4 #aj-aa74 ,the distinction between the meats allowed to the ,hebrews and those not allowed remains down to the present day an extremely valuable canon of preventive medicine4 ,the carnivorous animals were not to be eaten and were declared unclean4 ,they are1 as modern science has abundantly shown1 much more likely to be the subject of parasites of various kinds than are the herbivorous animals4 ,any animal that died of itself or had been torn by beasts was not to be eaten1 and this was an extremely wise provision1 for those that had died were very likely to be the subject of serious disease1 while those torn by wild animals1 if they did not perish at once were likely to have pyemia or septicemia set in in their wounds1 #cab while if they had been killed at once and their bodies had been exposed for any length of time in the open air1 they were likely to become the subject of serious putrefactive changes from the growth of bacteria in them4 ,any of these processes were likely to make the meat toxic1 and the one safeguard was prohibition of their consumption4 ,the ,hebrews were not allowed to take the blood of animals1 hence the necessity for having cattle butchered in their own way so that it might be kosher1 and it is interesting to realize that this prohibition probably meant much for the prevention of disease4 ,meat that is well drained of blood keeps longer than that which contains the tissue fluids1 and it has come to be felt that the protection of the ,hebrews to a considerable extent against tuberculosis1 so that their death rate from this disease is much lower than that of other races living under similar circumstances1 is perhaps due to their abstinence from blood according to their law4 ,they were forbidden to eat many of the fats1 and this was hygienic in general1 for the fat is a sluggish tissue and may contain parasites2 but above all this was important for preventing the ,hebrews from eating such an amount of fat as would make them obese and sluggish4 ,the orthodox ,jews of the present time who fail to keep this prohibition as to fat are weighted down with a load of surplus fatty tissue that takes away from their activity and shortens their lives4 ,obesity has certain relations directly with diabetes which also makes this fat prohibition of significance1 and as the ,jew is probably more subject to diabetes than most of those living in similar circumstances there is here another index of the value of this ,mosaic law which prevented pathological tendencies of several kinds that now make themselves manifest4 #cac ,the greatest weight was placed upon keeping food materials covered from the air1 and the use of liquids kept in vessels that were uncovered is forbidden1 as is likewise the eating of fruit with open moist cracks4 ,it has often been said in modern times that the paring of fruits1 when unbroken1 constitutes the best possible safeguard against spoiling1 and many have the feeling that this fact was discovered or its significance properly recognized only since we have been studying fermentation and putrefaction4 ,it was known long ago1 however4 ,it was recognized also that food materials should not be handled except with the greatest precautions and that those who prepared them should practice careful cleansing4 ,these regulations undoubtedly had much to do with the prevention of the spread of the infectious diseases4 ,we have learned in recent years that cooks have had much to do with the spread of the intestinal infections1 and we now recognize the need of the meticulous precautions on which ,moses insisted4 ,the place of the hands in conveying disease was emphasized very much1 as for instance by ,jewish writers who insisted on the rule that coins should never be placed in the mouth because they had been handled by so many people4 ,we have now come to appreciate this thoroughly1 after having suspected for some time that the hands have more to do with the conveyance of contagion in many diseases than almost any other factor4 ,a series of experiments made upon young sailors in the ,united ,states service after the ,armistice was signed and when the flu was at its height demonstrated almost beyond doubt that influenza cannot be conveyed by breathing or coughing into the faces of others1 nor in any way through the air4 ,most army surgeons came to the #cad conclusion1 therefore1 that the mode of conveyance of the disease was by the hands1 which in handling food and in touching the mouth and nose transmitted infectious material which had been gathered in various ways4 ,it is interesting then to realize that the ,jewish law insisted on careful cleansing of the hands before eating and on not touching the mouth or nose before the hands were washed in the morning1 and that the ,talmudic writings emphasized these regulations as regards the cleansing of the hands4 ,they required that the finger nails1 when pared1 should be burnt4 ,some of the ,talmudists suggested that if water could not be obtained gloves should be worn while eating1 which would recall the use of surgical gloves in modern times1 for the surgeons learned long since that the hands were by far the most dangerous media for the transmission of infection4 ,some years ago ,sir ,benjamin ,ward ,richardson1 one of the most distinguished of the ,english physicians of the latter half of the nineteenth century1 pointed out that the records showed a very marked difference in the health and death rate of the ,jews living in various cities of ,great ,britain as compared to their ,gentile neighbors1 and always in favor of the ,jews4 ,other statistics gathered later in the nineteenth century and at the beginning of the twentieth emphasize the fact that there is manifestly something which enables the ,jew to resist disease and maintain health under circumstances where the people around him suffer much more severely than he does4 ,for instance1 in ,manchester the average annual death rate for three years in the two ,jewish districts was over eight in one and over nine in the other below the death rate per thousand of the whole city4 ,the two ,jewish districts are among the worst slums of ,manchester1 yet #cae not only do they exhibit a much lower death rate1 but the morbidity statistics show that there is less sickness among the ,jews from all the serious infectious diseases than among the ,gentiles4 ,they had a higher morbidity rate than all the other parts of the city for erysipelas1 pyemia1 and puerperal fever1 showing that they were subjected to the influence of dirt and septic contagion1 but in everything else they were much lower in the sickness rate than their neighbors4 ,they had only about one half as many premature births1 their children suffered from only half as many convulsions and scarcely more than half as much from diarrhea and dysentery4 ,the children in the ,jewish districts proved to be particularly capable of resisting disease and their death rate is distinctly lower4 ,the diarrheic diseases of childhood are practically all due to improper feeding1 and the saving of children's lives in the unsanitary ,jewish districts where poverty stalks abroad so openly is due to the more healthy feeding of the infants1 but above all to the mother's very careful care of them4 ,the ,jewish mother is1 by age-long tradition1 an absolutely unselfish caretaker of her children4 ,when they are ailing her devotion is constant1 and nothing is too much for her to do4 ,no wonder that she saves more of her children than the ,gentile mothers around her4 ,it is because of the presence of the ,jewish mothers in ,new ,york and ,boston that our ,boards of ,health have come upon the startling discovery that the foreign-born mother in this country raises one in seven more of her children than does the native-born mother4 ,the reason1 of course1 for this is maternal devotion and readiness to sacrifice herself in any and every way for the sake of her children4 ,at least twice as many of these foreign mothers--and among #caf these of course every orthodox ,jewish mother who can possibly do it--nurse their children1 and that is by far the most important factor in securing the survival of children beyond the first year4 ,the ,jews have been particularly careful for the lives of their infant children both before and after birth4 ,it is considered a disgrace for a ,jewish mother to have a premature birth1 for it is felt that some blame attaches to the mother4 ,as for the prevalent practice of abortion1 there is almost none of it among the poor ,jewish populations1 and none at all until their orthodox ,jewry begins to break down under the influence of contact with their ,gentile neighbors4 ,human life is a very sacred thing to the orthodox ,jew1 and no matter how small or insignificant that life may be it has all the qualities of humanity for him and appeals to his protection4 ,the solicitude of the ,jewish mother for her children has been the subject of poet and painter all down the ages and is to be found as well developed and as strikingly manifest in the slums of the large cities of the west where it is so extremely difficult of exercise as it was in the ,jewish towns of the olden time4 ,in ,leeds1 toward the end of the nineteenth century1 there were some fifteen thousand ,jews1 the great majority of them belonging to the very poorest class4 ,most of them lived in the central ward of the city4 ,as pointed out by ,doctor ,porritt in ,religion and ,health1 that ward1 one of the most squalid in ,leeds1 had a death rate lower than that of the whole city1 the statistical records for which show all the advantages derived from the healthier or better class districts4 ,in ,london itself1 in ,whitechapel and ,mile ,end1 which were principally occupied by ,jews1 the death rates were only #ah4e and #ai4c per thousand of population1 while in #cag the neighboring districts of ,limehouse and ,st4 ,george1 where there were many fewer ,jews--,limehouse being practically without them--the death rates were respectively #bc and #bd4f per thousand4 ,there was distinctly less morbidity from the infectious diseases in the ,jewish districts1 there being actually more than one fourth more in ,limehouse than in ,mile ,end on the average1 and the infantile death rates were much lower among the ,jews in spite of the fact that most of them were immigrants who had led very hard and anxious lives before settling in ,london and since coming had to work under unwonted1 exceedingly unsanitary conditions1 in a climate to which they were not as yet accustomed4 ,in other countries besides ,england the mortality and morbidity statistics favor the ,jew even more strikingly than in ,england4 ,in ,frankfurt 7on ,main71 as pointed out by ,sir ,benjamin ,ward ,richardson1 where the influence of the ,jewish ghetto still made itself felt about the middle of the nineteenth century and ,jews were herded together under restricted regulations that would seem inevitably prone to hurt their health1 they had as a matter of fact ever so much better health than the ,gentiles around them4 ,the average duration of life among the ,jews was forty-eight years and nine months4 ,among all other classes it was thirty-six years and eleven months4 ,more than half of the ,jews reached fifty years of age1 while scarcely more than one third of the other classes lived up to that4 ,during the first five years of life ,jewish children died at the rate of about thirteen per cent while ,gentile children died at the rate of a little more than twenty-four per cent4 ,one fourth of the ,jewish population attained the age of seventy2 one fourth of the rest of the inhabitants lived to be less than sixty4 #cah ,in ,furth the tenacity of life among the ,jews could be noted at all ages4 ,of the ,jewish children from one to five years ten per cent died1 but among the rest of the population the infant mortality of the same age was fourteen per cent4 ,at every stage of life ,jewish mortality was lower until past the age of sixty1 when1 owing to the greater number of ,jews who reached advanced age1 the ratio was inverted4 ,the number of ,jews who lived to be above eighty and even ninety is strikingly larger than among the ,gentiles4 ,in ,prussia1 ,legoit found that the average life of the ,jew is greater than that of the ,gentile by at least five years4 ,the mortality among the population of the whole kingdom was a little over two and one half per hundred1 while among the ,jews it was only one and one half per hundred4 ,the population in ,prussia is increasing annually at the rate of one and one third per hundred among non-,jews1 but at the rate of nearly one and three fourths among the ,jews4 ,the ordinary population requires fifty-one years to double itself1 but the ,jews require only forty-one and a half years for the same progression4 ,sir ,benjamin ,ward ,richardson1 by a comparison of the ages of two thousand five hundred ,jews buried in ,london in three years with the mortality of the whole population of ,london at different ages1 found that under five years of age forty-four ,jews died to forty-five non-,jews2 from thirty-five to forty-five years of age1 five ,jews died to every eight non-,jews2 and it was not until the age of eighty-five was reached that the ratio was reversed and two ,jews were buried to every one non-,jew1 there being considerably more than twice as many non-,jews alive at that age to supply the bodies for the burial4 #cai ,,chapter ,,xix ,,health ,,and ,,religion ,footnote #ah ,footnote #ah3 ,the suggestion for this chapter came from ,reverend ,william ,j4 ,lockington's little book on ,bodily ,health and ,spiritual ,vigour1 ,longmans1 ,green and ,co41 ,london1 ,new ,york1 ,bombay and ,calcutta1 #aiad4 ,religion1 as we have seen in the course of this book1 does very much for health1 but according to the great principle of nature1 reaction is equal to action in compensation and health undoubtedly also accomplishes very much for religion4 ,indeed there are a great many troubles commonly presumed to be of the spirit and a great many supposed disturbances of the spiritual life that are really only manifestations of ill health of one kind or another1 or at least of some hampering of bodily function reflected in the mind4 ,this has always been recognized by all the great authorities in the spiritual life1 and none have insisted more than the writers even of the highest mystical theology on the necessity for taking proper care of the body if the spirit is to be free for religious life4 ,desolation1 that is that feeling of utter dissatisfaction with religious exercises and difficulty in continuing them of which so much is said in spiritual literature1 is very often nothing more than dyspepsia4 ,what is familiarly called the blues or the blue devils1 that is the state of depression in which nothing seems hopeful and the future seems very blank indeed1 is a common experience among mankind generally and is very often dependent on #cbj some disturbance of the digestive tract4 ,there is a well-known expression in ,english according to which the answer to the question ,is life worth living8 is ,that depends on the liver1 meaning not only the person that does the living1 but also that large organ in the right upper abdominal quadrant1 the largest1 heaviest organ in the body1 disturbances of which it is no wonder cause serious interference with a number of the functions of both mind and body4 ,many a long-faced person indeed who thinks himself pious is only bilious1 and many a sad-eyed visionary who is quite ready to proclaim himself religious is only what the ancients called atrabilious and needs some liver regulator as badly as ever ,horace thought he needed hellebore in the spring4 ,there are a good many traits of disposition or habits of life often supposed to be dependent on the state of the spirit that are really only symptoms of bodily indisposition4 ,many a fit of temper is consequent upon the condition of the digestive organs rather than the state of the soul4 ,suspicion and jealousy are not infrequently not so much vices as unfortunate feelings exaggerated out of all reason by some disturbance of health4 ,there are certain times in women's lives particularly when almost any feeling that comes to them is magnified and takes on a significance quite beyond the reality4 ,physicians constantly have to remind their women patients to wait a few days and not let their inhibited feelings run away with them as they are so prone to do at certain periods4 ,not a little of the irritability of life and especially the exaggerated response to minor irritations is due to insufficient oxygenation of tissues because the individual concerned is not getting out into the air sufficiently4 ,at the end of a number of hours of mental work indoors1 #cba especially in a stuffy atmosphere1 most people are inclined to be irritable4 ,if instead of going out into the fresh air and staying out for some time when they get the chance1 they think that they feel too tired for the effort which that involves1 and prefer to rest in a comfortable chair or perhaps lying down1 their irritability will often not be lessened but sometimes will even be heightened4 ,on the other hand1 if they get out into the brisk1 bracing cold air of the winter time particularly1 they come back with their irritability thoroughly dissipated as a rule and ready to go on with other work almost without a sense of weariness4 ,probably nothing makes a man say his night prayers more unsatisfactorily and with less devotion than to sit down in a nice comfortable chair after a rather heavy evening meal and smoke and read the paper or perhaps a magazine until he goes to sleep4 ,he wakes up feeling all out of sorts1 while if he played a game of cards with friends he would feel fine at the end of the evening and be ready to thank the ,lord for another day and for the prospect of a good night's rest for the work ahead4 ,above all1 people who are living healthy1 outdoor lives are much more prone to take a happy view of life1 to see the bright side of things and to radiate good will and sunshine than those who are overmuch in the house4 ,the cheerful givers whom the ,lord loves come especially from among these4 ,a great many of the people who want to pour out their ills perennially1 because they like to indulge their self-pity by rolling the delectable morsels of their sufferings under their tongues1 and who go around seeking consolation and sympathy whenever they are in even slight trouble are indoor people4 ,they occur especially among those who spend a good deal of #cbb time sitting down and not exercising their bodies enough4 ,the good old rule ora et labora is an extremely valuable precept1 not only for the next world but also for this4 ,pray and labor1 but be sure that labor gets a fair share of the time and be sure that the body has enough exercise to keep it going and to keep its functions in good condition1 otherwise the prayer will be disturbed and life will be far from happy4 ,happiness comes to those who are healthily tired every day4 ,long ago ,dooley said in one of those wise sayings of his which made even the ,london ,times declare that the wisest man that was writing ,english in our day wrote under the name of ,dooley in ,chicago1 that the one thing above all that made life worth living was to be tired enough at the end of every day so that one would sleep well every night4 ,without that life is indeed a burden4 ,the practice of hard work1 some of it physical1 is a very good rule for the physical as well as the spiritual life4 ,a hard-working man has little time to be grouchy and to throw wet blankets over the good that others are trying to do4 ,he is likely to be a lifter and not a leaner1 a doer and not a talker4 ,nothing keeps people from finding fault so well as having so much to do that they can scarcely find the time in which to do it all4 ,especially is this important for those who have to spend a good deal of time in each other's company1 and who must learn to bear with each other's faults and go on with their own work to the best of their ability4 ,it must not be forgotten that a great many of the faults of others are to be attributed rather to the state of their health than to their disposition1 and once this is rightly understood charity will readily help us to gloss them over or forgive them4 ,any one who makes his own faults the subject of excuse #cbc on the score of health1 when his health is something that by a little care he could improve1 is of course imposing on himself if he does it at all deliberately1 and he is trying to impose on good nature if he thinks that other people do not appreciate that his ill health is really an excuse and not a reason for his faults4 ,in the chapter on ,abstinence it is suggested that one of the best things that men and particularly women could practice to advantage from the standpoint of religious abstinence would be abstinence from excessive rest4 ,rest is one of the most dangerous remedies that we have1 nearly as dangerous as opium and with a definite tendency for a habit to be acquired by the system for it whenever it is indulged in to excess1 exactly as is true of the opiates4 ,if mortification of the spirit were to be practiced by abstinence from overrest and by a definite amount of exercise every day it would be an excellent thing for the religious as well as the physical life4 ,this is one of the most frequent advices of those interested in the spiritual life as well as the bodily health for many generations4 ,what people need is to keep busy4 ,this is good for both their minds and their bodies4 ,it requires a great deal of mortification of the inclinations to keep at work and above all to take exercise voluntarily when one might sit around and enjoy the delightfully lazy feeling of doing nothing1 but that way lies serious disturbance of health4 ,the men who have been very hard workers1 especially from a sense of duty and not for mere selfish reasons1 taking a great deal of exercise and going to bed so thoroughly tired every night that they went to sleep as soon as their head touched the pillow1 have been long-lived as a rule1 unless they met with some accident or infection4 #cbd ,above all1 it is important for any one who wishes to retain his self-respect and keep from that sluggishness which is so fatal to the power to pray and to meditate not to permit his abdominal and flank muscles to become overstretched and to allow fat to accumulate within the abdomen until it is actually a burden4 ,there is almost no excuse for any one permitting his waist line to become larger in girth than his chest1 unless of course he happens to have some deformity that makes exercise very difficult or practically impossible4 ,to keep these muscles in good condition prevents slouchiness and makes the individual ever so much more ready for activity of any kind4 ,the only way that these muscles can be kept in tone to hold in the abdomen properly and keep the circulation within it in such vigor as will support the digestive tract so as to permit and encourage its proper activities is by exercising them4 ,this requires the performance of certain exercises every day4 ,stooping1 bending1 stretching1 all these must be practiced if the muscles are not to be allowed to degenerate4 ,there is no harder task than to keep up the custom of performing these exercises regularly a couple of times a day1 for though only from five to ten minutes is needed night and morning to maintain the muscles in condition or even to restore them when they have once begun to sag1 all sorts of excuses come in to prevent the regular practice of the exercises1 and it is the regularity above all that counts4 ,a man who keeps these muscles in good shape will be much readier for every sort of activity than if he allowed them to yield1 and one of the secrets of the army officers' power as the years go on so that1 quite contrary to the usual rule in life it is men well beyond sixty who make some of the greatest successes as leaders1 is because their #cbe regular training and discipline keep them from letting their muscles lose tone and their powers deteriorate4 ,the setting-up exercises of the army or navy indulged in for fifteen minutes a day--and this could be divided into two periods--would keep men in condition and prove at the same time a very salutary mortification and above all an exercise in self-control and persistent application to a good purpose that would constitute a magnificent factor for that training of the will that is so important for religion4 ,nerve irritation is oftener a function of insufficient exercise and air with overfeeding than of any other factor4 ,this same thing is true for suspicion and jealousy and envy and other of the supposed inner emotions of the soul4 ,they will disappear very often before the fresh air1 while they will be fostered by life indoors and by the coddling of ills by rest and high living generally4 ,the passions1 by which a great many people mean mainly the sexual feelings1 though of course they also include the tendency to overeat and especially to stimulate one's self to eating in various ways1 are all fostered by being much indoors and not getting enough fresh1 outdoor air and particularly cold air4 ,there are a great many people who seem to forget that air is absolutely the most important requisite for life1 and that when it is cold it takes heat away from the animal body and sets all the cell functions working at their best4 ,human beings are practically heat engines1 and we keep on manufacturing heat all the time4 ,as our temperature never rises except when we suffer from fever1 some outlet must be found for this heat1 and unless there is exposure to the air and especially air in motion that will carry heat away from us1 the heat is consumed in #cbf various large organs and almost invariably succeeds in making us quite miserable4 ,it is under these circumstances of sluggish indoor living particularly that irritability of all kinds is heightened and that the tendency to lack of self-control is most manifest4 ,it is a form of intoxication actually that comes over people and would remind us not a little of the intoxication that follows from smaller amounts of alcohol with the resultant lack of inhibition4 ,when people are much out in the air it is surprising what they can stand in the shape of injury without great suffering4 ,our young soldiers learned during the war that their outdoor life in camps and at the front made the slighter wounds appear almost as nothing to them and even the severer wounds caused them nothing like the pain which they had anticipated or which they actually would have caused if the soldiers continued to be in the same state of mind and body as regards the reaction to pain which had been true during their civilian days4 ,it requires much less courage to be heroic when one has been living the outdoor life and has been hardening muscles by exercise and plain food and not too much sleep than when one is living the indoor1 relaxed over-rested life4 ,that does not lessen the merit of what they did1 but helps to account for its development in just ordinary mortals and above all helps to explain why now they modestly prefer not to talk about it1 for to them it seems to have been just all in the day's work4 ,not infrequently oversensitiveness of disposition which resents even the slightest imputation and which is often prone to translate what was a mere conventional remark into a fancied insult is due to lack of sufficient outdoor air to keep the individual in good health4 ,on the other #cbg hand men and women who spend a good deal of time outside are capable of standing even severe insults without wincing under them and sometimes this rebounds greatly to the benefit of the cause for which they are working4 ,father ,lockington has dwelt on this in one of his chapters rather interestingly4 ,good health helps us to be patient and silent under insult and wrong1 when this makes for duty better done4 ,the souls for whom we labour are often unreasonable1 often ungrateful1 often crooked1 but the trained worker never hesitates4 ,strong and self-contained he moves serenely on2 no display of temper mars his work1 no hasty word is uttered1 however great the provocation4 ,like the missionary calmly wiping his face1 when spat upon in the ,japanese street1 or that ,little ,sister of the ,poor1 who1 struck across the face when begging food for her old people1 calmly answered1 ',that is for myself1 and ,i deserve it2 please now give me something for ,christ's poor1' such a worker sees only souls here below1 and ,christ above1 waiting for them4 ,a healthy body will keep the mind broad and even2 it has no place for brooding suspicion to lurk2 it will help the soul to take a wide view of life and prevent that narrowness of thought1 so fatal to work1 to which our life of continual introspection tends4 ,a great many of the vicious impulses in connection with suspicion and jealousy and envy may be traced to a lack of diversion in life4 ,there are some people who take no pains to organize existence in such a way that they have definite diversion at certain times4 ,every human being ought at some time on every ,sunday to decide that on certain days of the following week1 and above all on certain evenings1 he will do things in which he is #cbh particularly interested and which he can look forward to with pleasant anticipation4 ,those who can should arrange either to go to the theater1 or to a lecture in which they are interested1 or to visit friends whom they care to see1 or to go to a library and look up something that they have been wanting to find out about2 or1 if it is pleasant weather1 to go for a short excursion or a boat ride or something of that kind and they should make two or three appointments with themselves for definite occasions of recreation for the ensuing week4 ,as a rule all that is necessary for this is to make up one's mind to do it1 though there is a tendency on the part of a great many people just to let each evening be like every other evening and because of lack of sufficient interest they lose that variety which is the spice of life4 ,as a result existence becomes dreadfully monotonous1 and those who live such narrow lives become the subjects of all sorts of unfortunate suggestions with regard to those around them4 ,over and over again ,i have found that when women patients particularly were the subjects of various of these nervous irritabilities so that they were permitting themselves actually to be led into being deluded into various suspicions1 there was a prompt disappearance or significant minimization of these thoughts when diversions were properly introduced into their lives4 ,the founders of religious orders were very wise in this matter4 ,in all the religious orders the members are required by rule to spend a certain time in recreation1 that is in conversation and lighter occupation1 usually several times every day4 ,this must be spent in company with the others and the members of the house are not allowed to absent themselves without good reason4 ,young religious sometimes feel like resenting the rule requiring #cbi them to be present day after day at recreation as if it represented a waste of time1 but they learn later on in life how wise it is4 ,the various feast days of the ,church are celebrated in such a way that there is a definite diversion from the usual routine of life and then there are special indulgences at table and in the matter of spending time in the open and receiving visitors and other things of that kind which mean a very great deal in breaking the monotony of the religious life4 ,very often scruples are1 as we have pointed out in the chapter on ,nervous ,diseases1 only a manifestation of a nervous disposition sometimes on a hereditary1 but sometimes on an acquired basis4 ,the acquired basis is very often a lack of nutrition due to insufficient food1 for people who are underweight are much more subject to dreads and obsessions of all kinds than are those who are up to weight4 ,living on the will1 as it is called1 when one is underweight and does not eat very much1 certainly not sufficient to supply the energy for what has to be accomplished1 is a fruitful source of irritability of any and every kind4 ,it keeps people on edge1 that is in a condition of unstable equilibrium1 and almost anything that touches them has a tendency to put them into a state of disequilibrium4 ,bringing people up to normal health and especially up to normal weight is often the best possible means to lessen their tendencies to scruples and to various other manifestations supposed to be spiritual yet which represent only conditions and symptoms that are frequently seen in those who have no religion and no conscientious obligations with regard to anything4 ,it is surprising how often a sluggish state of the bowels proves to be seriously disturbing to the spiritual life4 #ccj ,people find it hard to pray without distraction or to meditate without getting sleepy1 and they are liable to think of themselves as perhaps being the object of very special attention on the part of certain evil spirits who make it their business to distract and obtund those who are trying to put themselves in communication with the ,most ,high1 when all that is really the matter is that they are absorbing certain materials which ought to be excreted promptly but which are being delayed in their intestinal tract longer than is good for the individual4 ,i am not one of those who believe that intestinal auto-toxemia is a very serious condition which produces dire results1 but ,i know very well that absorption in any quantity of residual materials from the intestinal tract that were meant to be excreted will produce langour and sluggishness4 ,the present fad among certain physicians for attributing a great many serious symptoms to intestinal auto-intoxication has no basis in physiological chemistry and represents only one of those exaggerations of a minor truth for which medicine is so famous4 ,the idea of self-poisoning1 which is all that auto-intoxication means1 is a very old one in medicine and the use of drastic purgatives such as calomel in large doses and the antimonial purges and then of blood letting represent the responses to this idea which doctors made in an older time4 ,we know that they did harm and those who would exaggerate the meaning of auto-intoxication in our time are likely to do just as much harm1 but there is no doubt at all that obstipation will make the majority of human beings uncomfortable and take away their initiative and keep them from being up to their best in mental and spiritual matters4 ,to use some of the greatly advertised remedies or modes of treatment which are suggested for #cca it1 however1 would probably do more harm than good4 ,there are a number of simple sensible methods of treatment by which the affection may be overcome4 ,above all the formation of good habits1 of taking an abundance of water1 of eating coarse food1 the peelings of baked potatoes and the parings of baked apples and an occasional orange with its peel1 and using marmalade rather freely as well as eating whole wheat bread will gradually overcome the condition4 ,the important thing is not to mistake the merely physical affection for a spiritual disturbance4 ,it requires persistence to form good habits and it is ever so much easier just to take something that will supposedly do the same good work while you sleep and are not bothered by the exertion of the will power necessary to form the habits that are required4 ,many a disturbance of health is due to sloth and laziness rather than to ignorance of what ought to be done or to any inherent tendency to ill in the body4 ,any number of people blame ,providence for ills which they have brought on themselves by neglect of their own health and the habits necessary to maintain it4 ,nothing so conduces to good health as the regularity of life without haste and without worry which the rational practice of religion brings in its train4 ,the attitude of mind that a trusting faith in the ,almighty fosters is particularly likely to prevent the neurotic symptoms and exaggerations of feelings which are responsible for so much of the modern suffering of mankind4 ,it makes the real pains and aches ever so much more bearable and eliminates those which to a great extent are imaginary4 ,the success of all sorts of curious therapeutic systems which prove after a time to be utterly without beneficial #ccb effect on the human body shows how much faith in anything may mean for health and restoration to health1 even in the midst of what is supposed to be rather serious illness1 and as men are bound to have faith in something and a living faith in a ,providence that somehow1 even though we may not be able to understand it1 cares for men1 drawing good even out of evil1 can accomplish an immense amount in making men less amenable to suffering even in this world4 ,it would be too bad to reduce religion merely to this status1 but this should be one of its benefits4 ,as the ,scriptures said1 ,for it is not a vain thing for you because it is your life1 and through this thing you shall prolong your days in the land4 #ccc ,,index #ccd #cce ,,index ,abernethy1 #afi ,abortion1 #caf ,abstinence from exercise1 #aad ,accommodation of the eye1 #bjd ,advent1 #aaa ,a,eschylus1 #bee ,agnosticism1 #cj ,aid1 mutual1 #ajf ,alcohol1 #bjg ,altruism1 #hb ,ampere1 #ae1 #ah1 #ch ,aneurysm1 #agc ,anthony1 ,st41 #bih ,antonius1 ,st41 #acj ,apoplexy1 #aaj 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#aej ,superstes1 #e ,swinburne1 #bbg ,sybarite1 #bfg ,sympathy1 #ef ,t ,tabrum1 #af ,taedium1 vitae1 #ff ,tait1 ,professor ,p4 ,g41 #ad ,talbot1 #ae ,talmudic writings1 #cad ,tangi1 #bbb ,taylor1 ,professor ,john ,w41 #bf ,temptation1 #ahi ,temptations1 sexual1 #aic ,theresa1 ,st41 #dj1 #ec1 #ahi1 #bbg1 #bbh #cda ,thistleton-,dyer1 ,sir ,w41 #hb ,thoreau1 #abg ,thucydides1 #afc1 #beh ,tracadie1 #ga ,trappist longevity1 #bii ,tuberculosis1 #cab ,u ,ulysses1 #agj ,undereating1 #aaj ,underwork1 #agb ,v ,vacation1 yearly1 #abj ,vaughan1 ,cardinal1 #dj ,venus1 #agc ,verdun1 #db ,vesalius1 #cg ,vincent de ,paul1 ,st41 #ah1 #ha1 #ajj ,vinci1 ,leonardo da1 #ci ,virtue1 #agh ,virtues1 cardinal1 #agg ,volta1 #ae1 #ba1 #ch ,von ,moltke1 #aga ,vulcan1 #agc ,w ,waist line1 #cbd ,wallace1 ,alfred ,russel1 #bad1 #bbd ,war and suicide1 #bhe ,war1 ,moral ,equivalent of1 #fh ,war neuroses1 #bdb ,ward1 ,mrs4 ,humphry1 #f ,watts1 #abb ,weight1 normal1 #cbi ,wells1 ,h4 ,g41 #fi1 #bff ,white1 ,andrew ,d41 #bij ,whittaker1 ,professor1 #fb ,whittington1 ,dick1 #ig ,wilde1 ,oscar1 #fd ,wilks1 ,sir ,samuel1 #bd ,will1 training of the1 #cbe ,windle1 ,sir ,bertram1 #fg ,wood1 ,sir ,evelyn1 #gj1 #aga ,woodhead1 ,professor ,sims1 #be ,work for idle hands1 #adc ,workers1 hard1 #cbc ,world1 flesh and devil1 #bja ,world invisible1 #bcc ,worry not work1 #bif ,z ,zone1 temperate1 and suicide1 #bhc ------------------------------ ,by the ,author of ,,religion and ,,health ,,health ,,through ,,will ,,power ,by ,,james ,j4 ,,walsh1 ,m4 ,d4 ,medical ,director of ,fordham ,university ,school of ,sociology #abmo4 ,cloth4 #bhh pages4 ----- ,the ,american ,public sorely needs the gospel of health that ,dr4 ,walsh preaches to it in his new book4 --,the ,pilot1 ,boston4 ,i do not wonder that your splendid book ',health ,through ,will ,power' has met with such great success4 ,i know that ,i could hardly leave the book out of my hands1 it was so interesting and instructive4 --,archbishop ,patrick ,j4 ,hayes1 of ,new ,york4 ',health ,through ,will ,power' is packed with medical wisdom translated into the vernacular of common sense4 --,the ,ave ,maria4 ,your book is capable of adding largely to happiness1 as well as health4 ,it is also wonderful1 spiritually4 ,i feel like recommending the book to everyone ,i know4 --,mgr4 ,m4 ,j4 ,lavelle1 of ,new ,york4 ,this book should find a place in every home1 as it will help to bring us back to a more natural manner of living4 --,the ,rosary ,magazine4 -------- ,,little1 ,,brown ,,co41 ,publishers #cd ,beacon ,street1 ,boston