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ARS VIVENDI (ART OF LIVING) |
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CHAPTER 6: MENTAL VIGOUR IN the present time, when increasing competition in business entails upon the majority a bitter struggle, not only for the comforts, but even the bare necessaries of life, it becomes a matter of supreme importance to ascertain if there is a method of acquiring mental vigour. Though it is true, in general, that physical health means vigour of mind, it is by no means the invariable rule, as numerous instances could be given of robust bodily health and decidedly weak mental power. Whilst mind and body exert a mutual influence one upon the other, either can be strong without the other. Real health, of course, includes the strong mind and the strong body -- the consciousness of mental and physical well-being; in short, equilibrium of forces concerned in the working of the organism. Nervous and mental affections are now very much on the increase. They form a class of maladies with which the ordinary medical treatment is all but powerless to deal. For the acquisition of mental vigour the chief thing necessary to understand is that we are dealing with laws as strict and inviolable as those relating to physical health. Mental vigour can be attained by conforming to the laws, and mental weakness can be reached by disobeying the laws. Of that fact there can be no more doubt than of any other natural fact. Of course, some attain to an eminence of intellectual greatness entirely out of the reach of the ordinary human being, but this admission does not invalidate the proposition that mental vigour, as well as bodily strength, can be attained by conforming to the laws. I suppose very few would care to deny this truth when put before them in an abstract way; but when it comes to actual life, very few indeed there are who do not constantly neglect or deny it, by flagrantly violating every law that conduces to vigour of mind. MENTAL EMOTION AFFECTS THE BODY It is not the actual amount of hard, solid mental work performed during the course of the day that causes the increase of nervous ailments so noticeable at the present time. The root of the evil is want of knowledge of the forces we are constantly dealing with. All mental emotion is so much expenditure of energy, and as mental and bodily energy is strictly proportioned to the capacity of each organism, it follows that every individual can only with safety spend a certain amount of force. This being the case, the part of wisdom is to confine the expenditure of energy to what is strictly necessary in the actual performance of work, and on no account to let any energy run to waste. I do not mean recreation and amusement as unnecessary expenditure of energy. Amusement is a necessity of life just as much as food. What I am referring to is the unconscious and totally unnecessary waste of energy caused by want of knowledge of the effect of mental emotion in maintaining or disturbing the equilibrium of health. And here let me insist upon the fact that the mind can originate certain states and feelings independently of the action of the body. While it is true, on the one hand, that a sluggish liver is a frequent cause of mental depression, it is equally true, on the other hand, that mental depression is often solely caused by ideas and emotions entirely independent of the action of the liver. The strongest physical man could be instantaneously killed by the force of an idea which he was unable to control. The explanation is the change in polarity -- a complete swinging of the needle of vitality from the positive pole of vigorous health to the extreme negative of death. Instantaneous effects of this kind are extremely rare; but between the two poles -- Life, the positive, and Death, the negative -- Health is continually oscillating, till it gradually points to the negative -- Decay, Weakness, and Death. Every state of mind can be classed as either positive or negative. Some mental emotions approximate more than others to the poles, and some to the equator of neutrality; but, regarded from the point of view of life, they can all be classed under the two poles, positive and negative. Viewed in this light, then, every mental emotion whatever can be regarded in itself either as preserving or as destroying vitality. Whether or not it succeeds in making its influence felt at the time being by the individual depends upon other considerations, such as intensity or duration of the feeling, amount of vital force to be worked upon, etc.; but, so far as the emotion is concerned, it either lowers and wastes, or preserves and increases vital force.
As a knowledge of this fact is of extreme importance to all who are
exposed to the trials and vicissitudes of life -- and from this category
who is exempt? -- I shall endeavour to make it as clear as possible by
grouping the principal mental emotions, feelings, or states under the
two heads -- Positive, or Life-preserving, and Negative, or
Life-destroying.
THE POSITIVE POLE OF LIFE COURAGE To define courage is rather a difficult task. But, everybody knows what it means, and most of all the person who hasn't got it. Why is it that man in every stage of development, savage or civilised, always admires courage and condemns its opposite, cowardice? To be branded as a coward has always been the greatest indignity heaped upon any creature, man or brute; while a spark of courage will cover a greater multitude of sins than the proverbial cloak of charity. The greatest ruffian will soften the memory of his crimes by the display of undaunted courage. This trait in human nature is not an accident of this or that time or country, but is as wide as the world itself. Is there a reason to account for it? And if there is, what is the explanation? It is as deep as life, as broad as the universe. Courage is the assertion of the fact that within Man is a Force superior to anything found in the external world, a Force which in essence is Infinite, unconquered, and unconquerable by anything opposed to it. The instinct of Man loves the assertion of this principle in any shape or form, ascending from the rudest feeling of brutish strife to the heights of moral and spiritual courage, which no odds can shake. No poet has depicted courage in a more exalted form than Byron. His heroes are immovable in their centrality. Conrad, bereft of his followers, loaded with chains, and at the absolute mercy of an inveterate foe who will spare no tortures --
Mercy from the God he had "abandoned in his youth" he will not beg in the hopelessness of the last hour.
Manfred resists the fiends to the last gasp, and his courage -- sublime thought -- compels them to disappear. The literature of all the nations teems with anecdotes and romances of courage, which, in reality, is the healthy state of man. In this attitude alone are we free to do what we can. Many fail in life entirely through want of courage. Appalled by the difficulty of the problem presented to them for solution, their mental and physical energies are rapidly exhausted, till at length they swell the ranks of invalids. Whatever the difficulties to be encountered, and whatever the obstacles to be surmounted, let the soul whisper "Courage" to the last; for the best use to which we can put anecdotes of courage is to "make our lives sublime" by displaying the same quality in whatever scale of life we are placed. DETERMINATION "A determined man, by his very attitude and the tone of his voice," said Emerson, "puts a stop to defeat, and begins to conquer." Determination consists in having a fixed object in view, a goal to which all our efforts are directed. The power for good of this attitude of mind is very seldom seen in the preservation of health, the cure of disease, and the prolongation of life. This, to a very large extent is accounted for by the fact that a strong mental impression has been made upon the human mind that the only way to cure disease is by taking physic. Any attempt to mitigate pain or cure disease in any other way than the orthodox dose of medicine has always elicited from the superior person a most unctuous smile. In consequence of this paralysing influence, even the most determined men, once they are laid on a bed of sickness, throw away the armour of determination, and expose themselves as helpless as babes to the attack of the disease, afraid even of expressing a resolution to recover. Numerous instances could be given of the effect of "Determination" in resisting the approach of death. Space will only permit the mention of the following, related to me by an Indian officer: -- A regiment was homeward bound from India. Near Aden a soldier was taken seriously ill, and the medical man expressed his conviction that he could not possibly last more than a day or two at the utmost. The poor soldier was made acquainted with his approaching end, but the wish to see his native land once more was so strong within him that he vowed he wouldn't die till he saw the old shores again. Day after way the struggle between life and death was kept on, in spite of the pronouncement of the medical man that he ought to have been dead a few hours after he was taken ill. At last came the welcome news that Plymouth was in sight. The dying man was taken on deck, and on seeing the sight he had longed for, a smile of satisfaction came over his face. He had attained his object, and in half an hour peacefully breathed his last. Life had been prolonged simply through the intense longing to see the old country, and, till this object was attained, the intense determination of the dying man kept the flame from spluttering out, by rallying round it every particle of energy, which, in a negative state, would have been scattered and extinguished. BELIEF, OR FAITH Perhaps no word in the English language has been so misinterpreted and abused as the word "Faith." In the various creeds Faith has been degraded to a caput mortuum of dogmatic teaching, which neither saved nor damned anybody but in the imagination of those who framed the creeds; whereas faith -- used in its real sense -- is that condition of mind essential not only to "salvation," but to the performance of any act whatsoever. Without faith I could not take a single step, or write a single line. Faith is the very groundwork of our lives. It is a living force within man, not a dead make-believe in events which are recorded as having occurred in certain places and at certain times. Faith is a power, the manifestation of which lifts man to inconceivable heights of might and grandeur, and the absence of which renders him a helpless molecular mass. "He that believeth not shall be damned." "I don't believe it," says the sceptic. But, all the same, it is true that he who does not believe, not only shall be damned, but is already damned by the negative state of mind he is in -- damned much more effectually than he could be by the fire and brimstone of theology. "I bear within a torture that could nothing gain from thine." Faith is not blind, unreasoning credulity, but firm, unshaken confidence, based on knowledge. To give a practical illustration: -- Suppose a person has run down in health to such an extent that life is to him an intolerable burden. He has consulted doctor after doctor, tried remedy after remedy, and at last has reached the mental attitude of Prince Henry in "The Golden Legend": --
This is the negative pole of health, and the vital needle is pointing to the lowest degree -- Death. Now, let the invalid's confidence be roused, his hope awakened, by a superior individuality who understands the method of Nature's cure, and has the power to communicate to the depressed mind a strong belief in the possibility of restoration, and the "Elixir of Life" is instantaneously quaffed.
This change of polarity, when completely and instantaneously effected in the organism, is the secret of the various miraculous cures, no matter in what age or in what country. It should be borne in mind, however, that faith is not merely an instantaneous change in the mental condition, and thereby a capacity of working sudden miracles or wonders; it is more than that, it is an unswerving confidence in the natural method of healing by a recourse to the ordinary means of Water, Air, Exercise, Diet, etc. In the majority of cases -- as, e.g., in consumption -- it would be impossible for faith to work an instantaneous cure, but when with patience and perseverance it employs the right means, the result will be far more efficacious than a sudden change, though the process may be tedious compared with a miracle. For the radical cure of a long-standing affection, which is sure to have wrought certain structural changes in the various organs and members of the body, faith is indispensable on the part of both healer and patient. Without it, little or no progress will be effected. The reason why many a fine hydropathic establishment has languished, and finally degenerated to the level of the boarding-house, is that this force is wanting, and nothing can adequately make up for the deficiency. Priessnitz was the born healer of men, whose very presence worked wonders by restoring confidence and hope to the despairing patient. CHEERFULNESS This is a state of mind which everybody knows by experience to be conducive to mental and bodily vigour. The nervous and circulatory systems, under its mild and genial influence, feel perennially the balmy and invigorating air of spring. It is a kind of domesticated courage meeting the petty cares and annoyances of daily life with an unbroken front, neither elated in prosperity nor depressed in adversity. JOY The influence of joy is much more powerful than cheerfulness. In fact, wherever cheerfulness is habitual, joy, at least in its violent form, very seldom has an opportunity of manifesting itself. It is in chronic cases of long-standing grief or pain that a sudden joy at unexpectedly seeing a dear friend or near relative is able to demonstrate its healing and strengthening influence. An amusing instance is related of the crew of the "Centurion," the flag-ship of Lord Anson. Very many sailors were laid down with the scurvy, when the joyful news went round the berths that a rich prize had come in sight in the shape of a large Spanish galleon. This unexpected piece of good luck acted like magic on the scurvy, and the prostrated sailors sprang out of their berths and manned the guns. DESIRE "As long as there is life there is hope." The desire of life is a powerful incentive to live, and once the desire to live has been extinguished in the invalid, nothing will cure short of rekindling the spark. What a spur to vigorous activity is the desire for wealth and fame! It concentrates the individual's energies into a burning focus which illumines the path to be trodden. And so of the desire for life. In almost every instance of a long or painful malady the patient becomes perforce resigned to his condition, and, to a large extent, loses the strong desire to get well. This is very marked in those who have led a life of misery or poverty, and those who, though in affluence, have drained the cup of sorrow to the dregs. To awaken in such the desire for life would be, alas! but a bootless and a thankless task. THE NEGATIVE POLE FEAR Fear is the contrary of courage. Just as the latter is the object of universal admiration, so is the former the object of universal detestation, scorn, and ridicule. "Beware of Fear; Fear is the deadliest enemy to knowledge." So says Wisdom to the candidate for initiation into the mysteries of Truth. Courage is the soul's conviction that man is infinite; fear is the denial of this, and the belief that man is but a worm to be trodden upon by a malignant Fate. Fear is the principle called "Evil," and when this principle or idea becomes incarnate in a form suitable for the imagination to grasp, then arise terrible spectres of evil spirits, varying in names and attributes according to the development of the mind. To free himself finally and for ever from the bonds of fear is the end for which man is working. It is a difficult struggle, and we are apt to halloo long before we are out of the wood. To find an absolutely fearless man is the rarest of rarities. Emerson has a passage in his "Essay on Character" as follows: --
To show what effect Fear has upon the bodily functions, I will take the following from Hufeland's "Art of Prolonging Life": --
In every instance an invalid is more or less under the influence of fear, especially if he is laid down with an epidemic or an acute disease. From the above description of the effect produced by fear upon the body it will be seen how serious a state this is for the sick person, who is conquered by himself long before the disease has assumed the mastery. Every nation delights in anecdotes and fables designed to illustrate the pernicious effect of fear. An Arab fable says that one day a traveller met the Plague going to Cairo, and asked what was the object of the visit. "To kill three thousand people." rejoined the Plague. Some time afterwards the traveller met the Plague on its return journey, and complained that thirty thousand has been killed. "I am not responsible for that," protested the Plague, "I only killed three thousand. The other twenty-seven thousand died of fright at my arrival." A fitting counterpart to the above fable is given by Goethe, who says that Napoleon visited those sick of the plague to show that the man who could vanquish fear could conquer the plague as well. "And he was right," adds the poet. "'Tis incredible what force the will has in such cases; it penetrates the body and puts it in a state of activity which repels all hurtful influences, whilst fear invites them." Fear makes the whole organism passive at a time when the utmost active resistance is called for. The fortress of life is often surrendered without a blow struck in its defence. An example in point is given in the annual London Necrology about 1714. A man named Britton was very fond of giving musical evenings to his friends. A wag thought it a good joke to bring into the company a ventriloquist, who, in a very solemn tone, forewarned the host of his impending dissolution. Britton was thunderstruck by such a mysterious communication from the ceiling, and so great was his fright that he died a few days afterwards. Examples such as these could be multiplied indefinitely, but no purpose would be served in a book of this kind, designed as it is to explain the principles of health and disease. If the elements of health are grasped by the reader he can very easily accumulate for himself facts to show their actual working in daily life. The best and, in fact, the only antidote to fear is knowledge. In proportion as man knows himself and his surroundings does he tend to master fear. This especially applies to bodily and mental health. Let man keep the law with intelligence and discretion, and he has little or nothing to fear from the attack of disease. MELANCHOLY This state of mind is the opposite to cheerfulness, and is as detrimental to organic well- being as the latter is beneficial. Though it often depends upon inactivity of the liver, still it is very frequently a settled mental habit, which, like all habits, requires an effort of will to overcome. There are people who always see a black cloud hovering over their heads, and are sorely disappointed if it does not burst and overwhelm them with its torrents. Such a mental state influences, of course, every organ of the body, and most of all the liver, the action of which, in purifying the blood, is hampered by the nervous force supplied from the nerve centres. GRIEF Grief is more intense and concentrated in its effect than melancholy. Its action on the hair is well known. Instances are on record where a night of grief has completely blanched the hair. The modus operandi in this process is a chemical change produced in the colouring matter of the hair. A sudden change of this kind is not frequent, but the gradual yearly change produced by grief in lowering and depressing organic force can be very often met with. To die of a broken heart is literally true. Step by step the outward signs are more and more visible -- the haggard eye, the sunken cheeks, the mouth drawn down, showing that the insidious poison is corroding the very vitals of life. WORRY This word has assumed an aspect of serious significance in the life of the modern world. The terrible competition in business circles calls forth every particle of available energy, and subjects every nerve and muscle to incessant strain. Add to this the lamentable waste of individual force caused through ignorance of the law, and we have a pitiable struggle to keep up position and to do more work than the organism is capable of. Business begins to get wrong, and when the greatest coolness, penetration, and mental vigour alone will set it right, the mind loses its "balance," and "worry" fastens its fatal grip on the individual. A man in this plight is an object of profound pity. The ordinary medical treatment, when it finds its drugs of no use, contents itself with advising not to worry. The patient groans, "That is much easier said than done," and goes on as before till he is wasted to a skeleton, and pines for the rest he cannot find in the body. Worry can only be overcome by learning the art of cultivating the will and disciplining the imagination. This will be taught in the succeeding chapters. If anybody thinks it will be too much trouble, I can only remind him of Schopenhauer's remark that it is much better to be controlled from within than from without. If you have not learnt the art of self-control, you are habitually exposing yourself to the control of pain, poverty, and disease. Which of the two do you prefer? PEEVISHNESS This is a condition which is absolutely unpardonable in any adult, male or female, for it is an incessant waste of force, and the more it is indulged the stronger it becomes. Hufeland refers to this state of mind as follows: "Certain habits or dispositions of mind not only deprive the body of its vital powers, but, as they incessantly sharpen the gall, they are continually preparing a secret poison, and, by the general irritation of the gall, increase in an extraordinary degree self-consumption. To these belongs that malignant disposition of mind known by the name of peevishness. Nothing can so much blast the bloom of life, shut up every access to pleasure and enjoyment, and change the beautiful stream of life into a stagnated puddle, as this disagreeable habit. I advise everyone who regards his life to fly from this deadly poison, and never to suffer it even to approach." ENNUI Every person ought to have some business or interest in life, for otherwise the feelings run astray. "The devil finds mischief for idle hands to do." There must be no "coddling" of any kind, bodily or mental, in the maintenance of health. Man was made to work. It is for this purpose health is given, and only on the condition that he does work can he retain health in its perfection. To do nothing is very hard work, and can only be done after years of mental growth -- and then only by the wise. The reason why ennui, or languor, kills so many people, directly by suicide, and indirectly by what is called dying naturally, is that this mental state destroys the cohesion, or concentration -- working round a centre -- which constitutes vigorous life. ANGER Anger can be viewed in two ways. An occasional angry fit rouses up the whole system of a lymphatic person to the performance of an achievement otherwise beyond his power. It is a substitute for the calm and resolute determination of the strong man. A violent and immoderate fit, on the other hand, brought on by a trifling cause, is very harmful, for it will arrest or modify the various organic secretions as suddenly as an electric shock, and actually make the bile as acrid and irritating as will a full dose of calomel, and the saliva as poisonous as will a mercurial salivation. A nursing mother, under the effect of furious anger, can change the milk in her breast to a deadly poison. DESPAIR In most cases despair of recovery is the beginning of death. It envelops the system like a cloud, preventing the various organs, especially the skin and lungs from carrying on their functional activity. PSYCHO-PHYSICS A fitting commentary on the above classification is furnished by the investigations which an American scientific man carried out in a field hitherto considered beyond the pale of exact science -- the influence of mental emotion upon the body. His researches show in a practical way the effect produced by various states of mind upon individual health. "Suppose half-a-dozen men in a room. One feels depressed, another remorseful, another ill-tempered, another jealous, another cheerful, another benevolent. It is a warm day, and they perspire. Samples of their perspiration are placed in the hands of the psycho-physicist. Under examination they reveal all those emotional conditions distinctly and unmistakably. Each unpleasant or bad emotion produces its own peculiar poison, which has an ill-effect upon the individual physically. Bad ideas and memories kill energy. Happy feelings create energy. Of all the chemical products of emotions, that of guilt is the worst. If a small quantity of the perspiration of a person suffering from feelings of that kind be placed in a glass tube, and exposed to contact with Selenic acid, it will turn pink. For each bad emotion there is a corresponding chemical change in the tissues of the body, which is life-depressing and poisonous, while every good emotion makes a life-promoting change." SUMMARY To summarise the present chapter, mental vigour is subject to the law of cause and effect. It is possible to increase and to weaken the power of the mind by indulging certain mental states. Starting from this point, the next step is to learn the art of controlling the mind, so as to avoid as much as possible the negative or life-destroying, and to acquire as much as possible the positive or life-preserving states of mind. The objection that such an achievement is beyond the powers of man is nullified by the simple fact that every person is, consciously or unconsciously striving to attain it. Life is a continual search after Power, and the human race is never tired of seeking.
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