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As a Matter of Course - Annie Payson Call · Memory, How to Develop, Train and Use It

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  Speaker 1: Preface and introduction of As a matter of course, this
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  Speaker 1: is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
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  Speaker 1: public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox dot org. As a matter of course, by any pasion,
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  Speaker 1: call preface and introduction preface. The aim of this book
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  Speaker 1: is to assist towards the removal of nervous irritants, which
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  Speaker 1: are not only the cause of much physical disease, but
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  Speaker 1: materially interfere with the best possibilities of usefulness and pleasure
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  Speaker 1: in every day life. Introduction. In climbing a mountain, if
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  Speaker 1: we know the path and take it as a matter
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  Speaker 1: of course, we are free to enjoy the beauties of
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  Speaker 1: the surrounding country. If in the same journey we set
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  Speaker 1: a stone in the way and recognize our ability to
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  Speaker 1: step over it, we do so at once, and save
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  Speaker 1: ourselves from tripping, or from useless waste of time and
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  Speaker 1: thought as to how we might best go round it.
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  Speaker 1: There are stones upon stones in everyday life which might
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  Speaker 1: be stepped over with perfect ease, but which curiously enough,
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  Speaker 1: are considered from all sides and then tripped upon, and
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  Speaker 1: the result is a stubbing of the moral toes and
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  Speaker 1: a consequent irritation of the nervous system. Or if semi
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  Speaker 1: occasionally one of these stones is stepped over as a
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  Speaker 1: matter of course, the danger is that attention is immediately
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  Speaker 1: called to the action by admiring friends or by the
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  Speaker 1: person himself in a way so to tickle the nervous
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  Speaker 1: system that it amounts to an irritation and causes him
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  Speaker 1: to trip over the next stone and finally tumble on
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  Speaker 1: his nose. Then, if he is not wise enough to
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  Speaker 1: pick himself up and walk on with the renewed ability
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  Speaker 1: of stepping over future stones, he remains on his nose
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  Speaker 1: far longer than is either necessary or advisable. These various
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  Speaker 1: stones in the way do more to wards keeping a
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  Speaker 1: nervous system in a chronic state of irritation than is imagined.
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  Speaker 1: They are what might perhaps be called the outside elements
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  Speaker 1: of life. These, once normally faced, cease to exist as impediments,
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  Speaker 1: dwindle away, and finally disappear altogether. Thus we are enabled
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  Speaker 1: to get nearer the kernel and have a growing realization
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  Speaker 1: of life itself. Civilization may give a man new freedom,
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  Speaker 1: a freedom beyond any power of description or conception, except
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  Speaker 1: to those who achieve it, or it may so bind
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  Speaker 1: him body and soul, that in moments when he recognizes
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  Speaker 1: his nervous contractions, he would willingly sell his hope of
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  Speaker 1: immortality to be a wild horse or tiger for the
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  Speaker 1: rest of his days. These stones in the way are
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  Speaker 1: the result of a perversion of civilization and the cause
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  Speaker 1: of much contraction and unnecessary suffering. There is the physical stone.
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  Speaker 1: If the health of the body were attended to as
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  Speaker 1: a matter of course, and its cleanliness is attended to
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  Speaker 1: by those of us who are more civilized, how much
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  Speaker 1: easier life might be. Indeed, the various trippings on and
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  Speaker 1: endeavors to encircle this physical stone raise many phantom stones,
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  Speaker 1: and the severity of the fall is just as great
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  Speaker 1: when one trips over a stone that is not there.
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  Speaker 1: Don Quixote was quite exhausted when he had been fighting
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  Speaker 1: the windmills. One recognizes over and over the truth spoken
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  Speaker 1: by the little girl, who, when reprimanded by her father
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  Speaker 1: for being fretful, said, it isn't me, Papa, it's that banana.
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  Speaker 1: There is also the over serious stone. And this, so
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  Speaker 1: far from being stepped over or any effort made to encircle.
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  Speaker 1: It is often raised to the undue dignity of a throne,
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  Speaker 1: and not rested upon. It seems to produce an inability
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  Speaker 1: for any sort of recreation, and a scorn of the
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  Speaker 1: necessity or the pleasure of being amused. Everyone will admit
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  Speaker 1: that recreation is one swing of life's pendulum, and in
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  Speaker 1: proportion to the swing in that direction will be the
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  Speaker 1: strength of the swing in the other direction, and vice versa.
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  Speaker 1: One kind of stone which is not the least among
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  Speaker 1: the self made impediments is the microscopic faculty which most
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  Speaker 1: of us possess for increasing small, inoffensive pebbles to good
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  Speaker 1: sized rocks. A quiet insistence on seeing these pebbles in
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  Speaker 1: their natural size would reduce them shortly to a pile
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  Speaker 1: of sand, which might easily be smoothed to a level
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  Speaker 1: and add to the comfort of the path. Moods are
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  Speaker 1: stones which not only may be stepped over, but kicked
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  Speaker 1: right out of the path with a good bold stroke,
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  Speaker 1: And the stones of intolerance may be replaced by an
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  Speaker 1: open sympathy, an ability to take the other's point of view,
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  Speaker 1: which will bring flowers in the path. Instead. In dealing
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  Speaker 1: with ourselves and others, there are stones innumerable if one
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  Speaker 1: chooses to regard them, and a steadily decreasing number as
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  Speaker 1: one steps over and ignores. In our relations with illness
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  Speaker 1: and poverty, so called the ghosts of stones multiply themselves
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  Speaker 1: as the illness or the poverty is allowed to be
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  Speaker 1: a limit rather than a guide. And there is nothing
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  Speaker 1: that exercises all such ghosts more truly than a free
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  Speaker 1: and open intercourse with little children. If we take this
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  Speaker 1: business of slipping over our various nerve stones as a
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  Speaker 1: matter of course, and not as a matter of sentiment,
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  Speaker 1: we get a powerful result, just as surely as we
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  Speaker 1: get powerful results in obedience to any other practical laws.
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  Speaker 1: In bygone generations, men used to fight and kill one
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  Speaker 1: another for the most trivial cause. As civilization increased, self
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  Speaker 1: control was magnified into a virtue, and the man who
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  Speaker 1: governed himself and allowed his neighbor to escape unslain was
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  Speaker 1: regarded as a hero. Subsequently, general slashing was found to
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  Speaker 1: be incompatible with the well ordered community, and forbearance in killing,
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  Speaker 1: or scratching, or any other unseemly manner of attacking an
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  Speaker 1: enemy was taken as a matter of course. Nowadays we
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  Speaker 1: do not know how often this old desire to kill
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  Speaker 1: is repressed, a brain impression of hatred thereby intensified, and
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  Speaker 1: a nervous irritation caused, which has its effect upon the
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  Speaker 1: entire disposition. It would hardly be feasible to return to
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  Speaker 1: the killing to save the irritation that follows repression. Civilization
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  Speaker 1: has taken us too far for that. But civilization does
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  Speaker 1: not necessarily mean repression. There are many refinements of barbarity
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  Speaker 1: in our civilization which might be dropped now, as the
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  Speaker 1: coarser expressions of such states were dropped by our ancestors
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  Speaker 1: to enable them to reach the present stage of knives
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  Speaker 1: and forks and napkins. And inasmuch as we are farther
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  Speaker 1: on the way towards a true civilization, our progress should
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  Speaker 1: be more rapid than that of our barbaric grandfathers. An
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  Speaker 1: increasingly accelerated progress has proved possible in scientific research and discovery,
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  Speaker 1: Why not then, in our practical dealings with ourselves and
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  Speaker 1: one another. Does it not seem likely that the various
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  Speaker 1: forms of nervous irritation, excitement, or disease may result as
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  Speaker 1: much from the repressed savage within us as from the
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  Speaker 1: complexity of civilization. The remedy is not to let the
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  Speaker 1: savage have its own way with many of us. Indeed,
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  Speaker 1: this would be difficult because of the generations of repression
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  Speaker 1: behind us. It is to cast his skin, so to speak,
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  Speaker 1: and rise to another order of living. Certainly, repression is
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  Speaker 1: only apparent progress. No good physician would allow it in
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  Speaker 1: bodily disease, and on careful observation, the law seems to
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  Speaker 1: hold good in other phases of life. There must be
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  Speaker 1: a practical way by which these stones, these survivals of
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  Speaker 1: barbaric times, may be stepped over and made finely to disappear.
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  Speaker 1: The first necessity is to take the practical way, and
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  Speaker 1: not the sentimental. Thus true sentiment is found, not lost.
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  Speaker 1: The second is to follow daily, even hourly, the process
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  Speaker 1: of stepping over until it comes to be indeed a
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  Speaker 1: matter of course, so little by little shall we emerge
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  Speaker 1: from this mass of abnormal, nervous irritation into what is
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  Speaker 1: more truly life itself. End of preface and introduction, recorded
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  Speaker 1: by Christine Rucker, December twenty ninth, twenty twe twenty five, Westford, Massachusetts.
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  Speaker 2: Section one of As a matter of course, this is
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  Speaker 2: a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: Read by Billinda mcgreynolds. As a matter of course by
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  Speaker 2: Annie Payson, call physical care, rest, fresh air, exercise, and nourishment.
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  Speaker 2: Enough of each, in proportion to the work done, are
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  Speaker 2: the material essentials to a healthy physique. Indeed, so simple
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  Speaker 2: is the whole process of physical care it would seem
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  Speaker 2: absurd to write about it at all. The only excuse
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  Speaker 2: for such writing is the constant disobedience to natural laws
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  Speaker 2: which has resulted from the useless complexity of our civilization.
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  Speaker 2: There is a crant, a physical order, which, if one
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  Speaker 2: once gets into, gives an instinct as to what to
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  Speaker 2: do and what to leave undone as true as the
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  Speaker 2: instinct which leads a man to wash his hands when
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  Speaker 2: they need it, and to wash them often enough so
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  Speaker 2: that they never remain soiled for any length of time,
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  Speaker 2: simply because that state is uncomfortable to their owner. Soap
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  Speaker 2: and water are not unpleasant to most of us. In
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  Speaker 2: their process of cleansing, we have to deny ourselves nothing
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  Speaker 2: through their use. To keep the digestion in order, it
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  Speaker 2: is often necessary to deny ourselves certain sensations of the
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  Speaker 2: palate which are pleasant at the time. So by a
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  Speaker 2: gradual process of not denying, we are swung out of
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  Speaker 2: the instinctive nourishment current, and life is complicated for us,
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  Speaker 2: either by an amount of thought as to what we
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  Speaker 2: should or should not eat, or by irritations which arise
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  Speaker 2: from having eaten the wrong food. It is not uncommon
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  Speaker 2: to find a mind taken off for some hours in
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  Speaker 2: wondering whether that last piece of cake will digest. We
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  Speaker 2: can easily see how from this there might be developed
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  Speaker 2: a nervous sensitiveness about eating, which would prevent the individual
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  Speaker 2: from eating even the food that is nourishing. This last
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  Speaker 2: is a not unusual form of dyspepsia, a dyspepsia which
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  Speaker 2: keeps itself alive on the patient's want of nourishment. Fortunately,
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  Speaker 2: the process of getting back into the true food current
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  Speaker 2: is not difficult if one will adopt it. The trouble
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  Speaker 2: is in making the bold plunge. If anything is eaten
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  Speaker 2: that is afterwards deemed to have been imprudent, let it disagree,
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  Speaker 2: Take the full consequences and bear them like a man
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  Speaker 2: with whatever remedies are found to lighten the painful result.
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  Speaker 2: Having made sure through bitter experience that a particular food disagrees,
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  Speaker 2: simply do not take it again and think nothing about it.
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  Speaker 2: It does not exist for you. A nervous resistance to
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  Speaker 2: any sort of indigestion prolongs the attack and leaves a
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  Speaker 2: brain impression which not only makes the same trouble more
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  Speaker 2: liable to recur, but increases the temptation to eat forbidden fruit.
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  Speaker 2: Of course, this is always preceded by a full persuasion
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  Speaker 2: that the food is not likely to disagree with us
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  Speaker 2: now simply because it did before, And to some extent
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  Speaker 2: this is true. Food that will bring pain and suffering
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  Speaker 2: when taken by a tired stomach, may prove entirely nourishing
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  Speaker 2: when the stomach is rested and ready for it. In
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  Speaker 2: that case, the owner of the stomach has learned once
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  Speaker 2: for all never to give his digestive apparatus work to
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  Speaker 2: do when it is tired. Send a warm drink as
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  Speaker 2: a messenger to say that food is coming later. Give
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  Speaker 2: yourself a little rest, and then eat your dinner. The
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  Speaker 2: fundamental laws of health in eating are very simple. Their
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  Speaker 2: variations for individual needs must be discovered by each for himself.
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  Speaker 2: But it may be objected, why make all this fuss,
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  Speaker 2: Why take so much thought about what I eat or
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  Speaker 2: what I do not eat? The special thought is simply
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  Speaker 2: to be taken at first to get into the normal habit,
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  Speaker 2: and as a means of forgetting our digestion. Just as
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  Speaker 2: we forget the washing of our hands until we are
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  Speaker 2: reminded by some discomfort, whereupon we wash them and forget again.
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  Speaker 2: Nature will not allow us to forget when we are
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  Speaker 2: not obeying her laws. She is constantly irritating us in
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  Speaker 2: one way or another. It is when we obey, and
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  Speaker 2: obey as a matter of course, that she shows herself
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  Speaker 2: to be a tender mother and helps us to a
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  Speaker 2: real companionship with her. Nothing is more amusing. Nothing could
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  Speaker 2: appeal more to Mother Nature's sense of humor than the
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  Speaker 2: various devices for exercise, which give us a complicated self
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  Speaker 2: consciousness rather than the natural development of our physical powers.
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  Speaker 2: Certain simple exercises are most useful, and if the weather
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  Speaker 2: is so inclement that they cannot be taken in the
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  Speaker 2: open air, it is good to have a well ventilated haull.
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  Speaker 2: Exercise with others too, is stimulating and more invigorating when
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  Speaker 2: there is air enough and to spare. But there is
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  Speaker 2: nothing that shows the subjective, self conscious state of this
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  Speaker 2: generation more than the subjective form which exercise takes instead
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  Speaker 2: of games and play, or a good vigorous walk in
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  Speaker 2: the country. There are endless varieties of physical culture, most
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  Speaker 2: of it good and helpful if taken as a means
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  Speaker 2: to an end, but almost useless as it is taken
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  Speaker 2: as an end in itself, for it draws the attention
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  Speaker 2: to one's self and one's own muscles in a way
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  Speaker 2: to make the owner serve the muscle, instead of the
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  Speaker 2: muscle being made to serve the owner. The more physical
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  Speaker 2: exercise can be simplified and made objective, the more it
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  Speaker 2: serves its end. To climb a high mountain is admirable
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  Speaker 2: ecs exercise, for we have the summit as an end,
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  Speaker 2: and the work of climbing is steadily objective, while we
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  Speaker 2: get the delicious effect of a freer circulation and all
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  Speaker 2: that it means. There might be similar exercises in gymnasiums,
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  Speaker 2: and there are indeed many exercises where some objective achievement
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  Speaker 2: is the end, and the training of a muscle follows
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  Speaker 2: As a matter of course, there is the exercise instinct.
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  Speaker 2: We all have it, the more perfectly as we obey it.
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  Speaker 2: If we have suffered from a series of disobediences, it
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  Speaker 2: is a comparatively easy process to work back into obedience.
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  Speaker 2: The fresh air instinct is abnormally developed with some of us,
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  Speaker 2: but only with some. The popular fear of drafts is
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  Speaker 2: one cause of its loss. The fear of a draft
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  Speaker 2: will cause a contraction. The contraction will interfere with the circulation,
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  Speaker 2: and a cold is a natural result. The effect of
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  Speaker 2: vitiated air is well known. The necessity not only for
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  Speaker 2: breathing fresh air when we are quiet, but for exercising
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  Speaker 2: in the open, grows upon us as we see the
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  Speaker 2: result to feel the need is to take the remedy.
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  Speaker 2: As a matter of course, the rest instinct is most
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  Speaker 2: generally disobeyed, most widely needed, and obedience to it would
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  Speaker 2: bring the most effective results. A RESTful state of mind
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  Speaker 2: and body prepares one for the best effects from exercise,
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  Speaker 2: fresh air, and nourishment. This instinct is the more disobeyed
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  Speaker 2: because with the need for rest there seems to come
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  Speaker 2: an inability to take it, So that not only is
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  Speaker 2: every impediment magnified, but imaginary impediments are erected, and only
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  Speaker 2: a decided and insistent use of the will in dropping
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  Speaker 2: everything that interferes, whether real or imaginary, will bring a
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  Speaker 2: whiff of a breeze from the true rest current. Rest
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  Speaker 2: is not always silence, but silence is always rest, and
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  Speaker 2: a real silence of the mind is known by very
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  Speaker 2: few having gained that or even approached it. We are
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  Speaker 2: taken by the rest wind itself, and it is strong
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  Speaker 2: enough to bear our full weight as it swings us
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  Speaker 2: along to renewed life and new strength for work to come.
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  Speaker 2: The secret is to turn to silence at the first
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  Speaker 2: hint from nature, and sleep should be the very essence
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  Speaker 2: of silence itself. All this would be very well if
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  Speaker 2: we were free to take the right amount of rest,
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  Speaker 2: fresh air, exercise, and nourishment, but many of us are not.
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  Speaker 2: It will not be difficult for any one to call
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  Speaker 2: to mind half a dozen persons who impede the good
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  Speaker 2: which might result from the use of these four necessities
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  Speaker 2: simply by complaining that they cannot have their full share
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  Speaker 2: of either. Indeed, some of us may find in ourselves
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  Speaker 2: various stones of this sort, stopping the way to take
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  Speaker 2: what we can and be thankful. Not only in enables
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  Speaker 2: us to gain more from every source of health, but
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  Speaker 2: opens the way for us to see clearly how to
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  Speaker 2: get more. This complaint, however, is less of an impediment
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  Speaker 2: than the whining and fussing which come from those who
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  Speaker 2: are free to take all four in abundance, and who
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  Speaker 2: have the necessity of their own especial physical health so
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  Speaker 2: much at heart that there is room to think of
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  Speaker 2: little else. These people crowd into the various schools of
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  Speaker 2: physical culture by the hundred pervade the rest cures, and
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  Speaker 2: are ready for any new physiological fad, which may arise
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  Speaker 2: with no result, but more physical culture, more rest cure,
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  Speaker 2: and more fads. Nay, there is sometimes one other result,
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  Speaker 2: disease that gives them something tangible to work for or
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  Speaker 2: to work about. But all their eating and breathing and
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: exercising and resting does not bring lasting vigorous health, simply
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  Speaker 2: because they work at it as an end of which
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  Speaker 2: self is the center and circumference. The sooner our health
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  Speaker 2: instinct is developed and then taken as a matter of course,
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  Speaker 2: the sooner can the body become a perfect servant to
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  Speaker 2: be treated with true courtesy, and then forgotten. Here is
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  Speaker 2: an instinct of our barbarous ancestry, which may be kept
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  Speaker 2: and refined through all future phases of civilization. This instinct
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  Speaker 2: is natural, and the obedience to it enables us to
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  Speaker 2: gain more rapidly in other higher instincts, which, if our
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  Speaker 2: ancestors had at all, were so embryonic as not to
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  Speaker 2: have attained expression, nourishment, fresh air, exercise, rest. So far
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: as these are not taken simply and in obedience to
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  Speaker 2: the natural instinct, there arise physical stones in the way,
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  Speaker 2: stones that form themselves into an apparently insurmountable wall. There
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  Speaker 2: is a style over that wall. However, if we will
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  Speaker 2: but open our eyes to see this style carefully climbed,
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  Speaker 2: will enable us to step over the few stones on
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  Speaker 2: the other side and follow the physical path quite clearly.
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  Speaker 2: End of Section one, Section two of As a matter
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: of course, this is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer,
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: please visit LibriVox dot org. Read by Belinda mcgreynolds. As
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: a matter of course, by any pasion call amusements the
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: ability to be easily and heartily amused brings a wholesome
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: reaction from intense thought or hard work of any kind,
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: which does more towards keeping the nervous system in a
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  Speaker 2: normal state than almost anything else of an external kind.
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  Speaker 2: As a Frenchman very aptly said, this is all very well,
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  Speaker 2: all this study and care to relieve one's nerves, But
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  Speaker 2: would it not be much simpler and more effective to
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  Speaker 2: go and amuse one's self. The same Frenchman could not
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: realize that in many countries amusement is almost a lost art.
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  Speaker 2: Fortunately it is not entirely lost, and the sooner it
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  Speaker 2: is regained, the nearer we shall be to health and happiness.
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: One of the chief impediments in the way of hearty
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: amusement is over seriousness. There should be two words for serious,
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: as there are literally two meanings. There is a certain
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: intense form of taking the care and responsibility of one's
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: own individual interests or the interests of others, which are
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: selfishly made one's own, which leads to a surface seriousness
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: that is not only a chronic irritation of the nervous system,
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: but a constant distress to those who come under this
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: serious care. This is taking life or grand serieux. The
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: superficiality of this attitude is striking and would be surprising.
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: Could the sufferer from such seriousness once see himself, or
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: more often, idious herself, in a clear light. It is
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: quite common to call such a person over serious, when
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: in reality he is not serious enough. He or she
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: is laboring under a sham seriousness as an actor might
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: who had such a part to play and merged himself
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: in the character. These people are simply exaggerating their own
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: importance to life, instead of recognizing life's importance to them.
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: An example of this is the heroine of missus Ward's
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: Robert Elsmere, who refused to marry because the family could
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: not get on without her, and when finally she consented,
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: the family lived more happily and comfortably than when she
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: considered herself their leader. If this woman's seriousness, which blinded
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: her judgment, had been real instead of sham, the state
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: of the case would have been quite her. But then
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: indeed there would have been no case at all. When
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: seriousness is real, it is never intrusive and can never
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: be overdone. It is simply a quiet, steady obedience to
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: recognize laws followed as a matter of course, which must
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: lead to a clearer appreciation of such laws and of
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: our own freedom in obeying them, Whereas with a sham seriousness,
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: we dwell upon the importance of our own relation to
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: the law and our own responsibility in forcing others to obey.
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: With the real it is the law first and then
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: my obedience. With a sham it is myself first, and
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: then the laws, and often a strained obedience to laws
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: of my own making. This sham seriousness, which is peculiarly
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: a New England trait but may also be found in
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: many other parts of the world, is often the perversion
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: of a strong, fine nature. It places many stones in
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: the way, most of them found nantoms which one stepped
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: over and then ignored. Brings to light and nature nobly
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: expansive and a source of joy to all who come
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: in contact with it. But so long as the seriousness lasts,
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: it is quite incompatible with any form of real amusement.
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: For the very essence of amusement is the child's spirit.
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: The child throws himself heartily and spontaneously into the game
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: or whatever it may be, and forgets that there is
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: anything else in the world. For the time being, children
• 24:33
  Speaker 2: have nothing else to remember, we have the advantage of
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: them there in the pleasure of forgetting, and in the
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: renewed strength with which we can return to our work
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: or care. In consequence, anyone who cannot play children's games
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: with children and with the same enjoyment that children have,
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: does not know the spirit of amusement. For this same
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: spirit must be taken into all forms of amusement, especially
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: those that are beyond the childish mind, to bring the
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: delicious reaction which nature is ever ready to bestow. This
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: is almost a self evident truth, and yet so confirmed
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: is man in his sham maturity, that it is quite
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: common to see one look with contempt and a sense
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: of superiority, which is ludicrous upon another who is enjoying
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: a child's game like a child. The trouble is that
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: many of us are so contracted in and oppressed by
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: our own self consciousness that open spontaneity is out of
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: the question, and even inconceivable. The sooner we shake it off,
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: the better. When the great philosopher said, except you become
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: as little children, he must have meant it all the
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: way through in spirit, if not in the letter. It
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: certainly is the common sense view. Whichever way we look
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: at it and proves as practical as walking upon one's feet.
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: With the spontaneity grows the ability to be amused, and
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: with that ability comes new power for better and really
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: serious work. To endeavor with all your might to win,
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: and then if you fail not to care, relieves the
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: game of an immense amount of unnecessary nervous strain. A
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: spirit of rivalry has so taken hold of us and
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: becomes such a large stone in the way that it
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: takes well nigh a reversal of all our ideas to
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: realize that this same spirit is quite compatible with a good,
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: healthy willingness that the other man should win if he
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: can not. From the goody, goody motive of wishing your
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: neighbor to beat, no neighbor would thank you for playing
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: with him in that spirit, but from a feeling that
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: you have gone in to beat. You have done your
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: best as far as you could see, and where you
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: have not, you have learned to do better. The fact
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: of beating is not of paramount importance. Each man should
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: have his chance, and from your opponent's point of view,
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: provided you were as severe on him as you knew
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: how to be at the time, it is well that
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: he won, you will see that it does not happen again.
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: Curious it is that the very men or women who
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: would scorn to play a child's game in a childlike
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: spirit will show the best known form of childish fretfulness
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: and sheer naughtiness in their way of taking a game
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: which is considered to be more on a level with
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: the adult mind, and so rasp their nerves and the
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: nerves of their opponents that recreation is simply out of
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: the question. Whilst one should certainly have the ability to
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: enjoy a child's game with a child and like a child,
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: that not only does not exclude the preference which many,
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: perhaps most of us, may have for more mature games,
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: it gives the power to play those games with a
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: freedom and ease which help to preserve a healthy nervous system. If, however,
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: amusement is taken for the sole purpose of preserving a
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: normal nervous system or for returning to health, it loses
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: its zest just in proportion. If, as is often the
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: cause case, one must force one's self to it at first,
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: the love of the fund will gradually come as one
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: ignores the first necessity of forcing, and the interest will
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: come sooner if a form of amusement is taken quite
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: opposite to the daily work, a form which will bring
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: new faculties and muscles into action. There is, of course
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: nothing that results in a more unpleasant state of onwi
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: than an excess of amusement. After a certain amount of
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: careless enjoyment, life comes to a deadly stupid standstill, or
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: the forms of amusement grow lower. In either case, the
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: effect upon the nervous system is worse even than overwork.
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: The variety in sources of amusement is endless, and the
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: ability to get amusement out of almost anything is delightful
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: as long as it is well balanced. After all, our
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: amusement depends upon the way in which we take our work,
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: and our work again depends upon the amusement They play
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: back and forth into one another's hands. The man or
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: the woman who cannot get the holiday's spirit, who cannot
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: enjoy pure fun for the sake of fun, who cannot
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: be at one with a little child, not only is
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: missing much in life that is clear happiness, but is
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: draining his nervous system and losing his better powerful work. Accordingly,
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: this anti amusement stone, once removed, the path before us
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: is entirely new and refreshing. The power to be amused
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: runs in nations. But each individual is in himself a nation,
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: and can govern himself as such. And if he has
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: any desire for the prosperity of his own kingdom, let
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: him order a public holiday at regular intervals, and see
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: that the people enjoy it. End of Section two.
• 29:55
  Speaker 3: Section three of As a matter of course, this is
• 29:59
  Speaker 3: a librevuk recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
• 30:04
  Speaker 3: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
• 30:10
  Speaker 3: Read by Cinda J. M. As a matter of course
• 30:13
  Speaker 3: by Annie Payson call chapter four brain impressions. The mere
• 30:20
  Speaker 3: idea of a brain clear from false impressions gives a
• 30:24
  Speaker 3: sense of freedom which is refreshing. In a comic journal
• 30:28
  Speaker 3: some years ago, there was a picture of a man
• 30:31
  Speaker 3: in a most self important attitude, with two common mortals
• 30:35
  Speaker 3: in the background gazing at him. What makes him stand
• 30:39
  Speaker 3: like that? Said one, because, answered the other, that is
• 30:44
  Speaker 3: his own idea of himself. The truth suggested in that
• 30:48
  Speaker 3: picture strikes one aghast, for in looking about us, we
• 30:52
  Speaker 3: see constant examples of attitudinizing in one's own idea of
• 30:57
  Speaker 3: one's self. There is sometimes a few feeling of fright
• 31:01
  Speaker 3: as to whether I am not quite as abnormal in
• 31:04
  Speaker 3: my idea of myself as are those about me. If
• 31:08
  Speaker 3: one could only get the relief of acknowledging ignorance of
• 31:12
  Speaker 3: one's self, light would be welcome. However, given in seeing
• 31:17
  Speaker 3: the truth of an unkind criticism, one could forget to
• 31:21
  Speaker 3: resent the spirit, and what an amount of nerve friction
• 31:25
  Speaker 3: might be saved. Imagine the surprise of a man who,
• 31:29
  Speaker 3: in return for a volley of abuse, should receive thanks
• 31:33
  Speaker 3: for light thrown upon a false attitude. Whatever we are
• 31:37
  Speaker 3: enabled to see relieves us of one mistaken brain impression,
• 31:42
  Speaker 3: which we can replace by something more agreeable. And if,
• 31:46
  Speaker 3: in the excitement of feeling the mistake was exaggerated, what
• 31:51
  Speaker 3: is that to us? All we wanted was to see
• 31:54
  Speaker 3: it in quality, as to degree that lessons in proportion
• 31:59
  Speaker 3: as the quality is bettered. Fortunately, in living our own
• 32:04
  Speaker 3: idea of ourselves, it is only ourselves we deceive, with
• 32:08
  Speaker 3: possible exceptions in the case of friends who are so
• 32:11
  Speaker 3: used to us or so over fond of us as
• 32:14
  Speaker 3: to lose the perspective. There is the idea of humility,
• 32:19
  Speaker 3: an obstinate belief that we know we are nothing at
• 32:22
  Speaker 3: all and deserve no credit, which literally translated means we
• 32:27
  Speaker 3: know we are everything and deserve every credit. There is
• 32:31
  Speaker 3: the idea, too, of immense dignity, of freedom from all
• 32:35
  Speaker 3: self seeking and from all vanity. But it is idle
• 32:40
  Speaker 3: to attempt to catalog these various forms of private theatricals.
• 32:44
  Speaker 3: They are constantly to be seen about us. It is
• 32:48
  Speaker 3: with surprise, unbounded that one hears another calmly assert that
• 32:52
  Speaker 3: he is so and so or so and so, and
• 32:56
  Speaker 3: in his next action or next hundred actions, sees that
• 33:01
  Speaker 3: same assertion entirely contradicted. Daily familiarity with the manifestations of
• 33:07
  Speaker 3: mistaken brain impressions does not lessen one's surprise at this
• 33:11
  Speaker 3: curious personal contradiction. It gives one an increasing desire to
• 33:16
  Speaker 3: look to one's self and see how far these private
• 33:19
  Speaker 3: theatricals extend in one's own case, and to throw off
• 33:23
  Speaker 3: the disguise as far as it is seen, with a
• 33:26
  Speaker 3: full acknowledgment that there may be probably is an abundance
• 33:31
  Speaker 3: more of which to rid one's self in future. There
• 33:35
  Speaker 3: are many ways in which true openness in life one
• 33:39
  Speaker 3: with another would be of immense service, and not the
• 33:43
  Speaker 3: least of these is the ability gained to erase false
• 33:46
  Speaker 3: brain impressions. The self condemnatory brain impression is quite as
• 33:51
  Speaker 3: pernicious as its opposite. Singularly enough, it goes with it
• 33:57
  Speaker 3: one often finds inordinate self esteem combined with the most
• 34:01
  Speaker 3: abject condemnation of self. One can be played against the
• 34:06
  Speaker 3: other as a counter irritant, but this only as a
• 34:10
  Speaker 3: process of rousing, for the irritation of either brings equal misery.
• 34:15
  Speaker 3: I am not even sure that as a rousing process
• 34:18
  Speaker 3: it is ever really useful. To be clear of a
• 34:21
  Speaker 3: mistaken brain impression, a man must recognize it himself, and
• 34:26
  Speaker 3: this recognition can never be brought about by an unasked
• 34:30
  Speaker 3: attempt of help from another. It is often cleared by
• 34:35
  Speaker 3: help asked and given, and perhaps more often by help
• 34:39
  Speaker 3: which is quite involuntary and unconscious. One of the greatest
• 34:44
  Speaker 3: points in friendly diplomacy is to be open and absolutely
• 34:48
  Speaker 3: frank so far as we are asked, but never to
• 34:52
  Speaker 3: go beyond, at least in the experience of many. That
• 34:56
  Speaker 3: leads more surely to the point where no diplomacy is needed,
• 35:00
  Speaker 3: which is certainly the point to be aimed at in friendship,
• 35:04
  Speaker 3: it is trying to see a friend living his own
• 35:07
  Speaker 3: idea of himself, and to be obliged to wait until
• 35:10
  Speaker 3: he is discovered that he is only playing a part.
• 35:14
  Speaker 3: But this very waiting may be of immense assistance in
• 35:17
  Speaker 3: reducing our own moral attitudinizing. How often do we hear
• 35:23
  Speaker 3: others or find ourselves complaining of a fault over and
• 35:26
  Speaker 3: over again. I know that this is a fault of mine,
• 35:30
  Speaker 3: and it has been for years. I wish I could
• 35:33
  Speaker 3: get over it. I know this is a fault of mine.
• 35:38
  Speaker 3: One brain impression. It has been for years, a dozen
• 35:43
  Speaker 3: or more brain impressions, according to the number of years,
• 35:46
  Speaker 3: until we have drooled the impression of that fault in
• 35:49
  Speaker 3: by emphasizing it over and over to an extent which
• 35:53
  Speaker 3: daily increases the difficulty of dropping it. So, if we
• 35:59
  Speaker 3: have the habit of unpunctuality and emphasize it by deploring it,
• 36:04
  Speaker 3: it keeps us always behind time. If we are sharp tongued,
• 36:08
  Speaker 3: and dwell with remorse on something said in the past,
• 36:12
  Speaker 3: it increases the tendency in the future. The slavery to
• 36:16
  Speaker 3: nerve habit is a well known psychological fact but nerve
• 36:21
  Speaker 3: habit may be strengthened negatively as well as positively. When
• 36:25
  Speaker 3: this is more widely recognized and the negative practice avoided,
• 36:29
  Speaker 3: much will have been done towards freeing us from our
• 36:32
  Speaker 3: subservience to mistaken brain impressions. Let us take an instance unpunctuality,
• 36:39
  Speaker 3: for example, as that is a common form of repetition.
• 36:44
  Speaker 3: If we really want to rid ourselves of the habit,
• 36:46
  Speaker 3: suppose every time we are late we cease to deplore it,
• 36:50
  Speaker 3: make a vivid mental picture of ourselves as being on
• 36:53
  Speaker 3: time at the next appointment. Then, with the how and
• 36:57
  Speaker 3: the when clearly impressed upon our minds, there should be
• 37:00
  Speaker 3: an absolute refusal to imagine ourselves anything but early. Surely
• 37:06
  Speaker 3: that would be quite as effective as a constant repetition
• 37:09
  Speaker 3: of the regret we feel at being late, Whether this
• 37:13
  Speaker 3: is repeated, allowed to others, or only in our own minds.
• 37:17
  Speaker 3: As we place the two processes side by side, the
• 37:20
  Speaker 3: latter certainly has the advantage and might be tried until
• 37:24
  Speaker 3: a better is found. Of course, we must be aware
• 37:29
  Speaker 3: of getting an impression of promptness which has no ground
• 37:32
  Speaker 3: in reality. It is quite possible for an individual to
• 37:35
  Speaker 3: be habitually and exasperatingly late, with all the air and
• 37:40
  Speaker 3: innocence of unusual punctuality. It would strike us as absurd
• 37:45
  Speaker 3: to see a man painting a house the color he
• 37:48
  Speaker 3: did not like, and go on painting it the same
• 37:51
  Speaker 3: color to show others and himself that which he detested.
• 37:55
  Speaker 3: Is it not equally absurd for any of us, through
• 37:59
  Speaker 3: the constant expres depression of regret for a fault, to
• 38:02
  Speaker 3: impress the tendency for it more and more upon the brain.
• 38:06
  Speaker 3: It is intensely sad when the consciousness of evil, once committed,
• 38:10
  Speaker 3: has so impressed a man with a sense of guilt
• 38:13
  Speaker 3: as to make him steadily undervalue himself and his own powers.
• 38:18
  Speaker 3: Here is a case where one's own idea of one's
• 38:21
  Speaker 3: self is seventy five percent below par and a gentle
• 38:25
  Speaker 3: and consistent encouragement in raising that idea is most necessary
• 38:29
  Speaker 3: before par is reached and par as I understand. It
• 38:34
  Speaker 3: is simple freedom from any fixed idea of one's self,
• 38:39
  Speaker 3: either good or bad. If fixed impressions of one's self
• 38:43
  Speaker 3: are stones in the way, the same certainly holds good
• 38:46
  Speaker 3: with fixed impressions of others. Unpleasant brain impressions of others
• 38:51
  Speaker 3: are great weights and greater impediments in the way of
• 38:55
  Speaker 3: clearing our own brains. Suppose so and so had such
• 38:59
  Speaker 3: a fault yesterday, it does not follow that he has
• 39:02
  Speaker 3: not rid himself of at least part of it today.
• 39:05
  Speaker 3: Why should we hold the brain impression of his mistake
• 39:08
  Speaker 3: so that every time we look at him we make
• 39:10
  Speaker 3: it stronger. He is not the gainer thereby, and we
• 39:14
  Speaker 3: certainly are the losers. Repeated brain impressions of another's fault
• 39:19
  Speaker 3: prevent our discerning his virtues. We are constantly attributing to
• 39:24
  Speaker 3: him disagreeable motives which arise solely from our idea of him,
• 39:28
  Speaker 3: and of which he is quite innocent. Not only so,
• 39:32
  Speaker 3: but our mistaken impressions increase his difficulty in rising to
• 39:35
  Speaker 3: the best of himself. For any one whose temperament is
• 39:40
  Speaker 3: in the least sensitive is oppressed by what he feels
• 39:43
  Speaker 3: to be another's idea of him until he learns to
• 39:46
  Speaker 3: clear himself of that, as well as of other brain impressions.
• 39:52
  Speaker 3: It is not uncommon to hear one go over and
• 39:55
  Speaker 3: over as supposed injury or even small annoyances from others,
• 40:00
  Speaker 3: with the reiterated assertion that he feverently desires to forget
• 40:04
  Speaker 3: such injury or annoyances. This feverent desire to forgive and
• 40:08
  Speaker 3: forget expresses itself by a repeated brain impression of that
• 40:13
  Speaker 3: which is to be forgiven. And if this is so
• 40:16
  Speaker 3: often repeated in words, how many times more must it
• 40:19
  Speaker 3: be repeated mentally? Thus the brain impression is increased, until
• 40:25
  Speaker 3: at last forgetting seems out of the question, and forgiving
• 40:29
  Speaker 3: is impossible unless one can, at the same time so
• 40:32
  Speaker 3: entirely forget the ill feeling roused as to place it
• 40:36
  Speaker 3: beyond recall. Surely, if we realize the force and influence
• 40:42
  Speaker 3: of unpleasant brain impressions, it would be a simple matter
• 40:46
  Speaker 3: to relax and let them escape, to be replaced by
• 40:49
  Speaker 3: others that are only pleasant. It cannot be that we
• 40:53
  Speaker 3: enjoy the discomfort of the disagreeable impressions. And yet so
• 40:58
  Speaker 3: curiously perverted is human nature that we often hear a
• 41:02
  Speaker 3: revolting story told with a preface, oh, I can't bear
• 41:06
  Speaker 3: to think of it, And the whole story is given
• 41:09
  Speaker 3: with a careful attention to detail, which is quite unnecessary
• 41:13
  Speaker 3: even if there were any reason for telling the story
• 41:16
  Speaker 3: at all, and generally concluded with a repetition of the
• 41:20
  Speaker 3: prefactory exclamation. How many pathetic sights are told of to
• 41:26
  Speaker 3: no end but the repetition of an unpleasant brain impression.
• 41:30
  Speaker 3: How many past experiences, past illnesses, are gone over and
• 41:34
  Speaker 3: over which serve the same, worse than useless purpose, that
• 41:39
  Speaker 3: of repeating and emphasizing the brain impression. A little pain
• 41:45
  Speaker 3: is made a big one by persistent dwelling upon it.
• 41:48
  Speaker 3: What might have been a short pain is sometimes lengthened
• 41:51
  Speaker 3: for a lifetime. Similarly, an old pain is brought back
• 41:55
  Speaker 3: by recalling a brain impression. The law of associationation is
• 42:00
  Speaker 3: well known. We all know how familiar places and happenings
• 42:04
  Speaker 3: will recall old feelings. We can realize this at any
• 42:08
  Speaker 3: time by mentally reviving the association. By dwelling on the
• 42:13
  Speaker 3: pain we had yesterday, we are encouraging it to return tomorrow.
• 42:18
  Speaker 3: By emphasizing the impression of an annoyance of today, we
• 42:21
  Speaker 3: are making it possible to suffer beyond expression from annoyances
• 42:26
  Speaker 3: to come. And the annoyances, the pains, the disagreeable feelings
• 42:31
  Speaker 3: will find their old brain grooves with remarkable rapidity when
• 42:35
  Speaker 3: given the ghost of a chance. I have known more
• 42:39
  Speaker 3: than one case where a woman kept herself ill by
• 42:42
  Speaker 3: the constant repetition to others and to herself of a
• 42:45
  Speaker 3: nervous shock. A woman who had once been frightened by
• 42:49
  Speaker 3: burglars refused to sleep for fear of being awakened by
• 42:53
  Speaker 3: more burglars, thus increasing her impression of fear. And of
• 42:57
  Speaker 3: course if she slept at all, she was liable at
• 43:00
  Speaker 3: any time to wake with a nervous start. The process
• 43:03
  Speaker 3: of working herself into nervous prostration through this constant, useless
• 43:08
  Speaker 3: repetition was not slow. The fixed impressions of preconceived ideas
• 43:14
  Speaker 3: in any direction are strangely in the way of real freedom.
• 43:18
  Speaker 3: It is difficult to catch new harmonies with old ones
• 43:21
  Speaker 3: ringing in our ears, still more difficult when we persist
• 43:25
  Speaker 3: in listening at the same time to discords. The experience
• 43:29
  Speaker 3: of arguing with another whose preconceived idea is so firmly
• 43:33
  Speaker 3: fixed that the argument is nothing but a series of
• 43:36
  Speaker 3: circles might be funny if it were not sad, and
• 43:40
  Speaker 3: it often is funny in spite of the sadness. Suppose
• 43:45
  Speaker 3: we should insist upon retaining an unpleasant prain impression only
• 43:49
  Speaker 3: when and so long as it seemed necessary, in order
• 43:53
  Speaker 3: to bring a remedy that accomplished. Suppose we dropped it
• 43:57
  Speaker 3: on the instant. Suppose further that we should continue this
• 44:00
  Speaker 3: process and never allow ourselves to repeat a disagreeable brain
• 44:04
  Speaker 3: impression allowed, or mentally imagine the result. Nature abhors a vacuum.
• 44:10
  Speaker 3: Something must come in place of the unpleasantness. Therefore way
• 44:14
  Speaker 3: is made for feelings more comfortable to one's self and
• 44:17
  Speaker 3: to others. Bad feelings cause contraction, good ones expansion. Relax
• 44:25
  Speaker 3: the muscular contraction, take a long, free breath of fresh air,
• 44:29
  Speaker 3: and expansion follows. As a matter of course, drop the
• 44:33
  Speaker 3: brain contraction, take a good inhalation of whatever pleasant feeling
• 44:37
  Speaker 3: is nearest, and the expansion is a necessary consequence as
• 44:42
  Speaker 3: we expand. Mentally disagreeable brain impressions that in former contracted
• 44:47
  Speaker 3: states or eclipsed by greater ones, will be keenly felt
• 44:51
  Speaker 3: and dropped at once for the mere relief thus obtained.
• 44:56
  Speaker 3: The healthier the brain, the more sensitive it is to
• 44:59
  Speaker 3: false impressions, and the more easily are they dropped. One
• 45:03
  Speaker 3: word by way of warning, we can never rid ourselves
• 45:06
  Speaker 3: of an uncomfortable brain impression by saying, I will try
• 45:10
  Speaker 3: to think something pleasant of that disagreeable man. The temptation, too,
• 45:15
  Speaker 3: is very common to say to ourselves, clearly, I will
• 45:18
  Speaker 3: try to think of something pleasant and then leave of
• 45:21
  Speaker 3: that disagreeable man. A subtle feeling in the background. The
• 45:25
  Speaker 3: feeling in the background, however unconscious we may be of it,
• 45:29
  Speaker 3: is a strong brain impression, all the stronger because we
• 45:32
  Speaker 3: fail to recognize it, and the result of our something
• 45:36
  Speaker 3: pleasant is an insidious complacency at our own magnanimous disposition.
• 45:42
  Speaker 3: Thus we get the disagreeable brain impression of another, backed
• 45:46
  Speaker 3: up by our agreeable brain impression of ourselves, both mistaken.
• 45:51
  Speaker 3: Unless we keep a sharp lookout, we may here get
• 45:55
  Speaker 3: into a snarl from which extraction is slow work. Neither
• 45:59
  Speaker 3: is it possible to counteract an unpleasant brain impression by
• 46:03
  Speaker 3: something pleasant but false. We must call a spade a spade,
• 46:08
  Speaker 3: but not consider it a component part of the man
• 46:11
  Speaker 3: who handles it, nor yet associate the man with the spade,
• 46:16
  Speaker 3: or the spade with the man when we drop it,
• 46:19
  Speaker 3: so long as we drop it for what it is worth,
• 46:22
  Speaker 3: which is nothing. In the case of the spade in question,
• 46:25
  Speaker 3: we have dropped it entirely. If we try to improve
• 46:29
  Speaker 3: our brain impression by insisting that a spade is something
• 46:32
  Speaker 3: better and pleasanter. We are transforming a disagreeable impression to
• 46:37
  Speaker 3: a mongrel state, which again brings anything but a happy result.
• 46:42
  Speaker 3: Simply to refuse all unpleasant brain impressions, with no effort
• 46:46
  Speaker 3: or desire to recast them into something that they are not,
• 46:49
  Speaker 3: seems to be the only clear process to freedom. Not
• 46:53
  Speaker 3: only so, but whatever there might have been pleasant in
• 46:57
  Speaker 3: what seemed entirely unpleasant can and more truly return as
• 47:01
  Speaker 3: we drop the unpleasantness completely. It is a good thing
• 47:05
  Speaker 3: that most of us can approach the freedom of such
• 47:07
  Speaker 3: a change in imagination before we reach it in reality,
• 47:12
  Speaker 3: so we can learn more rapidly not to hamper ourselves
• 47:16
  Speaker 3: or others by retaining disagreeable brain impressions of the present
• 47:20
  Speaker 3: or by recalling others of the past. End of Section.
• 47:25
  Speaker 4: Three, Section four of As a matter of course, this
• 47:35
  Speaker 4: is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
• 47:39
  Speaker 4: public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
• 47:43
  Speaker 4: LibriVox dot org. As a matter of course, by any
• 47:48
  Speaker 4: pasion call the triviality of trivialities. Life is clearer, happier,
• 47:57
  Speaker 4: and easier for us as things assume their truth, I
• 48:01
  Speaker 4: might better say, as they come nearer in appearance to
• 48:04
  Speaker 4: their true proportions. For it seems doubtful whether anyone ever
• 48:09
  Speaker 4: reaches the place in this world where the sense of
• 48:11
  Speaker 4: proportion is absolutely normal. Some come much nearer than others,
• 48:16
  Speaker 4: And part of the interest of living is the growing
• 48:19
  Speaker 4: realization of better proportion, and the relief from the abnormal
• 48:23
  Speaker 4: state in which circumstances seem quite out of proportion in
• 48:27
  Speaker 4: their relation to one another. Imagine a landscape painter who
• 48:31
  Speaker 4: made his cows as large as the houses, his blades
• 48:35
  Speaker 4: of grass waving above the tops of the trees, and
• 48:38
  Speaker 4: all things similarly disproportionate or worse, Imagine a disease of
• 48:43
  Speaker 4: the retina which caused a like curious change in the
• 48:47
  Speaker 4: landscape itself, wherein a mountain appeared to be a mole hill,
• 48:52
  Speaker 4: and a mole hill a mountain. It seems absurd to
• 48:55
  Speaker 4: think of, and yet is not the want of a
• 48:58
  Speaker 4: true sense of proportion in the circumstances and relations of
• 49:01
  Speaker 4: life quite as extreme with many of it. It is
• 49:05
  Speaker 4: well that our physical sense remains intact. If we lost that, too,
• 49:10
  Speaker 4: there would seem to be but little hope indeed, now
• 49:13
  Speaker 4: almost the only thing needed for a rapid approach to
• 49:16
  Speaker 4: a more normal mental sense of proportion is a keener
• 49:20
  Speaker 4: recognition of the want. But this want must be found
• 49:24
  Speaker 4: first in ourselves, not in others. There is the inclination
• 49:28
  Speaker 4: to regard our own life as bigger and more important
• 49:31
  Speaker 4: than the life of any one about us, or the
• 49:34
  Speaker 4: reverse attitude of bewailing its lack of importance, which is
• 49:38
  Speaker 4: quite the same. In either case, our own life is
• 49:42
  Speaker 4: dwelt upon first. Then there is the immediate family, After
• 49:46
  Speaker 4: that our own especial friends, all assuming a gigantic size,
• 49:51
  Speaker 4: which puts quite out of the question an occasional bird's
• 49:54
  Speaker 4: eye view of the world. In general, even objects which
• 49:58
  Speaker 4: might be in the middle distance of a life extended
• 50:00
  Speaker 4: view are quite screened by the exaggerated size of those
• 50:04
  Speaker 4: which seem to concern us most immediately. One's own life
• 50:08
  Speaker 4: is important. One's own family and friends are important very
• 50:13
  Speaker 4: When taken in their true proportion, one should surely be
• 50:16
  Speaker 4: able to look upon one's own brothers and sisters as
• 50:19
  Speaker 4: if they were the brothers and sisters of another, and
• 50:22
  Speaker 4: to regard the brothers and sisters of another as one's
• 50:25
  Speaker 4: own singularly, too. Real appreciation of and sympathy with one's
• 50:30
  Speaker 4: own grows with this broader sense of relationship. In no
• 50:34
  Speaker 4: way is this sense shown more clearly than by a
• 50:37
  Speaker 4: mother who has the breadth and the strength to look
• 50:40
  Speaker 4: upon her own children as if they belonged to someone else,
• 50:44
  Speaker 4: and upon the children of others as if they belonged
• 50:47
  Speaker 4: to her. But the triviality of magnifying one's own out
• 50:51
  Speaker 4: of all proportion has not yet been recognized by many.
• 50:55
  Speaker 4: So every trivial happening in our lives or the lives
• 50:58
  Speaker 4: of those connected with us, is exaggerated, and we keep
• 51:01
  Speaker 4: ourselves and others in a chronic state of contraction. Accordingly,
• 51:06
  Speaker 4: think of the many trifles which, by being magnified and
• 51:09
  Speaker 4: kept in the foreground, obstruct the way to all possible
• 51:12
  Speaker 4: sight or appreciation of things that really hold a more
• 51:15
  Speaker 4: important place. The cook, the waitress, various other annoyances of housekeeping,
• 51:21
  Speaker 4: a gown that does not suit, the annoyances of travel,
• 51:25
  Speaker 4: whether we said the right thing to so and so,
• 51:28
  Speaker 4: whether so and so likes us or does not like us. Indeed,
• 51:32
  Speaker 4: there is an immense army of trivial imps and the
• 51:35
  Speaker 4: breadth of capacity for entertaining these imps is so large
• 51:39
  Speaker 4: in some of us as to be truly encouraging. For
• 51:42
  Speaker 4: if the domain were once deserted by the imps, there
• 51:45
  Speaker 4: remains the breadth, which must have the same capacity for
• 51:49
  Speaker 4: holding something better. Unfortunately, a long occupancy by these miserable
• 51:54
  Speaker 4: little offenders means eventually the saddest sort of contraction. What
• 51:59
  Speaker 4: a picture for a new gulliver, a human being overwhelmed
• 52:03
  Speaker 4: by the imps of triviality and bound fast to the
• 52:06
  Speaker 4: ground by manifold windings of their cob web sized threat.
• 52:11
  Speaker 4: This exaggeration of trifles is one form of nervous disease.
• 52:16
  Speaker 4: It would be exceedingly interesting and profitable to study the
• 52:19
  Speaker 4: various phases of nervous disease as exaggerated expressions of perverted character.
• 52:25
  Speaker 4: They can be traced directly and easily. In many cases,
• 52:29
  Speaker 4: if a woman fusses about trivialities, she fusses more when
• 52:33
  Speaker 4: she's tired. The more fatigue, the more fussing, And with
• 52:37
  Speaker 4: a persistent tendency to fatigue in fussing, it does not
• 52:40
  Speaker 4: take long to work up or down to nervous prostration.
• 52:45
  Speaker 4: From this form of nervous excitement one never really recovers
• 52:49
  Speaker 4: except by a hearty acknowledgment of the trivialities as trivialities.
• 52:54
  Speaker 4: When with growing health there is a growing sense of
• 52:57
  Speaker 4: true proportion. I have seen when a woman spend more attention,
• 53:02
  Speaker 4: time and nerve power on emphasizing the fact that her
• 53:05
  Speaker 4: hands are all stained from the dye on her dress
• 53:08
  Speaker 4: than a normal woman would take for a good hour's work.
• 53:11
  Speaker 4: As she grew better, this emphasizing of trivialities decreased, but
• 53:16
  Speaker 4: of course might have returned with any over fatigue unless
• 53:19
  Speaker 4: it had been recognized, taken at its worth, and simply dropped.
• 53:24
  Speaker 4: Anyone can think of example after example in his own
• 53:27
  Speaker 4: individual experience when he has suffered unnecessary tortures through the
• 53:32
  Speaker 4: regarding of trifling things, either by himself or by someone
• 53:35
  Speaker 4: near him. With many the first instances will probably be
• 53:39
  Speaker 4: to insist with emphasis and some feeling that they are
• 53:42
  Speaker 4: not trivialities. Trivialities have their importance when given their true proportion.
• 53:48
  Speaker 4: The size of a triviality is often exaggerated as much
• 53:51
  Speaker 4: by neglect as by an undue amount of attention. When
• 53:55
  Speaker 4: we do what we can to amend an annoyance and
• 53:58
  Speaker 4: then think no more about it till there appears something
• 54:01
  Speaker 4: further to do. The saving of nervous force is very great.
• 54:05
  Speaker 4: Yet so successful have these imps of triviality come to
• 54:09
  Speaker 4: be in their rule of human nature, that the trivialities
• 54:13
  Speaker 4: of the past are oftentimes dwelt upon with as much
• 54:17
  Speaker 4: earnestness as if they belonged to the present. The past
• 54:21
  Speaker 4: itself is a triviality except in its results. Yet what
• 54:26
  Speaker 4: an immense screen it is sometimes to any clear understanding
• 54:29
  Speaker 4: or appreciation of the present. How many of us have
• 54:33
  Speaker 4: listened over and over to the same tale of past annoyances,
• 54:36
  Speaker 4: until we wonder how it can be possible that the
• 54:39
  Speaker 4: constant repetition is not recognized by the narrator. How many
• 54:43
  Speaker 4: of us have been over and over in our minds
• 54:45
  Speaker 4: past troubles, little and big, so that we have no
• 54:48
  Speaker 4: right whatever to feel impatient when listening to such repetitions
• 54:52
  Speaker 4: by others. Here again we have in nervous disease, the
• 54:56
  Speaker 4: extreme of a common trait in humanity. With increase least
• 55:00
  Speaker 4: nervous fatigue, there is always an increase of the tendency
• 55:04
  Speaker 4: to repetition. Best drop it before it gets to the
• 55:07
  Speaker 4: fatigue stage, if possible. Then again, there are the common
• 55:12
  Speaker 4: things of life, such as dressing and undressing, and the
• 55:15
  Speaker 4: numberless every day duties. It is possible to distort them
• 55:19
  Speaker 4: to perfect monstrosities by the manner of dwelling upon them.
• 55:23
  Speaker 4: Taken as a matter of course, they are the very
• 55:25
  Speaker 4: triviality of trivialities, and assume their place without second thought.
• 55:30
  Speaker 4: When life seems to get into such a snarl that
• 55:33
  Speaker 4: we despair of disentangling it, a long journey and change
• 55:37
  Speaker 4: of human surroundings enable us to take a distant view
• 55:41
  Speaker 4: which not uncommonly shows the tangle to be no tangle
• 55:44
  Speaker 4: at all. Although we cannot always go upon a material journey,
• 55:48
  Speaker 4: we can change the mental perspective, and it is this
• 55:51
  Speaker 4: adjustment of the focus which brings our perspective into truer proportions.
• 55:56
  Speaker 4: Having once found what appears to be the true focus,
• 55:59
  Speaker 4: let us be true to it. The temptations to lose
• 56:03
  Speaker 4: one's focus are many and sometimes severe. When temporarily thrown
• 56:07
  Speaker 4: off our balance, the best help is to return at once,
• 56:11
  Speaker 4: without dwelling on the fact that we've lost the focus
• 56:13
  Speaker 4: longer than is necessary to find it again. After that,
• 56:17
  Speaker 4: our focus is better adjusted and the range steadily expanded.
• 56:21
  Speaker 4: It is impossible for us to widen the range by
• 56:24
  Speaker 4: thinking about it. Holding the best focus we know in
• 56:27
  Speaker 4: our daily experience does that. Thus the proportions arrange themselves.
• 56:33
  Speaker 4: We cannot arrange the proportions, or, what is more nearly
• 56:37
  Speaker 4: the truth, the proportions are in reality true to begin with.
• 56:41
  Speaker 4: As with the imaginary eye disease, which transformed the relative
• 56:45
  Speaker 4: sizes of the component parts of a landscape, the fault
• 56:48
  Speaker 4: is in the eye, not in the landscape. So when
• 56:50
  Speaker 4: the circumstances of life are quite in the wrong proportion
• 56:54
  Speaker 4: to one another in our own minds, the trouble is
• 56:57
  Speaker 4: in the mental sight, not in the circumstance. There are
• 57:01
  Speaker 4: many ways of getting a better focus and ridding one's
• 57:04
  Speaker 4: self of trivial annoyances. One is to be quiet, get
• 57:08
  Speaker 4: at a good mental distance, be sure that you have
• 57:11
  Speaker 4: a clear view, and then hold it. Always keep your distance,
• 57:15
  Speaker 4: never return to the old standpoint. If you can manage
• 57:18
  Speaker 4: to keep away, we may be thankful if trivialities annoy us.
• 57:23
  Speaker 4: As trivialities it is with those who have the constant
• 57:26
  Speaker 4: habit of dwelling on them without feeling the discomfort that
• 57:30
  Speaker 4: a return to freedom seems impossible. As one comes to realize,
• 57:35
  Speaker 4: even in a slight degree, the triviality of trivialities, and
• 57:38
  Speaker 4: then forget them entirely in a better idea of true proportion.
• 57:43
  Speaker 4: The sense of freedom gained is well worth working for.
• 57:46
  Speaker 4: It certainly brings the possibility of a normal nervous system
• 57:50
  Speaker 4: much nearer. End of section four read by Sandra Near, Montreal,
• 57:57
  Speaker 4: twenty twenty five. Section five of As a matter of course,
• 58:07
  Speaker 4: this is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
• 58:11
  Speaker 4: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
• 58:16
  Speaker 4: visit LibriVox dot org. As a matter of course, by
• 58:20
  Speaker 4: any patient call moods. Relief from the mastery of an
• 58:26
  Speaker 4: evil mood is like fresh air after having been several
• 58:29
  Speaker 4: hours in a close room. If one should go to
• 58:32
  Speaker 4: work deliberately to break up another's nervous system, and if
• 58:35
  Speaker 4: one were perfectly free in methods of procedure, the best
• 58:39
  Speaker 4: way would be to throw upon the victim in rapid
• 58:41
  Speaker 4: sequence a long series of the most extreme moods. The
• 58:46
  Speaker 4: disastrous result could be hastened by insisting that each mood
• 58:49
  Speaker 4: should be resisted as it manifested itself, for then there
• 58:52
  Speaker 4: would be the double strain, the strain of the mood
• 58:55
  Speaker 4: and the strain of resistance. It is better to let
• 58:58
  Speaker 4: a mood have its way than to suppress it. The
• 59:01
  Speaker 4: story of the man who suffered from Verico's veins and
• 59:04
  Speaker 4: was cured by the waters of Lord, only to die
• 59:07
  Speaker 4: a little later from an affection of the heart, which
• 59:09
  Speaker 4: arose from the suppression of the former disease, is a
• 59:13
  Speaker 4: good illustration of the effect of mood suppression. In the
• 59:16
  Speaker 4: case cited, death followed at once, but death from repeated
• 59:20
  Speaker 4: impressions of moods resisted is long drawn out, and the
• 59:25
  Speaker 4: suffering intense, both for the patient and for his friends.
• 59:29
  Speaker 4: The only way to drop a mood is to look
• 59:32
  Speaker 4: it in the face and call it by its right name. Then,
• 59:36
  Speaker 4: by persistent ignoring, sometimes in one way, sometimes in another,
• 59:40
  Speaker 4: finally drop it altogether. It takes a looser hold next time,
• 59:44
  Speaker 4: and eventually slides off entirely. To be sure, over fatigue,
• 59:49
  Speaker 4: an attack of indigestion, or some unexpected contact with the
• 59:53
  Speaker 4: same phase in another may bring back the ghost of
• 59:56
  Speaker 4: former moods. These ghosts may even material unless the practice
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 4: of ignoring is at once referred to, but they can
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 4: ultimately be routed completely. A great help in gaining freedom
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 4: from moods is to realize clearly their superficiality. Moods are deadly,
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 4: desperately serious things when taken seriously and indulged in to
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 4: the full extent of their power. They are like a
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 4: tiny spot directly in front of the eye. We see that,
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 4: and that only it blurs and shuts out everything else.
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 4: We groan and suffer and are unhappy and wretched, still
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 4: persistently keeping our eye on the spot, until finally we
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 4: forget that there is anything else in the world. In
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 4: mind and body, we are impressed by that and that alone.
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 4: Thus the difficulty of moving off a little distance is
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 4: greatly increased, and liberation is impossible until we do move away,
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 4: and by a change of perspective, see the spot for
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 4: what it really is. Let anyone who is ruled by
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 4: mood moods, in a moment when he's absolutely free from them,
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 4: take a good look at all past moody states, and
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 4: he will see that they come from nothing, go to nothing,
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 4: and are nothing. Indeed, that has been and is often
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 4: done by the moody person with at the same time,
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 4: an unhappy realization that when the moods are on him,
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 4: they are as real as they are unreal when he's free.
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 4: To treat a mood as a good joke when you're
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 4: in its clutches is simply out of the question. But
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 4: to say this now is a mood, come on, do
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 4: your worst. I can stand it as long as you can.
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 4: Takes away all nerve resistance until the thing has nothing
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 4: to clutch and dissolves for want of nourishment. If it
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 4: proves too much for one at times and breaks out
• 1:01:46
  Speaker 4: in a bad expression of some sort, a quick acknowledgment
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 4: that you are under the spell of a bad mood,
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 4: and a further invitation to come on if it wants to,
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 4: will loosen the hold again. If the mood is a
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 4: melancholy one, speak as little as possible under its influence,
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 4: go on and do whatever there is to be done,
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 4: not resisting it in any way, but keep busy. This
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 4: non resistance can perhaps be better illustrated by taking, instead
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 4: of a mood a person who teases. It is well
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 4: known that the more we are annoyed, the more our
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 4: opponent teases, and that the surest and quickest way of
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 4: freeing ourselves is not to be teased. We can ignore
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 4: the teaser externally, with an internal irritation which he sees
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 4: as clearly as if we expressed it. We can laugh
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 4: in such a way that every sound of our own
• 1:02:36
  Speaker 4: voice proclaims the annoyance we are trying to hide. It
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 4: is when we take his words for what they are
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 4: worth and go with him, that the wind is taken
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 4: out of his sails, and he stops because there's no
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 4: fun in it. The experience with the mood is quite parallel,
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 4: though rather more difficult at first, for there's no enemy
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 4: like the enemy's in one's self, no teasing like the
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 4: teasing from one's self. It takes a little longer, a
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 4: little heartier, and more persistent process of non resistance to
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 4: cure the teasing from one's own nature. But the process
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 4: is just as certain, and the freedom greater in result.
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 4: Why is it not clear to us that to set
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 4: our teeth, clench our hands, or hold any form of
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 4: extreme tension and mistaken control doubles, troubles and quadruples the
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 4: impression of the feeling controlled, and increases by many degrees
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 4: its power for attacking us. Another time, persistent control of
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 4: this kind gives a certain sort of strength. It might
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 4: be called sham's strength, for it takes it out of
• 1:03:39
  Speaker 4: one in other ways. But the control that comes from
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 4: non resistance brings a natural strength which not only steadily increases,
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 4: but spreads on all sides, as the growth of a
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 4: tree is even in its development. Quote. If a man
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 4: takes your cloak, give him your coat. Also, if one
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 4: compel you to go a mile, go with him. Twain,
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 4: love your enemies, Do good to them that hurt you,
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 4: and pray for them that despitefully use you. Why have
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 4: we been so long in realizing the practical I might say,
• 1:04:15
  Speaker 4: the physiological truth of this great philosophy? Possibly because in
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 4: forgiving our enemies, we've been so impressed with the idea
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 4: that it was our enemies we were forgiving. If we
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 4: realized that following this philosophy would bring us real freedom,
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 4: it would be followed steadily, as a matter of course,
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 4: and with no more sense that we deserve credit for
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 4: doing a good thing than a man might have in
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 4: walking out of prison when his jailer opened the door.
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 4: So it is with our enemies. The moods I've written
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 4: heretofore of bad moods only. But there are moods and
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 4: moods in a degree. Certainly, one should respect one's moods.
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 4: Those who are subject to bad moods are equally subject
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 4: to good ones, and the superficiality of the happier modes
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 4: is just as much to be recogniz is that of
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 4: the wretched ones. In fact, in recognizing the shallowness of
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 4: our happy moods, we are storing ammunition for a healthy
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 4: openness and freedom from the opposite forms. With the foe
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 4: realization that a mood is a mood, we can respect
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 4: it and so gradually reach a truer evenness of life.
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 4: Moods are phases that we are all subject to whilst
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 4: in the process of finding our balance. The more sensitive
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 4: and finer the temperament, the more moods. The rhythm of
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 4: moods is most interesting, and there is a spice about
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 4: the change which we need to give. Relish to these
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 4: first steps towards the art of living. It is when
• 1:05:40
  Speaker 4: their seriousness is exaggerated that they lose their power for
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 4: good and make slaves of us. The seriousness may be
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 4: equally exaggerated in succumbing to them and in resisting them,
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 4: in either case, they are our masters and not our slaves.
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 4: They are steady consumers of the nervous system in their
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 4: upset and dance. When they master us, and of course
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 4: retain no jot of that fascination, which is a good
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 4: part of their very shallowness and brings new life as
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 4: we take them as a matter of course, then we
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 4: are swung in their rhythm, never once losing sight of
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 4: the point that it is the mood that is to
• 1:06:18
  Speaker 4: serve us, and not we the mood. As we gain
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 4: freedom from our own moods, we are unable to respect
• 1:06:25
  Speaker 4: those of others, and give up any endeavor to force
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 4: a friend out of his moods, or even to lead
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 4: him out, unless he shows a desire to be led.
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 4: Nor do we rejoice fully in the extreme of his
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 4: happy moods, knowing the certain reaction respect for the moods
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 4: of others is necessary to a perfect freedom from our own.
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 4: In one sense, no man is alone in the world.
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 4: In another sense, every man is alone, and with moods especially,
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 4: a man must be left to work out his own
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 4: salvation unless he asks for help. So as he understands
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 4: his moods and frees himself from their mastery. He will
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 4: find that moods are, in reality, one of nature's gifts,
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 4: a sort of melody which strengthens the harmony of life
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 4: and gives it fuller tone. Freedom from moods does not
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 4: mean the loss of them, any more than non resistance
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 4: means allowing them to master you. It is non resistance
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 4: with the full recognition of what they are, that clears
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 4: the way. End of section five read by Sandra Near, Montreal,
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 4: twenty twenty five. Section six of As a matter of course,
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 4: this is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 4: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 4: visit LibriVox dot org. As a matter of course, by
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 4: any payson call tolerance. When we are tolerant, as a
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 4: matter of course, the nervous system is relieved of almost
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 4: the worst form of persistent irritation it could have. The
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 4: freedom of tolerance can only be appreciated by those who
• 1:08:11
  Speaker 4: have known the suffering of intolerance and gained relief. A
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 4: certain perspective is necessary to a recognition of the full
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 4: absurdity of intolerance. One of the greatest absurdities of it
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 4: is evident when we are annoyed and caused intense suffering
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 4: by our intolerance of others, and as a consequence, blame
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 4: others for the fatigue or illness which follows. However mistaken
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 4: or blind other people may be in their habits or
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 4: their ideas, it is entirely our fault if we are
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 4: annoyed by them. The slightest blame given to another in
• 1:08:45
  Speaker 4: such a case on account of our suffering is quite
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 4: out of place. Our intolerance is often unconscious. It is
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 4: disguised under one form of annoyance or another, but when
• 1:08:56
  Speaker 4: looked full in the face, it can only be recognized
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 4: as intolerance. Of course, the most severe form is when
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 4: the belief, the action or habit of another interferes directly
• 1:09:06
  Speaker 4: with our own selfish aims. That brings the double annoyance
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 4: of being thwarted and of rousing more selfish antagonism. Where
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 4: our selfish desires are directly interfered with, or even where
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 4: in action we know to be entirely right is prevented. Intolerance
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 4: only makes matters worse. If expressed, it probably rouses bitter
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 4: feelings in another. Whether we express it openly or not,
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 4: it keeps us in a state of nervous irritation, which
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 4: is often most painful in its results. Such irritation, if
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 4: not extreme in its effect, is strong enough to keep
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 4: any amount of pure enjoyment out of life. There may
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 4: be some one who rouses our intolerant feelings, and who
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 4: may have many good points which might give us real
• 1:09:50
  Speaker 4: pleasure and profit, but they all go for nothing before
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 4: our blind, restless intolerance. It is often the case that
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 4: this imaginary enemy is found to be a friend and
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 4: ally in reality, if we once drop the wretched state
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 4: of intolerance long enough to see him clearly. Yet the
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 4: promptest answer to such an assertion will probably be that
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 4: may be so in some cases, but not with the
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 4: man or woman who rouses my intolerance. It is a
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 4: powerful temptation, this one of intolerance, and takes hold of
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 4: strong natures. It frequently rouses tremendous tempests before it can
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 4: be recognized and ignored, and with the tempest comes an
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 4: obstinate refusal to call it by its right name, and
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 4: a resentment towards others for rousing in us what should
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 4: not have been there to be roused. So long as
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 4: a tendency to anything evil is in us, it is
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 4: a good thing to have it roused, recognized, and shaken off,
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 4: And we might as reasonably blame a rock over which
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 4: we stumble for the bruises received, as blame the person
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 4: who rouses our intolerance for the suffering we endure. This intolerance,
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 4: which is so useless, seems strangely absurd when it is
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 4: roused through some interference with our own plans. But it
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 4: is stranger when we are rampant against a belief which
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 4: does not in any way interfere with us. This last
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 4: form is more prevalent in antagonistic religious beliefs than in
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 4: anything else. The excuse given would be an earnest desire
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 4: for the salvation of our opponent. But whoever save the
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 4: soul through an ungracious intolerance of that soul's chosen way
• 1:11:25
  Speaker 4: of believing or living, the danger of loss would seem
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 4: to be all On the other side, one sense of
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 4: humor is touched, in spite of oneself, to hear a
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 4: war of words and feeling between two Christians whose belief
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 4: is supposed to be founded on the axiom judge not
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 4: that ye be not judged. Without this intolerance, argument is
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 4: interesting and often profitable. With it, the disputants gain each
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 4: a more obstinate belief in his own doctrines, and the
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 4: excitement is steadily destructive to the best health of the
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 4: nervous system. There is the intolerance felt from various little
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 4: ways and habits of others, habits which are comparatively nothing
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 4: in themselves, but which are monstrous in their effect upon
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 4: a person who's intolerant of them. One might almost think
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 4: we enjoyed irritated nerves, so persistently do we dwell upon
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 4: the personal peculiarities of others. Indeed, there's no better example
• 1:12:22
  Speaker 4: of biting off one's own nose than the habit of intolerance.
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 4: It might more truly be called the habit of irritating
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 4: one's own nervous system. Having recognized intolerance as intolerance, having
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 4: estimated it at its true worth, the next question is
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 4: how to get rid of it. The habit has not
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 4: infrequently made such a strong brain impression that, in spite
• 1:12:45
  Speaker 4: of an earnest desire to shake it off, it persistently clings.
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 4: Of course, the soil about the obnoxious growth is loosened
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 4: the moment we recognize its true quality. That is a beginning,
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 4: and the rest is easier than might be imagined by
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 4: those who've not tried it. Intolerance is an unwillingness that
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 4: others should live in their own way, believe as they
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 4: prefer to hold personal habits which they enjoy or are
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 4: unconscious of, or interfere in any degree with our ways, beliefs,
• 1:13:16
  Speaker 4: or habits. That very sense of unwillingness causes a contraction
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 4: of the nerves, which is wasteful and disagreeable. The feeling
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 4: rouses the contraction, the contraction more feeling, and so the
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 4: intolerance is increased in cause and in effect. The immediate
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 4: effect of being willing, on the contrary, is, of course,
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 4: the relaxation of such contraction and a healthy expansion of
• 1:13:41
  Speaker 4: the nerves. Try the experiment on some small pet form
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 4: of intolerance. Try to realize what it is to feel
• 1:13:49
  Speaker 4: quite willing. Say over and over to yourself that you
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 4: are quite willing so and so should make that curious
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 4: noise with his mouth. Do not hesitate at the simplicity
• 1:13:59
  Speaker 4: of saying the words to yourself. That brings a much
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 4: quicker effect at first. By and by we get accustomed
• 1:14:05
  Speaker 4: to the sensation of willingness and can recall it with
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 4: less repetition of words, or without words at all. When
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 4: the feeling of nervous annoyance is roused by the other,
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 4: counteract it on the instant by repeating silently, I am
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 4: quite willing. You should do that. Do it again. The
• 1:14:23
  Speaker 4: man or woman, whoever he or she may be, is
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 4: quite certain to oblige you. There will be any number
• 1:14:29
  Speaker 4: of opportunities to be willing until by and by the
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 4: willingness is a matter of course, and it would not
• 1:14:35
  Speaker 4: be surprising if the habit passed entirely unnoticed. As far
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 4: as you are concerned, this experiment, tried successfully on small things,
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 4: can be carried to greater is steadily persisted in a
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 4: good fifty percent of wasted nervous force can be saved
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 4: for better things. And this saving of nervous force is
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 4: the least gain which comes from a thorough riddance of
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 4: every form of intolerance. But it will be objected. How
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 4: can I say I am willing when I am not?
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 4: Surely you can see no good from the irritation of unwillingness.
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 4: There can be no real gain from it, and there
• 1:15:12
  Speaker 4: is every reason for giving it up. A clear realization
• 1:15:15
  Speaker 4: of the necessity for willingness, both for our own comfort
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 4: and for that of others, helps us to its repetition.
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 4: In words, the words said with sincere purpose help us
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 4: to the feeling, And so we come steadily into clearer light.
• 1:15:31
  Speaker 4: Our very willingness that a friend should go the wrong
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 4: way if he chooses, gives us new power to help
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 4: him towards the right. If we are moved by intolerance,
• 1:15:40
  Speaker 4: that is selfishness, with it will come the desire to
• 1:15:44
  Speaker 4: force our friend into the way which we consider right.
• 1:15:47
  Speaker 4: Such forcing, if even apparently successful, invariably produces a reaction
• 1:15:52
  Speaker 4: on the friend's part, and disappointment and chagrin on our own.
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 4: The fact that most great reformers were and are actuated
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 4: by the very spirit of intolerance, makes that scorning of
• 1:16:04
  Speaker 4: the ways of others seem to us essential as the
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 4: root of all great reform. Amidst the necessity for and
• 1:16:11
  Speaker 4: strength in the reform, the petty spirit of intolerance intrudes unnoticed.
• 1:16:17
  Speaker 4: But if anyone wants to see it in full fledged power,
• 1:16:20
  Speaker 4: let him study the family of a reformer who have
• 1:16:23
  Speaker 4: inherited the intolerance of his nature without the work to
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 4: which it was applied. This intolerant spirit is not indispensable
• 1:16:32
  Speaker 4: to great reforms, but it sometimes goes with them and
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 4: is made use of as intense selfishness may often be
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 4: used for higher ends. The ends might have been accomplished
• 1:16:42
  Speaker 4: more rapidly and more effectually with less selfish instruments. But
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 4: man must be left free, and if he will not
• 1:16:49
  Speaker 4: offer himself as an open channel to his highest impulses,
• 1:16:53
  Speaker 4: he is used to the best advantage possible without them.
• 1:16:57
  Speaker 4: There is no finer type of a great reformer than
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 4: Jesus Christ. In his life there was no shadow of intolerance.
• 1:17:04
  Speaker 4: From first to last. He showed willingness in spirit and
• 1:17:07
  Speaker 4: in action. In upbraiding the scribes and Pharisees, he evinced
• 1:17:11
  Speaker 4: no feeling of antagonism. He merely stated the facts. The
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 4: same firm, calm truth of assertion carried out in action,
• 1:17:20
  Speaker 4: characterized his expulsion of the money changers from the temple
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 4: when he was arrested, and throughout his trial and execution.
• 1:17:28
  Speaker 4: It was his accusers who showed the intolerance. They sent
• 1:17:31
  Speaker 4: out with swords and stays to take him with a
• 1:17:34
  Speaker 4: show of antagonism, which failed to affect him in the
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 4: slightest degree. Who cannot see that with the irritated feeling
• 1:17:41
  Speaker 4: of intolerance we put ourselves on the plane of the
• 1:17:43
  Speaker 4: very habit or action we are so vigorously condemning, we
• 1:17:48
  Speaker 4: are inviting greater mistakes on our part. For often the
• 1:17:51
  Speaker 4: rouser of our selfish antagonism is quite blind to his deficiencies.
• 1:17:56
  Speaker 4: And unless he's broader in his way than we are
• 1:17:58
  Speaker 4: in ours, and show of intolerance simply blinds him. The
• 1:18:02
  Speaker 4: more intolerance, through its indulgence, has come to assume a
• 1:18:06
  Speaker 4: monstrous form. It interferes with all pleasure in life. It
• 1:18:10
  Speaker 4: makes clear open intercourse with others impossible. It interferes with
• 1:18:14
  Speaker 4: any form of use into which it is permitted to intrude.
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 4: In its indulgence, it is a monstrosity in itself. It
• 1:18:22
  Speaker 4: is mean, petty, and absurd. Let us, then, work with
• 1:18:27
  Speaker 4: all possible rapidity to relax from contractions of unwillingness and
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 4: become tolerant. As a matter of course, whatever is the
• 1:18:35
  Speaker 4: plan of creation, we cannot improve it through any antagonistic
• 1:18:39
  Speaker 4: feeling of our own against creatures or circumstances. Through a quiet,
• 1:18:44
  Speaker 4: gentle tolerance, we leave ourselves free to be carried by
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 4: the laws. Truth is greater than we are, and if
• 1:18:51
  Speaker 4: we can be the means of writing any wrong, it
• 1:18:54
  Speaker 4: is by giving up the presumption that we can carry truth,
• 1:18:58
  Speaker 4: and by standing free and ready to let truth carry us.
• 1:19:03
  Speaker 4: The same willingness that is practiced in relation to persons
• 1:19:06
  Speaker 4: will be found equally effective in relation to the circumstances
• 1:19:10
  Speaker 4: of life, from the losing of a train to matters
• 1:19:14
  Speaker 4: far greater and more important. There is as much intolerance
• 1:19:17
  Speaker 4: to be dropped in our relations to various happenings as
• 1:19:21
  Speaker 4: in our relations to persons, and the relief to our
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 4: nerves is just as great, perhaps even greater. It seems
• 1:19:28
  Speaker 4: to be clear that heretofore we have not realized either
• 1:19:32
  Speaker 4: the relief or the strength of an entire willingness that
• 1:19:35
  Speaker 4: people and things should progress in their own way. How
• 1:19:39
  Speaker 4: can we ever gain freedom whilst we are entangled in
• 1:19:42
  Speaker 4: the contractions of intolerance. Freedom and a healthy nervous system
• 1:19:46
  Speaker 4: are synonymous. We cannot have one without the other. End
• 1:19:52
  Speaker 4: of Section six read by Sandra Near, Montreal, twenty twenty five.
• 1:20:03
  Speaker 3: Section seven of As a matter of course, this is
• 1:20:07
  Speaker 3: a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
• 1:20:12
  Speaker 3: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
• 1:20:17
  Speaker 3: Read by Sinde j M. As a matter of course
• 1:20:21
  Speaker 3: by Annie Payson call chapter eight sympathy. Sympathy in its
• 1:20:28
  Speaker 3: best sense is the ability to take another's point of view,
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 3: not to mourn because he mourns, not to feel injured
• 1:20:35
  Speaker 3: because he feels injured. There are times when we cannot
• 1:20:38
  Speaker 3: agree with a friend in the necessity for mourning or
• 1:20:41
  Speaker 3: feeling injured, but we can understand the cause of his
• 1:20:45
  Speaker 3: disturbance and see clearly that his suffering is quite reasonable
• 1:20:49
  Speaker 3: from his own point of view. One cannot blame a
• 1:20:52
  Speaker 3: man for being color blind, but by thoroughly understanding and
• 1:20:56
  Speaker 3: sympathizing with the fact that red must be green as
• 1:20:59
  Speaker 3: he sees it, one can help him to bring his
• 1:21:02
  Speaker 3: mental retina to a more normal state, until every color
• 1:21:06
  Speaker 3: is taken at its proper value. This broader sort of
• 1:21:10
  Speaker 3: sympathy enables us to serve others much more truly. If
• 1:21:14
  Speaker 3: we feel at one with a man who is suffering
• 1:21:17
  Speaker 3: from a supposed injury which may be entirely his own fault,
• 1:21:21
  Speaker 3: we are doing all in our power to confirm him
• 1:21:24
  Speaker 3: in his mistake, and his impression of martyrdom is increased
• 1:21:28
  Speaker 3: and protracted in proportion. But if with a genuine comprehension
• 1:21:33
  Speaker 3: of his point of view, however unreal it may be
• 1:21:36
  Speaker 3: in itself, We do our best to see his trouble
• 1:21:40
  Speaker 3: in an unprejudiced light. That is sympathy. Indeed, for our
• 1:21:46
  Speaker 3: real sympathy is with the man himself, cleared from his
• 1:21:49
  Speaker 3: selfish fog. What is called our sympathy with his point
• 1:21:53
  Speaker 3: of view is more a matter of understanding. The sympathy
• 1:21:57
  Speaker 3: which takes the man for all and all and includes
• 1:22:01
  Speaker 3: the comprehension of his prejudices, will enable us to hold
• 1:22:05
  Speaker 3: our tongues with regard to his prejudice view until he
• 1:22:08
  Speaker 3: sees for himself or comes to us for advice. It
• 1:22:14
  Speaker 3: is interesting to note how this sympathy with another enables
• 1:22:17
  Speaker 3: us to understand and forgive one from whom we have
• 1:22:21
  Speaker 3: received an injury. His point of view taken his animosity
• 1:22:25
  Speaker 3: against us seems to follow. As a matter of course,
• 1:22:30
  Speaker 3: then no time or force need be wasted on resentment. Again,
• 1:22:35
  Speaker 3: you cannot blame a man for being blind, even though
• 1:22:38
  Speaker 3: his blindness may be absolutely and entirely selfish, and you
• 1:22:43
  Speaker 3: the sufferer. In consequence, it often follows that the endeavor
• 1:22:48
  Speaker 3: to get a clear understanding of another's view brings to
• 1:22:52
  Speaker 3: notice many mistaken ideas of our own, and thus enables
• 1:22:56
  Speaker 3: us to gain a better standpoint. It certainly helps us
• 1:23:00
  Speaker 3: us to endure patience, whereas a positive refusal to regard
• 1:23:04
  Speaker 3: the prejudices of another is rasping to our own nerves
• 1:23:08
  Speaker 3: and helps to fix him in whatever contraction may have
• 1:23:11
  Speaker 3: possessed him. There can be no doubt that this open
• 1:23:15
  Speaker 3: sympathy is one of the better phases of our human intercourse,
• 1:23:19
  Speaker 3: most to be desired. It requires a clear head and
• 1:23:22
  Speaker 3: a warm heart to understand the prejudices of a friend
• 1:23:25
  Speaker 3: or an enemy, and to sympathize with his capabilities enough
• 1:23:29
  Speaker 3: to help him to clearer mental vision. Often, to be sure,
• 1:23:34
  Speaker 3: there are two points of view, both equally true, but
• 1:23:38
  Speaker 3: they generally converge into one, and that one is more
• 1:23:42
  Speaker 3: easily found through not disputing our own with another's. Through
• 1:23:47
  Speaker 3: sympathy with him, we are enabled to see the right
• 1:23:50
  Speaker 3: on both sides and reach the central point. It is
• 1:23:54
  Speaker 3: singular that it takes us so long to recognize this
• 1:23:57
  Speaker 3: breadth of sympathy and practice it. Its practice would relieve
• 1:24:01
  Speaker 3: us of an immense amount of unnecessary nerve strain, But
• 1:24:05
  Speaker 3: the nerve relief is the mere beginning of gain to come.
• 1:24:10
  Speaker 3: It steadily opens a clearer knowledge and a heartier appreciation
• 1:24:14
  Speaker 3: of human nature. We see in individuals traits of character,
• 1:24:19
  Speaker 3: good and bad, that we never could have recognized whilst
• 1:24:22
  Speaker 3: blinded by our own personal prejudices. By becoming alive to
• 1:24:27
  Speaker 3: various little sensitive spots in others, we are unable to
• 1:24:30
  Speaker 3: avoid them and save an endless amount of petty suffering,
• 1:24:34
  Speaker 3: which might increase to suffering that was really severe. One
• 1:24:39
  Speaker 3: good illustration of this want of sympathy in a small
• 1:24:42
  Speaker 3: way is the waiting room of a well known nerve doctor.
• 1:24:46
  Speaker 3: The room is in such a state of confusion, It
• 1:24:49
  Speaker 3: is such a mixture of colors and forms that it
• 1:24:53
  Speaker 3: would be fatiguing even for a person in tolerable health
• 1:24:56
  Speaker 3: to stay there for an hour. Yet the doctor keeps
• 1:24:59
  Speaker 3: his sensitive, nervously excited patient sitting in this heterogeneous mass
• 1:25:04
  Speaker 3: of discordant objects, hour after hour. Surely it is no
• 1:25:08
  Speaker 3: psychological subtlety of insight that gives a man of this
• 1:25:12
  Speaker 3: type his name and fame. It must be the feeding
• 1:25:16
  Speaker 3: and resting process alone. For a man of sensitive sympathy
• 1:25:20
  Speaker 3: would study to save his patients by taking their point
• 1:25:23
  Speaker 3: of view as well as to bring them to a
• 1:25:26
  Speaker 3: better physical state through nourishment and rest. The ability to
• 1:25:30
  Speaker 3: take a nervous sufferer's point of view is greatly needed.
• 1:25:34
  Speaker 3: There can be no doubt that with that effort on
• 1:25:37
  Speaker 3: the part of friends and relatives, many cases of severe
• 1:25:40
  Speaker 3: nervous prostration might be saved. Certainly, much nervous suffering could
• 1:25:44
  Speaker 3: be prevented. A woman who is suffering from a nervous
• 1:25:47
  Speaker 3: conscience writes a note which shows that she is worrying
• 1:25:51
  Speaker 3: over this or that supposed mistake, or as to what
• 1:25:55
  Speaker 3: your attitude is toward her. A prompt, kind and direct,
• 1:25:59
  Speaker 3: and will save her at once from further nervous suffering
• 1:26:03
  Speaker 3: of that sort. To keep an anxious person, whether he
• 1:26:07
  Speaker 3: be sick or well, watching the males is a want
• 1:26:10
  Speaker 3: of sympathy, which is also shown in many other ways,
• 1:26:14
  Speaker 3: unimportant perhaps to us, but important if we are broad
• 1:26:18
  Speaker 3: enough to take the other's point of view. There are
• 1:26:22
  Speaker 3: many foolish little troubles from which men and women suffer
• 1:26:26
  Speaker 3: that come only from tired nerves. A wise patience with
• 1:26:30
  Speaker 3: such anxieties will help greatly towards removing their cause. A
• 1:26:35
  Speaker 3: wise patience is not indulgence, an elaborate, nervous letter of
• 1:26:39
  Speaker 3: great length is better answered by a short, but very
• 1:26:42
  Speaker 3: kind note. The sympathy which enables us to understand the
• 1:26:47
  Speaker 3: point of view of tired nerves gives us the power
• 1:26:50
  Speaker 3: to be lovingly brief in our response to them, and
• 1:26:54
  Speaker 3: at the same time more satisfying than if we responded
• 1:26:58
  Speaker 3: at length. Most of us take human nature as a
• 1:27:01
  Speaker 3: great whole and judge individuals from our idea in general,
• 1:27:06
  Speaker 3: or worse, we judge it all from our own personal prejudices.
• 1:27:10
  Speaker 3: There is a grossness about this which we wonder at
• 1:27:14
  Speaker 3: not having seen before. When we compare the finer sensitiveness
• 1:27:19
  Speaker 3: which is surely developed by the steady effort to understand
• 1:27:22
  Speaker 3: another's point of view, we know a whole more perfectly
• 1:27:26
  Speaker 3: as a whole if we have a distinct knowledge of
• 1:27:29
  Speaker 3: the component parts. We can only understand human nature in
• 1:27:33
  Speaker 3: mass through a daily, clearer knowledge of and sympathy with
• 1:27:36
  Speaker 3: its individuals. Every one of us knows the happiness of
• 1:27:40
  Speaker 3: having at least one friend whom he is perfectly sure
• 1:27:43
  Speaker 3: will neither undervalue him nor give him undeserved praise, and
• 1:27:48
  Speaker 3: whose friendship and help he can count upon, no matter
• 1:27:51
  Speaker 3: how great and wrong. He is done as securely as
• 1:27:54
  Speaker 3: he could count upon his loving thought and attention in
• 1:27:57
  Speaker 3: physical illness. Surely it is possible for each of us
• 1:28:00
  Speaker 3: to approach such friendship in our feeling and attitude towards
• 1:28:04
  Speaker 3: everyone who comes in touch with us. It is comparatively
• 1:28:08
  Speaker 3: easy to think of this open sympathy, or even practice
• 1:28:11
  Speaker 3: it in big ways. It is in the little matters
• 1:28:14
  Speaker 3: of everyday life that the difficulty arises. Of course, the
• 1:28:18
  Speaker 3: big ways count for less if they come through a
• 1:28:21
  Speaker 3: brain clogged with little prejudices. Although to some extent one
• 1:28:25
  Speaker 3: must help the other, it cannot be that a man
• 1:28:29
  Speaker 3: has a real open sympathy who limits it to his
• 1:28:32
  Speaker 3: own family and friends. Indeed, the very limit would make
• 1:28:35
  Speaker 3: the open sympathy impossible. One is just as far from
• 1:28:39
  Speaker 3: a clear comprehension of human nature when he limits himself
• 1:28:43
  Speaker 3: by his prejudices for his immediate relatives as when he
• 1:28:47
  Speaker 3: makes himself alone the boundary. Once having gained even the
• 1:28:51
  Speaker 3: beginning of this broader sympathy with others, there follows the
• 1:28:55
  Speaker 3: pleasure of freedom from antagonisms, keener delight in understanding others
• 1:29:00
  Speaker 3: individually and collectively, and greater ability to serve others and
• 1:29:05
  Speaker 3: all these must give an impetus which takes us steadily
• 1:29:09
  Speaker 3: on to greater freedom, to clearer understanding, and to more
• 1:29:13
  Speaker 3: power to serve and to be served. Others have many
• 1:29:16
  Speaker 3: experiences which we have never even touched upon. In that case,
• 1:29:21
  Speaker 3: our ability to understand is necessarily limited. The only thing
• 1:29:25
  Speaker 3: to do is to acknowledge that we cannot see the
• 1:29:27
  Speaker 3: point of view, that we have no experience to start from,
• 1:29:31
  Speaker 3: and to wait with an open mind until we are
• 1:29:33
  Speaker 3: able to understand. Curiously enough. It is precisely these persons
• 1:29:39
  Speaker 3: of limited experience who are most prone to prejudice. I
• 1:29:43
  Speaker 3: have heard a man assert with emphasis that it was
• 1:29:47
  Speaker 3: everyone's duty to be happy, who had apparently not a
• 1:29:51
  Speaker 3: single thing in life to interfere with his own happiness.
• 1:29:54
  Speaker 3: The duty may be clear enough, but he certainly was
• 1:29:57
  Speaker 3: not in a position to recognize its difficulty, And, just
• 1:30:01
  Speaker 3: in proportion with his inability to take another's point of
• 1:30:04
  Speaker 3: view in such difficulty, did he miss his power to
• 1:30:07
  Speaker 3: lead others to this agreeable duty. There are, of course
• 1:30:11
  Speaker 3: innumerable things, little and big, which we shall be enabled
• 1:30:15
  Speaker 3: to give to others and to receive from others. As
• 1:30:18
  Speaker 3: true sympathy grows, the common sense of it all appeals
• 1:30:22
  Speaker 3: to us. Forcibly, who wants to carry about a mass
• 1:30:25
  Speaker 3: of personal prejudices when he can replace them by the warm,
• 1:30:29
  Speaker 3: healthy feeling of sympathetic friendship. Who wants his nerves to
• 1:30:34
  Speaker 3: be steadily irritated by various forms of intolerance, when by
• 1:30:39
  Speaker 3: understanding the other's point of view, he can replace these
• 1:30:42
  Speaker 3: by better forms of patience. This lower relief is little
• 1:30:47
  Speaker 3: compared with the higher power gained, but it is the
• 1:30:50
  Speaker 3: first step up, and the steps beyond go ever upward.
• 1:30:54
  Speaker 3: Human nature is worth knowing and worth loving, and it
• 1:30:57
  Speaker 3: can never be known or loved without open sympathy. Why
• 1:31:02
  Speaker 3: we ourselves are human nature. Many of us would be
• 1:31:06
  Speaker 3: glad to give sympathy to others, especially in little ways,
• 1:31:09
  Speaker 3: but we do not know how to go to work
• 1:31:11
  Speaker 3: about it. We seem always to be doing the wrong
• 1:31:14
  Speaker 3: thing when our desire is to do the right. This comes,
• 1:31:18
  Speaker 3: of course from the same inability to take the other's
• 1:31:20
  Speaker 3: point of view, and the ability is gained as we
• 1:31:23
  Speaker 3: are quiet and watch for it. Practice here, as in
• 1:31:28
  Speaker 3: everything else, is what helps, and the object is well
• 1:31:32
  Speaker 3: worth working for. End of Section.
• 1:31:36
  Speaker 4: Seven Section eight of As a matter of course, this
• 1:31:47
  Speaker 4: is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
• 1:31:50
  Speaker 4: public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
• 1:31:56
  Speaker 4: LibriVox dot org. As a matter of course, by any patient,
• 1:32:00
  Speaker 4: call others. How to live at peace with others is
• 1:32:05
  Speaker 4: a problem which, if practically solved, would relieve the nervous
• 1:32:09
  Speaker 4: system of a great weight and give to living a
• 1:32:12
  Speaker 4: lightness and ease that might for a time seem weirdly unnatural.
• 1:32:17
  Speaker 4: It would certainly decrease the income of the nerve specialists,
• 1:32:21
  Speaker 4: to the extent of depriving those gentlemen of many luxuries
• 1:32:24
  Speaker 4: they now enjoy. Peace does not mean an outside civility
• 1:32:29
  Speaker 4: with an inside dislike or annoyance. In that case, the
• 1:32:33
  Speaker 4: repressed antagonism not only increases the brain impression and wears
• 1:32:38
  Speaker 4: upon the nervous system, but it is sure to manifest
• 1:32:41
  Speaker 4: itself some time in one form or another, and the
• 1:32:45
  Speaker 4: longer it is repressed, the worse will be the effect.
• 1:32:49
  Speaker 4: It may be a volcanic eruption that is produced after
• 1:32:52
  Speaker 4: long repression, which simmers down to a chronic interior grumble.
• 1:32:57
  Speaker 4: Or it may be that the repression has caused such
• 1:32:59
  Speaker 4: steadily increasing contraction that an eruption is impossible. In this case,
• 1:33:06
  Speaker 4: life grows heavier and heavier, burdened with the shackles of
• 1:33:09
  Speaker 4: one's own dislikes. If we can only recognize two truths
• 1:33:14
  Speaker 4: in our relations with others, and let these truths become
• 1:33:17
  Speaker 4: to us a matter of course, the worst difficulties are removed. Indeed,
• 1:33:23
  Speaker 4: with these two simple bits of rationality, while in hand,
• 1:33:27
  Speaker 4: we may safely expect to walk amicably side by side
• 1:33:31
  Speaker 4: with our dearest foe. The first is that dislike nine
• 1:33:35
  Speaker 4: times out of ten is simply a cutaneous disorder. That is,
• 1:33:40
  Speaker 4: it is merely an irritation excited by the friction of
• 1:33:43
  Speaker 4: one nervous system upon another. The tiny tempests in the
• 1:33:47
  Speaker 4: tiny tea pots which are caused by this nervous friction.
• 1:33:50
  Speaker 4: The great weight attached to the most trivial matters of
• 1:33:53
  Speaker 4: dispute would touch one sense of humor keenly if it
• 1:33:57
  Speaker 4: were not that in so many cases these tiny tempestsstes
• 1:34:00
  Speaker 4: develop into real hurricanes. Take for example, two dear and
• 1:34:05
  Speaker 4: intimate friends who have lived happily together for years. Neither
• 1:34:09
  Speaker 4: has a disposition which is perfect, but that fact has
• 1:34:12
  Speaker 4: never interfered with their friendship. Both get overtired words are
• 1:34:17
  Speaker 4: spoken which sound intensely disagreeable, even cruel. They really express
• 1:34:22
  Speaker 4: nothing in the world but tired nerves. They are received
• 1:34:27
  Speaker 4: and misinterpreted by tired nerves on the other side. So
• 1:34:31
  Speaker 4: these two sets of nerves act and react upon one another,
• 1:34:35
  Speaker 4: and from nothing at all is evolved an ill feeling, which,
• 1:34:38
  Speaker 4: if allowed to grow, separates the friends. Each is fully
• 1:34:42
  Speaker 4: persuaded that his cutaneous trouble has profound depth. By a
• 1:34:47
  Speaker 4: persistent refusal of all healing salves, it sometimes sinks in
• 1:34:51
  Speaker 4: until the disease becomes really deep seated. All this is
• 1:34:55
  Speaker 4: so unnecessary. Through the same mistake, many of us carry
• 1:35:00
  Speaker 4: minor dislikes, which, on account of their number and their
• 1:35:03
  Speaker 4: very pettiness, are wearing upon the nerves and keep us
• 1:35:07
  Speaker 4: from our best in whatever direction we may be working.
• 1:35:11
  Speaker 4: The remedy for all these seems very clear when once
• 1:35:14
  Speaker 4: we find it, recognize the shallowness of the disorder, acknowledge
• 1:35:19
  Speaker 4: that it is a mere matter of nerves, and avoid
• 1:35:22
  Speaker 4: the friction. Keep your distance. It is perfectly possible, and
• 1:35:27
  Speaker 4: very uncomfortable, to keep your distance from the irritating peculiarities
• 1:35:31
  Speaker 4: of another while having daily and familiar relations with him
• 1:35:34
  Speaker 4: or her the difficulties in getting to a distance when
• 1:35:38
  Speaker 4: we have allowed ourselves to be over near, But that
• 1:35:41
  Speaker 4: too can be accomplished with patience, And by keeping a
• 1:35:45
  Speaker 4: nervous distance, so to speak, we are not only relieved
• 1:35:49
  Speaker 4: from irritation, but we find a much more delightful friendship.
• 1:35:53
  Speaker 4: We see and enjoy the qualities in another which the
• 1:35:56
  Speaker 4: petty irritations had entirely obscured from our view. If we
• 1:36:00
  Speaker 4: do not allow ourselves to be touched by the personal peculiarities,
• 1:36:04
  Speaker 4: we get nearer the individual himself. To give a simple example,
• 1:36:09
  Speaker 4: which would perhaps seem absurd if it had not been
• 1:36:11
  Speaker 4: proved true so many times, a man was so annoyed
• 1:36:15
  Speaker 4: by his friend's state of nervous excitability that, in taking
• 1:36:18
  Speaker 4: a regular morning walk with him, which he might have
• 1:36:21
  Speaker 4: enjoyed heartily, he always returned fagged oubt. He tried, whilst
• 1:36:25
  Speaker 4: walking beside his friend, to put himself in imagination on
• 1:36:28
  Speaker 4: the other side of the street. The nervous irritation lessened
• 1:36:32
  Speaker 4: and finally ceased, The walk was delightful, and a friend
• 1:36:36
  Speaker 4: never suspected. A Japanese crowd is so well bred that
• 1:36:40
  Speaker 4: no one person touches another. One need never jostle, but
• 1:36:45
  Speaker 4: with an occasional I beg your pardon, we can circulate
• 1:36:48
  Speaker 4: with perfect ease. In such a crowd, there can be
• 1:36:52
  Speaker 4: no irritation. There is a certain good breeding which leads
• 1:36:56
  Speaker 4: us to avoid friction with another's nervous system. It must, however,
• 1:37:01
  Speaker 4: be an avoidance inside as well as outside. The subterfuge
• 1:37:05
  Speaker 4: of holding one's tongue never works. In the end, there
• 1:37:08
  Speaker 4: is a subtle communication from one nervous system to another,
• 1:37:11
  Speaker 4: which is more insinuating than any verbal intercourse. Those nearest
• 1:37:16
  Speaker 4: us and whom we really love best are often the
• 1:37:19
  Speaker 4: very persons by whom we are most annoyed. As we
• 1:37:22
  Speaker 4: learn to keep a courteous distance from their personal peculiarities,
• 1:37:26
  Speaker 4: our love grows stronger and more real, and an open
• 1:37:30
  Speaker 4: frankness in our relation is more nearly possible. Strangely enough, too,
• 1:37:35
  Speaker 4: the personal peculiarities sometimes disappear. It is possible, and quite
• 1:37:41
  Speaker 4: as necessary, to treat one's own nervous system with this
• 1:37:44
  Speaker 4: distant courtesy. This brings us to the second simple truth.
• 1:37:49
  Speaker 4: In nine cases out of ten, the cause of this
• 1:37:52
  Speaker 4: nervous irritation is in ourselves. If a man loses his
• 1:37:56
  Speaker 4: temper and rouses us to a return attack. How can
• 1:38:00
  Speaker 4: we blame him? Are we not quite as bad in
• 1:38:02
  Speaker 4: getting back? To be sure? He began it? But did he?
• 1:38:08
  Speaker 4: How do we know what roused him? Then? Too? He
• 1:38:12
  Speaker 4: might have poured volleys of abuse upon us and not
• 1:38:14
  Speaker 4: provoked an angry retort if the temper had not been
• 1:38:17
  Speaker 4: latent within us to begin with. So it is with
• 1:38:20
  Speaker 4: minor matters, in direct proportion to our freedom from others?
• 1:38:25
  Speaker 4: Is our power for appreciating their good points just in
• 1:38:28
  Speaker 4: proportion to our slavery to their tricks and their habits.
• 1:38:31
  Speaker 4: Are we blinded to their good points and open to
• 1:38:34
  Speaker 4: increased irritation from their bad ones? It is curious that
• 1:38:38
  Speaker 4: it should work that way, but it does. If there
• 1:38:42
  Speaker 4: is nothing in us to be roused, we are all free.
• 1:38:45
  Speaker 4: If we're not free, it is because there is something
• 1:38:48
  Speaker 4: in us akin to that which rouses us. This is
• 1:38:51
  Speaker 4: hard to acknowledge, but it puts our attitude to others
• 1:38:55
  Speaker 4: on a good, clean basis and brings us into reality
• 1:38:58
  Speaker 4: and out of private theater, not to mention a clearing
• 1:39:02
  Speaker 4: of the nervous system, which gives us new power. There
• 1:39:05
  Speaker 4: is one trouble in dealing with people, which does not
• 1:39:08
  Speaker 4: affect all of us, but which causes enough pain and
• 1:39:11
  Speaker 4: suffering to those who are under its influence to make
• 1:39:14
  Speaker 4: up for the immunity of the rest. That is the
• 1:39:17
  Speaker 4: strong feeling that many of us have that it is
• 1:39:20
  Speaker 4: our duty to reform those about us whose life and
• 1:39:23
  Speaker 4: ways are not according to our ideas of right. No
• 1:39:28
  Speaker 4: one ever forced another to reform against the others will.
• 1:39:31
  Speaker 4: It may have appeared so, but there is sure to
• 1:39:34
  Speaker 4: be a reaction sooner or later. The number of nervous systems, however,
• 1:39:39
  Speaker 4: that have been overwrought by this effort to turn others
• 1:39:42
  Speaker 4: to better ways is sad, indeed, and in many instances
• 1:39:46
  Speaker 4: the owners of these nervous systems will pose to themselves
• 1:39:49
  Speaker 4: as martyrs, and they are quite sincere. In such posing,
• 1:39:53
  Speaker 4: they are living in their own impressions of themselves and
• 1:39:57
  Speaker 4: wearing themselves out in consequence. If they really wanted right
• 1:40:01
  Speaker 4: for the sake of right, they would do all in
• 1:40:04
  Speaker 4: their power without intruding, would recognize the other as a
• 1:40:08
  Speaker 4: free agent and wait. But they want right because it
• 1:40:12
  Speaker 4: is their way. Consequently, they are crushed by useless anxiety
• 1:40:17
  Speaker 4: and suffer superfluously. This is true of those who feel
• 1:40:21
  Speaker 4: themselves under the necessity of reforming all who come in
• 1:40:24
  Speaker 4: touch with them. It is more sadly true of those
• 1:40:27
  Speaker 4: whose near friends seem steadily to be working out their
• 1:40:30
  Speaker 4: own destruction. To stand aside and be patient in this
• 1:40:34
  Speaker 4: last case requires strength, indeed, but such patience clears one's
• 1:40:39
  Speaker 4: mind to see and gives power to act when action
• 1:40:43
  Speaker 4: can prove effective. Indeed, as the ability to leave others
• 1:40:48
  Speaker 4: free grows in us, our power really to serve increases.
• 1:40:53
  Speaker 4: The relief to the nervous system of dropping mistaken responsibility
• 1:40:57
  Speaker 4: cannot be computed, for it is by means of the
• 1:41:00
  Speaker 4: nervous system that we deal with others. It is the
• 1:41:02
  Speaker 4: medium of our expression and of our impression. And as
• 1:41:06
  Speaker 4: it is cleared of its false contractions, does it not
• 1:41:09
  Speaker 4: seem probable that we might be open to an exquisite
• 1:41:13
  Speaker 4: delight in companionship that we never knew before, and that
• 1:41:17
  Speaker 4: our appreciation of human nature would increase indefinitely. Suppose when
• 1:41:23
  Speaker 4: we find another whose ways are quite different from ours,
• 1:41:26
  Speaker 4: we immediately contract and draw away, with the feeling that
• 1:41:29
  Speaker 4: there's nothing in him for us. Or suppose instead that
• 1:41:33
  Speaker 4: we look into his ways with real interest. In having
• 1:41:35
  Speaker 4: found a new phase of human nature, which would be
• 1:41:39
  Speaker 4: the more broadening process on the whole or the more delightful.
• 1:41:43
  Speaker 4: Frequently the contraction takes more time and attention than would
• 1:41:47
  Speaker 4: an effort to understand the strange ways. We are almost
• 1:41:50
  Speaker 4: always sure to find something in others to which we
• 1:41:53
  Speaker 4: can respond, and which awakens a new power in us,
• 1:41:57
  Speaker 4: if only a new power of sympathy. To sum it
• 1:42:00
  Speaker 4: all up. The best way to deal with others seems
• 1:42:03
  Speaker 4: to be to avoid nervous friction of any sort, inside
• 1:42:06
  Speaker 4: or out, to harbor no ill will towards another, for
• 1:42:10
  Speaker 4: selfishness roused in one's self, to be urged by no
• 1:42:14
  Speaker 4: presumptive sense of responsibility, and to remember that we are
• 1:42:18
  Speaker 4: all in the same world and under the same laws.
• 1:42:22
  Speaker 4: A loving sympathy with human nature in general leads us
• 1:42:25
  Speaker 4: first to obey the laws ourselves, and gives us a
• 1:42:28
  Speaker 4: fellow feeling with individuals, which means new strength on both sides.
• 1:42:34
  Speaker 4: To take this as a matter of course does not
• 1:42:36
  Speaker 4: seem impossible. It is simply casting the skin of the
• 1:42:40
  Speaker 4: savage and rising to another plain, where there will doubtless
• 1:42:44
  Speaker 4: be new problems better worth attention. End of Section eight
• 1:42:49
  Speaker 4: read by Sandra Near, Montreal, twenty twenty five, Section nine
• 1:43:00
  Speaker 4: of As a matter of course, this is a LibriVox recording.
• 1:43:05
  Speaker 4: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
• 1:43:09
  Speaker 4: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. As
• 1:43:14
  Speaker 4: a matter of course, by any patient, call one's self
• 1:43:20
  Speaker 4: to be truly at peace with one's self means rest. Indeed,
• 1:43:25
  Speaker 4: there is a quiet complacency, though, which passes for peace,
• 1:43:29
  Speaker 4: and is like the remarkably clear red and white complexion
• 1:43:32
  Speaker 4: which indicates disease. It will be noticed that the sufferers
• 1:43:37
  Speaker 4: from this complaisant spirit of so called peace shrink from
• 1:43:41
  Speaker 4: openness of any sort from others or to others. They
• 1:43:45
  Speaker 4: will put a disagreeable feeling out of sight with a
• 1:43:48
  Speaker 4: rapidity which would seem to come from inner fright, lest
• 1:43:52
  Speaker 4: they should see and acknowledge themselves in their true guise,
• 1:43:56
  Speaker 4: or they will acknowledge it to a certain extent with
• 1:43:58
  Speaker 4: a pleasure in their own humility, which increases the complacency
• 1:44:03
  Speaker 4: in proportion. This piece is not to be desired with
• 1:44:07
  Speaker 4: those who enjoy it. A true knowledge of or friendship
• 1:44:10
  Speaker 4: with others is as much out of the question as
• 1:44:13
  Speaker 4: a knowledge of themselves, and when it is broken or
• 1:44:16
  Speaker 4: interfered with in any way, the pain is as intense
• 1:44:20
  Speaker 4: and real as the peace was false. The first step
• 1:44:24
  Speaker 4: towards amicable relations with ourselves is to acknowledge that we
• 1:44:28
  Speaker 4: are living with a stranger when it sometimes happens that
• 1:44:32
  Speaker 4: through being annoyed by someone else, we are enable to
• 1:44:35
  Speaker 4: recognize similar disagreeable tendencies in ourselves of which we were
• 1:44:40
  Speaker 4: totally ignorant before. As honest dealing with others always pays
• 1:44:45
  Speaker 4: best in the end, so it is in all relations
• 1:44:48
  Speaker 4: with one's self. There are many times when to be
• 1:44:52
  Speaker 4: quite open with a friend we must wait to be asked.
• 1:44:55
  Speaker 4: With ourselves, no such courtesy is needed. We can speak
• 1:44:59
  Speaker 4: out and done with other and the franker we are,
• 1:45:01
  Speaker 4: the sinner we are free, for unlike other companions. We
• 1:45:05
  Speaker 4: can enjoy ourselves best when we are conspicuous only by
• 1:45:08
  Speaker 4: our absence. It is this constant persistence in clinging to
• 1:45:13
  Speaker 4: ourselves that is most in the way. It increases that
• 1:45:16
  Speaker 4: crown of nervous troubles self consciousness and makes it quite
• 1:45:21
  Speaker 4: impossible that we should ever really know ourselves. If by
• 1:45:24
  Speaker 4: all this we're not ineffable. Bores to ourselves. We certainly
• 1:45:28
  Speaker 4: become so to other people. It is surprising, when once
• 1:45:32
  Speaker 4: we come to recognize it, how we are in an
• 1:45:35
  Speaker 4: almost chronic state of posing to ourselves. Fortunately, a clear
• 1:45:40
  Speaker 4: recognition of the fact is most effectual in stopping the poses,
• 1:45:44
  Speaker 4: But they must be recognized pose by pose, individually and separately,
• 1:45:49
  Speaker 4: stopped and then ignored if we want to free ourselves
• 1:45:53
  Speaker 4: from ourselves entirely. The interior posing habit makes one a
• 1:45:58
  Speaker 4: slave to brain impressions, which puts all freedom out of
• 1:46:01
  Speaker 4: the question. To cease from such posing opens one of
• 1:46:05
  Speaker 4: the most interesting gaits to natural life. We wonder how
• 1:46:10
  Speaker 4: we could have obscured the outside view for so long.
• 1:46:14
  Speaker 4: To find that we cannot or do not, let ourselves
• 1:46:17
  Speaker 4: alone for an hour in the day. Seems the more
• 1:46:19
  Speaker 4: surprising when we remember that there is so much to
• 1:46:22
  Speaker 4: enjoy outside. Egotism is immensely magnified in nervous disorders, but
• 1:46:28
  Speaker 4: that it is the positive cause of much nervous trouble
• 1:46:32
  Speaker 4: has not been generally admitted. Let any one of us
• 1:46:35
  Speaker 4: take a good look at the amount of attention given
• 1:46:37
  Speaker 4: by ourselves to ourselves, then acknowledge, without flinching what amount
• 1:46:42
  Speaker 4: of that attention is unnecessary, and it will clear the
• 1:46:46
  Speaker 4: air delightfully for a moment at any rate. The tendency
• 1:46:50
  Speaker 4: to refer everything, in some way or another to one's self.
• 1:46:53
  Speaker 4: The touchiness and suspicion aroused by nothing but petty jealousy
• 1:46:57
  Speaker 4: as to one's own place, the imagine slights from others,
• 1:47:01
  Speaker 4: the want of consideration given us. All these and many
• 1:47:05
  Speaker 4: more senseless irritations are in this over attention to self.
• 1:47:10
  Speaker 4: The worries about our own moral state take up so
• 1:47:13
  Speaker 4: great a place with many of us as to leave
• 1:47:15
  Speaker 4: no room for any other thought. Indeed, it is not
• 1:47:18
  Speaker 4: uncommon to see a woman worrying so over her faults
• 1:47:22
  Speaker 4: that she has no time to correct them self. Condemnation
• 1:47:26
  Speaker 4: is as great a vanity as its opposite. Either in
• 1:47:29
  Speaker 4: one way or another, there is a steady temptation to
• 1:47:32
  Speaker 4: attend to one's self, and along with it an irritation
• 1:47:35
  Speaker 4: of the nerves which keeps us from any sense of
• 1:47:38
  Speaker 4: real freedom. With most of us, there is no great
• 1:47:42
  Speaker 4: depth to the self disease if it is only stopped
• 1:47:45
  Speaker 4: in time. When once we are well started in the
• 1:47:49
  Speaker 4: wholesome practice of getting rid of ourselves, the process is
• 1:47:52
  Speaker 4: rapid a thorough freedom from self. Once gained, we find
• 1:47:57
  Speaker 4: ourselves quite companionable, which, though paradox oxical, is without doubt
• 1:48:01
  Speaker 4: a truth. Quote that freedom of the soul, writes Phenelon,
• 1:48:06
  Speaker 4: which looks straight onward in its path, losing no time
• 1:48:10
  Speaker 4: to reason upon its steps, to study them, or to
• 1:48:13
  Speaker 4: dwell upon those already taken, is true simplicity. End we
• 1:48:19
  Speaker 4: recognize a mistake, correct it, go on and forget. If
• 1:48:24
  Speaker 4: it appears again, correct it again. Irritation at the second
• 1:48:29
  Speaker 4: or any number of reappearances only increases the brain impression
• 1:48:32
  Speaker 4: of the mistake and makes a tendency to future error greater.
• 1:48:38
  Speaker 4: If opportunity arises to do a good action, take advantage
• 1:48:41
  Speaker 4: of it and silently decline the disadvantage of having your
• 1:48:45
  Speaker 4: attention riveted to it by the praise of others. A
• 1:48:49
  Speaker 4: man who is constantly analyzing his physical state is called
• 1:48:53
  Speaker 4: a hypochondriac. What shall we call the man who is
• 1:48:56
  Speaker 4: constantly analyzing his moral state? As the hypochondriac loses all
• 1:49:01
  Speaker 4: sense of health in holding the impression of disease, so
• 1:49:04
  Speaker 4: the other gradually loses the sense of wholesome relation to
• 1:49:07
  Speaker 4: himself and to others. If a man obeyed the laws
• 1:49:11
  Speaker 4: of health as a matter of course, and turned back
• 1:49:13
  Speaker 4: every time nature convicted him of disobedience, he would never
• 1:49:17
  Speaker 4: feel the need of self analysis so far as his
• 1:49:20
  Speaker 4: physical state was concerned. Just so far as a man
• 1:49:24
  Speaker 4: obeys higher laws as a matter of course and uses
• 1:49:28
  Speaker 4: every mistake to enable him to know the laws better,
• 1:49:31
  Speaker 4: is morbid introspection out of the question with him, man,
• 1:49:35
  Speaker 4: know thyself, but being sure that desire to know thyself,
• 1:49:40
  Speaker 4: do not be impatient with slow progress, pay little attention
• 1:49:44
  Speaker 4: to the process, and forget thyself, except when remembering is
• 1:49:48
  Speaker 4: necessary to a better forgetting. To live at real peace
• 1:49:52
  Speaker 4: with ourselves, we must surely let every little evil imp
• 1:49:56
  Speaker 4: of selfishness show it himself, and not have any skulking around.
• 1:50:01
  Speaker 4: Recognize him for his full worthlessness, call him by his
• 1:50:05
  Speaker 4: right name, and move off. Having called him by his
• 1:50:08
  Speaker 4: right name, Our severity with ourselves for harboring him is unnecessary.
• 1:50:13
  Speaker 4: To be gentle with ourselves is quite as important as
• 1:50:16
  Speaker 4: to be gentle with others. Great nervous suffering is caused
• 1:50:19
  Speaker 4: by this over severity to oneself, and freedom is never
• 1:50:23
  Speaker 4: accomplished by that means. Many of us are not severe enough,
• 1:50:27
  Speaker 4: but very many are too severe. One mistake is quite
• 1:50:31
  Speaker 4: as bad as the other, and as disastrous in its effects.
• 1:50:35
  Speaker 4: If we would regard our own state less or careless,
• 1:50:39
  Speaker 4: whether we were happy or unhappy, our freedom from self
• 1:50:43
  Speaker 4: would be gained more rapidly. As a man intensely interested
• 1:50:47
  Speaker 4: in some special work does not notice the weather, So we,
• 1:50:50
  Speaker 4: if we once get hold of the immense interests there
• 1:50:53
  Speaker 4: may be in living, are not moved to any depth
• 1:50:56
  Speaker 4: by changes in the clouds of our personal state. We
• 1:51:00
  Speaker 4: take our moods as a matter of course, and look
• 1:51:02
  Speaker 4: beyond to interests that are greater. Self may be a
• 1:51:06
  Speaker 4: great burden if we allow it. It is only a
• 1:51:08
  Speaker 4: clear window through which we see and are scene if
• 1:51:11
  Speaker 4: we are free, and the repose of such freedom must
• 1:51:15
  Speaker 4: be beyond our conception. Until we have found it to
• 1:51:18
  Speaker 4: be absolutely certain. That we know ourselves at any time
• 1:51:22
  Speaker 4: is one great impediment to reaching such rest. Every bit
• 1:51:26
  Speaker 4: of knowledge gained makes us more doubtful as to knowledge
• 1:51:29
  Speaker 4: to come. It would surprise most of us to see
• 1:51:32
  Speaker 4: how really unimportant we are as a part of the universe.
• 1:51:36
  Speaker 4: Our importance increases just in proportion to the laws that
• 1:51:40
  Speaker 4: work through us. But this self importance is lost to
• 1:51:43
  Speaker 4: us entirely in our greater recognition of the laws. As
• 1:51:47
  Speaker 4: we gain in the sensitive recognition of universal laws, every
• 1:51:52
  Speaker 4: petty bit of self contraction disappears as darkness before the
• 1:51:56
  Speaker 4: rising of the sun. And as section read by Sandra
• 1:52:02
  Speaker 4: Near Montreal, twenty twenty.
• 1:52:04
  Speaker 3: Five, Section ten of as a matter of course, this
• 1:52:14
  Speaker 3: is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
• 1:52:18
  Speaker 3: public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
• 1:52:23
  Speaker 3: LibriVox dot org read by Cinda J. M. As a
• 1:52:27
  Speaker 3: matter of course by Annie Payson call chapter eleven. Children
• 1:52:36
  Speaker 3: work for the better progress of the human race is
• 1:52:38
  Speaker 3: most effective when it is done through the children, For
• 1:52:41
  Speaker 3: children are future generations. The freedom in mature life gained
• 1:52:45
  Speaker 3: by training that would enable the child to avoid nervous
• 1:52:49
  Speaker 3: irritants is of course greatly in the advance of most
• 1:52:52
  Speaker 3: individual freedom today. This real freedom is the spirit of
• 1:52:56
  Speaker 3: the kindergarten. But Froebel's method, as practiced, does not attack
• 1:53:01
  Speaker 3: and put to rout all these various nervous irritants which
• 1:53:04
  Speaker 3: are the enemies of our civilization. To be sure, the
• 1:53:08
  Speaker 3: teaching of his philosophy develops such a nature that much
• 1:53:12
  Speaker 3: pettiness is thrown off without even being noticed as a snare,
• 1:53:16
  Speaker 3: and Frobel helps one to recognize all pettiness more rapidly.
• 1:53:21
  Speaker 3: There are, however, many forms of nervous irritation which one
• 1:53:24
  Speaker 3: is not warned against in the kindergarten, and the absence
• 1:53:28
  Speaker 3: of which, if the child is taught as a matter
• 1:53:30
  Speaker 3: of course to avoid them, will give him a freedom
• 1:53:33
  Speaker 3: that his elders and betters lack. The essential fact of
• 1:53:38
  Speaker 3: this training is that it is only truly effectual when
• 1:53:42
  Speaker 3: coming from example rather than precept. A child is exquisitely
• 1:53:47
  Speaker 3: sensitive to the shortcomings of others, and very keen, as
• 1:53:50
  Speaker 3: well as correct in his criticism, whether expressed or unexpressed.
• 1:53:55
  Speaker 3: In so far as a man consents to be taught
• 1:53:57
  Speaker 3: by children, does he not only remain young, but he
• 1:54:01
  Speaker 3: frees himself from the habit of impeding his own progress.
• 1:54:05
  Speaker 3: This is a great impediment, this unwillingness to be taught
• 1:54:09
  Speaker 3: by those whom we consider more ignorant than ourselves, because
• 1:54:12
  Speaker 3: they have not been in the world so long. Did
• 1:54:15
  Speaker 3: no one ever take into account the possibility of our
• 1:54:18
  Speaker 3: eyes being blinded just because they have been exposed to
• 1:54:21
  Speaker 3: the dust longer Certainly, one possible way of clearing this
• 1:54:25
  Speaker 3: dust and avoiding it is to learn from observing those
• 1:54:29
  Speaker 3: who have had less of it to contend with. Indeed,
• 1:54:32
  Speaker 3: one might go so far as to say that no
• 1:54:35
  Speaker 3: training of any child could be effectual to a lasting
• 1:54:38
  Speaker 3: degree unless the education was mutual. When Robol says, come,
• 1:54:44
  Speaker 3: let us live with our children, he does not mean
• 1:54:47
  Speaker 3: come let us stoop to our children. He means let
• 1:54:51
  Speaker 3: us be at one with them. Surely, a more perfect
• 1:54:54
  Speaker 3: harmony in these two great phases of human nature, the
• 1:54:57
  Speaker 3: child and the man, would be greatly to the advantage
• 1:55:01
  Speaker 3: of the latter. Yet to begin at the beginning. Whoever
• 1:55:06
  Speaker 3: feels the necessity of treating a baby with respect, how
• 1:55:10
  Speaker 3: quickly the baby would resent intrusive attentions if it knew
• 1:55:13
  Speaker 3: how Indeed, I have seen a baby not a year old,
• 1:55:17
  Speaker 3: resent being transferred from one person to another with an
• 1:55:20
  Speaker 3: expression of the face that was most eloquent. Women seem
• 1:55:24
  Speaker 3: so full of their sense of possession of a baby
• 1:55:27
  Speaker 3: that this eloquence is not even observed, and the poor
• 1:55:30
  Speaker 3: child's nervous irritants begin at a very early age. There
• 1:55:35
  Speaker 3: is so much to be gained by keeping at a
• 1:55:37
  Speaker 3: respectful nervous distance from a baby, that one has only
• 1:55:41
  Speaker 3: to be quiet enough to perceive the new pleasure once
• 1:55:44
  Speaker 3: to lose the temptation to interfere and imagine the relief
• 1:55:48
  Speaker 3: to the baby. It is, after all, the sense of
• 1:55:51
  Speaker 3: possession that makes the trouble, and this sense is so
• 1:55:55
  Speaker 3: strong that there are babies all the way from twenty
• 1:55:59
  Speaker 3: to forty whose individuality is intruded upon so grossly that
• 1:56:04
  Speaker 3: they have never known what freedom is, and when they
• 1:56:07
  Speaker 3: venture to struggle for it, their suffering is intense. This
• 1:56:11
  Speaker 3: is a steadily increasing nervous contraction, both in the case
• 1:56:15
  Speaker 3: of the possessed and the possess ore and perfect nervous
• 1:56:19
  Speaker 3: health is not possible on either side. To begin by
• 1:56:23
  Speaker 3: respecting the individuality of the baby would put this last
• 1:56:27
  Speaker 3: abnormal attitude of parent and child out of the question.
• 1:56:30
  Speaker 3: Curiously enough, there is, in some of the worst phases
• 1:56:33
  Speaker 3: of this parent child contraction an external appearance of freedom
• 1:56:37
  Speaker 3: which only enhances the internal slavery. When a man who
• 1:56:42
  Speaker 3: has never known what it was in reality to give
• 1:56:45
  Speaker 3: up a strong will prides himself upon the freedom he
• 1:56:49
  Speaker 3: gives to his child, he is entangling himself in the
• 1:56:53
  Speaker 3: meshes of self deception and either depriving another of his
• 1:56:57
  Speaker 3: own or ripening him for a good hearty hatred, which
• 1:57:01
  Speaker 3: may at any time mean volcanos and earthquakes to both.
• 1:57:06
  Speaker 3: This forcible resentment of and resistance to the strong will
• 1:57:11
  Speaker 3: of another is a cause of great nervous suffering. The
• 1:57:14
  Speaker 3: greater as the expression of such feeling is repressed. Severe
• 1:57:19
  Speaker 3: illness may easily be the result. To train a child
• 1:57:23
  Speaker 3: to gain freedom from the various nervous irritants, one must
• 1:57:26
  Speaker 3: not only be gaining the same freedom oneself, but must
• 1:57:31
  Speaker 3: practice meeting the child in a way he is counseled
• 1:57:33
  Speaker 3: to meet others. One must refuse to be in any
• 1:57:36
  Speaker 3: way a nervous irritant to the child. In that case,
• 1:57:40
  Speaker 3: quite as much instruction is received as given. A child, too,
• 1:57:44
  Speaker 3: is doubly sensitive. He not only feels the intrusion on
• 1:57:48
  Speaker 3: his own individuality, but the irritable or self willed attitude
• 1:57:52
  Speaker 3: of another. In expressing such intrusion. Similarly, in keeping a
• 1:57:57
  Speaker 3: respectful distance, a teacher grows sensitive to the child, and
• 1:58:01
  Speaker 3: again the help is mutual, with sometimes a balance in
• 1:58:04
  Speaker 3: favor of the child. This mistaken parent child attitude is
• 1:58:09
  Speaker 3: often the cause of severe nervous suffering in those whose
• 1:58:12
  Speaker 3: only relation is that of friendship. When one mind is
• 1:58:16
  Speaker 3: stronger than the other, sometimes there is not any real
• 1:58:20
  Speaker 3: superior strength on the one side. It is simply by
• 1:58:23
  Speaker 3: the greater grossness of the will that the other is overcome.
• 1:58:28
  Speaker 3: This very grossness blinds one completely to the individuality of
• 1:58:32
  Speaker 3: a finer strength. The finer individual succumbs because he cannot
• 1:58:36
  Speaker 3: compete with crowbars and the parent child contraction is the
• 1:58:40
  Speaker 3: disastrous result. To preserve for a child a normal nervous system,
• 1:58:45
  Speaker 3: one must guide, but not limit him. It is a
• 1:58:48
  Speaker 3: sad sight to see a mother impressing upon a little
• 1:58:50
  Speaker 3: brain that its owner is a naughty, naughty boy, especially
• 1:58:55
  Speaker 3: when such impression is increased by the irritability of the mother.
• 1:58:59
  Speaker 3: One hardly dares to think how many more grooves are
• 1:59:01
  Speaker 3: made in the child's brain which simply give him contractions
• 1:59:05
  Speaker 3: to take into mature life with him. How many trivial
• 1:59:09
  Speaker 3: happenings are made to assume a monstrous form through being misrepresented.
• 1:59:14
  Speaker 3: It is worthwhile to think of such dangers such warping influences,
• 1:59:18
  Speaker 3: only long enough to avoid them. A child's imagination is
• 1:59:22
  Speaker 3: so exquisitely alive. His whole little being is so responsive
• 1:59:27
  Speaker 3: that the guidance which can be given him through happy
• 1:59:30
  Speaker 3: brain impressions is eminently practicable. To detest this responsiveness and
• 1:59:37
  Speaker 3: feel it more keenly, just tell a child a dramatic
• 1:59:40
  Speaker 3: story and watch his face respond, or even recite a
• 1:59:45
  Speaker 3: mother Goose rhyme with all the expression at your command.
• 1:59:48
  Speaker 3: The little face changes in rapid succession, as one event
• 1:59:52
  Speaker 3: after another is related in a way to put a
• 1:59:55
  Speaker 3: modern actor to shame. If the response is so quick
• 1:59:59
  Speaker 3: on the outside, it must be at least equally active within.
• 2:00:04
  Speaker 3: One might as well try to make a white rose
• 2:00:07
  Speaker 3: red by rouging its pedals, as to mold a child
• 2:00:11
  Speaker 3: according to one's own idea of what he should be.
• 2:00:14
  Speaker 3: And as the beauty and delicacy of the rose would
• 2:00:17
  Speaker 3: be spoiled by the application of the pigment, so is
• 2:00:20
  Speaker 3: the baby's nervous system twisted and contracted by the limiting
• 2:00:24
  Speaker 3: force of a grosser will water the rose, put it
• 2:00:28
  Speaker 3: in the sun, keep the insect enemies away, and then
• 2:00:31
  Speaker 3: enjoy it for itself. Give the child everything that is
• 2:00:36
  Speaker 3: consistent with its best growth, but neither force the growth
• 2:00:40
  Speaker 3: nor limit it, and stand far enough off to see
• 2:00:43
  Speaker 3: the individuality, to enjoy it and profit by it. Use
• 2:00:48
  Speaker 3: the child's imagination to calm and strengthen it, Give it
• 2:00:51
  Speaker 3: happy channels for its activity, guide it physically to the
• 2:00:55
  Speaker 3: rhythm of fresh air, nourishment, and rest. Then do not
• 2:00:59
  Speaker 3: interer fear if the man never turns to thank you
• 2:01:03
  Speaker 3: for such guidance, because it all came. As a matter
• 2:01:06
  Speaker 3: of course, a wholesome, powerful, nervous system will speak thanks
• 2:01:11
  Speaker 3: daily with more eloquence than any words could ever express.
• 2:01:17
  Speaker 3: End of section ten. Section eleven of as a matter
• 2:01:26
  Speaker 3: of course, this is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings
• 2:01:32
  Speaker 3: are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer,
• 2:01:36
  Speaker 3: please visit LibriVox dot org. Read by Cinda J. M.
• 2:01:41
  Speaker 3: As a matter of course by Annie Payson, call illness
• 2:01:48
  Speaker 3: as far as we make circumstances guides and not limitations,
• 2:01:52
  Speaker 3: they serve us. Otherwise we serve them and suffer accordingly,
• 2:01:57
  Speaker 3: just in proportion two to our own. Allowing circumstances to
• 2:02:01
  Speaker 3: be limits, do we resist them. Such resistance is a
• 2:02:05
  Speaker 3: nervous strain which disables us physically and of course puts
• 2:02:09
  Speaker 3: us more in the clutches of what appears to be
• 2:02:12
  Speaker 3: our misfortune. The moment we begin to regard every circumstance
• 2:02:16
  Speaker 3: as an opportunity, the tables are turned on fate, and
• 2:02:19
  Speaker 3: we have the upper hand of her. When we come
• 2:02:22
  Speaker 3: to think of it, How much common sense there is
• 2:02:25
  Speaker 3: in making the best of every opportunity, and what a
• 2:02:29
  Speaker 3: lack of sense in chafing at that which we choose
• 2:02:32
  Speaker 3: to call our limitations. The former way is sure to
• 2:02:36
  Speaker 3: bring a good result of some sort, be it ever
• 2:02:39
  Speaker 3: so small. The latter wears upon our nerves, blinds our
• 2:02:43
  Speaker 3: mental vision, and certainly does not cultivate the spirit of
• 2:02:46
  Speaker 3: freedom in us. How absurd it would seem if a
• 2:02:51
  Speaker 3: wounded man were to expose his wound to unnecessary friction
• 2:02:55
  Speaker 3: and then complain that it did not heal. Yet that
• 2:02:59
  Speaker 3: is what many of us have done, at one time
• 2:03:00
  Speaker 3: or another, when prevented by illness from carrying out our
• 2:03:04
  Speaker 3: plans in life, just as we had arranged. It matters
• 2:03:08
  Speaker 3: not whether those plans were for ourselves or for others.
• 2:03:11
  Speaker 3: Chafing and fretting at their interruption is just as absurd,
• 2:03:15
  Speaker 3: and quite as sure to delay our recovery. I know,
• 2:03:20
  Speaker 3: with tears in our eyes, I ought not to complain,
• 2:03:23
  Speaker 3: but it is so hard, to which common sense may
• 2:03:26
  Speaker 3: truly answer. If it is hard, you want to get well,
• 2:03:30
  Speaker 3: don't you, then why do you not take every means
• 2:03:33
  Speaker 3: to get well, instead of indulging first in the very
• 2:03:37
  Speaker 3: process that will most tend to keep you ill. Besides this,
• 2:03:43
  Speaker 3: there is a dogged resistance, which remains silent, refuses to
• 2:03:47
  Speaker 3: complain aloud, and yet holds a state of rigidity that
• 2:03:50
  Speaker 3: is even worse than the external expression. There are many
• 2:03:54
  Speaker 3: individual ways of resisting. Each of us knows his own,
• 2:03:58
  Speaker 3: and knows too the futility of it. We do not
• 2:04:01
  Speaker 3: need to multiply examples. The patients who resist recovery are
• 2:04:06
  Speaker 3: quite as numerous as those who keep themselves ill by
• 2:04:09
  Speaker 3: resisting illness. A person of this sort seems to be
• 2:04:12
  Speaker 3: fascinated by his own body and its disorders, So far
• 2:04:16
  Speaker 3: from resisting illness, he may be said to be indulging
• 2:04:19
  Speaker 3: in it. He will talk about himself and his physical
• 2:04:23
  Speaker 3: state for hours. He will locate each separate disease in
• 2:04:26
  Speaker 3: a way to surprise a listener by his knowledge of
• 2:04:29
  Speaker 3: his own anatomy. Not infrequently he will preface a long
• 2:04:33
  Speaker 3: account of himself by informing you that he has a
• 2:04:36
  Speaker 3: hearty detestation of talking about himself and never could understand
• 2:04:42
  Speaker 3: why people wanted to talk of their diseases. Then in
• 2:04:45
  Speaker 3: minute detail, he will reveal to you his brain impression
• 2:04:50
  Speaker 3: of his own case and look for sympathetic response. These
• 2:04:54
  Speaker 3: people might recover one hundred times over and they would
• 2:04:57
  Speaker 3: never know it, so occupied are they in living their
• 2:05:01
  Speaker 3: own idea of themselves and in resisting nature. When Nature
• 2:05:05
  Speaker 3: is knocked dis down because of disobedience to her laws,
• 2:05:08
  Speaker 3: we resist her if we attempt at once to rise
• 2:05:12
  Speaker 3: or complain of the punishment. When the dear lady would
• 2:05:16
  Speaker 3: hasten our recovery to the best of her ability. We
• 2:05:18
  Speaker 3: resist her if we delay progress by dwelling on the
• 2:05:21
  Speaker 3: punishment or chafing at its necessity. Nature always tends toward health.
• 2:05:28
  Speaker 3: It is to prevent further ill health that she allows
• 2:05:30
  Speaker 3: us to suffer for our disobedience to her laws. It
• 2:05:34
  Speaker 3: is to lead us back to health that she is
• 2:05:36
  Speaker 3: giving the best of her powers, having dealt the deserved punishment.
• 2:05:41
  Speaker 3: The truest help we can give Nature is not to
• 2:05:44
  Speaker 3: think of our bodies well or ill more than is
• 2:05:48
  Speaker 3: necessary for their best health. I knew a woman who was,
• 2:05:53
  Speaker 3: to all appearances remarkably well. In fact, her health was
• 2:05:56
  Speaker 3: her profession. She was supposed to be a priestess of health.
• 2:06:00
  Speaker 3: She talked about and dwelt upon the health of her
• 2:06:02
  Speaker 3: body until one would have thought there was nothing in
• 2:06:04
  Speaker 3: the world worth thinking of but a body. She displayed
• 2:06:08
  Speaker 3: her fine points in the way of health, and enjoyed
• 2:06:11
  Speaker 3: being questioned with regard to them. This woman was taken ill.
• 2:06:15
  Speaker 3: She exhibited the same interest, the same pleasure in talking
• 2:06:18
  Speaker 3: over and dwelling upon her various forms of illness. In fact,
• 2:06:22
  Speaker 3: more she counted her diseases. I am not aware that
• 2:06:26
  Speaker 3: she ever counted her strong points of health. This illustration
• 2:06:31
  Speaker 3: is perhaps clearing enough to give a new sense of
• 2:06:34
  Speaker 3: the necessity for forgetting our bodies would ill use every
• 2:06:39
  Speaker 3: necessary remedy, do all that is best to bring renewed health.
• 2:06:43
  Speaker 3: Having made sure you are doing all that you can, forget.
• 2:06:47
  Speaker 3: Don't follow the process when, as is often the case,
• 2:06:51
  Speaker 3: pain or other suffering puts forgetting out of the question.
• 2:06:55
  Speaker 3: Use no unnecessary resistance, and forget as soon as the
• 2:06:59
  Speaker 3: pain is past. Don't strengthen the impression by talking about
• 2:07:03
  Speaker 3: it or telling it over to no purpose. Better, forego
• 2:07:07
  Speaker 3: a little sympathy and forget the pain sooner. It is
• 2:07:12
  Speaker 3: with our nerves that we resist when nature has punished us.
• 2:07:15
  Speaker 3: It is nervous strain that we put into a useless
• 2:07:19
  Speaker 3: attention to and repetition of the details of our illness.
• 2:07:23
  Speaker 3: Nature wants all this nerve force to get us well
• 2:07:26
  Speaker 3: the faster we can save it for her by not resisting,
• 2:07:31
  Speaker 3: and by a healthy forgetting. By taking an illness as
• 2:07:34
  Speaker 3: comfortably as possible and turning our attention to something pleasant
• 2:07:38
  Speaker 3: outside of ourselves, recovery is made more rapidly. Many illnesses
• 2:07:43
  Speaker 3: are accompanied by more or less nervous strain, and its
• 2:07:46
  Speaker 3: natural control will assist nature and enable medicines to work
• 2:07:49
  Speaker 3: more quickly. The slowest process of recovery, and that which
• 2:07:54
  Speaker 3: most needs the relief of a wholesome non resistance, is
• 2:07:57
  Speaker 3: when the illness is the result in highly of overworked nerves.
• 2:08:02
  Speaker 3: Nature allows yourself to be tried to the utmost before
• 2:08:05
  Speaker 3: she permits nervous prostration. She insists upon being paid in
• 2:08:09
  Speaker 3: full principle and interest before she heals such illness. So
• 2:08:15
  Speaker 3: severe is she in this case that a patient may
• 2:08:17
  Speaker 3: appear in every way physically well and strong. Weeks nay
• 2:08:22
  Speaker 3: months before he really is. So, it was the nerves
• 2:08:25
  Speaker 3: that broke down last, and the nerves are the last
• 2:08:27
  Speaker 3: to be restored. It is, however, wonderful to see how
• 2:08:32
  Speaker 3: much more rapid and certain recovery is if the patient
• 2:08:35
  Speaker 3: will only separate himself from his nervous system and refuse
• 2:08:39
  Speaker 3: all useless strain. Here are some simple directions which may
• 2:08:45
  Speaker 3: help nervous patients, if considered in regular order. They can
• 2:08:49
  Speaker 3: hardly be read too often. If the man or woman
• 2:08:52
  Speaker 3: is in for a long siege, and if simply and
• 2:08:55
  Speaker 3: steadily obeyed, they will shorten the siege by many days,
• 2:08:59
  Speaker 3: nay by many weeks or months in some cases. Remember
• 2:09:04
  Speaker 3: that nature tends toward health. All you want is nourishment,
• 2:09:09
  Speaker 3: fresh air, exercise, rest, and patience. All your worries and
• 2:09:14
  Speaker 3: anxieties now are tired nerves. When a worry appears, drop it.
• 2:09:20
  Speaker 3: If it appears again, drop it again, and so continue
• 2:09:24
  Speaker 3: to drop it if it appears fifty or a hundred
• 2:09:26
  Speaker 3: times a day or more. If you feel like crying, cry,
• 2:09:31
  Speaker 3: but know that it is the tired nerves that are crying.
• 2:09:35
  Speaker 3: And don't wonder why you are so foolish. Don't feel
• 2:09:38
  Speaker 3: ashamed of yourself. If you cannot sleep, don't care. Get
• 2:09:43
  Speaker 3: all the rest you can without sleeping. That will bring
• 2:09:46
  Speaker 3: sleep when it is ready to come, or you are
• 2:09:49
  Speaker 3: ready to have it. Don't wonder whether you are going
• 2:09:52
  Speaker 3: to sleep or not. Go to bed to rest and
• 2:09:55
  Speaker 3: let sleep come when it pleases. Think about everything in nature,
• 2:10:01
  Speaker 3: follow the growing of the trees and flowers. Remember all
• 2:10:04
  Speaker 3: the beauties in nature you have ever seen, say mother
• 2:10:08
  Speaker 3: Goose rhymes, over and over, trying how many you can remember.
• 2:10:13
  Speaker 3: Read bright stories for children and quiet novels, especially Jane Austen's.
• 2:10:19
  Speaker 3: Sometimes it helps to work on arithmetic. Keep aloof from emotions,
• 2:10:26
  Speaker 3: think of other people, never think of yourself. Bear in
• 2:10:31
  Speaker 3: mind that nerves always get well in waves. And if
• 2:10:34
  Speaker 3: you thought yourself so much better, almost well indeed, and
• 2:10:38
  Speaker 3: then have a bad time of suffering, don't wonder why
• 2:10:41
  Speaker 3: it is or what could have brought it on. Know
• 2:10:45
  Speaker 3: that it is part of the recovery process. Take it
• 2:10:48
  Speaker 3: as easy as you can, and then ignore it. Don't
• 2:10:53
  Speaker 3: try to do any number of things to get yourself well.
• 2:10:56
  Speaker 3: Don't change doctors any number of times or take countless medicines.
• 2:11:01
  Speaker 3: Every doctor knows he cannot hurry your recovery, whatever he
• 2:11:04
  Speaker 3: may say, and you only retard it by being over
• 2:11:08
  Speaker 3: anxious to get strong. Drop every bit of unnecessary muscular
• 2:11:13
  Speaker 3: tension when you walk, feel your feet heavy as if
• 2:11:17
  Speaker 3: your shoes were full of lead, and think in your feet.
• 2:11:22
  Speaker 3: Be as much like a child as possible. Play with
• 2:11:25
  Speaker 3: children as one of them, and think with them when
• 2:11:28
  Speaker 3: you can. As you begin to recover, find something every
• 2:11:33
  Speaker 3: day to do for others.
• 2:11:35
  Speaker 2: Best.
• 2:11:35
  Speaker 3: Let it be in the way of housework or gardening,
• 2:11:38
  Speaker 3: or something to do with your hands. Take care of
• 2:11:42
  Speaker 3: yourself every day as a matter of course, as you
• 2:11:44
  Speaker 3: would dress or undress, and be sure that health is coming.
• 2:11:48
  Speaker 3: Say over and over to yourself nourishment, fresh air, exercise, rest, patience.
• 2:11:56
  Speaker 3: When you are well, and resume your former life. If
• 2:11:59
  Speaker 3: old associations recall the unhappy, nervous feelings, know that it
• 2:12:04
  Speaker 3: is only the associations. Pay no attention to the suffering,
• 2:12:08
  Speaker 3: and work right on. Only be careful to take life
• 2:12:11
  Speaker 3: very quietly until you are quite used to being well again.
• 2:12:16
  Speaker 3: An illness that is merely nervous is an immense opportunity
• 2:12:20
  Speaker 3: if one will only realize it as such. It not
• 2:12:23
  Speaker 3: only makes one more genuinely appreciative of the best health
• 2:12:27
  Speaker 3: and the way to keep it. It opens the sympathies
• 2:12:31
  Speaker 3: and gives a feeling for one's fellow creatures, which, having
• 2:12:34
  Speaker 3: once found, we cannot prize too highly. It would seem
• 2:12:38
  Speaker 3: hard to believe that all must suffer to find a
• 2:12:41
  Speaker 3: delicate sympathy. It can hardly be so. To be always
• 2:12:45
  Speaker 3: strong and at the same time full of warm sympathy
• 2:12:48
  Speaker 3: is possible with more thought. When illness or adverse circumstances
• 2:12:53
  Speaker 3: bring it. The gate has been opened for us. If
• 2:12:56
  Speaker 3: illness is taken as an opportunity to better health, not
• 2:12:59
  Speaker 3: to more illness, our mental attitude will put complaint out
• 2:13:04
  Speaker 3: of the question. And as the practice spreads, it will
• 2:13:07
  Speaker 3: as surely decrease the tendency to illness and others, as
• 2:13:11
  Speaker 3: it will shorten its duration in ourselves. End of section eleven,
• 2:13:24
  Speaker 3: Section twelve of As a matter of course, this is
• 2:13:28
  Speaker 3: a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
• 2:13:33
  Speaker 3: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
• 2:13:39
  Speaker 3: Read by Cyndi J. M. As a matter of course
• 2:13:43
  Speaker 3: by Annie Payson, call sentiment versus sentimentality, freedom from sentimentality
• 2:13:53
  Speaker 3: opens the way for true sentiment. An immense amount of time, thought,
• 2:13:58
  Speaker 3: and nervous force is wasted in sentimentalizing about being good
• 2:14:04
  Speaker 3: with many. The amount of talk about their evils and
• 2:14:07
  Speaker 3: their desire to overcome them is a thermometer which indicates
• 2:14:12
  Speaker 3: about five times that amount of thought. Neither the talk
• 2:14:16
  Speaker 3: nor the thought is of assistance in leading to any
• 2:14:19
  Speaker 3: greater strength or to a more useful life, because the
• 2:14:23
  Speaker 3: talk is all talk, and the essence of both talk
• 2:14:26
  Speaker 3: and thought is a selfish, morbid pleasure in dwelling upon
• 2:14:31
  Speaker 3: one's own self. I remember the remark of a young
• 2:14:34
  Speaker 3: girl who had been several times to prayer meeting, where
• 2:14:38
  Speaker 3: she heard the same woman say every time that she
• 2:14:41
  Speaker 3: longed for the true spirit of religion in her life.
• 2:14:45
  Speaker 3: With all simplicity, this child said, if she longs for it,
• 2:14:49
  Speaker 3: why doesn't she work and find it instead of coming
• 2:14:53
  Speaker 3: every week and telling us that she longs. In all probability,
• 2:14:58
  Speaker 3: the woman returned from every prayer meeting with a full
• 2:15:00
  Speaker 3: conviction that, having told her aspirations, she had reached the
• 2:15:05
  Speaker 3: height desired and was worthy of all praise. Prayer meetings
• 2:15:10
  Speaker 3: in the old Orthodox sense are not so numerous as
• 2:15:13
  Speaker 3: they were fifty years ago. But the same morbid love
• 2:15:16
  Speaker 3: of telling one's own experience and expressing in words one's
• 2:15:20
  Speaker 3: own desires for a better life is as common as ever.
• 2:15:24
  Speaker 3: Many who would express horror at these public forums of
• 2:15:29
  Speaker 3: sentimentalizing do not hesitate to indulge in it privately to
• 2:15:33
  Speaker 3: any extent, nor do they realize for a moment that
• 2:15:37
  Speaker 3: it is the same morbid spirit that moves them. It
• 2:15:40
  Speaker 3: might not be so pernicious a practice if it were
• 2:15:43
  Speaker 3: not so steadily weakening. If one has a spark of
• 2:15:48
  Speaker 3: real desire for better ways of living, sentimentalizing about it
• 2:15:52
  Speaker 3: is a sure extinguisher if practiced for any length of time.
• 2:15:58
  Speaker 3: A woman will sometimes pour forth an amount of gush
• 2:16:01
  Speaker 3: about wishing to be better, broader, nobler, stronger, in a
• 2:16:06
  Speaker 3: manner that would lead you, for a moment perhaps to
• 2:16:09
  Speaker 3: believe in her sincerity. But when in the next hour
• 2:16:12
  Speaker 3: you see her neglecting little duties that a woman who
• 2:16:16
  Speaker 3: was really broad, strong and noble would attend to as
• 2:16:19
  Speaker 3: a matter of course, and not give a second thought to.
• 2:16:23
  Speaker 3: When you see that, although she must realize that attention
• 2:16:27
  Speaker 3: to these smaller duties should come first. To open the
• 2:16:30
  Speaker 3: way to her higher aspirations. She continues to neglect them
• 2:16:33
  Speaker 3: and continues to aspire. You are surely right in concluding
• 2:16:38
  Speaker 3: that she is using up her nervous system and sentimentalizing
• 2:16:42
  Speaker 3: about a better life, and by that means is doing
• 2:16:45
  Speaker 3: all in her power to hinder the achievement of it.
• 2:16:49
  Speaker 3: It is curious and very sad to see what might
• 2:16:53
  Speaker 3: be a really strong nature weakening itself steadily with this
• 2:16:57
  Speaker 3: philosophy and water. Of course, of course, it reaches a
• 2:17:01
  Speaker 3: maudlin state if it continues. His satanic majesty must offer
• 2:17:07
  Speaker 3: this dose, sweetened with a sugar of self love, with
• 2:17:10
  Speaker 3: intense satisfaction. And if he may personify that gentleman for
• 2:17:15
  Speaker 3: the sake of illustration, what a fine sarcastic smile must
• 2:17:19
  Speaker 3: dwell upon his countenance as he sees it swallowed and enjoyed,
• 2:17:23
  Speaker 3: and knows that he did not even have to waste
• 2:17:26
  Speaker 3: spice as an ingredient. The sugar would have drowned the
• 2:17:29
  Speaker 3: taste of any spice he could supply. There is not
• 2:17:33
  Speaker 3: even the appearance of strength in sentimentalizing. Besides sentimentalizing about
• 2:17:38
  Speaker 3: ourselves in our desire to live a better life, there
• 2:17:42
  Speaker 3: is the same morbid practice in our love for others,
• 2:17:45
  Speaker 3: and this is quite weakening. It contains, of course, no
• 2:17:49
  Speaker 3: jot of real affection. What wholesome love there is lives
• 2:17:53
  Speaker 3: in spite of the sentimentalizing, and fortunately is sometimes strong
• 2:17:57
  Speaker 3: enough on one side or the other to crowded out
• 2:18:00
  Speaker 3: and finally exterminate it. It is curious to note how
• 2:18:06
  Speaker 3: often this sham sentiment for others is merely a matter
• 2:18:10
  Speaker 3: of nerves. As an instance, we can take an example,
• 2:18:14
  Speaker 3: which is quite true, of a woman who fancied herself
• 2:18:17
  Speaker 3: desperately fond of another, when, much to her surprise, an
• 2:18:21
  Speaker 3: acute attack of toothache and dentist fright put the affection
• 2:18:25
  Speaker 3: quite out of her head. In this case, the love
• 2:18:28
  Speaker 3: was a nervous irritant, and the toothache a counter irritant.
• 2:18:32
  Speaker 3: Of course, the sooner such superficial feeling is recognized and
• 2:18:35
  Speaker 3: shaken off, the nearer we are to real sentiment. But
• 2:18:41
  Speaker 3: someone will say, how are we to know what is
• 2:18:44
  Speaker 3: real and what is not? I would much rather live
• 2:18:47
  Speaker 3: my life and get more or less on reality than
• 2:18:50
  Speaker 3: have this everlasting analyzing. There need be no abnormal analyzing
• 2:18:56
  Speaker 3: that is as morbid as the other state indulged you
• 2:19:00
  Speaker 3: our hearts content in whatever seems to you real in
• 2:19:03
  Speaker 3: what you believe to be wholesome sentiment, but be ready
• 2:19:07
  Speaker 3: to recognize it as sham at the first hint you
• 2:19:10
  Speaker 3: get to that effect, and to drop it Accordingly. A
• 2:19:14
  Speaker 3: perfectly healthy body will shed germs of disease without ever
• 2:19:18
  Speaker 3: feeling their presence. So a perfectly healthy mind will shed
• 2:19:22
  Speaker 3: the germs of sentimentality. Few of us are so healthy
• 2:19:26
  Speaker 3: in mind, but that we have to recognize a germ
• 2:19:30
  Speaker 3: or two and apply a disinfectant before we can reach
• 2:19:33
  Speaker 3: the freedom that will enable us to shed the germs unconsciously.
• 2:19:37
  Speaker 3: A good disinfectant is to refuse to talk of our
• 2:19:41
  Speaker 3: own feelings or desires or affections, unless for some end
• 2:19:45
  Speaker 3: which we know may help us to more light and
• 2:19:48
  Speaker 3: better strength. Talking, however, is mild in its weakening effect
• 2:19:53
  Speaker 3: compared with thinking. It is better to dribble sham sentiments
• 2:19:57
  Speaker 3: and words over and over than to think it and
• 2:20:00
  Speaker 3: repress the desire to talk. The only clear way is
• 2:20:03
  Speaker 3: to drop it from our minds the moment it appears.
• 2:20:07
  Speaker 3: To let go of it, as we would loosen our
• 2:20:09
  Speaker 3: fingers and drop something disagreeable from our hands A good
• 2:20:13
  Speaker 3: amount of exercise in fresh air helps one out of sentimentalizing.
• 2:20:18
  Speaker 3: This morbid mental habit is often the result of a
• 2:20:21
  Speaker 3: body ill in some way or another. Frequently it is
• 2:20:25
  Speaker 3: simply the effect of tired nerves. We help others and
• 2:20:29
  Speaker 3: ourselves out of it more rapidly by not mentioning the
• 2:20:32
  Speaker 3: sentimentalizing habit, but by taking some immediate means toward rest,
• 2:20:38
  Speaker 3: fresh air, vigorous exercise, and better nourishment. Mistakes are often made,
• 2:20:44
  Speaker 3: and ourselves or others kept an unnecessary length of time
• 2:20:48
  Speaker 3: in mental suffering. Because we fail to attribute a morbid
• 2:20:52
  Speaker 3: mental state to its physical cause. We blame ourselves or
• 2:20:56
  Speaker 3: others for behavior that we call wicked or silly and
• 2:21:00
  Speaker 3: increase the suffering when all that is required is a
• 2:21:03
  Speaker 3: little thoughtful care of the body to cause the silly
• 2:21:06
  Speaker 3: wickedness to disappear entirely. We are supposed to be indulging
• 2:21:12
  Speaker 3: in sickly sentiment when we are really suffering from sickly nerves,
• 2:21:17
  Speaker 3: and open sympathy will detect this mistake very soon and
• 2:21:20
  Speaker 3: save intense suffering by an early remedy. Sentiment is as
• 2:21:25
  Speaker 3: strengthening as sentimentality is weakening. It is as strong, as clear,
• 2:21:30
  Speaker 3: and as fine in flavor as the other is sickly sweet.
• 2:21:34
  Speaker 3: No one who has tasted the wholesome vigor of the
• 2:21:37
  Speaker 3: one could ever care again for the weakening sweetness of
• 2:21:41
  Speaker 3: the other, however much he might have to suffer in
• 2:21:44
  Speaker 3: getting rid of it. True sentiment seeks us. We do
• 2:21:48
  Speaker 3: not seek it. It not only seeks us, It possesses
• 2:21:52
  Speaker 3: us and runs in our blood, like the new life
• 2:21:55
  Speaker 3: which comes from fresh air on top of a mountain.
• 2:21:59
  Speaker 3: With that true sentiment, we can feel a desire to
• 2:22:02
  Speaker 3: know better things and to live them. We can feel
• 2:22:05
  Speaker 3: a hearty love for others, and a love that is,
• 2:22:08
  Speaker 3: in its essence the strongest of all human loves. We
• 2:22:12
  Speaker 3: can give and receive a healthy sympathy which we could
• 2:22:15
  Speaker 3: never have known otherwise. We can enjoy talking about ourselves
• 2:22:20
  Speaker 3: and about being good, because every word we say will
• 2:22:23
  Speaker 3: be spontaneous and direct, with more thought of law than
• 2:22:27
  Speaker 3: of self. This true sentiment seeks and finds us as
• 2:22:32
  Speaker 3: we recognize the sham and shake it off, and as
• 2:22:35
  Speaker 3: we refuse to dwell upon our actions and thoughts in
• 2:22:38
  Speaker 3: the past, or to look back at all, except when
• 2:22:41
  Speaker 3: it is a necessity to gain a better result. We
• 2:22:46
  Speaker 3: are like Orpheus, and true sentiment is our eurydicy with
• 2:22:50
  Speaker 3: her touch on our shoulder. The spirits that follow are
• 2:22:53
  Speaker 3: the sham sentiments, the temptations to look back and pose.
• 2:22:57
  Speaker 3: The music of our lyre is the love and thought
• 2:23:00
  Speaker 3: we bring to our everyday life. Let us keep steadily
• 2:23:03
  Speaker 3: on with the music and lead our euridicity right through
• 2:23:07
  Speaker 3: hades until we have her safely over Laethe. And we
• 2:23:11
  Speaker 3: know sentimentality only as a name. End of Section twelve.
• 2:23:23
  Speaker 3: Section thirteen of As a matter of course, this is
• 2:23:28
  Speaker 3: a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
• 2:23:33
  Speaker 3: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
• 2:23:38
  Speaker 3: Read by Cinda J. M. As a matter of course
• 2:23:42
  Speaker 3: by Annie Payson. Call problems. There are very few persons
• 2:23:50
  Speaker 3: who have not had the experience of giving up a
• 2:23:53
  Speaker 3: problem in mathematics late in the evening and waking in
• 2:23:56
  Speaker 3: the morning with the solution clear in their minds. That
• 2:23:59
  Speaker 3: has been in the experience of many two in real
• 2:24:02
  Speaker 3: life problems. If it were more common, a great amount
• 2:24:06
  Speaker 3: of nervous strain might be saved. There are big problems
• 2:24:09
  Speaker 3: and little real and imaginary, and some that are merely
• 2:24:14
  Speaker 3: tired nerves. In problems, the useless nervous ilement often plays
• 2:24:19
  Speaker 3: a large part. If the problems were dropped out of
• 2:24:23
  Speaker 3: mind with sufferers from nervous prostration, their progress toward renewed
• 2:24:27
  Speaker 3: health might be just twice as rapid if they were
• 2:24:31
  Speaker 3: met normally. Many nervous men and women might be entirely
• 2:24:35
  Speaker 3: saved from even a bowing acquaintance with nervous prostration. It
• 2:24:39
  Speaker 3: is not a difficult matter that of meeting a problem normally,
• 2:24:43
  Speaker 3: simply let it solve itself. In nine cases out of ten,
• 2:24:48
  Speaker 3: if we leave it alone and live as if it
• 2:24:50
  Speaker 3: were not, it will solve itself. It is at first
• 2:24:54
  Speaker 3: a matter of continual surprise to see how surely this
• 2:24:58
  Speaker 3: self solution is the result of a wholesome ignoring, both
• 2:25:02
  Speaker 3: of little problems and big ones. In the tenth case,
• 2:25:06
  Speaker 3: where the problem must be faced at once, to face
• 2:25:09
  Speaker 3: it and decide that the best of our ability is
• 2:25:12
  Speaker 3: of course the only thing to do. But having decided,
• 2:25:16
  Speaker 3: be sure that it ceases to be a problem. If
• 2:25:19
  Speaker 3: we have made a mistake, it is simply a circumstance
• 2:25:21
  Speaker 3: to guide us for similar problems to come. All this
• 2:25:25
  Speaker 3: is obvious. We know it, and have probably said it
• 2:25:28
  Speaker 3: to ourselves dozens of times. If we are sufferers from
• 2:25:32
  Speaker 3: nervous problems, we may have said it a dozen upon
• 2:25:35
  Speaker 3: dozens of times. The trouble is that we have said
• 2:25:39
  Speaker 3: it and not acted upon it. When a problem will
• 2:25:42
  Speaker 3: persist in worrying us, in pulling and dragging upon our nerves,
• 2:25:45
  Speaker 3: an invitation to continue the worrying until it has worked
• 2:25:49
  Speaker 3: itself out is a great help towards the solution or disappearance.
• 2:25:53
  Speaker 3: I remember once hearing a bright woman say that when
• 2:25:56
  Speaker 3: there was anything difficult to decide in her life, she
• 2:25:59
  Speaker 3: stepped decide and let the opposing elements fight it out
• 2:26:02
  Speaker 3: within her. Presumably she herself threw in a little help
• 2:26:06
  Speaker 3: on one side or the other, which really decided the battle.
• 2:26:10
  Speaker 3: But the help was given from a clear standpoint, not
• 2:26:13
  Speaker 3: from a brain entirely befogged in the thick of the fight.
• 2:26:17
  Speaker 3: Whatever form problems may take, however important they may seem,
• 2:26:22
  Speaker 3: when they attack tired nerves, they must be let alone.
• 2:26:26
  Speaker 3: A good way is to go out into the open
• 2:26:29
  Speaker 3: air and so identify one's self with nature that one
• 2:26:33
  Speaker 3: is drawn away in spite of one's self. A big
• 2:26:36
  Speaker 3: wind will sometimes blow a brain clear of nervous problems
• 2:26:40
  Speaker 3: in very little while, if we let it have its will.
• 2:26:43
  Speaker 3: Another way out is to interest one's self in some
• 2:26:47
  Speaker 3: game or other amusement, or to get a healthy interest
• 2:26:50
  Speaker 3: in other people's affairs, and help where we can. Each
• 2:26:54
  Speaker 3: individual can find his own favorite escape. Of course, we
• 2:26:58
  Speaker 3: should never shirk a problem that must be tossed, but
• 2:27:01
  Speaker 3: let us always wait a reasonable time for it to
• 2:27:03
  Speaker 3: decide itself first. The solving that is done for us
• 2:27:08
  Speaker 3: is invariably better and clearer than any we could do
• 2:27:13
  Speaker 3: for ourselves. It will be curious, too to see how
• 2:27:16
  Speaker 3: many apparently serious problems, relieved of the importance given them
• 2:27:20
  Speaker 3: by a strained nervous system, are recognized to be nothing
• 2:27:24
  Speaker 3: at all. They fairly dissolve themselves and disappear. End of
• 2:27:30
  Speaker 3: Section thirteen. Section fourteen of As a matter of course,
• 2:27:41
  Speaker 3: this is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
• 2:27:44
  Speaker 3: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
• 2:27:49
  Speaker 3: visit LibriVox dot org. Read by Cinda J. M. As
• 2:27:54
  Speaker 3: a matter of course by Annie Payson call summary. The
• 2:28:01
  Speaker 3: line has not been clearly drawn, either in general or
• 2:28:05
  Speaker 3: by individuals between true civilization and the various perversions of
• 2:28:09
  Speaker 3: the civilizing process. This is mainly because we do not
• 2:28:13
  Speaker 3: fairly face the fact that the process of civilization is
• 2:28:17
  Speaker 3: entirely according to nature, and that the perversions which purport
• 2:28:21
  Speaker 3: to be a direct outcome of civilization are, in point
• 2:28:24
  Speaker 3: of fact, contradictions or artificialities, which are simply a going
• 2:28:30
  Speaker 3: over into barbarism. Just as too far east as west.
• 2:28:38
  Speaker 3: If you suggest nature and habits and customs to most
• 2:28:41
  Speaker 3: men nowadays, they at once interpret you to mean beastly,
• 2:28:45
  Speaker 3: although they would never use the word. It is natural
• 2:28:50
  Speaker 3: to a beast to be beastly. He could not be
• 2:28:52
  Speaker 3: anything else, and the true order of his life as
• 2:28:55
  Speaker 3: a beast is to be respected. It is natural for
• 2:28:59
  Speaker 3: a man to govern himself, as he possesses the power
• 2:29:02
  Speaker 3: of distinguishing and choosing with all the senses and passions,
• 2:29:06
  Speaker 3: much keener and in their possibilities many degrees finer than
• 2:29:10
  Speaker 3: the beasts. He has this governing power which makes his
• 2:29:14
  Speaker 3: whole nervous system his servant, just in so far as
• 2:29:19
  Speaker 3: through this servant he loyally obeys his own natural laws.
• 2:29:24
  Speaker 3: A man in building a bridge could never complain when
• 2:29:26
  Speaker 3: he recognized that it was his obedience to the laws
• 2:29:30
  Speaker 3: of mechanics which enabled him to build the bridge, and
• 2:29:33
  Speaker 3: that he could never have arbitrarily arranged laws that would
• 2:29:37
  Speaker 3: make the bridge stand. In the same way, one who
• 2:29:40
  Speaker 3: has come to even a slight recognition of the laws
• 2:29:43
  Speaker 3: that enable him to be naturally civilized and not barbarously
• 2:29:48
  Speaker 3: so steadily gains not only a realization of the absolute
• 2:29:52
  Speaker 3: futility of resisting the laws, but a growing respect and
• 2:29:56
  Speaker 3: affection for them. It is this sham civilization, this selfish
• 2:30:02
  Speaker 3: refinement of barbarous propensities, this clash of nervous systems, instead
• 2:30:07
  Speaker 3: of the clashing of weapons, which has been largely, if
• 2:30:10
  Speaker 3: not entirely, the cause of such a variety and extent
• 2:30:13
  Speaker 3: of nervous trouble throughout the so called civilized world. It
• 2:30:18
  Speaker 3: is not confined to nervous prostration. If there is a
• 2:30:21
  Speaker 3: defective spot organically, an inherited tendency to weakness, the nervous
• 2:30:27
  Speaker 3: irritation is almost certain to concentrate upon it, instead of
• 2:30:31
  Speaker 3: developing into a general nervous breakdown. With regard to a
• 2:30:35
  Speaker 3: cure for all this, no superficial remedies such as resting
• 2:30:39
  Speaker 3: and feeding is going to prove of lasting benefit any
• 2:30:43
  Speaker 3: more than a healing solve will suffice to do away
• 2:30:46
  Speaker 3: with a blood disease which manifests itself by sores on
• 2:30:50
  Speaker 3: the surface of the skin. No physician would for a
• 2:30:53
  Speaker 3: moment and vagle himself into the belief that the use
• 2:30:58
  Speaker 3: of external means alone would cure a skin disease that
• 2:31:01
  Speaker 3: was caused by some internal disorder. Such skin irritation might
• 2:31:05
  Speaker 3: be easily cured by the right remedy, whereas an external
• 2:31:09
  Speaker 3: solve would only be a means of repression and would
• 2:31:12
  Speaker 3: result in much greater trouble. Subsequently, imagine a man superficially
• 2:31:17
  Speaker 3: cured of an illness and then exposed, while yet barely convalescent,
• 2:31:21
  Speaker 3: to influences which produce a relapse. That is what is
• 2:31:25
  Speaker 3: done in many cases when a patient is rested and
• 2:31:28
  Speaker 3: fattened like a prize pig, and then sent home into
• 2:31:32
  Speaker 3: all the old conditions, with nothing to help him to
• 2:31:35
  Speaker 3: elude them but a well fed, well rested body. That
• 2:31:39
  Speaker 3: undeniably means a great deal for a short period. But
• 2:31:43
  Speaker 3: the old conditions discover the scars of old wounds, and
• 2:31:46
  Speaker 3: the process of reopening is merely a matter of time.
• 2:31:50
  Speaker 3: From all sides, complaints are heard of the disastrous results
• 2:31:54
  Speaker 3: of civilization, while with even a slight recognition of the
• 2:31:58
  Speaker 3: fact that the trouble was caused by the rudiments of barbarism,
• 2:32:02
  Speaker 3: and that the higher civilization is the life which is
• 2:32:05
  Speaker 3: most truly natural, remedies for our nervous disorders would be
• 2:32:08
  Speaker 3: more easily found. It is the perversions of the natural
• 2:32:13
  Speaker 3: process of civilization that do the harm. Just as with
• 2:32:17
  Speaker 3: so called domesticated flowers, there arise coarse, abnormal growths and
• 2:32:22
  Speaker 3: even diseases which the wholesome, delicate organism of a wildflower
• 2:32:26
  Speaker 3: makes impossible. The trouble is that we do not know
• 2:32:29
  Speaker 3: our own best powers at all. The way is stopped
• 2:32:33
  Speaker 3: so effectually by this persistent nervous irritation, with all its superficiality,
• 2:32:39
  Speaker 3: it is enough to impede the way to the clear
• 2:32:42
  Speaker 3: nervous strength, which is certainly our inheritance. After all, what
• 2:32:47
  Speaker 3: has been said in the foregoing chapters is simply illustrative
• 2:32:51
  Speaker 3: of a prevalent mental skin disorder. If the whole world
• 2:32:55
  Speaker 3: we're suffering from a physical cutaneous irritation, the minds of
• 2:32:59
  Speaker 3: individuals would be so concentrated on their sensations that no
• 2:33:03
  Speaker 3: one could know of various wonderful powers in his own body,
• 2:33:06
  Speaker 3: which are now taken as matter of course, there would
• 2:33:09
  Speaker 3: be self consciousness in every physical action, because it must
• 2:33:13
  Speaker 3: come through and in spite of external irritation. Just in
• 2:33:18
  Speaker 3: so far as each individual one of us found and
• 2:33:22
  Speaker 3: use the right remedy for our skin trouble, should we
• 2:33:25
  Speaker 3: be free to discover physical powers that were unknown to
• 2:33:29
  Speaker 3: our fellow sufferers, and free to help them to a
• 2:33:31
  Speaker 3: similar remedy when they were willing to be helped. This
• 2:33:35
  Speaker 3: mental skin disorder is far more irritating and more destructive,
• 2:33:40
  Speaker 3: and not only leads to but actually is, in all
• 2:33:43
  Speaker 3: its forms, a sort of self consciousness through which we
• 2:33:47
  Speaker 3: work with real difficulty to discover its shallowness. And the
• 2:33:51
  Speaker 3: simplicity of its cure is a boon we can hardly
• 2:33:54
  Speaker 3: realize until, by steady application, we have found the relief.
• 2:33:59
  Speaker 3: The discovery and cure do not lead to a millennium,
• 2:34:02
  Speaker 3: any more than a cure of skin disease guarantees permanent health.
• 2:34:06
  Speaker 3: For deeper personal troubles, there are other remedies each will
• 2:34:10
  Speaker 3: recognize and find his own, but freedom through and through
• 2:34:15
  Speaker 3: can never be found, or even looked for clearly. While
• 2:34:18
  Speaker 3: the irritation from the skin disease is withdrawing our attention.
• 2:34:24
  Speaker 3: But friends, truth is within ourselves. It takes no rise
• 2:34:28
  Speaker 3: from outward things. Whatever you may believe, there is an
• 2:34:32
  Speaker 3: inmost center in us all where truth abides in fullness,
• 2:34:36
  Speaker 3: and around wall upon wall, the gross flesh hems it
• 2:34:40
  Speaker 3: in this perfect clear perception which is truth. A baffling
• 2:34:45
  Speaker 3: and perverting carnal mesh blinds it and makes all air.
• 2:34:50
  Speaker 3: And to know rather consists in opening out away, whence
• 2:34:55
  Speaker 3: the imprisoned splendor may escape, than in affecting entry. For
• 2:34:59
  Speaker 3: a life supposed to be without Browning's baffling and perverting
• 2:35:06
  Speaker 3: cardinal mesh might be truly interpreted as a nervous tangle,
• 2:35:10
  Speaker 3: which is nothing at all, except as we make it
• 2:35:13
  Speaker 3: with our own perverted sight. To help us move a
• 2:35:16
  Speaker 3: little distance from the phantom tangle, that it may disappear
• 2:35:20
  Speaker 3: before our eyes has been the aim of this book.
• 2:35:23
  Speaker 3: So by curing our mental skin diseases as a matter
• 2:35:26
  Speaker 3: of course, and then forgetting that it ever existed, we
• 2:35:30
  Speaker 3: may come to real life. This no one can find
• 2:35:33
  Speaker 3: for another, but each has within himself the way. The
• 2:35:38
  Speaker 3: end end of Section fourteen. End of as a matter
• 2:35:47
  Speaker 3: of Course by Annie Payson Call