The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1884-06-14
While There's Hope, There's Life.

A few years since book by that name
made everybody ask: "ls life worth
living ?'' to which Punch, with good
deal of philosophy rs well as fun, an
swered at depends upon the liver. y
A prominent English physician has I'M
dertaken to answer the question in an
other form. He says no. only that life
is worth living, but 50 well worth it
that a man can and ought to prolong it,;
that it does not depend SO much upon
the liver, or any other organ, as upon
the liver-the one who lives.
He declares that though there are
some malades which must kill, life in
most cases may be prolonged by sheer
hopefulness, and that, reversing the old
maxim, so long as there is hope there is
life. Some live by their excessive mus
cular vigor; others by their feeling
powers others by their mental or ner-
vous energy. This last class is very
large They live on by sheer power of
hope and courage. Their bodies are
weak and crippled, but their "go' is
remarkable; they live on when every
body is puzzled and wonder how they
do it.
He maintains, moreover, that man
may live on when one organ is dcranged
by shifting the burden TO another. In
stead of fretting himself because his
heart is affected, let him overlook the
fact and make his lungs do extra work
I'm vitalizing his blood so that, if that
fluid does not flow as effectively al it
,,,tp hat 81, hn
The very fact of relieving the diseased
organ may cure 1t.
When u man hopes his brain is stimu-
lated, his nervous system is BEAUTIFULLY
excited and vital energy is increased.
Increase in vital energy means that dis
ease may be conquered, or at least out
lived.
This sounds well, and undoubtedly is
sound in another sense. Yet there still
remains the practical difficulty of excit-
ing hopefulness in those who are not
hopeful Some have genius for hope
fulness. Others are naturally depressed.
All of us are born either "bulls" or
"bears.' Some, too, have will power;
others lack it and whether those who
have it not can strengthen it by being
told to exert ii is question.
Then as regards hopefulness in dis
ease. Who are more hopeful than those
almost dead with consumption, who
often on the very day of their death be-
lieve that they are on the road to recov-
cry? So far from helping them to re-
cover, physicians say this hopefulness
often hastens the end, by making them
reckless and unwilling to take the ordi-
nary precautions of diet and habits
which even well people observe. On
the other hand, who SO gloomy, so hope
less as the victim of liver complaint?
He exaggerates his disease, forebodes
his early death, perceives no light or
warmth in the sunshine nor color in
sky or flowers. He often RECEIVERS, even
after he has abandoned all hope, and as
soon as his functions are restored is
happy and blooming once more.
But in spite of these exceptions this
doctor is probably right, The more
hopefulness. the more spirit and
ego man can continue to awaken in
himself, the more likely he is to post
pone the hour which the melancholy
man foresees so long in advance, and,
like the coward, by fearing death dies
. thousand times, while the brave man
dies but once.-Delroh Free Press.