The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1886-08-07
HOW TO AVOID PREMATURE OLD
AGE.

The following good advice is given by
DIR. Benjamin Ward Richardson: The
rules for the prevention of senile disease
are all personal. They should begin in
youth. It should be q rule among
grown up people never to subject chill
dren to mental shocks and unnecessary
griefs. When in the surrounding of the
child's life, some grave calamity has
occurred, it is best to make the event as
light as possible to the child, and GER
tainly to avoid thrilling it with sights
and details which stir it to the utmost,
and in the end only leave upon the mind
aud heart incurable wounds and i'm
pressions. Children should never be
taken to funerals, nor to sights that
cause a sense of dread and fear combined
with great grief, nor to sights which call
forth pain and agony in man or the low
or animals.
To avoid premature old age in mature
life, the following are important points
to remember:
Grief anticipates age. Dwelling on
the inevitable past, forming vain hypoth-
eses as to what might have been if this or
that had not been, acquiring craze for
recounting what has occurred = these
acts do more BARN to future health and
effort than many things connected with
calamity Occupation and new pursuits
are the best preventives for mental shock
and bereavement.
Hate anticipates age. Hate keeps the
heart always at full tension. 1t gives
rise to oppression of che brain and senses.
1t confuses the whole man. 1t robs the
stomach of nervous power, and, digestion
being impaired, the failure of life begins
at once. Those, therefore, who are born
with this passion and a good many,
fear, are-snould give it up.
Jealousy anticipates age. The facial
expression of jealousy is old age, in how
ever young face it may be cast. Jeal-
o1sy preys upon and kills the heart. So,
jealous men are not only unhappy, but
broken hearted and live short lives.
have never known man of jealous nat
ure to live anything like long life or a
useful life. The prevention of jealousy
is diversion of mind toward useful and
unselfish work.
Unchastity anticipates age. Every
thing that inteTferes with chastity favors
vital deterioration, while the grosser de-
partures from chastity, leading to spe-
cific and hereditary disease, are certain
causes of organic degeneration and pre-
mature old age. Thus chastity is pre-
ventive of senile decay.
Intemperance anticipates age. The
more the social causes of mental and
physical organic diseases are investigat-
ed the more closely the origin of degen-
erative organic changes leading to pre-
mature deterioration and decay are ques-
toned, the more closely does it come out
that intemperance, often not suspected
by the person himself who is implicated
in it, SO subtitle is its influence, is at the
root of the evil.
When old age has really commenced,
its march toward final decay is best de-
layed by attending to those rules of con-
servation by which life is sustained with
the least friction and the least waste.
The prime rules for this purpose are:
To subsist on light but nutritious diet,
with milk as the standard food, but va
ried according to season.
To take food in moderate quantity,
four times in the day, including a light
meal before going to bed.
To clothe warmly but lightly, so that
the body may, in all seasons, maintain
its equal temperature.
To keep the body in fair exercise, and
the mind active and cheerful.
To maintain an interest in what is 60
ing on in the world, and to take part