The historic times. [volume] (Lawrence, Kansas) 1891-1891, 1891-08-01
THE TECHNIQUE OF REST.
Indemnity Demanded by Nature TO
IS Wasted Force.

Wasted Force.
Our muscular strength is the means
though which we act, but that by which
we act is something behind the for
mer which we call nerve force. Dis
titled by the mysterious alchemy of
life from the food we eat, from the
sunshine and the air, it is the life we
live. 1t spans, as it is, the impossible
gulf between matter and spirit which
forms the despair of the psychologist.
It is the perpetual miracle which all
common things 'are-the more common,
the more miraculous. An aristocratic
product of life, it is life itself, for when
it is exhausted the organization ceases
to be. We are then not to be surprised
that it yields slowly to attacks upon it,
succumbing only to long siege, for it
is the very force of all forces. Neither
ought we to be surprised that to recover
from a real attack of what is called
nervous prostration" there should be
demanded by cheated nature time
which always seems to the sufferer I'M
reasonably long if indeed it be not in
terminable. But he has not kept his
books balanced with the minute care
which nature always employs in the
management of her accounts He has
hoped, if he has thought about it at all,
that she was as least as careless or as
weakly indulgent as he, and that
some few things might be overlooked
or haply forgotten. But natures ways
of doing business are not his ways, as
he has found out to his cost. Her ways
are not the curving and yielding lines
of benevolence and charity, but the
rigid and straight ones of truth and
| Justice, and it is better that the punish
ment for the repeatedly broken law
should be sometimes terribly swift and
hopelessly fatal in particular instance
than for one jot or or one little to pass
from the law. With those who have
offended against it in the constant mad
chase after pleasure, or in the equally
mad struggle to win and hold coveted
place in what is called society, | have
nothing to do. They must be left to
settle their accounts as best they can.
But to most earnest people life is hard
and fast, and growing continually hard
er and faster, and to many it is becom-
ing more and more a burning question
how they shall meet, like men and wo-
men, the demands of each day without
falling under the condemnation OF that
law. 1t would be comparatively easy
for the society followers, If they had
= any desire to do so, to settle their
: problem by following Carlyle's plan, and
reducing their denominators. He makes
it very clear to those who have passed
beyond the stage of childhood, that oul
wishes and desires stand to our abilities
e either pecuniary or mental, IN the same
relation as the denominatOr of a frac
a ton to it's numerator, and that the val
ne of the fraction of each one of us ex
:. presses in terms easily written dow1
Il the total amount of our solid happiness
or contentment. In this view 1t follows
n that there are always two possible way
I of increasing the amount Of the latter
namely. to increase our numeratOr b.
i increasing our possessions, or to dimin
l. ish our denomination by decreasing tn
n total amount of our desires To man.
! of us there is no liberty of choice lief
open Forced by the demand of tn
> working world to which we belong, w
> have already reduced our denominatO
u to q surprisingly low figure. We fin
" a positive pleasure, as we walk in tn
e city, in seeing shops loaded with innu
n merable things that we do not want
- and would not have even if we coulc
Even in the matter of books the mum be
=" which we care to own grows smalle
Is dav by day instead of larger. w
have learned the great lesso
that it is easier to climb q
once to the high hills and drin
from the springs which run there, tina
he to accept the diluted stuff which is d'
livered to us in conduits often not {
:. the cleanest With regard to society
- too. the number of houses into whic
u we do not desire to enter is infinitel
larger than that of those to which W
re- aspire. And it confers almost feelln
70 of royalty to see so many people aroun
us who do not hesitate at any sacrlhC
or any effort t. obtain an introductio
= into certain circles OF society to whic
no entreatics of our best-meanin
friends would be able to drag us for
single evening We have had so muC
to do all our lives that we have learne
ne the value of time, and we are blessed
ht thankful for it, for nobody who has IA
lived life of constant labor can po
sibly know the exquisite delight of
I'd whole half-hour in which one has
last the right to do what she please
II The fifty years of Europe hold mo-
- conscious throbbing life than a cycle
Cathap, and even if we had the Gber'
he of choosing, we would take the tif
bo years.-Anna c. Bracket in Harper
Magazine.