The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1900-09-14
HOW TO AVOID INSANITY.
Practical Hints from a Doctor of Di
vinity and Law.

Rev DIR. James NJ. Buckley, in the Century.
Anxiety should be systematically
antagonized by philosophy, religion or
change of subjects of thought. The
effect of worry and suspense in driv-
ing men wild, directly and by con-
trast, for bankruptcy is often follow
ed by comparative mental repose.
Hence authorities affirm that uncer-
tainty and anxiety are far more liable
| to lead to mental derangement than
the assurance of disaster.
AS anxiety is a foe to clear thinking.
it is better for one approaching a
crisis to resort to indirect methods of
dissipating it. such as conversation,
the reading of an absorbing book,
violent physical exercise, or the use
of tools with which one would cut
himself If he did not give his entire
attention to their use. Similar means
also contribute to sound sleep.
Subjects of thought should be fire.
quently changed. Neither fanaticsm
nor insanity from mental causes will
| be liable to develop when the mind
is not constantly held upon one prob
| lem, probability, possibility or perplex-
| ity.
Surroundings lose their power to
| withdraw the mind from care and fear
so from time to time the scene should
! be changed. Those who postpone
! travel for several years often find that
/ they have lost the capacity of enjoy
ment; care is their courier, and they
| return unrefreshed A frequent vaca-
tion of two or three days in a month
would in many cases be more beneficial
than thirty-siX days of leisure or
change consecutively each year.
The observance of one day in seven
by a complete change in subjects Of
thought, and the suspension of modes
of activity required for six days would
be philosophical even though it had
no basis in religion. In the first
| French revolution the attempt was
made to have a holiday once in five
days, and again once in ten. The inter-
walls were too frequent under the first
plan and did not recur often enough
under the second. Hence those who
hated the system which enforced the
Sabbath We're fain to return to it.
The superintendent of one of the
largest hospitals for the insane de-
clares that nineteen out of twenty of
the business and professional men
who come under his care have been in
minds for seven days in each and ev-
cry week
Exaggerated sensitiveness is a foe
to happiness and the direct source OF
melancholy. In its earliest stages II
is amenable to self-treatment Many a
restoration to happiness has occurred
by the revelation to ones self that
by undue sensitiveness he has been
making life intolerable to himself and
to his friends.
Never, except in an emergency
should any one stake all he has upon
one thing. Caesar aut nihil is usually
nihil, and if Caesar, it is often only
another form of nihil. In great emer.
gencies men are often not content tC
wait. Because they know not what tc
do, they do they know not what.
Many become insane for want of oc.
cupation; they inherit wealth, and
with II a straight jacket of conyen.
tiOnalites in which they are com.
PEELED to spend their lives. This is es,
pecially the case with women, whC
generally, unlike men similarly sit
uoted, cannot travel by sea or land
or employ their energies in hunting
fishing, or athletics. Men who retir,
from business voluntarily or because
of advancing years, without modes o.
mental occupation, are prone to mel
ancholy. Some fear poverty while II
the midst of riches; others are out o.
Joint with the times; others develoI
strange eccentricities, illustrating tn,
proverb, "Gve an old mill nothinl
else to grind and it will grind flint
A habit of reading, an interes: II
: science, active connection with som,
systematical philanthropy, a profounr
and practical sympathy with som,
religious cult" will postpone the dat
/ of the advent of senility.