Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1909-02-05
Nerve" and Nerves.
From tie Warrington Post.

From the Warrington Post.
Medical science has attained to a re-
markable degree of skill. The success o.
local physicians in sewing up the human
| heart and in making delicate operations
on the brain would have been impossible 9
dozen years ago. Hardly less marvellous is
the rare operation recently performed by
which the broken nerves in Il mans arm
were so successfully spliced with silker
threads that the limb viii soon be able &c
perform al its muscular functions unim-
paired.
What a pity it is that humanity's mora
science cannot keep the pace with its
physical sciences Does any one know OF
a man whose nerve" was broken ever re-
covering it again?
Between nerve" and nerves, there is d
wide gulf The one is moral, the other
physical the one is an essence, the other
the form. The doctors can bind broken
nerves together with silken threads until
they knit again. When a man loses his
nerve" he is like ship that has lost her
rudder; he drifts. becomes dismantled, and
goes down with the derelicts. Most human
qualities man can fit himself with but
thisQne quality is given him when, a max
ed Soul, he Is sent into the world; il
Is his by right of his manhood, birth.
right which, once lost. can never be regain
ed Thus, its possession is more precious
than the title to crowns, and its retention
of more Importance than the conquest Of
cities.
"Nerve" is seldom destroyed at blow
II is seldom dissipated in a single moment
but is more often the steady crumpling OF
will and pride under the constantly repeat
\ att OF ca a.,
do occur occasionally, however, in which
nerve" is tested beyond its strength, and
snaps beneath the strain, and the thing is
then both tragic and pitiable. In such a
moment a man reputed brave turns cow
ard a spirit Boosting strength yields one
accounted noble becomes despicable. From
such crucial moments of defeat there Is
no recovery. The head may still be held
I'D, but there is no fire in the eye; the
chest may be expanded. but beneath 1t the
heart beats no bold, resounding strokes.
The morale of whole life has been blast
ed in one second and what was man is
left nothing but shell.
But there is another aspect to nerve. "
Exercised, disciplined, protected, yet kept
In constant fighting trim. 1t may be capa-
BILE of a power beyond the splend0r of
dreams, and in one mighty burst 1t may
in a man to heights far above his native
self In one Of these rare bursts Luther
stood before Charles v at Worms in an
other great general burned his bridges
behind him; another, Patrick Henry de-
fed the British crown and brought on the
American revolution. History is full of
such incidents. when the nerve" of one
man altered the course of empires but in
the lives Of every humble man and woman,
who achieves happy evening OF life,
there are thousand great moments unre-
corded
So il becomes Of the highest Importance
that man should always keep his nerve, :"
whatever may befall him No silken threads
can bind its broken edges, no oil of honey
or soothing balm can heal its shattered
forces. AS the health Of the nerves is
most essential to the energies Of the
body, so the retention Of nerve" is vital
to the spirit.