The citizen. [volume] (Berea, Ky.) 1899-1958, 1910-09-29


the world has passed away. But one
part of the adornment of the temple
has survived-not a piece Of marble,
not a gem, not a statue, but an
inscription. The builders had asked
the seven wise men of Greece each
to write a motto to be inscribed on
the temple, and those notices, those
thoughts, those immaterial sentl-
ments have been preserved in the mem
cries and books Of men, and they will
probably be preserved now forever.
One of those notices consisted of
just two Greek words: Gnothi seau-
ton, Know myself"
1t is a wise saying. How can we 10
right or be right unless we know our
selves? And how little we do know of
ourselves. The Bible is valuable in
large degree because it tells us about
human nature, which is our nature.
And the greatest teachers are those
that can. help us to know ourselves.
Did you ever hear Of body snatch
ers," people who by night dig up
dead bodies in the graveyard and
sell them to students at the medical
schools? They do not do 1t as much
as they used to, because now ways
are provided for medical students 10
cut up the bodies Of animals, and he
cause people are now generally will
ing when a person dies to allow the
doctor to examine the body so that
he may find out all he can to help
him cure other people.
But the cutting up of human bodies
has shown us some wonderful things.
1t has shown us how the mind acts
on the body, and how the body acts
on the mind.
The mind acts on the body through
the nerves. And when the nerves
have done a thing once they do It
a second time more easily. Action
changes the nerves. The nerves in a
dead body will show what was the
character Of the man in life.
Now that is the nerve record of
habits. To start the habit the brain
and soul had to pay attention and
telegraph directions for each separate
motion. BY and by the nerves got so
used to these motions that they carry
on the process almost alone, and the
brain is free to think of other things.
This is the law: Whatever the soul or
will has made the nerves do once,
that thing they can do more easily
a second time, and finally they can
do it without any help from the will
and even in spite of the will.
take a piece Of unfolded smooth
paper, and carefully fold it in any
way l please. That gives the paper
a habit. A second time / can fold it
in the same way very easily, and af-
ter a time | can hardly fold it in any
other way. The paper is creased with
folds which it would take a hot iron
to press out. That is an illustration
of habit.
Now the greatest man in America
for studying such things was Prof.
VIM. James of Harvard University,
who died this past summer. Here is
his book, which is studied by the
advanced students in our Collegiate
department. He says:
1.-THE nerves of habit doom us to
fight out the battle of life upon the
lines of our early choice. ." The
period between twenty and thirty is
the critical one in the formation of
intellectual and professional habits;
the period below twenty is more I'M
portant still for the fixing OF personal
habits. Hardly ever is a Ian
guage learned after twenty spoken
without a foreign accent; hardly ever
can a youth transferred to the society
of his betters unlearn the nasality
and other vices Of speech bred in
him by the associations of his grow
ing years. -" The great thing
then, in all education, is to make our
nervous system our ally instead Of
our enemy. 80 We must make
automatic and habitual as many use
full actions as we can. and guard a
gainst the growing into ways that
will be disadvantageous to us, as we
should guard against the plague. The
more of details of our daily life
we can hand over to the effortless
custody of automatism, $50 that they
will go without thought,) the more
our higher powers of mind will be
set free for their own proper work.
There is no more miserable human
being than one in whom nothing is
habitual but indecision. -" The
physiological study Of mental condi-
tions is thus the most powerful ally
of the preacher. The hell to be endur-
ed hereafter, of which theology tells,
is no worse than the hell we make
for ourselves in this world by habitu-
ally fashioning our characters in the
wrong way. Could the young realize
konnvan