Rocky Ford enterprise., 1914-06-26


The first law of motion states that
body once set in motion will move
forever in straight line with the
same velocity unless acted upon by
some other force which compels
change. This property is known as
inertia. Inertia is not force, but Is
the result of absorbing force.
The hardest thing we have to over
come in ourselves is mental inertia
An idea once formed will persist until
stronger one overwhelms 1t and
alters it. This is the foundation OF
habit and the reason the past has SO
strong hold on US always. The past
is the line of least resistance and
leaning on it is highly characteristic
of one with a slothful intellect. the ira
dition worshiper, the dawdling con-
seryative.
We are naturally conservative be.
cause it requires an initial effort to up
root old notions and habits; it is pain
full and we resent 1t. We want to be
let alone.
If because of some indiscretion we
had a pain yesterday for which by
recommendation of authority we took
something out of bottle, it is easier
to repeat the act again today than 1t
is to determine the cause or to ignore
the temporary penalty of pain and re-
solve to sin no more. To repeat an
act is usually to follow the line of
least resistance. 1t requires less
thought and less effort with each
repetition until finally an automatic
cycle of reaction is established and a
habit is born.
With the track once laid, word
spoken, the flash of a sign before the
eye, the most remotely associated idea,
each serves as signal for train of
thought bringing into action automatic
ally complicated line of co-ordinating
nerve centers, and the act is again per-
formed practically involuntarily. often
unconsciously.
This is why the drunkard is in
perilous condition If he contents him
self merely with saying or swearing
that he will avoid strong drink
Thought precedes action and therefore
If thought be not clearly focused on
some wholesome dominant idea 1t
must inevitably revert to the estab-
lished line.
To rescue one permanently from
habit we must have an equivalent in
some mental occupation sufficiently at
tractive to submerge the old impress
sions, else ones vitality will be squan-
dered in the struggle. Inability to re-
sist drink or drugs or bad habits in
general is because of inertia.
4,
crate sufficient power to overcome the
accumulated force of the little act fire.
quently repeated, ana one becomes
slave to habit.
Habits may be good or bad: both
are the natural and inevitable result
of training. For the future must grow
out of and inherit the present, just as
the present grew out of and inherited
the past. Intelligence gives thorough
training. good habits, good health and
happiness. Ignorance or Indifference
gives bad training, vicious habits. dis
ease and crime. Bad habits can be
surely and safely broken, not by sub
stitution, nor by cures. nor by miracles,
but only by frank and courageous
recognition of the true conditions and
StihC ouS vi th'ih.
The fundamental necessity for the
correction OF bad habits is intellectual
integrity-a rare quality. The most
difficult and unpleasant duty we have
to perform, but one absolutely neces-
sary If we would have good health and
be able to use the greatest power
within the reach of man, thought, is to
be square and truthful with ourselves,
to see ourselves as we are.
Thought is the one and only domain
wherein man can reign supreme, for
while we may not determine what we
shall think, we can govern what we
shall think about, and we have the
power to analyze, to measure. weigh,
judge and accept or reject any thought
on any subject. Thought is a canni-
bal because thought lives upon thought
and unless constantly given fresh and
substantial food it must starve and
become inert.
But to think is to change; nothing
can prevent that, and we have noted
that we are constitutionally opposed
to change. Hence most of us solve
the matter by refusing to think; we
just drop into line and do the conven-
tional lockstep and go where we're
taken" 1t is simple and pleasant to
sit in the easy chair of the old order
and let the universe wag along; one
travels much more smoothly If the
head contains only the ideas others
have developed.
But there is another side to it, 1t is
physiological truth that any organ,
danied the right IN function will