The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1914-11-15
.s1YIIAT MEN LIVE BY,


BY Richard c. Cabot. NJ. D. (fifth edi,
tom. Houghton Mifflin & Co. pub
fishers, Boston.
(REVIEWED FOR THESE COLUMNS
BY DIR. GEORGE EAvEs).
The gift Of expression, or style. is not
so common that its possessor can be
olassed as commonplace even among
those whose profession 1t is to write.
When a doctor of medicine has 1t he
forthwith becomes a power. The gift re-
acts amazingly upon his scientific mind
and urges him to classify all his thoughts
and facts in simple and teachable man
ner. so that the rest of mankind may
also know what is good for them and
what is harmful. Hence we have writer's
like DR.. Woods Hutchinson and DR.. Rich
ard c. Cabot. OF the same weird sort is
the Dr. Oster who added a verb to the
language and spur to plethoric age.
This book OF DR.. Cabots shows what
manner OF man is the author. He towers
among the sons OF Aesculapus like a
Mont Blanc among the foothills. He
las his own mind, his own opinions. and
he instantly attracts clouds of questions,
challenges like arrows from a thousand
bows. He smiles, gathers them all in
bundle. and presently answers them one
by one.
1t Is luci6ity OF soul that distinguishes
him. Not merely clarity of intellect, and
hence he is more than physician, more
than assistant professor of medicine at
Harvard university. He is among the
three or four most eminent masters of
philanthropy and social reconstruction in
this country. Because he is himself,
| alone, radiant. quiet, peak in the blue
heavens, or piercing the rain bearing
clouds. he has beneficent relations with
his fellows. versnd as he is in pathology
and materia medica, he Is more deeply
| interested in men and women and chill
| dren, their spiritual pathology. the relief
| OF the distress of soul that Is theirs He
knows that there are wounds which must
be healed, lame wills and broken cour-
age that must be mended, and he knows
| what force. what technique, what herbs
and minerals what surgery, are avail
able to that result
| This is book for preachers and the
| mid week prayer meeting. Not that
| 1t should be read there. 1t Is too COM
| pact, too crystalline for that. But to
have some group of people in every
| church praying and thinking their way
under this sane guidance, the prob
lens he propounds to himself would
| be as good for the church as revival.
| The ancient problems that started DR..
| Cabot may start many loving heart
along with him: what is the best
| way to care for the tuberculous? How
can nervous people (neurasthenies) be
restored to balance and happiness
Where can we find help that is worth
offering to girl that is facing moth
/ erhood without a husband?
| The answer 10 that all need intro
duction to "real life." and how that
can be done for them and the rest of
| us is suggested In this wonderful mas
| terly. keen. humorous. gracious little
book.
Work, play, love. worship. These
are the four corners of the real world
And blessed il the land whose doc
tors are clean enough and scientific
enough and unselfsh enough to pre-
scribe life instead OF drugs Blessed
the land whose doctors and lawyers
and business men make common cause
with the preachers in setting forth
the spiritual basis of the only sue
cess worth considering!
DIR. Cabot sees past all the humdrun
Iconventionalities that blind and deafen
| the human soul. He tells us what
art is and shows us how we ought all
to be artists, and may be, nay must
be, to keep our balance. Play Is art
| Work and play, love and worship are
the exercise of the soul not az an end.
nor as the means to an end, but as a
! consequence of life. just as bee huns
| or a plant blooms.
| So commend this book to my breth-
rem who are trying with difficulty to
build up their prayer meeting. Let
them read, mark. learn and inwardly
digest 1t themselves. talk IL over at
| the supper table, push 1t up to the
| deacons and the ladies' aid, not off,
cially and not as a book. but line upon
line, here n little and there little.
with the grace that It begets. 1t is as
tonishing how full of real life the
prayer meeting would soon prove.
AZ 70 the doctors. Well, here Is an
example NJ a doctor who knows the
necessity to himself of the church and