The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1917-01-09
WORRY.

fortunes and troubles are usually not
so burdensome and grievous when we
come to them as are the spectres and
forebodings in our minds before the real
troubles come. The researches of physi-
clans, psychologists and scientists
have now established the intimate con
nection Of body and mind, and it has
become truism that it is not work but |
worry that oftenest kills. SO close are |
the relations between the brain and the
body that one of the quickest ways to |
cause illness is to worry, and one of |
the readIest means of aiding the i'll on
the way to health is to make the mind |
cheerful and hopeful. Some patients
are the despair of physicians because,
having unlimited capacity for worry
they fret and fume and .put nature
out. On the other hand, the man with
the will to control himself; the person
with the calm, equal mind,' which SO
greatly distinguished the illustrious
Addison, divests himself utterly of the
trifiing worries of life, lets the sun
shine of the world beam upon his soul
and assists nature.
If it be true that the healthy mind
conduces to the healthy body, it is, of
course, equally true that the physically
weak viii naturally worry more than
others. Some start in life with so bad
physical foundation that there is
cause for worry, fretfulness and queru-
| lousness. In many instances not only
| is the body weak and feeble, but the
mind is diseased. To counsel these per
sons to east off worry seems very much
like advising the mean to be noble, the
frail to be rugged, the narrow minded
to be of great soul, or the short
to be tall; nevertheless, every sane
human being is capable of improve
ment. Some may reap greater results
from attempts at self-culture than
others, but results in due measure must
and do come from every honest, sincere
effort While the physically and men
tally defective or weak have great odds
to contend against, and, therefore, al
lowance is to be made for them, it
seems as if in a great many instances
the healthy, the strong and sound
worry unduly from mere habit. They
make themselves miserable uselessly,
and they are the cause of much un-
easiness and unhappiness to others.
The man who worries over trifies UNI
fits himself for a mans work in the
world, and stands in the way of his own
progress; q woman who frets and finds
a mountain in every molehill adds to
the burdens of life, and worrying fam
lily is known by the visages of its
members.
And the lamentable thing about
worry is its utter futility. Boswell, the
biographer and faithful follower of OLD
. Samuel Johnson, tells an anecdote OF
: that lion hearted great man which
Z illustrates admirably the common sens,
: of the sage, and at the same tins
shows strikingly the folly of worrying
: Boswell had planned feast at hi
lodging for DR.. Johnson and others, in
, tending to do honor to them and alst
satisfy his OWE vanity. At some pre-
r vious feast, Boswell, a notorious sot
2 had offended the landlady, or SOM
), other indiseretion had caused her to b
intractable, and at the last momen
! Boswell S plans were thwarted rathe
brutally. Boswell and Johnson were
:. perforce, obliged to turn away from III
o inhospitable doors, whereat Boswell
the little man, would have cried wit
V vexation; but the doctor, who wa
afraid of nothing in this world bu
dishonor, laughed at him, and said:
Consider how trifing all this
S will seem in a twelvemonth from
. now, and, beside, we shall be better
y served at tavern
Was it not our own Jefferson VIII
e cOunseled us to count ten when angry
l. Well, the idea contained in the advie
Z is good one as a corrective of FOOLS
haste, and nobody has ever shown !
clearer light the futility of worryin
= about tritles than old Samuel Johr
) son, that sound hearted, much endurin
;, man.
# Let US not lose a sense of perspective
h II thing will be regarded as trlti
r and mere laughing matter twelv'
month hence, it will usually be but
laughing matter now if we have tn
sense and the courage to look at it
e the proper light. Hear the noble wore
- of an old Roman stole:
:. "Do not disturb yourself by
:. thinking of the whole Of your life.
: Let not your thoughts at once en-
ie brace all the various troubles which
III you may expect to befall you; but
ar as each trouble comes say to your
IS, self, What is there too hard to
IN bear or endured And you will be
ashamed to onofacS And