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A BOY'S CONTROL 
 AND SELF-EXPRESSION, 
 
WORKS, etc., by EUSTACE MILES, ma, 
 
 lo, ST. PAUL'S ROAD, CAMBRIDGE. 
 
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 by correspondence. Three Guineas. 
 
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 journalists, essayists, and literary men. A Home 
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A BOY'S CONTROL 
 AND SELF-EXPRESSION 
 
 ( Illustrated with about 250 Fifrs.) 
 
 BY 
 
 EUSTACE MILES, M.A. 
 
 rormerly Scholar of King's College, Cambridge, Assistant Master 
 at Rugby School, and Honours Coach and Lecturer at Cam- 
 bridge ; Author of " Muscle, Brain, and Diet," " Avenues to 
 Health," How to I'repare Essays," etc. ; Editor of Cassell's 
 '♦Physical Educator," Routledge's "Fitness Series," etc.; 
 Amateur Champion of America at Racquets, Tennis, and 
 Squash-Tennis, 1900, and of England at Racquets, 1902, at 
 Tennis 1899 to 1903, Holder of the Gold Prize. 
 
 "bra 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 CAMBRIDGE: 
 Published by the Author, 10, St. Paul's Road. 
 
 1904. 
 [Copyright. — Entered at Stationers' Hall] . 
 
:i 
 
 
 FOR ALL-ROUND FITNESS. 
 
 1. A Home Course of Lessons, by correspondence, in 
 
 Character - Building and Moral Memory 
 Training : with Exercises. Three Guineas. 
 
 A man's present and future character and actions 
 depend an his dominant memories, which he can re-form easily 
 by sensible and unobtrusive practices and habits, such 
 as are fully described in this Course. 
 
 2. T^e Eustace Miles Individual Health-Courses, 
 
 devised and sent to those who fill in the personal 
 question-forms and enclose the fee of Ttvo Guineas. 
 
 Prospectuses Free, on application by card or letter 
 to Eustace Miles, M.A., at lo, St. Paul's Road, 
 Cambridge. 
 
PREFACE. ix. 
 
 or TMl 
 
 IVER8ITY 
 
 veface- Vsiifei^ 
 
 IT is supposed that a book should keep within 
 reach, or at least within sight, of a single 
 point, as anyone walking round St. Mary's of the 
 Scilly Isles usually keeps within sight of the simple- 
 looking Marconi Station. My book usually keeps 
 within sight of a single idea, which I will express in 
 a somewhat long sentence. 
 
 Fairly considering all that I know now, what training 
 of body and mind should I choose if I were allowed to 
 become a boy again^ and if I wanted tc prevent the most 
 serious mistakes as easily as possible and with as little 
 attention to them as possible, so as to avoid morbidness or 
 crankiness or priggishness ? 
 
 I must have read quite a hundred and fifty books 
 and papers on the subject of purity for boys, but not 
 one of them answered my question. Almost every 
 one — there were, of course, some exceptions — brought 
 before me a picture of an immaculate perfection, 
 clothed in black, standing on an inaccessible platform 
 of genteel propriety, and, as a rule, hopelessly out of 
 touch with the real boy, as we see him in life and in 
 such books as " The Golden Age," " The Human 
 Boy," *' Stalky and Co.," and ''Vice-Versa." 
 
 Throughout these works I was sick of the " Do 
 not do this, my juvenile friend "; " Avoid any such 
 
 B 
 
X. PREFACE. 
 
 error; I, the spotless preacher, warn you against it." 
 Throughout I longed to ask, How did you fare your- 
 self, genteel sir ? Did yotc ever make mistakes ? 
 Were yotc ever a boy ? I owe valuable information 
 to some of these works ; but that is the first fault, 
 the personal secretiveness or respectability — it does 
 not matter which name we use. The pages seldom 
 or never are redeemed by the saving touch of " This 
 is my personal experience. Take it for what it is 
 worth." 
 
 As to the ways, on which they insist dogmatically 
 for all alike, some of them are too vague. The books 
 talk about " good " exercise ; but what is good 
 exercise for the boy ? They talk about " nourishing " 
 food ; but what is nourishing food for the boy ? They 
 are far too vague and abstract. Many of their ways 
 are not feasible for the boy. For example, they tell 
 the boy to avoid impure air, unwholesome diet, and 
 all sorts of things which it is not in the power of 
 the boy to avoid. Without this avoidance, they say, 
 the boy has no chance. Nor do they give a fair 
 estimate of the ways that they order ; the immediate 
 results of these ways they utterly ignore. For 
 instance, while some recommend wholemeal bread as 
 the food-basis for boys, they omit to cite that many 
 Russian recruits take months before their wholemeal 
 (rye) staple begins to suit them. Eventually they 
 may find that it suits them admirably ; but at first 
 they feel sure they are being starved. 
 
 Indeed, few of these works are for boys. Most of 
 them are not for vigorous human men either. They 
 
PREFACE. XI. 
 
 ■do not seem to be written by a human being at 
 all. If you could only feel that the writer himself 
 had had any difficulties, instead of being impressed 
 by the fact that he had always lived on a pinnacle 
 of his own, high above you, you could read his book 
 with more patience and interest. The author's need 
 is to become a boy, and to realise the advice as 
 it strikes a boy. What, for instance, is a boy's 
 picture of such ideas as " righteous," " virtuous," 
 *' holy," and even " godly " ? Do these words suggest 
 to the boy that which interests and attracts him, 
 that which tends to make him a better boy, not a 
 better premature old man ? Do they help him to 
 play the game of life, to be sportsmanlike ? 
 
 And too many of the books centre in a sickening 
 manner round the mistakes, instead of centring round 
 thorough fitness, and pleasant, useful success. 
 
 In dealing with mistakes, again, the writers are 
 far too definite with regard to the results of mistakes. 
 They give horrible descriptions of supposedly inevi- 
 table and immediate effects. 
 
 And, at times, they show a great deal of ignorance 
 about the body and the mind. 
 
 Now how can one avoid writing this type of book ? 
 
 In the first place it is necessary to study anatomy 
 and physiology (especially the anatomy and physi- 
 ology of boys), as well as hygiene, physical educa- 
 tion, psychology, mental education. 
 
 On these subjects, and on the whole subject from 
 other points of view, I have collected in recent years 
 piles of notes which, if arranged and put direct into 
 
Xll. PREFACE. 
 
 a book, would be two or three times the size of the 
 " Physical Educator." But I was not at all pleased 
 with anything that I had prepared and written. The 
 difficulty was not to collect ideas, but to select and 
 omit. It became a matter chiefly of the point of 
 view. I wanted to appeal both to boys and to men at the 
 same time. It was only after many unsatisfactory 
 trials that I decided on the present title and nature 
 of the book. An earlier work of mine, ** Muscle,. 
 Brain, and Diet," had succeeded beyond my expec- 
 tations. It gave my personal experiences quite 
 candidly, and asked readers to judge by all-round 
 results after fair trial. In subsequent editions of this 
 book I admitted that there had been failures; that 
 my diet did not suit every one. Here my point of 
 view is similar, but slightly different. 
 
 It was suggested to me by the remark of a Public 
 School master who really understands boys. Hesaid^ 
 How splendid it would be to come back to school as 
 a boy, knowing all that one knows now ! How one 
 would enjoy oneself, not playing the fool, but, on 
 the other hand, not working too hard. This point 
 of view led me to ask myself the question above, as 
 to what I should choose if I were allowed this privi- 
 lege ; what I should choose with a view to pleasanter 
 self-control and less unsatisfactory self-expression. 
 
 The chapter on the early mastery of many alphabets. 
 will show, I hope, that the things which I should 
 choose for my own training would not be morbid ; 
 that they would just be ordinary things, such as even 
 a man could practise without becoming obnoxious* 
 
PREFACE. Xlll. 
 
 They include more leisurely eating and drinking, 
 leisurely breathing, leisurely washing, drill to im- 
 prove skill at games and athletics, and so forth. 
 Indeed, I am really still learning some of these 
 things now — very late, but not too late. 
 
 The best testimony to their effect in my case is 
 that I am enjoying myself more and more in con- 
 sequence of this training. Self-control becomes 
 easier and pleasanter, and self-expression becomes 
 safer and pleasanter too. 
 
 The ways are not ascetic and hard. I find that in 
 food and in everything else I can follow my desires 
 more and more securely. 
 
 And the training does not centre round the objec- 
 tionable aspect of the matter. The treatments seem 
 to be equally preventive of most if not all sorts of 
 mistakes. The earlier the alphabets are mastered, 
 the better. Let me cite, as an example, more 
 thorough mastication, or, to call it by its less sombre 
 name, more leisurely eating. Within certain limits, 
 the habit is an extremely valuable one from every 
 single point of view, except perhaps the social. It 
 is a habit which certainly does not suggest anything 
 morbid, and yet affects the whole of life. The boy 
 who can eat every mouthful of food somewhat more 
 thoroughly and leisurely than the average boy does, 
 should have gained a wonderful command of his 
 temper and passions and actions. 
 
 Whereas sheer and unintelligent will-power, of the 
 bull-dog, run - at -a -wall -with - your - head - down type, 
 might have been of little use to him in difficulties, 
 
XIV. PREFACE. 
 
 half a dozen habits like leisurely eating and rhythm- 
 ical breathing may train his body and mind to a 
 marvellous habit of fitness. 
 
 Indeed, I confess I do not like the use of this 
 sheer, unintelligent will, where I have found that 
 simple tactics, together with some will, would be 
 equally or more effective. I speak for m)'self, without 
 daring to dictate to others. 
 
 Throughout the book there is the touch of per- 
 sojiality, and there is the candour of one who does 
 not pose as faultless ; though, on the other hand,, 
 there has been no need to put down all the details, 
 or indeed any of the details, over which the morbid 
 books gloat. It is quite sufficient to allude to the 
 mistake. For surely it is at least that. I assume 
 that it is a mistake, and I call it that, and so avoid 
 the unsavoury words that infest the ordinary pages. 
 
 To strike a happy mean between an unnecessary 
 shock to tender feelings, and equally unnecessary 
 reserve, has been extremely difficult. In fact, it 
 would have been almost impossible without the help 
 of comparisons and contrasts to lead the way to the 
 truth, and to remove shame from those members 
 that "have not the same office," those members 
 that in themselves have nothing improper or indecent 
 about them, and are only made improper by wrong- 
 mindedness. 
 
 But a glance at the Table of Contents will give 
 the reader the best notion of the scope of the book. 
 He will see that, after the introductory chapters^ 
 which search for causes of mistakes and insist on 
 
PREFACE. XV. 
 
 proper ambitions and responsibilities being set before 
 boys, and insist on individuality being studied, there 
 follow many simple and feasible helps, first external 
 and physical, then mental. In the concluding chap- 
 ters, difficulties and limitations are recognised, and 
 an attempt is made to estimate the power which 
 exists for reform among various classes. In Appen- 
 dices there are given some valuable notes on Blood- 
 pressure, by a medical man of wide experience and 
 study, and a plea for Latin rightly taught — which 
 Appendices show that I rely on the help of the 
 medical profession, and do not desire to revolutionise 
 every established custom. 
 
 The general conclusions at which I have arrived 
 are that there are very many potent causes of 
 mistakes ; that there are very many actually effective 
 helps, especially preventive helps, which I have seen 
 succeeding admirably at various schools and else- 
 where, even when only one or two helps have been 
 tried at a time ; that these helps are little known 
 by most boys or indeed by most men ; that they are 
 quite simple and — in nearly every case — unobtrusive, 
 yet tending to all-round fitness. Take, for instance, 
 the above-mentioned habit of leisurely eating and a 
 better position of the body and better ways of 
 breathing, and less stimulating — but not any the less 
 nourishing — food. Such things must tend to all- 
 round fitness. Yet they need not call the boy's 
 attention to anything foul and undesirable. They 
 just train him, without the constant allusion to the 
 mistakes which he might possibly make. 
 
XVI. PREFACE. 
 
 The general impression left on my mind by a 
 study of the whole matter is a feeling of hopefulness, 
 since the causes are so many ; the mistakes so few ; 
 the helps and preventives so many, so easy, so little 
 known. There seems no reason to despair, especially 
 when we remember that more helps and better helps 
 are bound to be added soon. 
 
 Not the least important part of my work is the 
 chapter on limitations. It also should leave in the 
 reader's mind the general impression of hope, since, 
 with all these limitations, there exists, comparatively, 
 so little of the undesirable. The book allows for 
 what exists, and will exist for the present — for 
 instance, certain wrong ways of feeding. It does 
 not, like some other books, suggest a clean sweep, 
 an upsetting of every orthodox usage. 
 
 Nor does it set itself up as an infallible com- 
 mandment - book of universal application. It is 
 nothing of the kind. It invites criticisms and 
 suggestions — such suggestions of experiences, etc., 
 as I have already received from time to time in 
 the form of letters from various boys and men. The 
 book includes a blank page on which these sug- 
 gestions may be written. Needless to say, such 
 information will be regarded as strictly confidential. 
 For there is no finality in the present book or in 
 any part of it. It only gives the best that I can 
 offer up to date, the best as based on personal 
 experience and various letters from friends and 
 acquaintances and strangers, various talks, and a 
 study as wide as I could make it, including a study 
 
PREFACE. XVn. 
 
 of all kinds of religious, educational, hygienic, and 
 athletic books. Let me take this opportunity to 
 thank all those who have helped me so much in 
 different parts of the work, including Miss M. 
 Dovaston, who has done the illustrations so effec- 
 tively. 
 
 The helps which I suggest have been tried per- 
 sonally by me, and there seems to be no harm in any 
 one of them. There are no expensive ways. In 
 the book itself, no proprietary goods are mentioned. No 
 operations, no drugs are cited. In fact, from one 
 point of view, the book may be regarded as omitting 
 far too much. 
 
 But that was necessary if it was to emphasise the 
 easy ways, the unostentatious simplicities. 
 
 The object of the book is to make a boy far more 
 independent by the practice of plain little things, 
 plain little physical and mental habits. The boy is 
 to learn the habit of self-control and self-expression 
 and self-respect chiefly by apparently alien things, 
 including physical exercises. It is quite as easy — if 
 not much easier — for the boy to get his self-control 
 and self-expression and self-respect in this way. 
 
 There must be patience, too — the habit of 
 patience, developed in many ways, so that the boy 
 will let the seeds gradually grow into the harvest, 
 and let the weeds die, perhaps of slow starvation. 
 
 As to the mistakes, I have tried to touch on them 
 gently. I should rather have avoided mention of 
 them altogether; but the probability is that, if the 
 boy is not told of the mistakes from the right point 
 
XVlll. PREFACE. 
 
 of view, he will be told of them from the wrong- 
 point of view by some stable-boy. There are sure 
 to be old and rotten threads, alike of prudery and 
 profligacy, of false shame and false humour, to be 
 drawn out of most boys' (and men's) minds before — 
 or at least while — fresh and clean threads are put in 
 their minds' warp and woof. But there is no neces- 
 sity to hinge all the ideas upon the mistakes ; that 
 seems the wrong way of regarding them. It is 
 necessary to touch on them ; it is utterly unnecessary 
 to linger on them. 
 
 And, indeed, I hope that the reader will be struck 
 by the ■" unsuggestiveness," the simplicity, the safety^ 
 the reasonableness of the helps which I offer, and 
 by the fact that anyone can easily go on adding 
 fresh helps of his own, without giving up the old. 
 
 Until such helps have been fairly tried, there 
 should be no scathing condemnation of the boy, by 
 himself or by others. 
 
 The helps will be found useful, it is hoped, by 
 a good many young men as well as boys. It is 
 chiefly from young men and men that I have re- 
 ceived letters asking for advice ; boys seem to be too 
 shy to write. 
 
 I take this opportunity of saying that I am not in 
 a position to give personal advice gratuitously. If I 
 once began this, my time would be fully occupied 
 by that work alone. I must confine myself to refer- 
 ring readers here to other books for further details, 
 and especially to books on diet and exercise. 
 
 For — once more — this is not a complete guide^ 
 
PREFACE. XIX. 
 
 And among other unsatisfactory features in it is this : 
 that I cannot clearly describe the ideal at which I 
 aim. That ideal is purity. The word purity calls up 
 no clear picture, as the word kmdncss does. The 
 word purity is too often associated with somethinf^ 
 negative, the absence of, or abstinence from, a certain 
 kind of impurity, which is called " immorality." In 
 reality it is a positive and radiating influence : it is 
 not mere abstinence. We can understand this posi- 
 tive and radiating influence better if we think of the 
 word kindness. Kindness is not merely negative 
 abstinence from murder or from murderous thoughts 
 or from unkind thoughts; it is something positive. 
 A man is in the desert with his deadliest enemy 
 under his power. The man has just enough water 
 for one. His enemy is parched with thirst. The 
 man gives his enemy his water. That is positive 
 kindness, going far beyond mere abstinence from un- 
 kindness. But, when we come to picturing positive 
 purity, we are unable to paint any scene corres- 
 ponding to this positive and radiating kindness. 
 Probably, indeed, if one could pourtray purity itself, 
 the ignorant would condemn the drawing as the 
 exact opposite of purity. 
 
 The work, therefore, is not altogether satisfactory, 
 and it may be as well if, at the risk of repetition, I 
 make it clear what the work is not — and is not 
 intended to be. 
 
 It is not a treatise commanding, to all alike, an 
 absolutely unstimulating diet, and never a single 
 drop of alcohol for any person anywhere ever. Still 
 
XX. PREFACE. 
 
 less would it set such things as goals for all, rather 
 than as means for many. It is not a plea for celi- 
 bacy and durance, or for self-control as an end in 
 itself. It is not a morbid text-book of pathology, 
 -describing unpleasant details and drawing a disgust- 
 ing sketch of the horrid results of certain diseases. 
 
 Rather it is a demand for general and all-round fitness 
 ■of mind, nerve, and muscle, a demand for self-control as 
 •a means towards self-expression — sensible and feasible 
 and ujiostentatious self-control, begun and practised as 
 •early as possible, as a means to safer and freer and 
 more successful self-expression, and more rational and 
 inspiriting self-respect. 
 
 In truth, so far are my ways from durance and 
 ascetism that, if any regime continues to be unplea- 
 sant discipline after a fair trial — let us say of a few 
 weeks — it probably has something wrong at the root 
 of it, and I for my part will have nothing to do with 
 it, whatever others may decide. 
 
 Some helps, of course, are not likely to be very 
 pleasant at the start. Rome was not built and can- 
 not be cleansed — neither can England — in a single 
 day. The helps must be judged not by immediate 
 effects, which are nearly always unsatisfactory, but 
 by full effects after a reasonable experiment. This 
 applies particularly to changes in diet in the direc- 
 tion of purity and simplicity, even when abundant 
 nourishment is taken ; the change from a stimulating 
 and clogging to a less stimulating and less clogging 
 diet may be quite depressing at the start. 
 
 This and other admissions of difficulties and objec- 
 
PREFACE. XXU 
 
 tions will, I hope, prevent the reader from demand- 
 ing too much from my suggestions. 
 
 Again, it has been hard to reconcile two aimsr 
 first of all, the attention to the means, some of them 
 only temporary means ; then, eventually, freedom 
 from all means that are not feasible everywhere and 
 that have not become pleasant or at least neutral. 
 
 Attention to the means involves conscious careful- 
 ness; choice together with practice. This is while 
 one is learning. The end and aim is no such bother,. 
 but rather what we may call conscious carelessness,, 
 sub-conscious carefulness, correct instinct, pleasant 
 freedom. 
 
 For it seems that the ideal — or an ideal — of man 
 in this world is purposely to delegate a great deal of 
 correct action to his under-mind, purposely to unite 
 himself with his Over-mind and God, regarding him- 
 self as carrying out the work of the Over-mind and 
 of God. In other words, just as he delegates correct 
 action — correct attitudes of the body, correct breath- 
 ing, correct movement, even correct repose — to his. 
 under-mind, so eventually the Over-mind and God 
 will delegate correct action to him. His work is to 
 become the under-mind of the Over-mind and of 
 God, and to do the pleasure of the Over-mind and 
 of God as easily and automatically as his own under- 
 mind has learnt to do his own pleasure when he 
 plays the piano, talks, reads, writes, walks, or 
 balances himself on a bicycle. 
 
 If anyone already is thus the faithful under-mind 
 of the Over-mind and of God, he does not need to- 
 
XXll. PREFACE. 
 
 look at this book, which is for those who require 
 conscious choice and practice of habits that it is 
 never too late — and scarcely ever too early — to ac- 
 quire, and that, while they are being acquired, build 
 alike the mind and the body to greater all-round 
 iitness for life and, in due season, reproduction. 
 Eustace Miles, 
 
 10, St. Paul's Road, 
 1904. Cambridge. 
 
PART I 
 
 INTRODUCTORY CHAPTERS, 
 
 CHIEFLY FOR THOSE WHO HAVE CHARGE OF BOYS. 
 
 Chapter. Page 
 
 I. — Self-control and Self-expression : A Personal Opinion 
 about Easier Ways ... 
 
 II. — Comparisons and Contrasts 
 
 III. — Common Fallacies 
 
 IV. — A Search for Causes of Mistakes 
 
 v.— Some Effects 
 
 VI. — What has succeeded at Schools and elsewhere 
 
 VII. — An Early Mastery of Many Alphabets ... 
 
 VIII.— The Habit of Patience in View of Results 
 
 IX. — Compelling Ambitions and Responsibilities 
 
 X. — A Better Map of Life 
 
 XI. — Wanted : More Candour, Less Prudery... 
 
 XII. — Sacred Individuality 
 
 XIII— Why We Should be Hopeful 
 
A PERSONAL OPINION ABOUT EASIER WAYS 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 SELF-CONTROL AND SELF-EXPRESSION : A PERSONAL 
 OPINION ABOUT EASIER WAYS. 
 
 FOR many years I played Racquets with great 
 keenness and energ}', but with little success. 
 I had been told to '' play up hard " and to " prac- 
 tise " : the practice consisted chiefly in playing up 
 hard ! I was most anxious to improve. I strained 
 and " stuck to it." But I failed. Then one day I 
 was shown some of my serious faults — my feet, my 
 body, my arm, my hand, were in the wrong posi- 
 tions ; hence my stroke was w rong. At length I saw 
 that " playing up hard " would only ingrain these 
 faults deeper and deeper. I set myself to learn the 
 ver>^ alphabet of play, the more correct positions and 
 movements, by a series of simple exercises — foot- 
 drills and so on — attentively repeated, usually in my 
 little bedroom at Cambridge. By degrees I made the 
 better strokes no longer a conscious exertion, but a 
 natural habit and tendency. What had before 
 been very difficult became comparatively simple 
 now. I found that I was beginning to play with far 
 less effort, but far more success. The ease which 
 the genius shows almost directly he starts the game, 
 I was and still am trj^ing to get by conscious repe- 
 tition of certain little practices. 
 
 That lesson I have applied, I am applying, and 
 shall apply to other games and other spheres of life. 
 
 c 
 
4 INTRODUCTORY. — MAINLY FOR PARENTS, ETC. 
 
 I do not want ahvays to have to be exerting myself 
 against the same fault. I want to have removed the 
 fault. I want to express myself freely and success- 
 fully here, and so to enjo}' m3'self more. I want a 
 set of methods, not too severe and exhausting, by 
 which I ma}' very soon get a tendency or bias to do 
 what is right, so that I may then let myself go and 
 know that I shall not go far wrong. I want less and 
 less of the harsh self-restraint that was once my 
 ideal ; more and more of the pleasant self-expression 
 that is my ideal now. 
 
 In a word, if I may compare my body and instincts 
 and desires to my dog, I want to train that dog so 
 that I shall not always be obliged to oppose its will 
 and to correct similar habits again and again, but 
 shall be able to trust it, assured that its dominant 
 inclination is now to be well-behaved and healthy 
 and, in fact, the companion of man, as the best dog 
 is by nature. 
 
 Then it will be a real pleasure to live with that 
 dog, knowing that it will be a nice and amusing 
 friend, not a wicked brute which has to be alter- 
 nately starved, chained up, and beaten. 
 
 And the less compulsion and harshness I use in 
 educating it, the simpler and kinder my treatment of 
 it, short of pampering or spoiling it, the better both 
 it and myself will be pleased, the more firm will be 
 the foundations of its good character, because what 
 is right is associated in its memor}' with what is 
 pleasant also. That is likely to be the soundest 
 guarantee of satisfactory conduct. 
 
A PI^KSONAL OPINION ABOLT liASIKK WAYS. 5 
 
 I know a type of man whose ambition it is to be 
 knocking down someone or something all through 
 his life. Now it is another person that he dislikes, 
 now it is a fault in another person, now it is a fault 
 in himself. But always the process is pugnacious — 
 frowning face, barking voice, clenched fists of the 
 boxer or straining pull or push of the wrestler; ever 
 the stressful " grunt and sweat " against something 
 as a heavy difficulty ; never a smooth way, never 
 tactful ease. Even the problem that is as elusive as 
 a fly, he treats in this " manly and straightforward " 
 way : he hits out as hard as he can from the shoulder. 
 He seems to regard the whole of life as a land of 
 possible obstacles, all of the same size, all to be 
 removed with equally powerful effort. He gives me 
 the idea that if one day he found himself swimming 
 with the tide or sailing with the wind, he would 
 at once turn round, as though all tides and winds 
 and influences were things born to be contended 
 against. Strenuous opposition is his great ambi- 
 tion. He regards this not as a means towards 
 easier mastery, but as a means towards an equal 
 amount of equally or even more strenuous opposition 
 for ever. 
 
 Once I tried this plan myself, having been taught 
 that what I felt inclined to do was therefore sin, and 
 that what I felt inclined not to do was therefore 
 duty; that the only possible virtue was struggling, 
 or, to change the comparison, cutting against the 
 grain. I tried this plan, and the almost invariable 
 result was failure, self-disrespect, unhappiness. 
 
b INTRODUCTORY. — MAINLY FOR PARENTS, ETC. 
 
 Then at last I began to use my brain. I began to 
 ask myself, not so much ** What am I to fight and 
 hit ? " as " How can I control myself most easily, 
 least unpleasantly ? How can I express myself most 
 safely, most satisfactorily?" Instead of hating or 
 despising and cursing myself and " repenting," I did 
 what the Greek word fxeravoeLre really appears to me 
 to command. I looked at things — myself and my 
 life — in a new light, from a different point of view. 
 I worked out the most simple ways of learning to do 
 things most correctly ; I practised these mechanisms 
 again and again, with high ambitions always before 
 me ; I made these mechanisms my very own, carried 
 out for me now by my trained under-minds. I found 
 that I was not only getting better results than I had 
 ever expected, but that I was also enjoying myself, 
 and, for the first time in my life, was comparatively 
 free from worry and anxiety. 
 
 Now while it is possible that the other type of 
 man, the incessantly straining fighter, may be doing 
 a lot of good in strengthening himself and helping 
 others, I am quite sure that I myself should never 
 have won easier self-control, safer self-expression, 
 greater and more encouraging self-respect, along his 
 lines. I am quite sure that my lines are now right 
 for me. 
 
 I differ from him not merely because I prefer a 
 reasonable amount of sensible tactics to an exhaust- 
 ing amount of ineffective resisting or shoving, but 
 also because, while he insists that everyone else 
 should work in his way, I just offer my way as a way 
 
A PERSONAL OPINION ABOUT EASIER WAYS. 7 
 
 worth trjing fairly b}' those who have found other 
 ways a failure ; as a way worth trjing fairly by those 
 who are dissatisfied with themselves ; as a way to be 
 judged, after fair trial, by its all-round results on the 
 whole life, including the health, the happiness, the 
 helpfulness. 
 
 Convinced as I am that my view of easier and 
 pleasanter self-control and safer and more satis- 
 factory self-expression is a right one for myself, I 
 refuse to force it on any one else. There are many 
 who think — and they may be right — that we should 
 always be wrestling with might and main against 
 something, always doing what we want not to do, 
 always not doing what we want to do. Much 
 depends on one's own genuine religion : that is to 
 say, on one's ideas of man's real nature. Is man's 
 desire a divine thing or a devilish thing ? Personally 
 I believe it is a divine thing if you direct it sensibly 
 and give it a fair chance to work itself out in good 
 activity. There was a time when I did few things 
 that I really liked to do. I regarded my desires 
 as devilish things. Now, though I must make many 
 mistakes, yet constantly I do fewer and fewer things 
 that I dislike, more and more things that I like. 
 I enjoy myself more and more, I get far greater 
 freedom. This has been the result of careful 
 practice, of a gradual mastery of such physical and 
 mental alphabets as I shall describe in Chapter VII. 
 The result is less constraint, more satisfaction. And 
 that seems to me to prove that the way is right 
 for me. Others would say that it proved that the 
 
8 INTRODUCTORY. — MAINLY FOR PARENTS, ETC. 
 
 way is wrong for any one, because they do not 
 approve of pleasure. They talk about the way of 
 suffering, pain, and so on. It seems to me — I speak 
 from personal experience — that there may be some- 
 thing morbid in their blood as well as in their mind. 
 Perhaps they should diet themselves rather more 
 carefully ! Perpetual unpleasantness seems to me to 
 imply that things are badly organised by Providence, 
 as if all His ways were ways of unpleasantness and 
 all His paths were war. 
 
 The ways, however, towards free self-expression 
 may be rather a trial for a time. The better the 
 tactics we choose and use, the smaller the trial will 
 be. In the end we want not trials but instincts. But 
 the way may be a way of trials. If the end — free and 
 safe and pleasant self-expression — is worth while, 
 then the ways, the trainings and practices for the 
 end, are worth while also. 
 
 And we cannot possibly start them either too early 
 or too late. 
 
 It is often held that many are too old to alter their 
 instincts. Some have fixed the early age of thirty 
 or less. I do not believe in any such limit so long 
 as sensible tactics are adopted. If a man wishes to 
 change his whole nature in a moment by a sort of 
 bulldog rush straight for a mark, head down, then he 
 will probably fail ; but if he is sensible and intelli- 
 gent, and tackles the weak points one at a time, 
 he will almost certainly succeed. 
 
 There is another fallacy about instincts — namely, 
 that it is possible to have a correct instinct which is 
 
A PERSONAL OPINION ABOUT EASIER WAYS. 9 
 
 not pleasant ; or it might be better to say a correct 
 instinct which, when fairly tried, will not soon 
 become more pleasant or less unpleasant than the 
 wrong choice. I believe this is utterly impossible. I 
 believe that every correct instinct is, or soon becomes, 
 pleasant also, or at any rate less uncomfortable 
 or painful, more comfortable or pleasant, than the 
 incorrect instinct. We may call the instinct a bias. 
 
 1. The ideal instinct or bias is, first of all, not to 
 express one's self in any way harmful to one's self or 
 others. 
 
 2. Secondly, to express one's self in many ways 
 useful or, at least, harmless to one's self and others. 
 
 Take as an example this case. You imagine you 
 have been injured by some one. Well, your correct 
 instinct is, first, not to wish ill to that some one ; 
 secondly, to wish and feel and realise health and 
 happiness and helpfulness for him. 
 
 3. It is a third instinct to see in everything in life 
 an opportunity for a certain amount of practice or 
 play which will give you some quality that you 
 assuredly need, some quality that in its turn will give 
 you more satisfaction. If we expressed "Give us 
 this day our daily bread " as a statement of faith in 
 Providence, we might say '' All through to-day and 
 to-night you are giving us just what our best life and 
 character really want as training in lasting self- 
 control, inspiring self-respect, and satisfactory' self- 
 expression." 
 
10 INTRODUCTORY. — MAINLY FOR PARENTS, ETC. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 COMPARISONS AND CONTRASTS. 
 
 WE are told that, when Jesus Christ spoke to 
 the people, he preferred to speak by para- 
 bles or comparisons ; and on one occasion he asked 
 himself what comparison he should use in order to 
 convey a certain idea. This use of comparisons is 
 justified by the histor}- of language. Language has 
 been called " a storehouse of faded metaphors " or 
 comparisons. Man}- of them, when they were first 
 invented, did not express the exact meaning of the 
 thing itself: they exaggerated some part of the 
 meaning ; they were inaccurate. For instance, the 
 machine which lifted weights was not precisely a 
 crane ; it was rather like a crane. Nevertheless the 
 word crane does now denote that machine precisely. 
 Probably most of our clearly remembered informa- 
 tion has come through exaggerations and com- 
 parisons. I recall most vividly a phrase of my 
 little niece, who, on recovering from an illness and 
 trying to walk, said that her legs were '' giddy." 
 She taught by parable. I knew exacth' what she 
 meant. Who does not ? The word recalled memo- 
 ries of what I had felt when I had moved. Those 
 are among the strongest memories that we have, and 
 therefore among the best to use as bases for teaching. 
 In the teaching of boys there is an extra advantage 
 in comparisons, if we choose the right kind : it is 
 that they are less morbid, less likely to be forbidden 
 
COMPARISONS AND CONTRASTS. II 
 
 as " improper." Tell people of certain parts and 
 certain functions of the body, and they are shocked : 
 they consider you indecent. Begin by telling them 
 of flowers, or even of eggs, and the most prudish will 
 fail to blush. That is the starting-point in teaching 
 — the comparison. Aptly and tactfully chosen, it 
 offends absolutely no one. It is really a ver}- work- 
 able start, this comparison, and, because it is less 
 morbid in its associations, it must be more true to 
 God's own life and ways. 
 
 And indeed it may suggest certain new lights. 
 Take the word " anger," for example. Does not a 
 study of that word, its early idea of compression, 
 pain, and strangling, throw new light on the true 
 nature of anger ? 
 
 Perhaps the most useful of all comparisons with 
 regard to self-correction is the comparison with 
 grammatical mistakes. Generally a child that makes 
 a mistake of any grammatical sort is abused inconti- 
 nently. The mistake is supposed to be entirely unpar- 
 donable. Now I have a theor}- that the commonest 
 mistakes are composed of two rights : that nothing 
 in the world is wrong b\' itself; that the mistake 
 consists of two right parts, parts which would be 
 right if they were put in different circumstances. 
 This theor}' shows clearest in grammar. I doubt 
 if there is any ordinary grammatical mistake which 
 is not composed of two right pieces, pieces which 
 would be right if they were joined to certain other 
 pieces. Here is a mistake which nearly ever}' writer 
 makes to to-dav. He savs : " The reason wh\- we 
 
12 INTRODUCTORY. MAINLY I OK I'AKKNTS, ETC. 
 
 decide wrongly is because \ve are too cjuick." Now 
 the reason is not because we are too quick ; the reason 
 is the fact that we are too quick. This mistake is 
 a mixture or blend of two rights, two right pieces 
 which make one wrong piece. It would have been 
 right to sa}', " We decide wrongly because we are 
 too quick ; " it would have been right to say, " The 
 reason wh}- we decide wrongly is that we are too 
 quick ; " but the writer has blended the two good 
 halves into one bad whole. Now, in teaching a child, 
 it is just as important to show what is right as to 
 show what is wrong. In every mistake which the 
 child makes there is a right beginning, a beginning 
 which would be right with a certain ending. Some 
 day we may be able to prove that in ever}- mistake 
 there is also a right ending, an ending which would 
 be right if it had a certain beginning. A child loses 
 its temper and throws a stone at another child. Now 
 the mistake here may seem absolute. If we could 
 only find the two rights that made up that one 
 wrong, we should be better able to treat the child, 
 to help it to self-correction, to improve its self- 
 control and self-expression, to increase its self- 
 respect. Here first there is a divine desire to 
 restore an upset poise. Only the* desire is turned 
 into the wrong channel, namely, the channel of in- 
 jury to another. Can we justify the violent throwing 
 of the stone at a mark ? Yes, certainly, if that were 
 part of a game or a physical exercise, it would be ex- 
 cellent. 
 
 The following grammatical mistakes can be treated 
 
COMPARISONS AND CONTRASTS. I;^ 
 
 in the same way. And it should be part of the work 
 of the teacher and the boy himself to find out the 
 right sources which have produced the wrong results, 
 instead of regarding the whole as altogether wrong 
 and inexcusable. '* A thing is learnt by practising 
 it " — a blend of (i) " A thing is learnt by practice," 
 and (2) " We learn a thing by practising it." 
 
 " Ever}'one likes their own productions " — a blend 
 of " Everj'one likes his (or her) own productions," 
 (2) " All like their own productions." 
 
 Exactly which comparison will be effective we 
 cannot say beforehand. But, the more comparisons 
 we have, the more comparisons which start from the 
 physical and active life of the child, the better we 
 are likely to succeed. Among the best of them is 
 the expression " Play the game." In the game the 
 child learns many lessons which (alas !) it does not 
 learn in school. In the game, perhaps, it learns skill, 
 the value of practice beforehand, pluck and patience, 
 fairness and courtesy, cheerfulness and good temper, 
 co-operation and self-sacrifice and the sense of be- 
 longing to a group. Whereas we may fail to move 
 the child by telling it to be pious, or holy, or 
 virtuous, we may succeed in making it move itself 
 by telling it to play the game. That comparison 
 I have worked out in a special book.* For the pur- 
 pose of this book not the least important aspect of 
 playing the game is the difference between practice 
 and the match. To practise intelligently, atten- 
 tively, patiently, long before the match or crisis — 
 
 * • I^t's Play the Ciame ' (Guilbert Pitman, i/- nett). 
 
14 INTRODUCTORY. — MAINLY FOR PARENTS, ETC. 
 
 that seems to be one of the secrets of success in play 
 and match-play for those who are not born players. 
 
 Or it may not be a game so much as an exercise 
 or an athletic pursuit. The two following will appeal 
 rather to men than to the bo}' himself, though many 
 boys will be able to appreciate them also. 
 
 When you begin to fence, and are told to lunge 
 straight forward with your right foot, you find your 
 right foot (see Chapter XXV.) pointing out of the 
 direct line and away to your left. So it is with your 
 left foot in the boxing lunge : it tends to point away 
 to your right. Fencing and boxing themselves are 
 not likely to teach you the straight line. No, you 
 must learn this, one of the first letters of the fencing 
 and boxing alphabet (so every authority agrees), as a 
 special exercise repeated again and again, till it is 
 now a natural habit, and you lunge along the 
 straight line without effort, without conscious care. 
 Otherwise practice will not make perfect. 
 
 There is a tract of ice over which ever}- male, at 
 least ever)' real male, has to pass. True, it is pos- 
 sible for kindly-intentioned persons to lead a boy 
 round by some other way, but that is not the way to 
 manhood. Or these people may cut up part of the 
 surface of the ice, or sprinkle sand on it, or fix props 
 in it with ropes from prop to prop, or set nails in the 
 boy's boots, or hold the boy's hand all the time, or 
 make him support himself by pushing a chair in 
 front of him. There are many methods of prevent- 
 ing falls. But do they teach the boy how to balance 
 himself? Do they teach him the art of poise when 
 
COMPARISONS AND CONTRASTS. 1 5 
 
 he walks on the ice alone, or runs on it as a real 
 
 male wants to run ? Or will he then find the ice too 
 slippery, and by falling cripple himself perhaps for 
 life? That ice is the period of manhood's awakening, 
 the period of puberty and after, whether the male 
 marries or not. To send the boy upon it without 
 training in the art of poise is part of that ignorance 
 or prudery which amounts to cruelty or crime. 
 
 When the male is poised, he is safe : he is men- 
 tally what the cat is physically, a type of graceful 
 repose, yet entirely ready for a splendid walk or run 
 or leap in a moment, and able to fall on his feet ; 
 master of all the important muscles, to use or not to 
 use them as the mind — the heart and the intelligence 
 — shall decide. So it is with the skater of intricate 
 figures — and no figure is nearly so intricate as the 
 figure of life. He must have his whole body under 
 control before he can skate safely as well as quickly 
 and happily. 
 
 And few are likely to learn this skill merely by 
 skating again and again. Mr. E. F. Benson must 
 have found that all his various games and athletics 
 and gymnastics have contributed something to his 
 success in skating, and that even his many and all- 
 round exercises were none too many. If any one 
 were to try, untrained and unpractised, some of the 
 figures which this expert does so well and so fast, he 
 might kill himself. And when we let a boy go upon 
 the ice of manhood, not wise, self-respecting, and 
 ready, but versed only in folly and shame and flight, 
 we are compelling him to do just that very feat — to 
 
 , Til R A R 7" 
 
 or THt 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
1 6 INTRODUCTORY. — MAINLY FOR PARENTS, ETC. 
 
 skate a most intricate figure at high speed, before 
 he can do the simplest turns and movements quite 
 slowly. 
 
 " He who is incapable of controlling his muscles," 
 said the great Dr. Maudsley, " is incapable of con- 
 trolling his mind." One of the objects of this book 
 is to train a boy's muscles and nerves and mind, so 
 that he may be able not only to control his muscles, 
 but also to express his best mind securely and satis- 
 factorily ; to train in him his best mind, so that it 
 may decide rightl\' ; and to train in him his nerves 
 and muscles so that they may express what his best 
 mind has decided : to train him in pleasant mastery 
 of his self and in pleasant obedience to his Self, a 
 state as far away from cramped asceticism as from 
 libertine dissoluteness ; to train him in self-control 
 largely b}' means of self-expression, and with a view 
 to the highest self-expression in due season. 
 
 By nature the period of puberty is a period slip- 
 per)^ as ice, yet, like ice, allowing of the most grace- 
 ful and healthy and full movement and play to the 
 good performer. But — to change the comparison — 
 prudery has made this a period mir}- as the foulest 
 and heaviest marsh and bog, and few there are that 
 can find the narrow track (which the managers of 
 children have slimed over with mud), and come to 
 the other side with clean clothes. There is within 
 us all a special instinct that tells us just where the 
 narrow track is, and how it bends and twists across 
 the dangerous fen ; but this instinct in most of us is 
 so perverted that we are led to keep to this track 
 
COMPARISONS AND CONTKASTS. I J 
 
 about as much as a dipsomaniac is led to keep to 
 that pure water which, authorities assert, is the most 
 wholesome drink for him. The aim of this book is 
 to preserve that instinct unperverted, or, if it has. 
 been perverted, to restore it. For I firmh' believe 
 that, ph\sicall\' as well as mentally, it is never too 
 late to train oneself in purity and poise. I believe 
 that the kingdom of heaven is w^ithin us continually 
 to the very moment of death, and beyond death con- 
 tinually. I believe that the state of real health, the 
 state of guidance by God (for this seems to be the 
 meaning of the Greek words as interpreted by the 
 life of Jesus Christ) is within us perpetually, our fault 
 being that we let it stay so deep within us that it 
 is about as useful as a loaf of bread at the bottom of 
 a well ; and, indeed, so deep within us that we need 
 not wonder wh\' people have regarded heaven as far 
 away. What matters it whether we have to climb 
 down a rope to the bottom of a well within ourselves 
 or climb up a rope to the top of a wall outside our- 
 selves, so long as, in the end, we do ourselves possess 
 and thus actually become and express, the state of 
 physical health and mental God-guidance ? 
 
 So it is in war. To practise for naval warfare 
 merely by naval warfare itself would be ruin to a 
 nation. Long before there is any war the sailors 
 must be drilled till each does most of his task with- 
 out effort, without conscious care. And there must 
 be tactics devised long beforehand. What is the 
 enemy likely to do ? How can we anticipate or 
 check or overcome him ? Then, if war is declared^ 
 
1 8 INTRODUCTORY. — MAINLY FOR PARENTS, ETC. 
 
 nine-tenths of the work goes on — we might almost 
 say that it does itself — without a hitch. Why? 
 Because the letters of the alphabet and some words 
 and some sentences have been learnt correctly by 
 constant practice. It is now comparatively easy to 
 speak whole paragraphs correctly. 
 
 Other comparisons will be found in the book itself. 
 For instance, in the chapter on " A Mother's Views " 
 (XLV.) there will be several, especially the compari- 
 sons with plants and animals. In the chapter *' Who 
 have the Power?" (XLIV.) there is a comparison 
 with the tree which is cut ; there is also this com- 
 parison with the weeds in the garden. 
 
 What we want to do is to get the boy to realise his 
 responsibilities, not morbidly, but sensibly. Let him 
 compare his body and mind, as Shakespeare does, to 
 a garden. In that garden the boy can plant at will 
 good plants or bad weeds. The weeds will almost 
 seem to plant themselves. The plants he alone can 
 plant, at least after he has reached a certain age. 
 What is he to do with the weeds ? He can starve 
 them by feeding the plants. He feeds the plants 
 by attending to them again and again and enjoying 
 the attention. In other words, let him turn his mind 
 away from the weeds of thought and to attractive 
 and useful occupations, such as gardening itself, 
 or play, or the imagination of himself as succeed- 
 ing in play. Some weeds he can root out. That 
 comparison suggests mentally the power of the will, 
 or rather, if we may coin a new word, the wont. 
 Again, he may poison the weeds by certain chemicals. 
 
COMPARISONS AND CONTRASTS. I9 
 
 Mentally that would be to connect the weed-thoughts 
 — ani^n- or unkind ideas about others — with the idea 
 of disgust (rather than fear). Let the boy see that 
 such-and-such habits are unsatisfactor}% if not repul- 
 sive : for instance, that they spoil his athletic success, 
 his work, his appearance, his self-respect, and so on. 
 Or he may compare himself to a cattle-farmer rather 
 than to a gardener. Let him learn to take as much 
 care of his mind and bod\' as a breeder of animals 
 does of his cattle, giving them good food, air, exer- 
 cise, and so on. Or, if he likes, let him compare 
 himself to the owner and manager of a house or 
 a room in a house. As he keeps that room tidy 
 and clean, so let him keep his mind and body tidy 
 and clean. 
 
 These are only suggestions thrown out as samples. 
 What the teacher has to do for a boy, or what a boy 
 has to do for himself, is to find out comparisons that 
 really appeal, comparisons that are based in the boy's 
 active experiences and vivid memories, and so are 
 good starting-points from which he may realise his 
 splendid responsibilities, and at the same time work 
 out for himself the ways in which he can fulfil them. 
 
 I shall begin the next chapter with a comparison 
 which will appeal to men and women more strongly 
 than to boys, but will, I hope, appeal to boys as 
 well. 
 
20 INTRODUCTORY. — MAINLY FOR PARENTS, ETC. 
 
 N 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 COMMON FALLACIES. 
 
 EARLY two years ago I engaged a man- 
 servant to look after my rooms in London, 
 and especially to cook for me and for my guests. I 
 often had to leave him alone, master of himself. 
 But I felt sure that the best plan was not to tie him 
 down with strict rules, but rather to give him a pride 
 in every bit of work that he did. I convinced him 
 that it was all clean and • useful work, at least as 
 clean and useful as my work in writing books and 
 advising people about their health. In particular I 
 wished him to feel that as a cook he was not degrad- 
 ing himself by a low and dirty task, but was raising 
 himself by a real art ; that, whether he scrubbed the 
 floor or washed clothes or polished boots, he was 
 doing as good work as I was. I would not let him 
 regard any part of his work as inferior. The worst 
 thing I could say about any part of his work was 
 that it was indispensable ! But the usual idea is 
 that such work — the work of the housemaid and 
 cook — is below the work of the lady-governess, and 
 the work of the lady-governess below the laziness of 
 the lady-loafer. Great heavens ! what ignorance. 
 Why, if I felt I could cook, or dig, or make clothes, 
 or sweep crossings better than anyone else, and 
 better than I could do anything else, I'd be ashamed 
 to be ashamed of it ! I cannot conceive where the 
 ** infra dig, " comes in. 
 
COMMON FALLACIES. 21 
 
 So it is with our body and its parts and functions. 
 To some we give much honour — to the eyes and the 
 complexion, to the hands, to the work of writing a 
 letter or reading a book. Other parts and functions 
 we are trained to regard as inferior, notably our 
 organs of excretion, our organs of reproduction, 
 even our organs of digestion and their functions. 
 Lately it has become less " indecent " to talk about 
 Little Marys and digestion ; but as to most other 
 •organs and their work — so essential to the health of 
 the nation — in *' society " it is considered highly " im- 
 proper " even to use the words. Indeed, apart from 
 medical discussions, the organs and their vital func- 
 tions are scarcely ever alluded to at all by anyone 
 except in connection with " jokes." Think of it. We 
 are a nation of uneducated hypocrites and pernicious 
 prigs. When we give a child to understand that, 
 though it may talk of its face and hands and brain 
 and heart and lungs, it must never talk of its 
 *' horrible " or *' nasty " bowels and other organs, 
 •can we wonder that this child has no sense of duty 
 towards these " beastly " organs, but grows up with 
 a false and degrading impression — henceforth almost 
 ineradicable, because formed when the brain was 
 very plastic ; not believing that the organs, the 
 whole body, must be treated with courtesy ; that 
 it is not necessary to think about the organs, but 
 that it is necessary not to think dirtily or contemp- 
 tuously about them ; that it is necessary to do 
 everything that will keep these organs clean and 
 healthy, because on their cleanliness and health 
 
22 INTRODUCTORY. — MAINLY FOR PARENTS, ETC. 
 
 depends much of the present and future fitness of 
 ourselves and posterity. In a word, let a boy think 
 as scrupulousl}' and jealously and respectfully of his 
 organs as he does (or should) of his little sisters, and 
 he will have mastered half the difficulties of puberty- 
 But once let him be led to regard any parts of him 
 as dirty servants to be bullied and treated rudely, and 
 as beneath courteous consideration, and how on earth 
 can we expect him to have enough self-respect to 
 keep in the straight way of sensible self-control and 
 satisfactor}' self-expression ? If he is always to be 
 tied to, to carry about within him, a lot of foul and 
 shameful items which are undoubtedh- integral por- 
 tions of him, how can he have healthy self-know- 
 ledge, healthy self-reverence, healthy self-control, 
 healthy self-expression ? How can he believe that 
 the kingdom of heaven, the state of purity, is within 
 him, when within him is so much indecent and 
 improper material ? 
 
 No. Away with this vile fallacy ; and, therefore, 
 away with the fallacy of the self-satisfied parent 
 that, when he or she answers the child's innocent 
 questions by, " You mustn't speak of that : it's not 
 nice,*' he or she is helping the child. Away with that 
 inconceivably damnable " Hush," which in this con- 
 nection is one of the foulest and most prurient and 
 blasphemous words that the mouth of a parent ever 
 uttered. If we boycotted from " society " all those 
 who thought that an)- part of themselves was by 
 nature improper and shameful, instead of almost 
 confining " society " to these maniacs, we should at 
 
COMMON FALLACIES. 23 
 
 length become a nation at least of genuine and self- 
 respecting people, not of genteel hypocrites who would 
 consider the flowers of plants to be pure and beautiful, 
 but the flowers of men to be filthy and hideous. 
 
 Work out the logical result of this early " educa- 
 tion." The boy is cut off from the best sources of 
 information. He is not told about puberty and those 
 temptations which it will be his privilege to over- 
 come ; he is not told that self-control will be a good 
 game to win, that if he wins it he will be as great in 
 life as Grace and Fry are in cricket and Hacken- 
 schmidt in wrestling. He is not told anything that 
 will make him too proud to err against God, against 
 others, against his self and the cell-lives within him, 
 against posterity. He is not given preventive and 
 remedial helps such as I offer in this book. At the 
 best, he is told to restrain himself and to pray ; to 
 regard himself as a miserable sinner, a conglomera- 
 tion of desires which are borne to be crushed or 
 killed. Almost the only way known to him is self- 
 repression, the way of durance, abstinence, austerity. 
 Otherwise, if he is full-blooded, a boy of natural 
 energy, he is all too likely to fall, and so to under- 
 mine his health and his equally precious self- 
 confidence. 
 
 Now some drill and discipline is good for a boy ; 
 if I had a boy I should certainly drill him in better 
 breathing, more leisurely eating, and so on. But I 
 should explain to him why I advised it. And I 
 should not for a moment be content with asceticism 
 as his sole training. In fact, I should always suspect 
 
24 INTRODUCTORY. — MAINLY FOR PARENTS, ETC. 
 
 that, unless I could help him to establish a number 
 of instincts or habits that he now came to prefer and 
 to enjoy, he would have no foundation for sure self- 
 control and satisfactory self-expression when the 
 time of stress arrived. So important is this foun- 
 dation that, without unnecessary allusions, and with 
 all-round fitness as the true goal, I should train him 
 not for war but for victory in this sphere. 
 
 Above all, I would convince him that / had had 
 my difficulties, and that he and I would win the 
 game together; that he must tell me whenever he 
 wanted advice or help. Then, if ever he did make 
 the mistake, he would without hesitation come to me 
 for advice and help, and I should be able to tell him 
 just what I would do if I were he — what I would 
 avoid (XVI.), how I would use cold water (XXI.), 
 how I would take this or that kind of exercise (XXV. 
 and XXVI.), resort to this or that hobby (XXVIII.), 
 practise my imagination and self-suggestion (XLL), 
 or seek publicity (XLIL). While I should try to 
 point out why the mistake was a mistake, I should 
 emphasise the idea that he had to play the game 
 now, that he had to begin at once and stick to it 
 pluckily, that he could and would win it, that he 
 need not fear that he would always have to take 
 such care ; that some day he would be free to do 
 whatever he desired to do, when he had tided 
 himself over this period, as he was going to do. 
 
 There are many (like the *' grunting and sweating '* 
 man in Chapter I.) who imagine that self-control 
 means hard and trying asceticism always, a perpetual 
 
COMMON FALLACIES. 25 
 
 tight and struggle against all the tendencies of 
 nature, a perpetual use of straining will-power. 
 There are others who suppose that there must be 
 absence of temptation, or avoidance of temptation, 
 unless one wishes to make some mistake. For 
 instance, the religious extremist who lives in his cool 
 cave, and eats ver}- little, and that of an unstimula- 
 ting kind, is often put forward as a model of self- 
 control. What would he do amidst temptations? 
 At present he is a strict dietist, airist, and so on. 
 But this is not the ideal, unless these conditions 
 have prepared him for self-control even in a vicious 
 city-life. 
 
 The ideal is rather to rise above temptation, and, 
 at any rate eventually, to find that it is not severe 
 temptation at all ; though it may be necessary to 
 avoid temptation at the start, while correct instincts 
 and strength are being formed and stored up. 
 
 The fallacy that a person is " all right " because 
 he keeps away from alcohol, or some other imme- 
 diate incentive to mistakes, is very widely spread. It 
 is based on ignorance about the body and the mind. 
 
 The chief cause of any mistake is not the imme- 
 diate temptation — for instance, the chief cause of 
 the crime of murder, suicide, worr}' (slow murder 
 and suicide by self- poisoning), is not the alcohol 
 which the person desired and drank. Behind that 
 there is some condition (such as great blood-pressure) 
 leading to the desire for alcohol : this preceded the 
 drinking of the alcohol. Behind that again there 
 may be some other cause, perhaps fast eating. 
 
26 INTRODUCTORY. — MAINLY FOR PARENTS, ETC. 
 
 In fact, the immediate cause is seldom the really 
 important one. Those who say that there is only 
 one cause to any set of mistakes are wrong. There 
 are several causes in almost every case, beyond 
 the immediate one obvious. to everybody. 
 
 Others are mistaken as to the results. Just as 
 they say there is only one cause — the immediate 
 cause — so they say that the only results are the 
 immediate results. Mistakes, they think, do not 
 count at all ; they do no harm ; young people must 
 " sow their wild oats." It is all nonsense, they 
 tell us, to pretend that it can hurt anyone to do 
 this or that " in moderation." If at the age of forty 
 the man breaks down, leaving unhealthy children 
 behind him, these fools never suspect that the seeds 
 were sown in youth. 
 
 Equally wrong are those who say that the harm of 
 mistakes is terrible and obvious immediately. Many 
 pious books on the subject state that all mistakes 
 produce all sorts of fatal and easily detected 
 mischiefs. They say the same of alcohol and 
 tobacco. Who has not read the grievous accounts 
 of what tobacco does to the heart, the nerves, the 
 morals, everything ? Yet we see thousands and 
 thousands of people smoking habitually and not 
 coming under this dogmatic law. A vast amount 
 of real harm is done by these blind fanatics who 
 guarantee that the results of mistakes shall be 
 dreadful, and shall appear at once. For the boy 
 tries this or that mistake, and finds no such results, 
 and is led to imagine that there will be no results 
 
COMMON FALLACIES. 27 
 
 at all. Here is an extract, that I found among my 
 papers the other day, from one of the books on the 
 subject — I forget which book it was : — 
 
 "To detect the secret sensualist is not at all difficult, the dull, 
 stupid, and inappropriate remarks, forgetfulness, lack of courage, 
 slowness of comprehension, bloodless countenance, sunken eyes 
 with dark lines beneath, incoherence and lack of interest in daily 
 topics, his habits become slovenly, he walks with unsteady gait, 
 he is effeminate and vulgar in his talk, his very presence is 
 repugnant to the healthy and pure. To add to the sorrows of these 
 poor sufferers, there is none so conscious of his ' fallen ' state as he 
 is himself ! 
 
 '* The second stage follows after a few years of this vice ; he finds 
 his eyesight impaired, spots liefore the eyes, loss of control, extreme 
 and unnatural nervousness, rheumatism, dyspepsia, constipation, 
 «... gradually appear, repulsive skin, pallid countenance, lack of 
 vigour, and palpitation of the heart. 
 
 " He has sacrificed his dignity, his purity, his honour, and has 
 merged into a sickly man, destitute of manliness. The bold, 
 resolute, and gallant manners are his no longer. The pure enjoy- 
 ment of company of the gentle sex he despises. Women, beautiful, 
 graceful, and affectionate, have no charm for him now, in fact their 
 •company is to him a positive unpleasantness." 
 
 Now though this is true of extreme cases, and 
 though it might be well for many boys to '* learn the 
 mean by study of the extremes," yet it is not fair and 
 true of all cases. And the boy who, for some want of 
 reason or other, makes a mistake, and does not notice 
 these results, is led to believe that there may be 
 hardly any bad results at all. 
 
 The fallacies are not all about causes and results 
 of mistakes. Numbers of them refer to helps against 
 mistakes. Some say there is only this or that help, 
 which is quite self-sufficient. The commonest one 
 brought forward as a panacea \Nas mentioned just 
 
28 INTRODUCTORY. — MAINLY FOR PARENTS, ETC. 
 
 now — " moderation." " Be moderate, and every- 
 thing will be right." Now that is quite an error. 
 If a thing is harmful to you, it is harmful to you 
 even in moderation. If you are taking six harmful 
 things in moderation, you are not giving yourself 
 a fair chance. Others say that diet alone is self- 
 sufficient. Yes, in certain cases, one help may be 
 sufficient. But which help it is going to be in any 
 given case we cannot prophes}'. The best way is to 
 recognise that many things are useful, that one 
 will aid one person, another will aid another person, 
 and several combined will aid yet another. 
 
 It is a great fallacy that all helps against mistakes 
 are unpleasant. Just a few ma}' be unpleasant at 
 the start, as we see in the chapter on better punish- 
 ment for boys (Chapter XXX.) ; and some may be 
 tedious, such as (see XVII.) leisurely eating while 
 we are learning the art. But, if the help is a sane 
 and sound one, it should become a pleasant habit and 
 instinct ver)- soon. 
 
 Still worse is the fallacy that there is no help — the 
 fallacy that it is ever too late to mend. It is never 
 too late. 
 
 Perhaps the worst of all is the fallacy that a 
 person who makes a mistake is altogether bad. It 
 is a fallacy to suppose that anything is altogether 
 bad. In the comparisons with grammatical mistakes 
 (in Chapter II.) I pointed out that ever> wrong 
 may be a mixture of two rights. Some pious people 
 say, however, that ever}- wrong is altogether wrong. 
 They deprive the person of his sel^- respect ; they tell 
 
COMMON FALLACIES. 29 
 
 him he is absokiteh' vile from head to finger-tip, 
 instead of telHng him that the desire to restore an 
 upset balance is divine, but that it is possible to 
 restore the upset balance in an undesirable \va\'. 
 These people take the w rong view of temptation too. 
 They lead a boy to imagine that, because he is 
 tempted, therefore he is weak and vile. Temptation 
 should always be regarded as an opportunity and a 
 privilege. It is never anything else. Henry Drum- 
 mond aptly compared it to good bowling at cricket. 
 A boy who has a good bowler to bowl to him is 
 proud of the opportunity and privilege. He should 
 regard temptation in exactly the same way, and find 
 out how to pla\' the bowling, by thought and prac- 
 tice long before the next game or match. 
 
 It is another great error to separate one mistake 
 from all the others, and put it in a class by itself as 
 the vilest. In the particular case where there is lack 
 of self-control the real cause may lie further back, 
 in the over-eating and over-drinking. It ma}' have 
 been these and other mistakes that have led to the 
 particular mistake, as inevitably as a stone, which 
 has begun to roll down hill, will roll down unless 
 something unexpected occurs. It is ridiculous to 
 pretend that the cause of the stone reaching the 
 bottom is the pace which it is showing during the 
 last five yards. To get at the cause we must go 
 higher up. What started the stone rolling in that 
 direction ? 
 
 That brings us to the causes once again. I shall 
 deal with a few of them in the next chapter. 
 
30 INTRODUCTORY. — MAINLY FOR PARENTS, ETC. 
 
 T 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 A SEARCH FOR CAUSES OF MISTAKES. 
 
 HIS chapter may serve as a good example of 
 my method in deahng with this whole subject. 
 It is quite easy to treat want of self-control, not as 
 an utterly isolated mistake, but as akin to all other 
 mistakes. Just now I showed that it is wrong to 
 pretend that over-eating is harmless, whereas the 
 results of over-eating are wicked. It is an error to 
 separate different mistakes, as many learned doctors 
 separate different ailments, too finely, and to treat 
 each as a speciality unlike the rest. It is far better 
 to work out a few treatments — by food and feeding, 
 exercises, water, repose, self-suggestion, and so on — 
 that may prevent or cure as many ailments as pos- 
 sible, instead of injecting a fresh serum for each of 
 the hundred ailments. Want of self-control does not 
 stand in an absolutely different class from over-eating 
 or even from fast eating. These things are mistakes 
 of a somewhat similar kind, with somewhat similar 
 results. Each is likely to act on the other ; each is 
 likely to be both one of the causes and one of the 
 effects of the other. The person who is guilty of 
 either or of both of them is not utterly and hopeless- 
 ly degraded, so long as he makes up his mind to 
 "play the game" now and henceforth, and to remedy 
 and prevent not one mistake only, but as many mis- 
 takes as he can. 
 
 Indeed, the first and fine cause of all mistakes 
 
A SEARCH FOR CAUSES. 3I 
 
 seems to be some loss of poise and a divine desire to 
 restore it. The desire is right. The way of restor- 
 ing it is wrong: for it is only a temporary way. If 
 you have indigestion, you wish to relieve it. Your 
 wish is good. If you use some quack remed}', )ou 
 choose a temporary way of restoring that upset 
 balance. The whole of life is a series of upset 
 balances and attempts to restore them. Possibly 
 no one ever does anything except for purposes of 
 restoring an upset balance. Right or wrong is 
 mainly, if not entirely, a question of all-round results, 
 and therefore of proportion and perspective and 
 prospective. We condemn want of self-control be- 
 cause its all-round results — on the self and others — 
 are unsatisfactory. 
 
 How does the loss of poise come ? It comes from 
 ignorance, especially ignorance of the causes of loss 
 of poise. Ph\sically these causes include over- 
 acidity of the blood and blood-pressure, which again 
 are due to various reasons. A few of these reasons 
 are mentioned in an Appendix. Mentally the loss of 
 poise is due, of course, to one or more forms of want 
 of self-control, and to the failure to realise the advan- 
 tages of all forms of self-control. 
 
 Why, then, does the loss of poise show itself in 
 this or that particular way ? Why does the desire to 
 restore it take this form ? 
 
 Physically, there are many reasons : wrong posi- 
 tions of the body (parti}' due to weak muscles ; see 
 Chapter XXI\\), wrong movements of the body (as 
 in certain strain-exercises), accidental friction (I have 
 
32 INTRODUCTORY. — MAINLY FOR PARENTS, ETC. 
 
 Nerves of 
 the Penis 
 Sensory 
 Nerves of/ 
 GeniLoJ 
 Orgar 
 
 Bladder a 
 Prostate 
 
 Rectum 
 A Perinaeum 
 
 know n cases where hobby- 
 horse riding, cHmbing, etc., 
 have had unpleasant ef- 
 fects), local warmth (as 
 when the person lies on 
 his back upon a feather 
 mattress), wrong foods 
 (such as ginger, shell-fish, 
 butcher's meat, etc., ac- 
 cording to the individual), 
 wrong drinks (including 
 many alcoholic drinks), 
 and so on. I need not 
 enter into details here. 
 This diagram (adapted 
 from Sir Lauder Brun- 
 ton's) will help to show 
 how irritation, etc., in the 
 stomach or intestines 
 may affect other important 
 organs and parts 
 through the 
 
 Sensory nerves n^^rvf^c 
 
 of Rectum and "^^veb. 
 
 Nates 
 
 Mentally there 
 
 is, once again. 
 
 Fig. I.- This Fig. (adapted from Sir . . 
 
 louder Brunton's) shows how irritation of ignorance, partly 
 
 the stomach and intestines by flatulence, because elder peo- 
 
 over-acidity, or faeces may irritate the pie have not been 
 
 genital centres at the base of the spine ; ^^^^^^j^ ^^^ j^ave 
 also how these and the genital centres in 
 the brain may be stimulated through cer- 
 tain nerves. 
 
 not themselves 
 been pure in mind. 
 
A SEARCH FOR CAUSES. 33 
 
 There has also been a lack of attractive and feasible 
 outlets for energy. There has been a lack of clean 
 memories and clean imaginations. The mind has 
 been pre-occupied by vile memories and foul imagi- 
 nations from books, stories, sights, etc. These have 
 been dominant. They have come uppermost in the 
 thoughts, in spite of conscience. There has been 
 too much reliance on sheer unintelligent will-power, 
 too severe a strain on this will-power, when a few 
 simple tactics — like the uses of cold water — might 
 have relieved it. The ignorance has been partly 
 due to secretiveness. The boy has been afraid and 
 ashamed ; afraid because he has not expected sym- 
 pathy ; ashamed because he has not known the 
 true nature of desire and the simple helps by which 
 he might have turned it into a good chanrygl. His 
 first introduction to knowledge has not been pure, 
 through his parents, but foul, perhaps through some 
 uneducated boy. There may possibly have been, be- 
 sides, the same pride which a boy takes in being able 
 to smoke — curiosity, most strong in children, and 
 imitation, also most strong, being other factors in the 
 early mistakes. Certainly there has been too much 
 emphasis laid on this particular mistake itself, rather 
 than on the causes further back which have led to it. 
 It is just the same if the boy loses his temper. He is 
 told not to lose his temper. He is not told about the 
 wrong foods, and so on, which have impelled him 
 towards losing his temper. 
 
 Once let the habit be formed, once let the boy 
 be accustomed to make this mistake whenever his 
 
34 INTRODUCTORY. — MAINLY FOR PARENTS, ETC. 
 
 poise is upset, and the cause is now not a conscious 
 choice so much as an estabHshed tendency. 
 
 In every case there has been want of preparation 
 before the war has begun, want of such prepara- 
 tion as I suggest in the chapter (VII.) on the early 
 mastery of many alphabets. With such preparation 
 a boy would be little likely to go far wrong, at any 
 rate without such nausea that he would rather not 
 make the mistake again. The preparation would 
 have been so easy in the first years. Dr. Savage 
 tells us that " no malady (over- tension and over- 
 fidgetiness are maladies) is too light to be neglected 
 in the earliest years. The tender plant can resist 
 but little. The more elaborate are often delicate 
 and slow in growth." 
 
 As it is, he, unprepared and untrained, has failed. 
 Then he has come to that terrible state — self-dis- 
 respect. He cannot believe that the good is any- 
 where within him. His heaven is far off, and not 
 at the very centre of his being. He has been led 
 to regard God as something ever so far away, perhaps 
 chiefly a punishing power. Even the temptations he 
 has regarded as signs of weakness, rather than (as we 
 pointed out in the last chapter) opportunities and 
 privileges. Instead of feeling that he has great good 
 within him ready to grow up and show itself if he 
 supplies it with the right conditions, instead of 
 asserting quietly that " within me 
 
 / am owner of the Sphere, 
 
 Of the seven stars and the Solar Year, 
 
 Of Caesar's handy and Plato's brain. 
 
 Of Lord Christ's heart, and Shakespeare's strain,'* 
 
A SEARCH FOR CAUSKS. 35 
 
 he loses self-confidence, telling' himself that through- 
 out his own mind and body, from heart to skin, he is 
 " altogether become abominable." 
 
 On the other hand let us look at a few causes of 
 self-control, so as to emphasise these and other 
 causes of mistakes by contrast. 
 
 First there is the unperverted instinct, as of little 
 children who will refuse to smoke a pipe or to drink 
 alcohol. I have a nephew who loathes and will not 
 eat meat. Much of this instinct must depend on the 
 surroundings, the education, the opportunities for 
 outlet, the absence of temptation. Sometimes people 
 are, physically, almost too weak to lose self-control ; 
 there is very little blood-pressure. Others are 
 cowards, afraid of something, perhaps of public 
 exposure : sheer cowardice has kept manV people 
 from murder. Then there has been, in other cases, 
 a ver}' strong will, such as Napoleon had, though 
 he was feeble in some spheres. In other cases there 
 has been great intelligence, a sensible choice of 
 tactics, as in the instance of the man who, when he 
 felt uncomfortable, went out and walked and ran, or 
 rowed, or in some way tired himself out, and then 
 came back dead-beat and slept well. In other cases 
 knowledge has been all-sufficient. A boy has realised 
 the effects of self-control and the effects of the mis- 
 take. That knowledge has been sufficient to keep 
 him straight. He saw once for all that the mistake 
 was not worth while — that self-control and good self- 
 expression were worth while in every way. 
 
 Easy as it would be to cite other causes of mis- 
 
 E 
 
36 INTRODUCTORY. — MAINLY FOR PARENTS, ETC. 
 
 takes — hasty marriages of those who have not under- 
 stood one another and have merely admired one or 
 two features in one another ; ignorance and shyness 
 of the parents, that prevents them from being the 
 first to introduce the subject to their children; and 
 so on — I must leave this unwritten and pass on to 
 the next chapter, in which I shall outline a few of the 
 effects, not only of the mistakes, but also of sensible 
 self-control and safe self-expression. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 SOME EFFECTS. 
 
 THIS chapter, like the last, will illustrate the 
 way in which it is possible to deal with the 
 subject almost unobjectionably. I want to empha- 
 sise the effects of all right ways, this self-control 
 being among the right ways, and of all mistakes, this 
 want of self-control being among the mistakes. 
 Much of what I say here will apply, nearly without 
 change of words, to leisurely eating as contrasted 
 with fast eating. 
 
 Leisurely eating will have good effects all round. 
 Fast eating will have bad effects all round. Among 
 these effects are those on posterity. The child is 
 father to the man, and the man in his turn is father 
 to the child of the next generation. So the child is 
 father to the child. We must judge people not only 
 by their present appearance and capability, nor even 
 
SOME EFFECTS. yj 
 
 by their old age as well, but also by their next gene- 
 ration, ** even unto the third and fourth generation." 
 
 But I wish especially to emphasise the good 
 effects of sensible self-control and safe self-expres- 
 sion, especially if they are made habits in early life. 
 In that case we can happily leave out almost all 
 mention of the results of mistakes, and simply em- 
 phasise the results of right actions. Needless to say, 
 the effects will be not only greater but also more 
 certain if the plant has been trained, in the way it 
 should go, when it was young, tender, and pliable. 
 
 First of all, the self- controlled person is not 
 ashamed. He is like the village blacksmith, looking 
 the whole world in the face. He has self-respect, 
 realising his own self-control and power. Being 
 master here, he knows he can be master elsewhere 
 also. His self-control, his mastery of himself and his 
 conditions here, is a basis for all future achievements. 
 
 It is not only himself that he benefits. Inevitably 
 he benefits society and posterity. 
 
 He feels fit all-round — not merely in the animal 
 sense of the word, but also in the mental and moral. 
 His athletics, his appearance, his money-supplies, are 
 all bettered by his self-control and self-expression. 
 He helps others, and himself is much happier than if 
 he had made mistakes. 
 
 Contrast, on the other hand, the uncontrolled boy. 
 Ashamed of himself because he would not dare to 
 live all his life openly in the sight of others ; unre- 
 spected by himself, perhaps unrespected and dis- 
 trusted by others, even if they do not probe to the 
 
38 INTRODUCTORY. — MAINLY FOR PARENTS, ETC. 
 
 cause and do not know exactly why; failing to do 
 his proper work and have his proper effect on society 
 and posterity, unfit — perhaps not in every way, but 
 in some ways, in athletics or in appearance or in 
 brain-work ; in an extreme case, a wreck, impotent 
 in body, insane in mind, diseased, a pauper, and the 
 victim of many other miseries. 
 
 These are extreme cases; but we need extreme 
 cases if we would realise tendencies. Until we have 
 seen the actual goal, the end of this man, it is im- 
 possible for us to understand the kind of results 
 which the mistake may have. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 WHAT HAS SUCCEEDED AT SCHOOLS AND 
 ELSEWHERE. 
 
 THIS chapter is, perhaps, the most important in 
 the whole book, though it needs additions 
 by many readers who, I hope, will contribute their 
 personal experiences. Out of piles of notes I have 
 been obliged to omit a very great deal, not because 
 the good work already being done by individuals and 
 societies was unimportant, but because I had no 
 space to mention it. 
 
 Some few people have succeeded in keeping their 
 self-control by an infallible instinct, just as some 
 people have played games well right from the very 
 beginning. They came, they saw, they took up the 
 bat or ball, they excelled. So in * morality.' 
 
WHAT HAS SUCCEEDED. 39 
 
 One reason may have been that the parents were 
 <]uite candid when they were questioned. I know 
 several cases where this was so, and I know several 
 schools where there is perfect freedom in asking and 
 answering questions. In one school in particular, 
 the master does not wait for the questions to be 
 asked, but — of course using great tact — volunteers 
 helpful information. 
 
 I could cite more than two Public School masters 
 who have had great success with boys, because, in- 
 stead of threatening punishment loudly, they quietly 
 offer friendly co-operation. ** This is a thing we must 
 get rid of," they sa\' ; " we must overcome it to- 
 gether." That is certainly the very best line for any 
 manager of boys to adopt — that friendly co-operation. 
 Those who wish for hints on these lines should read 
 A. C. Benson's " Schoolmaster," and Edward Lyttel- 
 ton's " Teaching of the Young." 
 
 At one school this encouraging sympathy is car- 
 ried a stage further. The individuality of the vigor- 
 ous boy is understood and allowed for, and the boy is 
 told that he is not altogether bad — that his energy 
 itself is grand, but must be sensibly directed. His 
 particular nature is studied, and his particular remedy 
 or preventive is worked out by the masters. 
 
 At another school there is an altogether different 
 method, a method apparently equally successful. 
 The boy is told that mistakes will hurt his athletics. 
 That seems to appeal to him more strongly than 
 anything else. It is not the only advice given, for 
 the headmaster alwavs insists at the same time that 
 
40 INTRODUCTORY. — MAINLY FOR PARENTS, ETC. 
 
 the boy and his school form a family, and that any 
 mistake of this kind is a breach of loyalty to the 
 rest of the family. 
 
 That is what a famous American schoolmaster also 
 tells his boys. He adds to this plan the English plan 
 of prefects. He does not often deal with the small 
 boys directly, but puts them in charge of big boys 
 whom he can trust. He finds that this plan works 
 out better than direct advice. Of course it is far 
 better for the prefects themselves, as it gives them' 
 an ennobling responsibility. Besides this, however, 
 he allows the motive of fear. A boy who is known 
 to be uncontrolled is ''sent to Coventry." His dread 
 of publicity keeps him from mistakes. 
 
 And in all these schools there are some physical 
 helps as well. In one school there is abundance of 
 light, which has proved so effective in preventing 
 misdemeanours in large cities. 
 
 An exceptional case, I think, is a school in the 
 South of England where two or three prefects rooted 
 out the mischief by sev^ere corporal punishment of 
 all suspected offenders. 
 
 At another school in the South of England the 
 same or a better result was achieved merely b}- the 
 personal example of two or three leading boys, in- 
 cluding three of the best athletes in the school. 
 
 Then there has been success, as we have said^ 
 through sheer unintelligent bulldog tenacity and 
 determination not to make the mistake. But this is 
 not a reliable method with most boys, whose will- 
 power and wont-power is sadly undeveloped by small 
 
WHAT HAS SUCCEEDED. 4I 
 
 practices. Again, some have prayed diligently and 
 earnestly, and have prevailed in that way. Others 
 have failed miserably, in spite of repeated " prayer," 
 probably because they have been told to pray, but 
 have never been told (see Chapter XL I.) Iiow to pray. 
 
 Where sheer will-power and anxious " prayer '* 
 have been ineffective, friendship and respect for some 
 person (amounting almost to worship of him) may 
 have succeeded. Either the boys sought the com- 
 pany of the person, or else imagined that person to 
 be present. The imagination and memory kept 
 them straight. In hundreds of cases there has been 
 a heroine — probably some ten or fifteen years older 
 than the boy himself. These women can wield an 
 influence that few of them have realised. 
 
 Others have been kept straight by sheer terror of 
 the results. I know one case where a father took 
 his boy to a Lock Hospital and showed him the 
 extreme effects of want of self-control, and the boy 
 was frightened out of those mistakes for the whole of 
 his life. 
 
 But this is not by any means the best plan, this 
 use of fear. Far better is some means within the 
 person's self, and especially some conscious self- 
 suggestion, such as we have outlined in a special 
 chapter (XLL). The appeal to the boy, or the boy's 
 appeal to himself, to play the game and be sports- 
 manlike and loyal, his suggestion or assertion to 
 himself that he is not so weak-willed as to make 
 a mistake, his reminder about his responsibilities, 
 about his ambitions, above all about his power to 
 
42 INTRODUCTORY. MAINLY FOR PARENTS, ETC. 
 
 keep straight, such means are singularly effective. 
 There is nothing morbid about them. The self- 
 suggestion to play the game and not to be weak- 
 willed is the ver}- reverse of morbid. Above all, it is 
 quite unostentatious, as distinct from many of the 
 physical ways which are adopted by the tempted. 
 When I wrote a few words about it, in a little 
 monthly paper, " Health and Strength," I received 
 many letters to say how helpful this idea was prov- 
 ing in self-control and the whole of the daily life. 
 Games, properly organised and played, are them- 
 selves a powerful self-suggestion of right conduct, 
 as is proved by their effects in Reformatory Indus- 
 trial, and in some Board and Poor Law Schools. 
 
 As to " suggestion " by others, I know it has often 
 been most useful. I know several cases of people 
 who have put themselves under a well-known doctor, 
 and he has suggested to them that they will not 
 want to smoke again. Now suggestions by others 
 are of value only if eventually they lead the person 
 to independence and self-control without this sugges- 
 tion by another ; but, if they make him constantly 
 dependent on another, they are decidedly wrong. 
 
 More advisable than suggestion by another would 
 be co-operative suggestion, such as is practised on 
 a large scale in America by the "Success Circles," 
 ** Purity Societies," etc. At certain times of the 
 day, especially just before sleep, but also at fixed 
 and definite hours, they send out prayers or thoughts 
 of purity for every- one. This is a Hindu practice, 
 and very beautiful. 
 
WHAT HAS SUCCEEDED. 43 
 
 One might suggest division of labour. Two people 
 could agree to make suggestions, quite silently and 
 unobtrusively, each about a certain fault of the other, 
 not emphasising the fault, so much as asserting that 
 the true self, within, is free from this fault and is 
 possessed of the opposite virtue. 
 
 Perhaps this is being done already. There are so 
 many Societies working in this direction. For 
 instance, there is " The White Cross Society." I 
 have suggested another — an unobtrusive society 
 without subscription — in a book called " Let's Play 
 the Game" (published by Guilbert Pitman). 
 
 Then there are the papers which have been 
 helpful. That little twopenny paper, " Health and 
 Strength," has done much by giving people a pride 
 in their bodies ; perhaps in a large biceps which will 
 lift a heavy weight. Anything that gives people a 
 reasonable pride in their bodies is to be commended 
 as a starting-point. Only the pride should not stop 
 there : it should go on to be a pride in the body and 
 the mind as well, fit all-round, not merely excelling 
 in one sort of strength. Among other papers that 
 are doing their best — though of course all papers are 
 liable to minor errors — are *' Vim," " Vitality," and 
 *'The Parents' National Education Review." 
 
 Besides, there are countless books on the subject, 
 including the two mentioned above. 
 
 More general clubs, of educational, athletic, or 
 hygienic kinds, are growing everj'where throughout 
 England and America and the Continent. All these 
 are working in the direction of purity, partly by pro- 
 
44 INTRODUCTORY. — MAINLY FOR PARENTS, ETC. 
 
 viding a healthier outlet for physical and mental 
 energy. 
 
 So far we have chiefly considered mental treat- 
 ments. The physical will be described in more 
 detail in the book itself. Here we select a few ex- 
 amples of ways that have succeeded. 
 
 First of all (Chapter XXI.) there is cold water, 
 either as the complete cold bath, or in some local 
 use — for instance, as a hip-bath, or as a sponging at 
 the back of the neck and the base of the spine. 
 
 In some cases it is better when followed by violent 
 exercise (XXV. and XXVI.) ; but not necessarily so. 
 Others prefer violent exercise alone. One man used 
 to kick a football about in his room till he was tired. 
 Another went in for gardening ; another for rowing ; 
 another for running ; and so on. 
 
 Many (see Chapter XXVIII.) have preferred 
 quieter habits, such as novel-reading, a game of 
 cards, or some manual work like modelling. 
 
 Others (see XVI. and XVII.) have found careful- 
 ness in diet and drink quite sufiicient, especially if 
 they have practised avoidance — for instance, of flesh- 
 foods (including fish), of irritants (including pepper 
 and most of the savoury sauces), of alcohol, and 
 perhaps also of tobacco. Others have taken drugs, 
 such as bicarbonate of soda or various aperient and 
 cooling "salts." But these would only be temporary 
 helps. 
 
 Among the best of the helps is, as we shall show 
 in Chapter XVII., leisurely eating. Beyond dispute, 
 anyone who can and will masticate all his mouthfuls 
 
WHAT HAS SUCCEEDED. 45 
 
 of food SO long as they have any taste must have 
 increased his self-control marvellously. 
 
 Less ostentatious and objectionable, but scarcely 
 if at all less effective, is the regulation of the breath- 
 ing. First of all (see XXII.) there is the uplifting of 
 the breathing — the use of .the middle and upper 
 breathing rather than the lower. The abdomen is 
 held in and the diaphragm is held up. Then 
 (Chapter XXIII.) there is breathing for repose, the 
 muscles being relaxed as one exhales. And in 
 general there is rhythmical breathing. With such 
 kinds of breathing the mind is much helped towards 
 self-control and poise. 
 
 Of course it is a question whether by certain aids 
 the permanent instinct of self-control is formed or 
 restored. For instance, if a person is self-controlled 
 only so long as he avoids certain foods, how far 
 has the food-treatment been actually successful ? Is 
 that person really more self-controlled than the 
 person who takes these foods and still remains com- 
 paratively pure ? 
 
 About one thing there can be no doubt. The less 
 morbid and special the treatments are, and the 
 earlier they are begun in life, the more effective 
 and the more permanent they are. When any 
 remedies centre round the mistake, they are less 
 effective than when simple practices, like leisurely 
 eating and full and rhythmical breathing, are made 
 habitual and instinctive and preferable in the early 
 years. Let a child learn to imagine pleasant and 
 harmless things ; let a child learn to ask advice from 
 
46 INTRODUCTORY. — MAINLY FOR PARENTS, ETC. 
 
 healthy people and to expect healthy answers; let a 
 child learn the purity of his own nature and of his 
 desires in themselves ; let a child learn a few simple 
 facts about water, exercise, recreation, diet, and 
 drink ; let a child — I cannot repeat it too often — 
 learn leisurely eating and leisurely and rhythmical 
 yet full breathing; let a child (see Chapter VII.) get 
 an early mastery^ of many alphabets ; and there will 
 be scarcely any need to emphasise the mistakes at 
 all, except in order that the child may help other 
 children through sympathy. 
 
 The most successful methods everywhere have 
 been early trainings, and these depend less on the 
 child than on its managers ; so that the most 
 successful methods have been methods outside the 
 control of the child itself. The least successful 
 methods have generally been those which have been 
 morbid, and have not been attempted till late in life. 
 The sooner we master the physical and mental 
 alphabets of satisfactory all-round life, the better for 
 ourselves and everyone. 
 
 I hope that the following chapter proves their 
 vital importance. 
 
EARLY MASTHKY OF NfANV ALPHABETS. 47 
 
 CHAPTER \'II. 
 
 AN EARLY MASTERY OF MANY ALPHABETS. 
 
 ** Little flower if I could understand 
 
 What you are, root and all, and all in all, 
 I should knoll' what God and man is." 
 
 — Tennyson. 
 
 IT is invaluable to know a few things really well, 
 " root and all, and all in all." As an example, 
 take the learning of those three written words 
 suggested in the Appendix — Te Deuni laudamus. If 
 a person, knowing hitherto little or nothing of Latin, 
 had learnt how to pronounce these words, and had 
 studied them as I suggest, he would have a fine 
 starting-point for the learning of Latin, and indeed 
 of French as well, and a number of other useful 
 things. So, if we thoroughly mastered the pronuncia- 
 tion, etc., of a French sentence like the old-fashioned 
 Comment voiis portez-vous ? there would be another 
 good starting-point. I have written a whole series 
 of articles on " A Few Things Worth Knowing 
 Well," and shall soon publish them in book form. I 
 have received many suggestions from readers of the 
 paper to which I contributed them, which sugges- 
 tions will be included in the book. All my corres- 
 pondents seem to agree on the general principle that, 
 by learning a few things extraordinarily well, one 
 can pave the way for learning many things well with 
 scarcely any trouble whatever. 
 
 Only one should begin very early, while one still 
 
48 INTRODUCTORY. — MAINLY FOR PARENTS, ETC. 
 
 has great power to alter the brain-cells and to form 
 good connective fibres between them.* There are 
 many pscychologists who say that this is almost 
 impossible after the age of 30 (others have fixed on a 
 far lower age, even down to 20). I do not believe in 
 this theory as a universal rule. But at least it is 
 obvious that " the earlier the better," since then the 
 brain is more easily and effectively changed, like 
 moist plaster of Paris before it has set. 
 
 Immediately some one objects, and says, " A little 
 of everything, a smattering of this and that, a slip- 
 shod outline knowledge — we do not want that for 
 the boys." Neither do I. What I suggest is 
 exceptional and scrupulous thoroughness in what is 
 done (partly by repetition and approaches from 
 different points of view, and by use of learnt mate- 
 rials in fresh exercises), with the purpose of getting 
 at the important principles involved and of applying 
 these principles elsewhere. 
 
 For instance, take leisurely eating. That is one 
 thing worth knowing thoroughly well, worth master- 
 ing once and for all. The boy ought to know it, and 
 ought to know the reasons for it, and ought to 
 acquire it as a fine art. He ought to have made it an 
 instinct, a natural tendency. He ought to have 
 set up in his brain what Professor Halleck calls 
 " compelling organic memories." 
 
 Moreover, the things must be ver}' sensibly 
 chosen. I have cared to apply only one test in 
 choosing the following things. I have asked myself 
 what I should now consider it worth while to have 
 
 • See Chapter XVIII. 
 
EARLY MASTERY OF MANY ALPHABETS. 49 
 
 already acquired. The list includes some things 
 which I am still trying to acquire. 
 
 Nor is it merely in the things learnt and the prin- 
 ciples extracted that the advantage lies. The advan- 
 tage lies also in the process of learning a thing 
 thoroughly. Thoroughly learn to eat leisurely, and 
 to breathe leisurely yet fully, and you not only have 
 a healthy habit : you have also been training your- 
 self to do all things thoroughly and leisurely. 
 
 Part of the learning, again, consists in the learning 
 of the advantages. Do not merely learn that Latin 
 sentence, but — see the Appendix — learn why it is an 
 advantage to learn it. 
 
 And, when you have extracted the principles 
 which that little piece of learning involves, then 
 proceed to apply these principles elsewhere. With 
 the same spirit, master whatever subject is difficult 
 for you and yet a good one for you to learn. For 
 instance (see Chapter XXXVIII.), master such a 
 subject as English composition. 
 
 Among the things best worth learning is the art of 
 delegation, both physical and mental. The boy once 
 learnt to walk step by step ; now he has delegated 
 the care of walking to his under-mind, especially to 
 the nerve-centres in part of his brain and spinal cord. 
 So once he learnt how to read. It was an arduous 
 task. Now he has delegated the work of reading to 
 his under-mind : the reading is done for him. That 
 principle is of vital importance in learning — to do a 
 thing with such care that now you can leave it to 
 your under-mind. When once the boy has grasped 
 
50 INTRODUCTORY. — MAINLY FOR PARENTS, ETC. 
 
 this principle, he will have hope about himself. He 
 will realise that there will not always be difficulty in 
 mastering things (including himself) ; that one day 
 what is now an effort will be a habit and an instinct. 
 He will find himself tending and preferring to do 
 what is right. 
 
 The boy should be accustomed to the mastery of 
 healthy habits. He should be accustomed to use his 
 will ; but also to use sensible methods and tactics, 
 easy beginnings, and many repetitions. Each of the 
 following tasks is easy by itself, yet is very important. 
 Each is to have others added to it, without being 
 itself given up. Each is to be a basis for future 
 achievement. The boy will not always have to attend 
 to these alphabets. Having mastered them, he will 
 now be able to use them without conscious care. 
 We do not want our bo}'S always to be troubling 
 about correct mechanism and technique and detail ; 
 we want them to have mastered the correct mechan- 
 ism, and then to express themselves naturally and 
 pleasantly, along what is — thank goodness and sen- 
 sible training — the line of least resistance. 
 
 Perhaps you will say, " Wh}- bother bo}s over 
 these alphabets ? " The answer is, that boys are, 
 to a great extent, under our control. They object 
 less than older people do to being drilled, especiall\' 
 if they are allowed to show their instinctive sense of 
 humour. In bo\hood it is far easier and far more 
 important to form good habits. For prevention — 
 including the invaluable instinct of prevention — is 
 better, and in every way cheaper, than cure; 
 
EARLY MASTERY OF MANY ALPHABETS. 5 1 
 
 The first art to be mastered is better breathing — 
 more thorough, leisurely, and rhythmical breathing, 
 well up through the nostrils. We have given a few 
 notes in Chapter XXII. If the boy does not learn 
 to breathe sensibly now, he will probably not learn 
 to breathe sensibly later on : he will say that he is 
 " too busy." Men become too busy for almost any- 
 thing, except what is vitally important. So do 
 women. They are not taught " the things that 
 belong unto their poise." 
 
 Leisurely eating is another art that simply must be 
 mastered early. It could probably be made into a 
 healthy instinct by the time that the boy is five 
 years old. Then he should be able to choose his 
 foods rightly ; to refuse those that would hurt him. 
 He should be able, not only to eat his foods rightly, 
 but also to stop at the right time. As long as 
 managers of children are so idiotic or cruel as to 
 cram children with unnecessary elements, and to 
 starve them of other elements, it is essential that the 
 children should learn, at any rate, how to eat rightly 
 — that is to say, leisurely — so as to get most good 
 out of the good elements, and to counteract, as far as 
 possible, the bad elements, by the alkaline saliva, etc. 
 Whether or no we shall ever come to apply this 
 system to drinking as well, as Mr. Horace Fletcher 
 does, I cannot pretend to say. But if the boy is 
 going to be given alcohol, for example, he may just 
 as well learn to taste that alcohol thoroughly. 
 Mr. Horace Fletcher maintains that in this form it is 
 practically harmless. When it is swilled dow^n, we 
 all know some of its effects on most people. 
 
 F 
 
52 INTRODUCTORY. — MAINLY FOR PARENTS, ETC. 
 
 The next art is that of repose. Hints are given in 
 Chapter XXIII. The boy should get the faculty of 
 muscular relaxation, and the breathing which corre- 
 sponds to it, so that he may economise energy, and 
 be restful and poised during his work, during his 
 prayer, at intervals during his exercise, and, above 
 all, during the night time when the body and the 
 mind are being repaired. There is no reason why 
 the sense of humour should not be trained as well. 
 Some of the exercises, useful as they are, are quite 
 ridiculous. It will not hurt the boy to laugh. That 
 the practice of repose is of value for nervous children 
 no one in his senses can doubt. The American 
 schools and the English schools which are practising 
 it sensibly are benefiting largely. 
 
 Then come the positions and expressions, which 
 are treated in Chapter XXIV. Among the principles 
 are straightness, and remedial work to restore the 
 straightness. It is important for ever\' purpose, 
 whether of work or of play, that the boy should 
 either keep the right positions or else restore upset 
 balances by special exercises. For instance, let the 
 untrained and " badly posed " boy begin to row, and 
 his tendency will be to round his back and poke his 
 head forward. The proper attitude for standing and 
 sitting and walking will help the proper position for 
 rowing also. 
 
 Such an Alphabet of Athletics as I have offered in 
 Routledge's Fitness Series, but considerably im- 
 proved by experts, should, I think, be one of the 
 alphabets which boys should master as early as 
 
EARLY MASTERY OF MANY ALPHABETS. 53 
 
 possible. It is not meant to exclude such a system 
 of drill as Mr. Flynn has mapped out in the 
 "" Physical Educator." Much of that drill is valu- 
 able. But I do think that it is of equally great 
 moment that the boy who is going to play games — 
 and we could wish that every boy is — should be pre- 
 pared for those games by movements such as those 
 games involve, so that he may play the games with- 
 out strain, may succeed better at them, may enjoy 
 them more, may get more good out of them, and 
 may keep in training and practice when the games 
 themselves are not feasible. 
 
 Games and athletics must be among the alphabets 
 which a boy should master. Not only should he, 
 learn to walk and run correctly and to start in 
 various directions and to balance himself : he should 
 also learn to jump, and swim, and so on. 
 
 He should learn to massage himself round the 
 navel, and all over his body, as I have suggested in 
 another chapter (XXL). F'or the art of massage is 
 closely connected with the art of excretion. The 
 boy whose excretion is out of order cannot possibly 
 be healthy. 
 
 Cleanliness is another art, treated in Chapter XXI. 
 Let the boy learn the difference between warm water 
 (with soaping and rubbing) which cleanses him, and 
 cold water (followed b\' rubbing) which invigorates 
 and hardens him. Let him also learn a few special 
 uses of cold water : in particular, its use when 
 applied at the back of the neck and the base of the 
 spine. That one piece of knowledge alone might 
 
54 INTRODUCTORY. — MAINLY FOR PARENTS, ETC. 
 
 have saved an almost incredible amount of worrj' and 
 harm. 
 
 Regularity must be an early habit. It must not 
 be so much the regularity according to the time of 
 the clock ; it should rather be according to the occa- 
 sion. For instance, as I have said, let a boy regu- 
 larly blow his nose, breathe deeply and leisurely, and 
 brush his teeth, before he washes and dresses, 
 whether he gets up at six or at eight. Then, if 
 possible, let him acquire the habit of excretion 
 directly he has come out of bed — that is to say,, 
 unless he has the (perhaps in many ways better) 
 habit just before he goes to bed. As another in- 
 stance of regularity according to occasion, on one 
 night he may go to sleep at eight, on another night 
 at ten, and so on. Regularity according to the clock 
 is not always possible or desirable ; regularity accord- 
 ing to occasion always is. Just before he goes to 
 sleep, at whatever clock-time it is, let him wish 
 everybody well ; let him wish everybody pure, 
 healthy, happy, and helpful. 
 
 The advantages of such simple practices, turned 
 into habits by early repetition, apply to all-round 
 life, and indeed apply to all life from the cradle to 
 the grave, including the life in the office and in the 
 home. Without much conscious attention to his 
 health, the boy who is trained in this and other ways 
 should remain fit and ready for any emergency that 
 may arise. He should also remain self-respecting. 
 
 For self-respect is another art that must be 
 mastered early. It must become an inalienable pos- 
 
EARLY MASTERY OF MANY ALPHABETS. 55 
 
 session. Once let there be registered in the boy's 
 brain the idea that he is a little beast, and it will take 
 infinite trouble to destroy the memory. We cannot 
 begin too early to teach children to respect them- 
 selves sensibly. Let the boy respect himself as the 
 ruler of his own kingdom within (see Chapter IX.), 
 •or, if you like, of his own garden within ; let him 
 respect himself also as a member of a universe and 
 •connected vitally with all other members ; let him 
 respect himself as responsible for his whole body and 
 mind, and as powerful over it, especially if he has 
 tested and now believes in his power, and so can have 
 patience, and especially if also he can employ sensible 
 methods. Let him be given to understand, right at 
 the beginning, that he can and should take sensible 
 thought for his whole self; that his body is a thing 
 given him to be taken care of. 
 
 This means that he must think in the new way ; 
 that is the true meaning of the word translated 
 *' repent." A true meaning of the Greek words of 
 *** Repent," " The kingdom of heaven is within," is 
 **' Think in the new way" (or "Hold the new thought 
 •or idea"), " Guidance by God, the state of all-round 
 fitness, is already within you ; it is not far away." 
 
 Self-suggestion of the right kind must be taught to 
 all children. Whether the child should be taught to 
 address a command to itself, such as " Do it now," 
 or " Play the game," or whether the child should be 
 taught to assert " I'll do it now " or " I am doing it 
 now," ." I'll play the game " or " I am playing the 
 game," must depend on the circumstances. But self- 
 
56 INTRODUCTORY. — MAINLY FOR PARENTS, ETC. 
 
 suggestion, of these healthy and energising kinds, as 
 distinct from morbid self-suggestions such as " I am 
 a miserable sinner " must be practised by all children 
 who have not the right attitude of mind and body 
 already. 
 
 At the same time, with this freedom and origin- 
 ality which we must allow, with this independent, 
 self-active work of the child, there must be strict 
 obedience to discipline. Only, for heaven's sake, let 
 the disciplinarian be not obstinate, but ready to 
 change when he sees that a plan is a mistake. For 
 instance, he must see that Latin as usually taught 
 to-day is a mistake. He must see that French as 
 usually taught to-day is a mistake. It is right that 
 the child should be obedient to discipline ; but the 
 teacher for his part should be obedient to new ideas, 
 should be ready to make the discipline always more 
 and more sensible and logical. I am one of the few 
 who look back to the grounding and grinding in 
 classical grammar as extremely valuable ; but I feel 
 sure it would have been no less valuable if it had 
 been made more scientific. It was good for me to 
 obey discipline ; it would have been better for me to 
 obey a more sensible discipline. Obedience need be 
 none the less implicit because it is obedience to 
 something rational, something of which the teacher 
 can explain the reason. He cannot possibly explain 
 the reason of so much Latin and several other 
 subjects as he generally is told to teach them to-day. 
 Why not ? Because there is no reason. 
 
 But London was not re-built in a day. Neither 
 
HABIT OF PATIENCE IN VIEW OF RESULTS. 57 
 
 can the *' education " of London and England be re- 
 built in a day. Until we have better subjects, and 
 better methods of teaching them, our safest plan is 
 to get, from what we alread}' have, the best possible 
 training and lessons that it can offer. Among them 
 is the training in leisureliness — the lesson of patience 
 in view of results which we shall not fully appreciate 
 all at once. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE HABIT OF PATIENCE IN VIEW OF RESULTS. 
 
 GAME-PLAYERS, and especially golfers, who 
 practise systematically, may at first despair of 
 progress. Then, it seems almost in a day, they leap 
 up a whole class ; they find that the improvement 
 has been made. Yesterda\' the}' played very badly ; 
 to-day and on all future da\'s they play comparatively 
 well. Such practice, including bedroom-practice, is 
 not necessar}' — it is not advisable — for the genius ; in 
 fact it may spoil his play altogether. But for the 
 duffer it is thoroughly advisable. More duffers 
 would practise and improve themselves, and then 
 enjoy themselves more, if only they had the habit of 
 patience in view of results, a habit of mind based on 
 many small experiences in interesting spheres like this- 
 If you likened a habit to a solid building made of 
 many bricks, and likened each repetition of a practice 
 or of a mental state to a single brick, you would 
 understand how it is essential to cherish leisurely 
 
58 INTRODUCTORY. — MAINLY FOR PARENTS, ETC. 
 
 patience in view of ultimately satisfactor}' and solid 
 results. 
 
 A better comparison, perhaps, would be the sowing 
 of seeds. Unless you knew that one day would come 
 the flower or the fruit, you would not sow with faith. 
 And indeed many of your seeds will be wasted any- 
 how. But you do know that, with proper care, there 
 will some day come up a plant. That is the lesson 
 which is needed in the training of character, as of 
 physique ; and such lessons are among the advan- 
 tages of plant-tending as a hobby — though there are 
 many who garden so stupidly that they never carry 
 such lessons into daily life. 
 
 Gardening is full of lessons for daily life. For 
 instance, what is the best way to treat weeds ? 
 What lesson does one learn for the treatment of 
 mental weeds ? In the first place, merely to pull up 
 weeds is of little use : you must plant good seeds and 
 pay attention to them and water them. To pull up 
 the weeds or to poison them will then become effec- 
 tive. Corresponding to this in the mind is a strong- 
 willed pulling up of the bad habits, while you water 
 and tend the good habits. You poison the mental 
 weed by disgust at its unsatisfactoriness, by apprecia- 
 tion of its folly and weakness. 
 
 All the time, however, you must foresee the harvest 
 — perhaps some athletic success, or anything else 
 that interests you. Even then it may be hard to be 
 patient ; it seems so long before the fruit appears. , 
 
 Therefore, at the beginning, let your tasks be easy. 
 Do not plant an acorn and then demand an oak in a 
 
HAHIT OF PATIENCE IN VIEW OF RESULTS. 59 
 
 few hours. Rather begin by planting something that 
 will soon come up — say, mustard and cress. Be sure 
 that your first attempts increase your faith in mental 
 seed-sowing and harvest. Try such tasks as I have 
 suggested in Chapter VII. They will give you some 
 successes to remember; the graduation will relieve 
 the strain upon your patience. 
 
 All the time understand the principle of nature, 
 that nothing is ever lost — no thought of yours, 
 certainly no repeated practice. Learn also the way 
 of nature, to do most things leisurely. 
 
 Much could be taught about this slowness in the 
 appearing of results, by a study of history. The 
 ordinary way of learning history teaches hardly any 
 such lesson. Dates and names — they convey no 
 principle at all. But if we took such a subject as the 
 causes of the Peloponnesian War and its results, we 
 should see these causes extending far back into the 
 past, the results extending far forward into the 
 future. Why did Athens fight with Sparta ? One 
 cause was that Athenians and Spartans from early 
 times loved each their own little city-state. Another 
 cause was the geography of Athens, as distinct from 
 the geography of Sparta. Besides, there were the 
 immediate provocatives of war. The effects reached 
 down to the conquest of Greece by Macedon, and far 
 beyond that. When we see how gradual was the 
 fruitage, how slow to show itself, we have learnt a 
 lesson for all life. We now feel more inclined to 
 believe that nothing is ever ineffective, that nothing 
 is ever lost. The word " lost " is unknown in psy- 
 
6o INTRODUCTORY. — MAINLY FOR PARENTS, ETC. 
 
 chology : ever}'thing always has its due effect some 
 day, with mathematical precision — but the some day 
 is not necessarily to-day. 
 
 Patience is not entirely a slow thing ; it is not all 
 snail-work. A patient person must also be quick not 
 to act at all on certain occasions. He feels his 
 temper tried ; he must be quick not to lose it ; he 
 must divert his attention instantly. 
 
 And it is a matter of clever tactics as well : it is 
 not sheer and dull pig-headed obstinacy of the bull- 
 dog order. If you would only use your intelligence 
 to find out simple ways, you would soon make your- 
 self patient. 
 
 I know one impatient and irascible man who made 
 himself patient by practising a number of little 
 habits, washing himself thoroughly for five minutes 
 in the middle of the day, and at intervals brushing 
 his hair and learning a stanza of poetry ! Day after 
 day, without letting anyone know it, he made a point 
 of these healthy practices. He found that they not 
 only gave him fitness of body : they also gave him 
 patience of mind. He trained himself to be able 
 to carry out leisurely and contentedly what would 
 otherwise have been impossible drudgery. 
 
 But part of his secret was to connect his practices 
 with his ambitions and responsibilities. He wanted 
 to be fit ; he knew that he ought to be fit ; he re- 
 peated his little habits with a view to becoming fit. 
 And that is the best way of getting the habit of 
 patience. Keep the most attractive results con- 
 stantly in view. In a special Course which I give on 
 
COMPELLING AMBITIONS. 6l 
 
 Moral Memon- Training, I suggest ways of keeping 
 these ambitions in view and of reminding one's self 
 of them and of switching on to them one's practice 
 of useful little habits. Without such ambitions the 
 work is likely to overtax your will. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 COMPELLING AMBITIONS AND RESPONSIBILITIES. 
 
 WHAT boys and all other people need is some 
 irresistible ambition which is at the same 
 time a genuine pleasure ; which compels not by 
 pushing and forcing, but by enticing and attracting. 
 One of the most powerful ambitions for boys is the 
 athletic ; and, if only it be sometimes seen in per- 
 spective, it has no harm in it. Jesus Christ appealed 
 to the real motives of individuals, as when he said to 
 one man, ' You will then find treasure — in your own 
 heaven.' As a Hindu sage wrote, " The lowest sorts 
 of work are not to be despised. Let a man who 
 knows no better, work for selfish ends, for name and 
 fame ; but a man should always try to get towards 
 the higher motive and to understand what that 
 motive is." 
 
 My own personal ambitions have been ridiculously 
 high ; but they have been genuine to mc, and useful. 
 I wished to succeed at various games, including 
 Cricket ; I imagined myself succeeding in these, 
 and in other spheres. I told no one, but I found 
 
62 INTRODUCTORY. — MAINLY FOR PARENTS, ETC. 
 
 that it was extremely useful to remind myself of such 
 ambitions. Then I found that such ambitions com- 
 pelled me without any unpleasantness, without any 
 effort. To use the old 
 comparison, they were the 
 wind that filled my sail and 
 moved my ship of action 
 and practice. I know a 
 schoolmaster who uses this 
 plan sensibly with his 
 boys. Among the motives 
 to which he appeals is suc- 
 cess at games. He sa\'s to 
 a boy, If you do so-and-so 
 — for instance, if you lose 
 your temper — you cannot 
 expect to be a really suc- 
 cessful bat at Cricket. He 
 appeals to other motives, 
 but nearly always to this 
 among them. 
 
 And, indeed, we should — - ^^^ ^• 
 
 say that, in order to keep fig. 2.-Thk- Purity • Man. 
 a steady character till the it is of no use to hold up 
 
 age of thirty at any rate, this man as a model for boys : 
 ,,U^r^ r^^r-^ i^^^A ^ u lie does not interest them as a 
 
 when more ireedom can be , , u i 
 
 hero, he has scarcely any pomt 
 
 allowed, it is essential to of contact with normal boy- 
 neglect no help ; to omit hood. And yet, in a sense, he 
 
 no healthy ambitions what- "^^y ^ virtuous. The boy's 
 
 , . , ... model of virtue must be attrac- 
 
 soever, to bnng them all m ^j^^jy^ ^^.-^^^^ ^^„ly ^^, 
 
 as allies. If you can, as repulsively, negatively pious. 
 
COMPELLINC; AMBITIONS. 63 
 
 Emerson suggests, ** hitch your wagon to a star,'* da 
 so. But if you don't care about a star, then hitch 
 your wagon to anything that will pull it forward and 
 upward. F'orm ideals interesting to you — realise 
 them — repeat them — bring them leisurely before the 
 mind's eye and muscular sense again and again till 
 they simply dominate you — and meanwhile work to- 
 wards them in every possible way. 
 
 What are your ideals ? Think for a minute, please 
 
 *■ * * 
 
 Now, by what simple practices can you come 
 nearer and nearer to making them actual ? For merely 
 to dream is fatal. 
 
 Well, I believe that the real physical and mental 
 feats, such as I have outlined elsewhere, would 
 appeal even to boys, if onl}- they were rightl}' esti- 
 mated by the elders themselves, and if only they 
 w^ere put into their proper perspective and pro- 
 spective, and used for the right purpose — for the 
 sake of all-round health and self-respect, and as 
 encouragements to further feats. I do not mean 
 that the other athletic feats, such as record scores,, 
 runs, jumps, should be left unconsidered, unadmired. 
 Rather let a boy say to himself, " As Sweeney did 
 his record high jump, so I will succeed here in my 
 sphere, in leisurely and rhythmical breathing, in 
 leisurely eating." Let a boy regard his task as a 
 feat ; let him be ambitious to master that feat ; let 
 him feel that he is responsible for mastering it, as 
 well as able to master it. It will not hurt him in 
 the least to understand some of the reasons why 
 
64 INTRODUCTORY. — MAINLY FOR PARENTS, ETC. 
 
 these feats are of real importance for the whole of 
 life, including athletics. 
 
 Whatever game he plays, let him know that it is a 
 game to be played against his past and present self, 
 and not merely against others in order to beat them. 
 
 He must also be given some more distinctly 
 mental feats. These must be his ambitions as well. 
 Let him take, as one of his mental feats, not to 
 speak, look, think, against the all-round fitness of 
 any one else. Rather let him wish for every one 
 else's thorough fitness. Let him regard this control 
 of his thoughts as a fine game to win, as fine a game 
 to win as a match at Fives, or a hundred yards in 
 the Athletic Sports, or some gymnastic competition. 
 
 He must be told, above all, his fourfold duty : to 
 himself all-round, to his future self and his children, 
 to those about him, and to God. The map of life in 
 the following chapter will make this duty clear. If 
 any boy or man could fulfil perfectly his duty of any 
 one of these four kinds, he would also be fulfilling all 
 the other duties. We may consider them separately, 
 however, for the sake of emphasis. 
 
 I. First as to his duty to himself all-round. Let 
 him satisfy his conscience. Emerson, in his essay 
 on Self-reliance, has a fine phrase : he answers the 
 objection that merely to satisfy one's conscience 
 may be a very low standard of duty ; he says that, if 
 any one tried to satisfy his real conscience in all 
 respects for a single day, he would realise how 
 severe the standard was. The duty to the self 
 includes the duty to the servant-lives within. The 
 
COMPELLING AMBITIONS. 65 
 
 late Professor Virchow, of Germany, was one of the 
 first modern scientists to insist on the individuality 
 of the cells within us. Professor Elmer Gates, of 
 the United States Government Laboratory at Wash- 
 ington, has made many interesting discoveries, with 
 the double microscope, by experimenting on uni- 
 cellular organisms. Professor Metchnikoff, of France, 
 has also maintained the individuality of cell-lives. 
 The boy should regard himself as the captain of a 
 team. To a certain extent he is responsible for the 
 well-being of that team. He has within him his own 
 team of workers or players. Let him regulate their 
 food, exercise, and general well-being, as far as he 
 can without morbid care. Let him regard these 
 faithful little minds within him as his very own, each 
 none the less important because it 'is tiny. Perhaps 
 these words of Dr. Alexander Hill may help him to 
 realise some of the cells of which he is composed, the 
 citizens of his kingdom, on whose well-being his own 
 well-being depends. 
 
 " Every plant and every animal commences its existence as a 
 single cell. This cell (the ovule of a plant, the ovum of an animal) 
 is a mass of protoplasm containing a nucleus. All the active pro- 
 cesses which characterise life are carried out by the cell. It assimi- 
 lates ; that is to say, takes the materials upon which it lives from 
 the juices by which it is surrounded, and converts them into its 
 own substance. It metabolises, or sets apart, out of its own pro- 
 toplasm, substances which it has not received in the condition in 
 which it separates them, but has made in virtue of its own vital 
 activity. Such products of metabolism may either remain in the 
 cell, as is the case with the horny material formed in certain cells 
 of the skin ; or they may be passed into the body-juices, or into 
 one of the ' secretions ' of the glands. It respires ; that is to say, 
 secures the oxidation of substances which it contains, in order that 
 
66 INTRODUCTORY. — MAINLY FOR PARENTS, ETC. 
 
 force may be developed, in the form either of heat or of motion. 
 In its early stages the ovum adds to its substance, by assimilation,, 
 much more material than it loses by metabolism, and, con- 
 sequently, it increases in size. But increase in size soon reaches 
 its limit, and the cell undergoes division. The initiation and 
 superintendence of cell-division is the business of the nucleus. 
 .... Every specialised cell, such as a muscle-fibre or a nerve- 
 cell, is an independent organism whose health and activity depend 
 upon the purity of the fluid which surrounds it, and the presence in 
 this fluid of the substances which it needs for its nourishment, as 
 well as of the raw materials from which it manufactures its special 
 metabolites." 
 
 A boy should see that in his hands, in his organs, 
 in his intelHgence, in his will-power, is the future of 
 himself and the nation. 
 
 2. The second duty — to the future self and pos- 
 sible children — is too obvious to need to be empha- 
 sised. Some prudes object that the boy should 
 never be taught to regard himself as a future parent : 
 I maintain that he should be so taught at a very 
 early age ; otherwise he will have no conception of 
 the importance of his right choices and his mistakes. 
 Whatever we believe about the future self, and very 
 likely my own beliefs may differ from yours, at least 
 we must believe that much depends on the present 
 self, including the physical self. We cannot make 
 physical mistakes which shall not count ; otherwise 
 our God of justice is a sheer mockery. If God 
 allows us to make physical mistakes without any 
 effect, God is not the Power that Science reveals. 
 This is how Mrs. Mary Wood Allen expresses the 
 estate which parents hand down to their children — 
 the estate which parents have created chiefly during 
 
COMPELLLING AMBITIONS. 67 
 
 their own early years, when the}- themselves were 
 plastic : — 
 
 " * I lieiiueath to my daughter Mary my yellow, blotched and 
 pimpled complexion, resulting from my own bad habits of life. I 
 l^equeath to my son John the effects of my habits of dissipation in 
 my youth, with a like love for alcholic liquors and tobacco. I 
 l>equeath to my son Harry my petulant, irritable disposition, and 
 the rheumatic gout which I have brought upon myself by dis- 
 ol>edience to physical law ; and to ray daughter Elizabeth, my 
 trembling nerves and weak moral nature.' ' * But this is, in truth, 
 what many parents do, and the children find it a sad, instead of 
 an amusing fact. On the other hand, she proceeds to say, "You 
 can change yourself by education so that the inheritance of your 
 children may be cjuite changed. For example, if you know that 
 you lack perseverance, you can, by constantly making a mighty 
 effort to overcome this defect, compel yourself to persevere, and 
 this would tend to give your children perseverance. So you see 
 we need not despair because we have inherited faults from our 
 ancestors, but we should determine all the more that we will 
 not pass those defects on to later generations." 
 
 Marshal Ney had a similar idea when he replied 
 to the taunt that Napoleon had no pedigree, no blue- 
 blooded ancestors, by saying, " We are ancestors." 
 
 3. The duty to others, especially to those about us, 
 is equally important. The translation " neighbour " 
 is an unfortunate one. We have a duty not merely to 
 our neighbours, not merely to all other people, but 
 also to animals, and even to so-called inanimate 
 nature, which modern Science shows to be alive and 
 moving and changing all the time. We must re- 
 member that we aifect ever}'thing around us, not 
 only by our actions, but also by our thoughts. If 
 force is never lost, and if thought is a force, then it 
 
 * Of course Science does not warrant the idea that such things — 
 as distinct from teudemies, or, we might almost say, temptations- 
 are handed down from parent to child. 
 
 G 
 
68 INTRODUCTORY. — MAINLY FOR PARENTS, ETC. 
 
 is essential that we should realise and remember that 
 every thought of ours is an eternal and imperishable 
 influence, changing the \vhole world somewhat from 
 generation to generation. 
 
 4. What is our duty towards God, beyond these 
 three duties — towards ourselves, the future, and the 
 surroundings ? Our duty is to form the highest idea 
 of God. " Hallowed be Thy name " in the Greek 
 meant *' Show us that Your nature is perfects If 
 we are to trust God, and submit to God, we want first 
 to realise God as superior to all the best men and 
 women whom we know. We must realise such a 
 God, perhaps at first getting our idea of each quality 
 (the word translated " name " meant " quality " or 
 *' characteristic ") from the best types that we have 
 seen : this person is forgiving ; that person is clever ; 
 the other is patient ; yet another is this or that. 
 From various sources we collect our ideas, always 
 raising them higher and higher with fresh knowledge. 
 Yet all the time this God is not to be f;ir away: our 
 duty towards God (see Chapter XLI.) is to realise 
 that God is within ourselves ; never by tlunight or 
 action to separate ourselves from God : to regard 
 God as our highest self, and to submit to that 
 highest self and be guided by it ; to be lui by it as 
 our sole and absolute commander. 
 
 Once again, is the boy too young to know this 
 fourfold responsibiHty? Look at the children in the 
 slums. Apparently they are hopeless. Hut give 
 them a sense of responsibility and privilege; give 
 them smaller children to attend to ; and at once 
 
COMPELLING AMBITIONS. 
 
 69 
 
 their divine nature opens out and shows itself. Dr. 
 Peabodw the headmaster of Groton School in 
 America, and many other headmasters whom I 
 know, find that to show the bo\- his responsibilit}- 
 to others, to give him an ambition to help others as 
 Avell as himself, to put him in charge of other boys as 
 Avell as himself, is the best way to safet}' and success. 
 These experienced men find that there is no age too 
 young for a sense of responsibility, even if the first 
 responsibility is the care of a plant, a pet animal, 
 a stamp-book, a desk, a cricket-bat. I think this dia- 
 gram (Fig. 3) will show what I mean. A person has 
 
 a desire to restore some 
 upset balance — perhaps 
 to remove a feeling of 
 restlessness. Now the line 
 of least resistance seemed 
 at first — through ignor- 
 FiG. 3.— Desire has often led to ance— to be some action 
 
 an attractive downward course, 
 which is now easy through habit. 
 It must be turned into a new 
 channel, so as to lead to an at- 
 tractive higher course; and the. 
 action must be repeated till it be 
 now Ihc doiiiinant habit; every 
 repetition helps to strengthen the 
 upper line, while the lower is 
 
 which, we agree, was 
 really a mistake ; but it at- 
 tracted the person. Next 
 time the tendency was 
 towards a repetition; and 
 so on, till the dark down- 
 ward line was formed. 
 
 weakened through non-use. What is needed is the 
 
 ambition, and practice connected with it, to attract 
 upwards, till the new path in its turn becomes easy by 
 repetition. At first it is marked b}- individual dots or 
 footsteps. Soon the many dots make a thick line. 
 
70 INTRODUCTORY. — MAINLY FOR PARENTS, ETC. 
 
 Meanwhile we have the old habit-path left alone. 
 Soon it becomes trackless ; the green has grown over 
 it. It is our path no longer. But there must be the 
 genuine and compelling attraction kept in view dur- 
 ing the forming of the better way. We must look to 
 the delightful goal often before we are tempted to go 
 back to, or even to look at, the old downward path. 
 
 From such little beginnings it is easy to teach the 
 all-round responsibilities of all human beings, as 
 outlined in these pages. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 A BETTER MAP OF LIFE. 
 
 A BOY is usually shown or permitted to regard 
 rich men as the successes among men, even 
 after they have had a career of swindling, and have 
 made themselves physically unhealthy, and perhaps 
 have displayed other vices as well. This is an 
 abominable piece of education. It sets a wrong 
 goal in the boy's mind; it shows an utter want of 
 proportion, perspective, prospective. For instance, 
 the children of these ** successes " are often despic- 
 able failures. 
 
 Better ideals can easily be set before the boy 
 through the study of leading men and women — for 
 instance, to choose a few names, Epaminondas in 
 Greek History, Buddha in Oriental History-, Alfred 
 in English, and so on. Biography will be a valuable 
 study anyhow, a specially valuable one if the boy 
 be allowed to criticise, as Dr. Alexander Whyte has 
 criticised some of the Old Testament characters. 
 
A BETTER MAP OF LIFE. 7I 
 
 But most history-books are hopelessly inadequate 
 as teachers for daily life. What historian gives fair 
 play and due praise to physical fitness and such care 
 of health as may produce a better physical and 
 mental and moral generation ? Whereas Jason of 
 Pherae and Philip of Macedon may have twenty 
 pages, Galen and Hippocrates are dismissed in a 
 bare and uninteresting and barren line. 
 
 The Greeks in their education, as distinct from 
 their history-books, were far wiser. They set before 
 their people beautiful statues as ideals of physical 
 excellence, while they did not despise other aesthetic 
 and mental and moral excellences. 
 
 The fact is that our teachers and managers have 
 not realised the value of imagination when repeated 
 and held to; such imagination is nothing less than 
 faith. Faith is something that disregards the 
 present appearance and holds to the present ambi- 
 tion and realises it again and again in the mind. To 
 the outsider this seems experimental ; to the insider 
 it is seed-planting and seed-watering in a never fail- 
 ing soil. Imagination is reinforced by self-sugges- 
 tion. The forms of self-suggestion will be different 
 for different men and women. Here I wish to 
 suggest a healthy imagination and self-suggestion for 
 boys. Let boys have before them a better map of 
 life, to guide their ambitions and ideals and judg- 
 ments of others and themselves, at a time when they 
 are surrounded by crowds of unwholesome models. 
 I shall put the departments in tabular form. The 
 excellences may be classified as follows : — 
 
'J2 INTRODUCTORY. — MAINLY FOR PARENTS, ETC. 
 
 Physical excellences, which can come largely through 
 athletic and other exercises. The body and all its 
 parts should be swift and prompt, correcth' posed 
 and poised, correctly moving, readily adaptable to 
 new demands, strong and forcible, enduring, in good 
 practice and in good condition so as to work easily ;. 
 and working not only easily but also pleasantly. It 
 will take some time to see and " sense" such a body. 
 But this memory-training and imagination-training 
 is well worth while. 
 
 Aesthetic excellences. The word aesthetic has more 
 than one meaning. The boy should enjoy himself 
 and he should look well and fine. And this enjoyment 
 and improved appearance should be a real ambition. 
 The improved appearance will include not only 
 position and movement, but also cleanliness and 
 freshness. No boy wishes, or should wish, to look 
 an untidy smug. 
 
 Intellectual excellences. These correspond to the 
 physical. They must be all-round. The mind, like the 
 body, must be swift and prompt, correctly posed and 
 poised when resting or moving, readily adaptable to 
 new demands, strong and forcible, enduring, in good 
 practice and in good condition so as to work easily ; 
 and working not only easily but also pleasantly. 
 
 Under the intellectual excellences we may class 
 the economical — the saving and earning of money, as 
 well as of the time and energy which are so closely 
 connected with money-making. 
 
 Competitive excellences will be described in the 
 chapter on the play-spirit (XXXIX.). The boy 
 
A BETTKK MAP OF LU<E. 73 
 
 must learn to play the game and be sportsmanlike 
 throughout his life. The whole of his life is conv 
 petitive, rather against his past and present self than 
 — as it generally appears to be, on the surface— 
 against others. 
 
 Moral and spiritual excellences. These correspond 
 to the physical and intellectual excellences. We 
 need not go through the list again. Notice, how- 
 ever, the last item, that the moral and physical work 
 should become easy and pleasant. Caricatures of 
 religions tell the boy that moral and spiritual work 
 must always be an unpleasant effort, a repressing of 
 all desires. The very reverse is true. 
 
 Social and what we may call group -excellences. 
 Not only must the boy have success and popularit\' ; 
 he must also be helpful, be a good member of each 
 group to which he belongs. 
 
 Prospective excellences. The boy must do some- 
 thing to help posterity, and must regard that as an 
 integral part of his ambition. He must help his 
 future self, including his self in the future life, what- 
 ever that may be. He must aim at producing some- 
 thing better than he himself appears to be at any 
 given moment. 
 
 In modern times, so hampering are the conditions, 
 we must mention preventive and remedial excellences y 
 which forestall or remove certain faults. A better map 
 of life will have to include this preventive or remedial 
 work. In certain cases it may be useful to show the 
 boy some fruits of mistakes, such as fruits of loss 
 of temper, in order that he may avoid the mistakes 
 
74 INTRODUCTORY. — MAINLY FOR PARENTS, ETC. 
 
 themselves. Which appeals to the boy the more — 
 the fear or disgust at the fruits of mistakes, or the 
 desire and attraction of the fruits of right actions ? 
 Probably as he grows older he will find that the 
 latter will appeal to him more. But the former need 
 not be altogether neglected. Jesus Christ did not 
 despise it as a motive for others. 
 
 Of course the whole map must be made a living 
 picture, not — as here — a series of abstract terms. 
 But some map the boy must have if he is to keep his 
 poise. The greater his poise, the more true his per- 
 spective and prospective, the more accurately he 
 estimates all persons and things all-round and in 
 proportion and in view of future results, the better 
 will be not only his self-control but also his self- 
 expression. He will be less likely to rush, as many 
 a boy does now, into faults which seem to him unim- 
 portant but are really far-reaching ; he will be less 
 likely to strive for successes which seem to him 
 essential but are really trivial. As it is, boys are 
 generally given wrong standards for judging actions ; 
 and the results are lamentable. They must have far 
 better models put before them ; the}* must once for 
 all be disabused of the fallacy that elders are neces- 
 sarily betters. It is a villainous assumption. Boys 
 must know clearly what is meant by " betters." So 
 imitative are they, that we cannot be too cautious in 
 choosing for them what they shall imitate. As it is, 
 almost invariably we allow them to take as their 
 hero and pattern for the whole of their life some boy 
 or man who has one excellence that they might well 
 
WANTED — MORE CANDOUR, LESS PRUDERY. 75 
 
 Study and acquire, but has also certain faults that 
 they should avoid — faults that an outline map of 
 living and moving life would easily expose. 
 
 Candour to point out these faults, and to warn 
 boys against them, is sadly wanted. There is no 
 necessity to belittle the merits — A's pluck, B's 
 patience, C's sporting self-sacrifice, D's clever tac- 
 tics; there is no necessity to abuse the persons at 
 all. But there is a most urgent necessity to call 
 attention to the faults of those who are supposed to 
 be successes — and who are successes in certain re- 
 spects — so that the boy, while he tries to acquire the 
 merits of one of his heroes, may meanwhile avoid 
 his faults and keep in view not one facet of the 
 crystal of manhood but the whole crystal with many 
 facets. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 WANTED — MORE CANDOUR, LESS PRUDERY. 
 
 *' Open-ness is the sweet fresh air of our moral life^ 
 
 PRUDERY has already been deplored. My object 
 now is to explain its nature more clearly, in the 
 hope of arousing in others some measure of the dis- 
 gust which I feel when I think of its usual results. 
 
 It is as well that we should grasp what prudery- 
 means. If we believe that Divine Power has created 
 or evolved, perhaps not everything, but at any rate 
 everj'thing normal, then, when we condemn normal 
 things as " improper," we comdemn God. Prudery is 
 blasphemy dressed in the dreariest of black clothing. 
 
76 INTRODUCTORY. — MAINLY FOR PARENTS, ETC. 
 
 Even Metchnikoff, far from prudery as he is, surely 
 takes the wrong view of life. When he finds diffi- 
 culties — such as the sexual — against which boys and 
 men may have to contend, he implies that they are a 
 fault on the part of the organising power. The right 
 way of regarding them is as a good game for a man 
 to win. If the Power had made eventhing smooth 
 for us, the Power would be an extremely bad trainer 
 of man. As it is, we have before us difficulties, and 
 the opportunity of overcoming them. There is no 
 fault on the part of the Power ; it is our mistake to 
 regard these difficulties as anything else but worth 
 mastering. To hide them or to insinuate that they 
 are bad arrangements helps no one. 
 
 Still prudery is alarmingly prevalent in spite of the 
 many brave efforts that have been made of recent 
 years to show its folly. We are driven to the belief 
 that pruder}^ is caused not only, as we have said, by 
 a want of faith in the underlying virtue of human 
 nature, a want of faith in God, but also by reluctance 
 (instinctive perhaps in women, but cowardly in men) 
 to face unpleasant facts ; and perhaps as well by aa 
 amiable though often mistaken tendency to believe 
 the axiom — " Whatever is is right." 
 
 It is only when we look dispassionatel}' at the 
 effects of this criminal deception that we recognise 
 its fatal powers. I deed not detail these effects here, 
 but, let me say, they are no: creatures of my imagina- 
 tion ; they are matters of undoubted knowledge and 
 of experience. Parents spend anxious thought and 
 time in devising plans for the *' advancement " and 
 
WANTED — MOKK CANDolK, LMSS rRUDEKY. "J J 
 
 "future career" of a boy: tho\- often make self-deny- 
 ing efforts to get him into ii profession or occupation 
 whrch will offer him an opening, if not a genuine 
 attraction. They watch with proud interest all signs 
 of ability and hail scholastic and athletic achieve- 
 ments. But all the time they fatuously ignore the 
 fact that without definite training in manly self- 
 reliance (the best guardian to self-respect) their boys 
 may come to hopeless ruin. 
 
 It is undeniably, sadly true, that many of these 
 boys, whose progress is so anxiously and tenderl}- 
 watched, become horrible social and moral wrecks 
 because they were not taught, gently and tactfully, 
 but decisively, by one whom they loved and would 
 have listened to, that a want of self-respect inevit- 
 ably leads to a want of self-control ; that a want of 
 self-control, unless it is checked in time, becomes a 
 a habit of self-indulgence ; and that a habit of self- 
 indulgence makes a man cruelly and criminally reck- 
 less of the ways in which he uses his manly power 
 and of consequences to womanhood. 
 
 This clear teaching, given wisely, arouses in a boy 
 the correct motive : he \\W\ persevere in using such 
 means as he will find in this book. The value of 
 motive cannot be over-estimated. Educational sys- 
 tems that aim at mechanical perfection or tend to 
 become compulsorj-, however well devised they may 
 be, are doomed to failure. If sacred individuality is 
 to be preserved and cultivated, the motive of his 
 actions must be aiA.'akcucd in him, not supplied to him. 
 Hence arises the necessity for candour and courage 
 
78 INTRODUCTORY. — MAINLY FOR PARENTS, ETC. 
 
 and wisdom on the part of those who know him best 
 and can most successfully appeal to his better self. 
 
 Sympathy is at the root of the whole matter, and 
 the father or mother or teacher who has this precious 
 gift is the divinely-appointed person for this work. 
 
 It would be well for the health and well-being of 
 the State, if all such happily-endowed persons would 
 equip themselves scientifically for their task and 
 apply themselves to it earnestly. The day for merely 
 emotional appeals is past, but enlightened emotion is 
 still the great moving force of the universe. 
 
 I have already mentioned the indirect and often 
 unconscious power of women over boys and men. 
 Ruskin says that '* The soul's armour is never well 
 set to the heart unless a woman's hand has braced it, 
 and it is only when she braces it loosely that honour 
 fails." Tennyson links a man's faith in womankind 
 Avith the character of his mother. Doubtless, if all 
 women were ideally perfect, the existing difficulty 
 vv'ould never have reached its present acute stage. 
 But, even accepting as inevitable the fact that all 
 women are not true to their womanhood, would it 
 not be possible to extend almost infinitely the 
 influence of the good ones ? Might we not set before 
 a boy a noble idea of womanhood quite independent 
 of what his home surroundings ma}' be ? 
 
 He should not accept it as a thing from outside, 
 but should keep it as a sacred thing within him to 
 grow with his growth and to serve as a standard by 
 which to measure the girls he meets. Such an ideal, 
 jealously guarded, would not only preserve a boy or 
 a man from self-disrespect ; it would insensibly in- 
 
WANTED — MORE CANDOUR, LESS PRUDERY. 79 
 
 fluence the girls and women with whom he comes in 
 contact. Feminine fashions follow masculine tastes, 
 as we are often told. Wh\' not ? It would save a 
 great deal of trouble and correspondence in the daily 
 press if the justice of this were sensibly recognised, if 
 interdependence were frankh* acknowledged to be the 
 ideal relationship between man and woman. 
 
 Let each boy take as a starting-point for his ideal 
 the description of Ruskin's ideal wife. Let him 
 criticise it and adapt it to his own individuality. It 
 will not only guide him in the choice of a wife in the 
 may be far-distant future ; it will, if carefully used^ 
 save him from being false to her even in thought. It 
 will be a starting-point for his training, and it may 
 make the tedium of the training seem worth while- 
 More than this, it will save him not only from the 
 grosser kinds of sensuality but from the more subtle 
 dangers that lurk hidden in ill-considered and un- 
 suitable and hasty marriages. We do not say it alone 
 will do this, but it will inspire the ability to avoid 
 these dangers. Here is Ruskin's ideal :* 
 
 " She must be enduringly, incorruptibly good, in- 
 stinctively, infallibly wise — wise, not for self-develop- 
 ment but for self-renunciation ; wise, not that she 
 may set herself above her husband, but that she 
 may never fail from his side ; wise, not with the 
 narrowness of insolent, loveless pride, but with the 
 passionate gentleness of an infinitely variable, be- 
 cause infinitely applicable modest}' of service — the 
 true changefulness of woman." 
 
 * It is far from satisfactory ; it is offered only as a makeshift, 
 to be altered very considerably. 
 
"So INTRODUCTORY. — MAINLY FOR PARENTS, ETC. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 SACRED INDIVIDUALITY. 
 
 {Another Chapter mainly for those who have charge 
 of boys,) 
 
 THERE is not a little to be said for the ortho- 
 dox plan of ignoring individuals and treating 
 children and boys en masse. In modern times, espe- 
 cially in America, there is too much lenient pamper- 
 ing, too much reckless self-expression, too little 
 masterful self-control. The old-fashioned harsh dis- 
 cipline, the same for all alike, may have its very 
 good results. There is an Eastern plant which dies 
 in rich soil, fades in fairly rich soil, thrives in a soil 
 consisting entirely of stones ! Many of the world's 
 greatest men have been made by hardship. The 
 pressure of orthodox custom literally forced them to 
 burst the bonds, though it trained them in a painful 
 manner. Benjamin Franklin is a good example. 
 And possibly ten, or even a hundred, boys physically 
 ruined might seem to many a cheap price for a 
 nation to pay for a few such men. Regarding the 
 nation as a nation, and putting all feelings of pity 
 aside, some might think that if only one out of every 
 ten Englishmen were a Roosevelt, we should be a 
 finer nation than we are, let the rest of the ten 
 be what they might. 
 
 But generally this severe and uniform drill goes 
 too cruelly and blindly far. It neglects the child's 
 sweet instinct and precious individuality, and igno- 
 
SACRED INDIVIDUALITY. 8l 
 
 rantly crushes the best part of the child, because it 
 does not understand, nor take the pains to understand, 
 the child as it is. It regards the child as a mass 
 of wickedness, almost as a thing to be eliminated ! 
 The child is not really a mass of wickedness. Look- 
 ing back at my own early discipline, I see that it did 
 me much good and much harm as well — from one 
 point of view far more harm than good. It did not 
 teach me sensible self-respect. The chief aim of the 
 orthodox teaching seemed to be self-contempt. The 
 keynote seemed to be that the boy was no one, 
 his opinion worthless : whereas the opinion of his 
 teacher or text-book was the sole criterion of right. 
 
 Now to most children, we may safely say, a 
 sensible self-respect is the very greatest of safe- 
 guards. Let a child be given sensible self-respect, 
 and half the battle is won. Many boys are never 
 encouraged to self-respect at all. When self-respect 
 does come, the most important part of life, the habit- 
 forming part is — at least according to recent Science 
 — nearly over. 
 
 Now I know it is extremely difficult to take indi- 
 viduality into account. That is why managers of 
 boys have neglected it. They have been too igno- 
 rant and too lazy. And in some spheres there is 
 little need to individualise. Most children can be 
 taught the alphabet of full breathing, of leisurely 
 eating, of better positions, of correct walking and 
 other movements, of drill for fencing, and so on, in 
 classts. There is little need for individuality here 
 till the boy, for instance, comes to fence. Then he 
 
82 INTRODUCTORY. — MAINLY FOR PARENTS, ETC. 
 
 must fence in his own way, using the letters of the 
 alphabet which he has mastered in the class. And 
 even here there are certain general rules which he 
 will do well to observe. 
 
 But the diet, as distinct from the way of eating, 
 viz., leisurely eating, is a far harder matter. I have 
 just read an excellent article on types of people and 
 the diets they need. I do not agree with it, but 
 there is much truth in the idea that the full-blooded 
 person needs a different diet from the anaemic, the 
 highly-strung from the slack, and so on. Managers 
 have no training in classifying children — no training 
 whatsoever, except an experience bought at the ex- 
 pense of hundreds of children. Then b}- degrees the 
 managers begin to know ; and by that time, perhaps, 
 they find it too much trouble to change their views 
 and ways ! 
 
 The matter is all the harder since individuals 
 differ at different periods of life. This applies to 
 every sphere of life. There was a time when I 
 thought Emerson's Essays nonsense ; now I seem 
 to realise the value of almost ever\' sentence. I have 
 an old book full of queries and marks of exclamation, 
 as much as to say, " All this is wrong ! " In my 
 present book there are scarceh" any queries. So 
 with my study of the Lord's Prayer. I must have 
 made over a hundred versions of it, each seeming to 
 me right at the time, each seeming to me unsatis- 
 factory now. My present version would probabl}' 
 have seemed to me unsatisfactor}' ten years ago. 
 
 Yet we must try to get at the individuality, and 
 
SACRED INDIVIDl'ALITV. 83 
 
 to revere it. Our object must be to find out general 
 tendencies: to develop the good, to turn the bad into 
 harmless and useful channels. How can we find out 
 these tendencies ? 
 
 Games and athletics are the best index. As a 
 leading French educational author, Baron Pierre 
 de Coubertin, has said, it is in games that the boy 
 expresses himself freely. Many find the same in 
 gymnastic and athletic work. As the pupils behave 
 here, so one can classif\- their characters. This child 
 has such and such faults, such and such faculties. 
 He seems destined for such and such a career. He 
 must avoid such and such temptations for the 
 present. 
 
 But perhaps even these spheres will not reveal the 
 character. Then there is need of plenty of occupa- 
 tions in which the bo\' can express himself freely. 
 Besides the regular Latin and Greek and Divinity 
 and History and Mathematics, there must be a wider 
 range, on the chance of the boy having some genius 
 not yet discovered, some genius that will raise and 
 evolve his hitherto latent self-respect. It may be 
 in some unathletic hobbies (see Chapter XXVHI.) 
 that his penchant will appear. We must go on 
 experimenting till we find out the forte or fortes. We 
 are not urging early specialisation. What we want 
 to know is a thing — or several things — that the boy 
 likes and can do well, not as an excuse for narrow- 
 ness and conceit, but as a basis for inspiring self- 
 respect and progress. The boy must have some 
 thing that he is proud of doing well. Success must 
 
 H 
 
84 INTRODUCTORY. — MAINLY FOR PARENTS, ETC. 
 
 attract and raise him, his individual mind. He must 
 have a healthy pursuit for the sake of which it will 
 be well worth his while to avoid mistakes. 
 
 There are a few boys who will improve themselves 
 all round merely because others have said that they 
 cannot ! When Disraeli was jeered at, after his first 
 speech had been a failure, so that people saw no 
 future for him, he was stimulated to train his speak- 
 ing powers. Probably praise would have had no 
 such effect. He had to be dared to succeed. But 
 such boys are exceptional. We need a more general 
 plan. 
 
 Is there no way in which we can classify boys — are 
 there no signs ? It is probable that certain features, 
 such as the shape of the head, would be of the very 
 greatest value. While we need not believe in all 
 that phrenologists tells us, at least we can consider 
 the greater part of it until we have proofs to the 
 contrary. An interesting case is that of Napoleon. 
 The ordinary drawing of Napoleon would show him 
 to be a man utterly different from what he was. A 
 good phrenologist would call that Napoleon of 
 the pictures another character. But — so a friend 
 of mine has informed me — there is a mask of 
 Napoleon from which a phrenologist could see his 
 actual characteristics. That mask is probably cor- 
 rect, those drawings of Napoleon incorrect. By a 
 study of the faces and heads of great men we could 
 soon get some general principles which would help 
 managers in dealing with boys. There is decidedly 
 something in phrenology if it is not carried too far. 
 
SACRED INDIVIDUALITY. 85 
 
 And the whole build and attitude and look of the boy 
 
 should tell a great deal. 
 
 Much must be left to the managers under the 
 present system, and there must be many unsolved 
 problems. That great problem of whether it is better 
 for the world that a man — say, a poet — should have 
 lived now at the very highest, now at the very lowest, 
 as many poets and musicians and artists have, or 
 whether it is better that he should live at a uniform 
 level, this is but only one example out of hundreds. 
 
 But some attention must be paid to individuality 
 if we would teach boys sane self-control, if we would 
 save them from the worst results of common tempta- 
 tions, and, indeed, if we would give them a future 
 profession in which they shall be successful and happy 
 and useful ; and we must judge them as far as we 
 can by their success or failure in their present occu- 
 pations. It is horrible to think of all the oval natures 
 which are daily distorted, losing their finest curves so 
 that they may fit oblong holes. We see this on a 
 small scale in school life. Boys with exquisite 
 natures are forced to do dull and useless work against 
 which their whole soul revolts, whereas by being 
 allowed a little more independent and attractive self- 
 expression they would very soon learn to respect 
 themselves too much to resort to silly practices. 
 
 The en masse system still prevails with boys. With 
 animals we act otherwise. In spite of all our know- 
 ledge of breeding, etc., and, indeed, through all our 
 knowledge, we agree that the same system does not 
 suit all animals, all horses, all thoroughbreds. How 
 
86 INTRODUCTORY. — MAINLY FOR PARENTS, ETC. 
 
 can the same s} stem possibl}- suit all boys ? It may 
 suit those who appear to be by nature hewers of 
 wood and drawers of water ; it is little likely to suit 
 those who are born to be leaders of men. These are 
 the boys that our uniform and orthodox system of 
 " grind without reason " crushes and drives to mis- 
 takes, when a little liberty in safe directions would 
 keep them sound, and develop and show their true 
 genius and powers of helping the race and humanity.. 
 " Implicit obedience to constituted authority " is. 
 good, so long as the constituted authorit}' is read)' to 
 change its ways and commandments directly better 
 ways and commandments have been pointed out to 
 it. And one of the better ways is not to kill out 
 originality, but to seek how far it may be allowed to> 
 express itself freely and satisfactorily. 
 
 A 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 WHY WE SHOULD BE HOPEFUL. 
 
 FEW authorities have no hope at all of the 
 self-control of most boys. These are of all 
 men most ignorant. The chapter on successes 
 (Chapter VI.) has shown that many of the ways 
 towards self-control, even when they are applied 
 indiscriminately to boys on the en masse system, as 
 the\' usuall}' are, yet prove effective ; and this 
 although perhaps only two or three ways have been 
 tried out of more than twent}-. This gives us great 
 hope. 
 
WHY WK SHOULD BE HOPEFUL. 87 
 
 Still greater hope is given b>- the fact that the 
 causes of mistakes are so numerous, the temptations 
 — even from an earh' age — so powerful. At first we 
 feel inclined to despair. Then we know that we 
 really should have hope : if with all these causes, so 
 little realised by boys, the mistakes are (compara- 
 tively) so few, surely the mistakes will be still fewer 
 when boys know of the many unobtrusive helps. 
 
 For corresponding to each cause of a mistake is at 
 least one way of preventing or remedying the weak- 
 ness. And it is especially encouraging to know that 
 most of the effective helps are not only preventives, 
 but are also such as tend to all-round self-control 
 and fitness. Take, as examples, leisurely and 
 thorough breathing, leisurely and thorough eating, 
 and consider how clearly these are general preventive 
 and remedial practices. They are also practices of 
 which no one need be ashamed : no one who culti- 
 vates them sensibly need be called a prig. 
 
 So long as such simple helps are unknown, or at 
 least untried, by the majority of boys, it is amazing to 
 consider how few mistakes are made. It gives us 
 almost unlimited confidence in the power and pro- 
 gress of the human mind. 
 
 Besides this, there is a growing open-mindedness, a 
 growing freedom to act as well as speak. A shrewd 
 old gentleman, who has always had young people 
 visiting him, told me not long ago that, whereas in 
 former years only one person out of ten dared to 
 speak his mind, now he found nine people out of ten 
 so daring. If a man w ishes not to wear a hat, he can 
 
88 INTRODUCTORY. — MAINLY FOR PARENTS, ETC. 
 
 go bare-headed to-day without much conspicuous- 
 ness. The Press gives fair pla\' to sane and to 
 extreme ideas as never before in history. 
 
 IndividuaHty is respected, not as much as it will 
 be a hundred }'ears hence, but more than it was 
 ten years ago. 
 
 General principles of life are no longer hidden in 
 philosophical or religious books appealing only to 
 specialists. They are made clear in popular writings: 
 they reach the masses. People are beginning to 
 know not only that the\- do wrong, but why they do 
 wrong, and how they can learn to do right. Much 
 education is utterly valueless; but more and rnore 
 of it every year is easy to apply to practical matters. 
 
 And the nature of mistakes is becoming clearer. 
 At one time a person who made a mistake was con- 
 sidered thoroughl}- wicked. There was said to be no 
 health in him. He was a miserable sinner. That 
 point of view was utterly alien to the teaching of 
 Jesus Christ. He taught that the kingdom of heaven 
 is within. We are beginning to see that even a 
 decided wrong ma\' be a mixture of two rights, as we 
 have pointed out in a previous chapter (Chapter II.). 
 
 There is especial hope for the Anglo-Saxon peoples 
 so long as they continue to play and to maintain the 
 spirit of play, if only they will be wise enough to 
 improve their method and tactics without giving up 
 their pluck and patience. 
 
 This spirit of " playing the game " may not be on 
 the increase in sport ; it certainly is on the increase 
 elsewhere else in life, except in commerce. People 
 
WHY \VK SHOLLl) BE HOPEFUL. 89 
 
 are beginning' to play the j^ame towards one another, 
 towards posterity, towards themselves and the lives 
 within them. Take diet, for example. A few years 
 a^'o I offered a leading paper an article on diet. This 
 article was refused. The editor told me he would 
 lose a large public if he inserted it, because it was 
 against custom. Afterwards he did insert the article, 
 and has since published nearly every other article 
 I have written on the subject. Instead of people 
 regarding a change of diet as a fad, they regard it 
 as almost a commonplace to-day, and the advantage 
 of the change appears throughout their daily lives. 
 
 And even where the public still holds its stupid old 
 views, I believe there are more people than ever who 
 have what may be called moral courage. There may 
 be fewer who would rush up to the cannon's mouth 
 in the charge, there may be fewer who would die for 
 their country ; there are far more who would live for 
 their country and live healthily for it : and that 
 seems to be equally valuable for the nation. Many 
 of those who died fearlessly in battle were cowards 
 before a moral difficult}'. If a certain course of ac- 
 tion was not customar}-, then let it be right as right 
 can be and they shrank from following it. I know 
 many physically brave men who are morally the most 
 abject poltroons. Now-a-days we are getting a new 
 class — those who may not be so brave physically 
 perhaps, which often means that they are not so 
 rash nor so ignorant, but are ver}- brave morally, 
 daring to do what seems right in spite of custom. 
 As this class increases, so our hope will increase too. 
 
90 INTRODUCTORY. — MAINLY FOR PARENTS, ETC. 
 
 Other reasons why we should not despair are given 
 in the following chapters. Indeed, the ke}note of the 
 book is the enormous power of the boy for good if 
 only he be given certain helping — preventive and at 
 the same time developing — conditions in early years. 
 So I need not prolong this chapter. But I should 
 like to introduce Part II., the Physical and External 
 Helps to Self-Control and Self-Expression, by one 
 fact of pre-eminent importance to every human 
 being, and especially to those who, through igno- 
 rance, are inclined to despair and let things slide. 
 It is a fact not only " comforting " but also — in an 
 equally important sense of the Greek word translated 
 " Comforter " — inspiring, inspiriting, urging us for- 
 w ard, encouraging our constant progress. 
 
 Muldoon, the famous American trainer of John 
 Sullivan and other athletes, once said that his object 
 was to break down and get rid of useless or harmful 
 body-stuff, and to build up better in its place. He 
 used many excellent helps, such as fresh air, early 
 hours, vigorous exercise and sweating, bathing, water- 
 drinking, and so on. And no one has yet given any 
 satisfactory- reason why we should not, by choosing 
 and using well the best conditions, exercises, health- 
 treatments, and thought-practices, build better cells 
 than those which are perpetually dying within us. 
 We know that news of success actually invigorates 
 the whole body — we can pro\e it b\' man\- visible 
 tests, such as the state of the blood. And within 
 himself each of us has the faculty of recalling and 
 reviving or imagining news of success. This is onl\- 
 
WHY \V1-; SHOULD BE HOPKFUL. QI 
 
 one branch of healthy thought. If anyone regularly 
 practised the various branches — including thoughts 
 of health, of kindness, and so on — and made this a 
 habitual state of mind, and meanwhile took reason- 
 able care to get rid of all undesirable stuff in his 
 body, and put in its place fresh and clean and 
 strengthening stuff (food, water, air, etc.), and so on, 
 then there seems no scientific reason why it is ever 
 too late to hope. I have known a family re-furnish 
 its house room b}' room. At the end of a few years 
 the house was entirely re-furnished. If only we have 
 patience, and do not demand a new Aladdin's fairy 
 palace as the result of a rub on a lamp and a single 
 suggestion, we can repair our whole structure, and in 
 seven years get ne\N and better bones, and in fewei: 
 years new and better muscles and flesh, organs and 
 cells, seeing that by our memories and imaginations 
 and self-suggestions, without the ordinary physical 
 and external helps, we can get newer and better 
 blood and circulation hundreds of times every few 
 hours. 
 
PART II 
 
 PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS, 
 
 Chapter, 
 
 XIV.- -Power of the Body and Surroundings over the Mind 
 
 XV.— Indirect Self-Control 
 
 XVI. — Things Safer for Boys to Avoid 
 
 XVII. — Better F'ood, Feeding, and Abstinence for Boys 
 
 XVIII. — Notes on the Anatomy and Physiology of Boys 
 
 XIX. — Physical Tests for Boys ; with Records 
 
 XX. — Pride in the Body ; and Remedial Work 
 
 XXI. — Water, Cleanliness, and Kxcretion .. 
 
 XXII. — Air and Breathings 
 
 XXIII. — Repose and Economy for Boys 
 
 XXIV.— Better l*ositions and Expressions for Boys 
 
 XXV.— Suggestions as to Better Drill for Boys 
 
 XXVI. —Games, Athletics, and Self-Defence 
 
 XXVII. — Competitions 
 
 XXVIII.— Unathletic Hobbies 
 
 XXIX.— Clothing and Light 
 
 XXX. — Better Punishments for Boys 
 
 Page, 
 
 95 
 loi 
 
 103 
 118 
 160 
 183 
 igr 
 200 
 212 
 225 
 
 237 
 260 
 
 319 
 350 
 353 
 360 
 
 3O5 
 
THE BODY S POWHK OVKK THK MIND 95 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 POWER OF THE BODY AND SURROUNDINGS OVER 
 THE MIND. 
 
 WE learn some things most clearly by viewing 
 the extremes. In Part III. we shall give the 
 other extreme, the power of the mind over the body. 
 Probably some day we shall find bodily and mental 
 influences are one. Scientists are coming nearer and 
 nearer to this view from both sides. On the one 
 hand those who call themselves mental healers are 
 showing that the conscious mind can heal the body ; 
 on the other hand those who call themselves physical 
 healers are showing that external and physical con- 
 ditions can heal the mind as well as the bod}'. 
 
 Let us take the conspicuous examples of things 
 which used to be regarded as either wholly ph\sical 
 or wholly mental and now must be regarded as both 
 physical and mental. 
 
 Professor Elmer Gates, of Washington, maintains 
 that not only the blood but '* all secretions and excre- 
 tions" of the body — e.g., its digesting juices and 
 its perspiration — are altered by the emotions of the 
 person. Let the person be sad, angry, anxious, or 
 happy, and so on, and with each new emotion will 
 come a change — including a chemical change — 
 throughout the body. Already we must have noticed 
 how the emotion changes the expression — that is to 
 say, acts upon the muscles which regulate the expres- 
 
96 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 sion. But now we find that the mind by its emotions 
 can alter the composition of the blood, and we all 
 know how we can to some extent alter our emotions by 
 will-power; we can make up our minds not to be sad, 
 we can turn our attention elsewhere. The chemical 
 and other changes made by the mind are either 
 invigorating or depressing ; they build and repair and 
 tone up the body, or destroy it and pull it down 
 and lower its vitality. That is an example of the 
 power of the mind over the body. 
 
 On the other hand, Professor James, while not 
 ignoring this and other powers of the mind, shows 
 how the person who takes and holds the attitude 
 and action and expression of cheerfulness or what- 
 ever the emotion ma}^ be (and, I should add, lets 
 himself go to that expression) will influence his mind 
 by means of his body. He will become cheerful in 
 mind. 
 
 Each aspect, each influence, must be exaggerated 
 for the sake of clearness. Perhaps we have never 
 yet learnt anything except through some kind of 
 exaggeration. 
 
 At the one extreme, then, take the clear influence 
 of the mind upon the body, as when the woman 
 imagined herself to be a girl still waiting for a man, 
 and remained young in appearance though not in 
 years. This case is thoroughly testified to b\' medi- 
 cal men. Between the two extremes, take the case 
 where worry of mind will produce tension and 
 fidgetiness of body ; and tension and fidgetiness of 
 body may produce worry of mind. At the other 
 
THE BODY S POWER OVER THE MIND. 97 
 
 extreme is the cletir influence of the body and ex- 
 ternal conditions upon the mind. I hve on a flesh- 
 less diet. One day I take soup with meat-stock in it, 
 unawares ; it is given me as a purely vegetable soup. 
 I feel cramp in my arm. It is not through imagin- 
 ation, for I do not know that the meat-stock is 
 present ; in fact my hostess says that there is none. 
 I afterwards find that there is some. Here an 
 external influence affects the body. Personal expe- 
 rience is most forcible evidence, though it does not 
 enable us to formulate a law. I have quoted some 
 cases from my own life in '* Muscle, Brain, and 
 Diet." In addition to this one, here is another. 
 
 I stayed many weeks at a seaside place, and 
 daily took strong tea three times. Then I gave up 
 tea, altogether and suddenly, and there followed the 
 most terrible depression. Directly after that, I tra- 
 velled to a Nature-Cure Establishment in Germany, 
 and went through the different treatments by water, 
 air, light, etc., and soon felt perfectly well. In this 
 case I decided on a certain course of action and 
 certain conditions, then let myself be passive and 
 permissive to them (see Chapter XV.), and the effect 
 of the external conditions upon my body, and hence 
 upon my mind, was extraordinarily powerful. 
 
 As another example, I remember in New York I 
 was swindled out of what might have been worth 
 many thousands of pounds. But it was not the 
 slightest use to send out a number of hurtful 
 thoughts against the " business " man. On the 
 other hand, I did not feel in the least like " for- 
 
98 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 giving" him. But in private I experimented with 
 deep breathing and muscular relaxing, and there fol- 
 lowed — with scarcely any mental effort — a sense of 
 proportion and perspective and relief. Here my mind 
 purposely chose a course of action, and then let the 
 body and the mind become passive and permissi\e 
 to it. 
 
 On the other hand, everyone can recall cases 
 where the news of success has brought health of 
 body ; here the mind has influenced the body. 
 
 The chief principle of most modern holidays, if 
 you look at them righth', is this — that you choose 
 favourable surroundings, exercises, etc., and then 
 become passive to them. So it is even with diet, 
 and, indeed, with most health-treatments. You 
 choose a diet and }'ou become passive to it ; you let 
 it act on you. 
 
 It seems always to be a case of mind and body as 
 well. This way of choosing conditions and then 
 giving yourself up to them, letting them act upon 
 you, is decidedl}- good if it gives you a similar power 
 through memor}' and imagination : that is to say, if 
 it gives you the power to recall these conditions in 
 your own mind. Suppose, for instance, you have 
 gone to a restful place with healthy air and fine 
 scener}', and it has removed your worr}'. Now that 
 is good policy. Only, you ought to be able to go 
 back in memory and imagination to that healthy 
 place without having to go there actually. In a 
 word, you ought to have brought the good conditions 
 within yourself, to have stored them in your own 
 
THK BODY*S POWER OVER THK MIND. 99 
 
 mind for future use. Most of us, however, fail to do 
 this, and continue to rely on conditions outside our- 
 selves. 
 
 A warning is necessary here about the immediate 
 effects of changing bodily and external conditions. 
 Cranks recommend this or that cure as if it were 
 perfect. They do a vast amount of harm. One crank 
 tells you to give up breakfast and you will be healthy 
 for ever. Another tells you to give up alcohol and 
 you will be healthy for ever. They say that these 
 external and bodily conditions influence the body and 
 the mind. But the good influence is not likely to be 
 immediate. The first result of the change may be 
 horribly depressing. The power of the bod)- and 
 surroundings over the mind must not be judged in a 
 moment ; we must give it a fair trial. The length of 
 the trial varies. BtU do not condemn the plan by its 
 earliest effects. 
 
 In the search for bodily health, physical fitness, 
 you will have to experiment. Do it well, but do it 
 sanely and with understanding. While you read this 
 advice — which refers chiefly to physical and external 
 conditions — from three great men, remember that in 
 seeking health you are planting seeds which will not 
 always come up and bear fruit as soon as mustard 
 and cress does. Be prepared to stick to sensible 
 means for a time. Give them a fair trial. For if 
 they succeed you wall be repaid abundantly ; if they 
 fail you will not have lost much. 
 
 The first quotation is from Emerson, the second 
 from Professor Tyndall, the third from Professor Sir 
 Michael Foster. 
 
 I 
 
100 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 " Get health. No labour, pains, temperance, 
 poverty, nor exercise that can gain it must be 
 grudged, for sickness is a cannibal which eats up 
 all the life and youth it can lay hold of." 
 
 " Now let me utter one practical word : take care 
 of your health. There have been men who, by wise 
 attention to this point, might have risen to eminence 
 — might have made great discoveries, written great 
 poems, commanded armies, ruled States — but who, 
 by unwise neglect of this point, have come to 
 naught. Imagine Hercules as oarsman in a rotten 
 boat, what can he do there but by every stroke 
 expedite the ruin of his craft ? Take care, then, 
 of the timbers of your boat, and avoid all practices 
 likely to introduce either wet or dry rot among them. 
 And this is not to be done by desultory intermittent 
 effort, but by the formation of habits. The will no 
 doubt has sometimes to be put forth in strength in 
 order to strangle or crush some special temptation, 
 but the formation of right habits is essential to your 
 permanent security. They diminish your chances of 
 falling when assailed, augment your chances of 
 recovery when overthrown." 
 
 "If an adequate stream of pure blood, of blood 
 made pure by efficient co-operation of organs of low 
 degree, be necessary for the life of the muscle, in 
 order that the working capital may be rapidly 
 renewed and the harmful products rapidly washed 
 away, equally true, perhaps even more true, is this of 
 the brain." 
 
I 
 
 INDIRECT SELF-CONTROL. lOI 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 INDIRECT SELF-CONTROL. 
 
 HAVE illustrated the principle of indirect self- 
 control in the previous chapter. Let us now 
 suppose that a boy feels uncomfortable and restless. 
 He takes a cold bath, or sponges himself at the base 
 of the spine, as I suggest in Chapter XXI. ; then 
 he takes vigorous exercise, perhaps with a punch- 
 ball; and then possibly he starts his hobby, drawing 
 or modelling, or whatever it may be. He feels 
 thoroughly comfortable and self-controlled now; and 
 he repeats this course of action whenever he is 
 tempted again. What he does here is to use indirect 
 self-control. Instead of battling and struggling 
 directly with the undesirable sensation, he submits 
 himself to certain conditions — the water, the exer- 
 cise, etc. This general method applies to hundreds 
 of difficulties. Some when they feel inclined to 
 anger simply breathe rhythmically and leisurely. 
 The temptation disappears. Others practise slightly 
 differently, and raise their breathing, using especially 
 the upper part of their chest, and keeping their 
 diaphragm in and up. Others find it easier to relax 
 their body ; then their feeling of anger goes. 
 
 We must distinguish between this indirect self- 
 control and the sheer " bull-dog " plan : " I won't lose 
 my temper " ; '* I won't do so and so." This latter type 
 of resistance is admirable in many ways. The person 
 does not use tactics at all : he goes straight ahead. 
 
102 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 But to many such a wa\' would spell ruin : they are 
 not yet trained to that " bull-dog " will-power. 
 
 And indeed Jesus Christ thoroughly understood 
 this class when he said, " Lead us not into temp- 
 tation," or " Bring us not into a severe struggle.'* 
 There are two ways open. We can try to overcome 
 the temptation as President Roosevelt seems to 
 advise everybody to do in his famous words on the 
 Strenuous Life : everything is to be a fight. Or, on 
 the other hand, we can avoid the temptation, at least 
 until we are strong enough to overcome it. We can 
 adopt some tactics like the above. We are tempted 
 to lose our temper ; well, it may be better for some 
 of us to use our obstinate will and keep our temper 
 by sheer force of resolution. This may be impossi-^ 
 ble for others : it may be better for thetn to try some 
 simple practice like rhythmical and leisurely breath- 
 ing and relaxing, or perhaps (see Chapter XLL) a 
 simple self-suggestion, till they find that not to lose 
 their temper becomes a habit. 
 
 The eventual aim is direct self-control. But the 
 safest and best way to it may be indirect self-control, 
 careful choice of good conditions, thorough submis- 
 sion to them, leading to the power to recall these 
 conditions, to remember and imagine them at will 
 afterwards. If there is anjthing outside ourselves 
 that saves us, as, for instance, the presence of certain 
 people, we may appropriate and secure it within our- 
 selves by realising it with full attention and sensation 
 at the time, and then recalling it with vivid memory 
 and imagination afterwards. 
 
^ALIFOR^ 
 
Fig. 4. Face p. 103. 
 
THINGS SAFER FOR BOYS TO AVOID. IO3 
 
 Let US make this unmistakeable by a final instance. 
 I have before me a splendid photograph of two 
 natives of Central Africa. When I feel at all de- 
 pressed I look at this photograph (see Fig. 4) if it 
 is near me, and at once I smile or even laugh. There 
 is something about the faces that affects me in that 
 way. I then see things more in proportion. But 
 my aim is to have these pictures in my mind by 
 looking at them constantly and repeatedly, so that 
 afterwards I shall be independent of the photograph 
 itself, and when I feel depressed shall only have to 
 recall these two faces — to visit my photograph 
 gallery within. 
 
 I 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THINGS SAFER FOR BOYS TO AVOID. 
 
 T would be a nuisance if we always had to refer 
 to some book in order to know whether this 
 or that was to be avoided. Our desire should be 
 to establish or else re-establish instincts. If a boy's 
 instincts still exist unspoiled, all is right, unless the 
 boy is led to condemn others. In that case the 
 instincts are not altogether right. But if the natural 
 and normal instincts have been crushed or poisoned, 
 then for the boy to avoid nothing, and to take all 
 that is put before him, may mean death, or at least 
 physical decay. 
 
 Our best plan probably is first to secure good 
 
104 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 conditions, such as we have outHned ; to let these 
 conditions work in us good memories and imagi- 
 nations and, generally, a good mind, which will now 
 safely lead us to greater independence of conditions 
 outside ourselves, greater dependence on conditions 
 inside ourselves, especiallj- good habits. Thus Mr. 
 Horace Fletcher claims that, by thorough mastication 
 of all his food and drink and (apparently) no other 
 physical practice, he has regained correct instincts for 
 choosing his food and drink. Others claim similar 
 freedom from care, thanks to better breathing, better 
 thought, and so on. 
 
 For our aim should not be perpetual slavery to 
 a narrow set of conditions. Too many regard that 
 as the ideal. Perhaps they take no meat ; then they 
 boast they are perfect, just because their temptation 
 is gone ! Or they take no alcohol and give them- 
 selves the same testimonial. But that is not freedom. 
 It may be better to avoid the meat and alcohol and 
 other things at the start, but the goal must be 
 independence and safety even among unfavourable 
 conditions. Personally, I am a verj' long way from 
 the goal. I find it safer — if not absolutely necessary 
 — to avoid certain things, at any rate for the present. 
 
 Let us grant a strong objection to this plan of 
 avoidance. Many mothers have asked me about the 
 diet of their children. Shall they give their children 
 meat, and tea, and so on. I always refuse to decide, 
 for I do not know what would happen when the child 
 was forced to take meat for the first time. There is 
 a chance that, if meat-eating were wrong for the 
 
THINGS SAFER FOR BOYS TO AVOID. IO5 
 
 child, its previous life would have given it a strong 
 bias to avoid meat — an instinct either not to eat it 
 or else to be physicall}- sick when it had eaten ; 
 somewhat as Mr. Fletcher claims that, when people 
 have learnt thorough mastication, they can hardly 
 swallow without thorough mastication. But I am 
 not sure that this disgust would come in ever}' case. 
 Possibly the effects of the first and continued eating 
 of meat would prove disastrous physically and 
 mentally. 
 
 Then, again, I must repeat that avoidance of this 
 or that is by no means the same as absolute control. 
 It is only at the best a means to easier self-control, a 
 way of bridging over a dangerous chasm. It must 
 never be made an excuse for swagger. The mere 
 fact that I am healthier without meat does not in 
 any way make me superior to the person who can 
 take meat without bad results. The mere fact that 
 others are healthier without alcohol does not put 
 them on a pinnacle above alcohol-drinkers. They 
 must realise their own weaknesses. 
 
 What should the boy avoid ? Should he avoid all 
 things that might possibly hurt him, or only a few of 
 them? Mrs. Leigh Hunt Wallace, in "The Herald 
 of Health," gives a very large list of things to be 
 avoided ; and there are others who are still stricter. 
 They would add peas and beans and lentils to this 
 list. They would exclude coffee even when freshly 
 made. I have already quoted part of Mrs. Wal- 
 lace's forbidden list, in my little book on " Good 
 Digestion " : — 
 
I06 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 From Mrs. Wallace's 
 Rules for the Maintenance of Health. 
 
 *' As followed by Members of the l^hysical Regeneration Society. 
 
 ■" Dare to he wise. 
 
 " Abstain from fish, flesh, fowl, and dishes prepared from them ; 
 alcohol, tobacco, and all intoxicants ; mineral water ; fermented 
 foods ; mineral salt, and salted foods ; from preserved foods unless 
 sterilised by cooking only ; baking powders, vinegars, and pickles ; 
 sour milk and unripe or decomposing fruits ; uncooked dry fruits 
 (except absolutely fresh and sound), or wormy fruits, and most 
 manufactured foods — unless it is known that they are unadulterated 
 and innoxiously prepared ; from artificially isolated food-elements, 
 and from artificial compounds ; tea drawn for longer than three 
 minutes, black or boiled coffee, or coftee made from coffee-beans 
 that are not timier or /a/^-roasted, or chicory used as an adul- 
 terant ; unboiled milk or unboiled water. Do not eat fruit-skins 
 unless they are washed or scalded, as worms' eggs are frequently 
 lodged on them, neither allow fruit-peelings or fly-blown banana- 
 skins to remain on the plate you are eating off, as microscopic 
 maggots and maggots' eggs are likely to adhere to your bread and 
 butter, or other food. 
 
 " Abstain from drugs of every description, whether in the form of 
 sleeping or other draughts ; pills, castor-oil, cod-liver oil, pick-me- 
 ups, tonics, jujubes, lozenges, etc., or for outward applications, as 
 lard, ointments, vaseline, acetic acid, blisters, powders, hypodermic 
 or medicinal injections ; hair-dyes, lotions, etc. ; or, as inhalations 
 — smelling salts, iodine, sulphur, or other corrosive vapours ; or 
 pastilles, or medicated waters for bathing, etc. 
 
 " Never eat when over-fati^icd, but rest till actual exhaustion is 
 relieved and a sense of hunger is expressed. 
 
 " Eat slowly and chew well, reducing all food to a liquid. . . . 
 
 " Observe regularity in eating, drinking, and sleeping. 
 
 '• Keep all food covered from air-germs and dust, moths and other 
 insects, also from being fly-blown, or contaminated by vermin ; 
 never buy food that has been exposed for sale. 
 
 '• Eat the foods that are in season. . . . 
 
 " Clothe in undyed all-wool, all over porous material, whether for 
 underclothings or linings; do not wear garters, waist-bands, or 
 corsets ; dp not wear starched clothing ; have waistcoat linings of 
 wool. • . . 
 
THINGS SAFER FOR BOYS TO AVOID. IO7 
 
 '' SysUmatually exercise every muscle of tlie body daily; walk 
 several miles daily. . . . 
 
 " Live in the ofxn suuuy air as much as possible. 
 
 " .-ivoid the lung-poison air of crowds in confined spaces. 
 
 " Employ yourself from six to eight hours daily in some useful 
 and non-injurious occupation." 
 
 My own list is not nearly so wide. First and fore- 
 most I exclude flesh-foods, at any rate from my own 
 diet, since I find that to take flesh-foods means too 
 much direct self-control ; thus in face of huge odds 
 I cannot keep my temper easily. When I have meat 
 or meat-extracts, I cannot keep my energy or 
 endurance. Among flesh-foods I include flesh- 
 extracts as well as fish and fowl. For many I 
 recognise degrees, butcher's meat and shell-fish 
 perhaps being the worst, bone-fish and poultry being 
 least objectionable. Others, however, find beans and 
 peas as bad as or worse than meat ; but these seem 
 comparatively few. 
 
 Some theories as to why these " Purin-containing " 
 foods (see Fig. 5) may be bad for some people, have 
 been suggested in " Muscle, Brain, and Diet." See 
 further the first Appendix, on Blood-pressure. A 
 writer in the '* Lancet " has written most strikingly 
 on the effects of meats. His words are quoted in 
 that Appendix. 
 
 Then there are the irritants, including most hot 
 sauces, except for the very slightest soup^:oji ; and 
 peppers, mustard, and vinegar. A qualified medical 
 man of wide experience has kindly written me his 
 opinion about these and other articles. I quote his 
 opinion, which hardly, I think, takes into account the 
 
io8 
 
 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 'saood xNvid 'SMNiua 
 
THINGS SAFER FOR BOYS TO AVOID. IO9 
 
 quick effect on the digestive juices, partly through 
 the feehngs of well-being : — 
 
 '* You ask me the effect of curries, hot sauces, 
 ginger, etc. ? They are practically those of the 
 contained irritant ; and the type of this class is 
 capsicum. This is really an internal rubefacient, and 
 it irritates all the surfaces with which it comes in 
 contact. Externall}- it produces redness, and has 
 been known to cause vesication. Internally it in- 
 creases the flow of a very watery and ineffective 
 saliva, as also of a like kind of gastric juice. It also 
 stimulates the bowels and the bladder, and increases 
 the functional activity of the genital organs. In the 
 long run it sets up catarrh of all the mucous mem- 
 branes ; tolerance is established, and actual torpor of 
 the stomach and bowel may ensue. In other words, 
 the same result of all stimulants — Stimulation — Nar- 
 cosis — Paralysis. No wonder it causes " liver " in 
 India ! " 
 
 Then there are the drinks, particularly alcohol, 
 but, for some, tea, coffee, and even cocoa, as well. 
 
 There is no space for explanations here. I have 
 offered some in the " Physical Educator," and others 
 in "Avenues to Health." Thus it seems generally 
 agreed that much alcohol in most cases shrivels the 
 oxygen-carrying red corpuscles of the blood, prevents 
 the body from getting rid of so much of its waste- 
 products, etc., disturbs the action of the heart and 
 lungs, tends to disease of the stomach, liver, and 
 (see Fig. 6) kidneys, may spoil the " wind," the 
 " eye," and the ner\'e, and weaken the general and 
 
no II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 special self-control, producing, in extreme cases, a 
 (not always) mild form of madness, or of paralysis. 
 Even a little alcohol in some cases may have these 
 and additional effects, only on a smaller scale. 
 
 Fig. 6. — Supposed eftects on the kidneys (first diagram) — 
 
 inflammation, swelling, and shrinking — of habitual 
 
 alcohol-drinkers. See, further, Cassell's 
 
 " Physical Educator." 
 
 Certain of these effects are often assigned to tea 
 and coffee also, and to tobacco. Tobacco has invari- 
 ably made me feel sick. Slavery to all these and 
 many other luxuries is a vast expense to the indi- 
 vidual and to the nation. 
 
 To this list individuals should add their own items. 
 In my case I should add ordinary sugar and ordinary 
 oatmeal — for instance, in porridge. Others are ap- 
 parently unaffected by these items, but are upset by 
 pastry. Each has his own little thing or things that 
 he will find it safer to avoid, at any rate at first. 
 Such a statement as the following, by Dr. Henry 
 Rusby, applies to m}- own experiences of ordinary 
 sugar. But be careful not to assume that it applies 
 to the best sugars in the case of every individual. 
 That would be absurd. 
 
THINGS SAFER KUK BOYS TO AVOID. Ill 
 
 "The relative portions of sugar and acid are determined chiefly 
 by individual taste, but it is well to remember that a sparing use of 
 sugar is prudent. It not only promotes the drink habit, but tends 
 towards indigestion by undergoing lactic fermentation in the 
 stomach, resulting in heartburn, followed by flatulence, and fre- 
 quently favouring a rheumatic tendency. It moreover disguises 
 acidity and thus encourages the freer use of the acid, which is itself 
 distinctly injurious to the stomach functions." 
 
 In the same way most oatmeal has produced very 
 undesirable effects in other cases besides my own, as 
 many private letters testify. The point is worth 
 noting, in case it is true in other cases, unsuspected 
 hitherto. But it is not a general fact: it is indi- 
 vidual experience. 
 
 Besides foods and drinks, many other things are 
 safer for boys to avoid. A glance through the 
 chapter-headings wall suggest them. Here are a few 
 examples, which I precede with a quotation from 
 Professors Proust and Ballet's excellent work on 
 Neurasthenia. ** The patient," they say, " must of 
 course avoid company and contacts that are liable to 
 give rise to impure thoughts. . . . Riding, excessive 
 food, rich dishes, spirits and coffee in excessive quan- 
 tities, staying too long in bed, must all be forbidden 
 him ; and constipation must be carefully treated." 
 
 The following list does not give reasons, which I 
 shall reserve for a later book, written especially for 
 men. Some of the reasons are too obvious to be cited. 
 
 First there is uncleanliness, including deficient 
 excretion through the bowels ; an excessive use of 
 warm water (especially just before bed-time), unless 
 it is followed by cold water applications; wrong ways 
 of breathing, particularh' too much of the lowest 
 
112 
 
 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 or abdominal breathing ; want of repose, and the 
 habit of tension. Some tension-exercises are unde- 
 sirable for boys : not only do they 
 encourage wrong positions of the 
 body, but they put a strain upon 
 it either generally or locally. 
 Fig. 7 gives one example ; Fig. 8 
 another. Dull exer- 
 cises, excessive exer- 
 cise — both these are 
 bad ; so is deficient 
 
 _- ^m 
 
 Fk;. 8. — This sort of grip- 
 work is good occasion- 
 ally ; it is better if one 
 liand be relaxed and free 
 from the dumb-bell. As 
 the sole form of exercise, 
 it is not good. Constant 
 stress is bad for everyone. 
 
 Fig. 7. — An Exercise recommended in- 
 discriminately to boys by a so-called 
 Physical Culture Magazine. It needs a 
 great deal of leading-up work {e.g. rais- 
 ing one leg slightly). Otherwise it is a 
 horrible strain. 
 
 exercise, which often leads boys 
 to take no pride in their bodies. 
 The want of a word of warn- 
 ing, and the lack of a few re- 
 medial exercises, such as are 
 offered in Chapters XX. and 
 XXIV., would account for 
 many of the bad positions, of 
 which r^igs. 9 and 10 are two 
 types. 
 
THINGS SAFER FOR BOYS TO AVOID. 
 
 113 
 
 Want of appropriate games and athletics and 
 hobbies is another fault. So is the wrong way of 
 
 m 
 
 Fig. 9. — A wrong (habitual) 
 
 position for sitting : the spine 
 
 abnormally curved (rounded 
 
 and twisted laterally). 
 
 doing them, as when 
 jump badly and jar 
 coming down in an 
 that of Fig. II. Such 
 to account for the 
 as bad as or worse 
 cise, if only from the 
 of self-control. Pro- 
 longed strain-work in 
 for many boys as fatal 
 healthy exercise would 
 is warm clothing, es- 
 clothing for the body 
 
 Fig. II.— A good way of finish- 
 ing a jump : it will not shock the 
 spine, as it would if you alighted 
 on the heels, with your legs stiff. 
 But do not grip the hands, as 
 here. 
 
 a boy is allowed to 
 his spine, instead of 
 attitude nearer to 
 wrong ways may help 
 over-fatigue, which is 
 than deficient exer- 
 point of view of loss 
 longed runs, pro- 
 gymnasia, etc., are 
 as the absence of all 
 have been. Then there 
 pecially hot and heavy 
 at night. 
 
 the 
 
 Fig, 10. — A wrong (habitual) position for standing 
 trunk tilted back from the hips. 
 
114 II. PHYSICAL AND- EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 Self-disrespect, as opposed to a faith in the pow er 
 of self-control within the self — that is to be avoided 
 at all costs. The boy should not disbelieve in his 
 own power, or in the purit}^ of his body and all 
 its members when properly regarded and properly 
 treated. 
 
 Too much intellectual as well as physical work 
 should be avoided. If cruel discipline is thought 
 necessar}', making the boy do everything as a stern 
 duty rather than in the play-spirit (as we have 
 outlined it in Chapter XXXIX.), there is a serious 
 error somewhere. 
 
 Then, again, the boy should avoid wrong imagi- 
 nations ; in the first place the wrong sights (from 
 illustrations in books, etc.), and sounds, and on the 
 other hand the memories of these. Too much 
 privacy may therefore be bad, though some privac}' 
 is essential for prayer and self-suggestion. 
 
 Whether in privacy or in publicity, let a boy dis- 
 criminate between his thoughts — his memories and 
 imaginations and decisions and permissions — so as 
 to reject the bad at once, and to seek and hold the 
 good. Let him know that he can and mtist reject 
 every vile thought, somehow or other, if only because 
 every thought counts something. Let him say to 
 himself when a vile thought (perhaps of spiteful 
 revenge) tries to monopolise his mind, " I have the 
 power to let go or kick out that thought, and I will. 
 Instead of it I'll get a good thought, and come back 
 to it again and again." Let a boy avoid what was 
 a conspicuous fault of mine till a few years ago, 
 
THINGS SAFER FOR BOYS TO AVOID. II5 
 
 namely, negligence and sloppiness in matters that I 
 thought trivial. They were not unimportant habits 
 that I allowed to grow. No habits are or ever can 
 be. No thought is unimportant. 
 
 But the faults most easy to avoid are the physical. 
 And among them the most obvious is fast eating. If 
 the boy is compelled to eat certain foods, in spite of 
 the harm they do him, in spite of the over-heating 
 and over-stimulating effects, then at least let him 
 avoid eating them as fast as he does. 
 
 I speak from experience about these external and 
 physical things, because I never guessed that they 
 affected my mind with regard to its power of work, 
 its temper, and indeed in every other way. I had 
 suspected that alcohol was bad for me ; never for a 
 moment had I suspected that flesh-foods were bad 
 for me. Yet undoubtedl}' they were. Not only 
 must they have been one of the causes of constipa- 
 tion, but in general they must have been a cause of 
 bad memory, restlessness, and many other undesirable 
 items, both physical and mental ; because, when I 
 gave them up and altered no other condition of my 
 life for the better, and in fact worked harder and had 
 less healthy conditions than before, practically all the 
 unpleasantness disappeared, only to appear again on 
 the rare occasions when I took flesh-foods or extracts 
 by mistake. 
 
 Then, again, though I suffered from constipation, 
 which is a mischief that should be prevented or 
 remedied at all costs, even if some simple " salt " has 
 to be used, I did not suspect what the causes of con- 
 
 J 
 
Il6 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 stipation were. All the main causes of constipation 
 should be avoided in the case of boys ; the\' will be 
 dealt with later (in Chapter XXL). 
 
 It is not necessary to remove every one of these 
 conditions altogether from all boys alike. Some boys 
 apparently are unharmed by many of the above 
 conditions. Others need great care in moderating 
 amounts : a little they can stand — by much they are 
 crushed. If there were candid confidence between 
 boys and their managers, it would be easy to classify 
 the weak, the medium, and the strong. Failing this, 
 let there be moderation for all. As Emerson says : 
 
 " No gifts can raise intemperance. . . . He that 
 despiseth small things shall perish little by little. . . 
 Let him learn that everything in nature, even motes 
 and feathers, goes by law and not by luck, and that 
 what he sows he reaps. .... Let him practise the 
 minor virtues." Let the boy practise moderation, or 
 — if he is still not strong-willed enough — abstinence 
 till he is. 
 
 For, whatever may be maintained about the 
 cowardice or crankiness of avoiding temptations, at 
 least it must be allowed that most of these things 
 which it may be safer for most boys to avoid are not 
 necessary to the human body, and yet may come to 
 be felt as necessary by the constant user, so that now 
 he is to his habit and desire almost as a slave is to 
 an arbitrary despot. Dr. Ennis Richmond put it 
 well, when he said : — 
 
 " Both smoking and drinking are acquired habits ; 
 both are indulged in by boys for the same reasons ; 
 
THINGS SAFER FOK BOYS TO AVOID. II7 
 
 in each the danger lies in the chance of the power it 
 may get while the tastes are yet unformed, in the 
 certainty that the tastes must grow with the lad's 
 growth." 
 
 I do not wish to forget that a struggle against the 
 desire and habit later on may lead to a splendid and 
 creditable victory. I almost agree with a Hindu 
 writer on the grandeur of restraint, when he says : — 
 
 ** To restrain is a manifestation of more power 
 than all outgoing action. A carriage with four 
 horses may rush down a hill without restraint ; or, 
 the coachman may restrain the horses. Which is 
 the greater manifestation of power, to let them go 
 or to restrain them? .... Restraint will produce a 
 gigantic will, that character which makes a world 
 move. Foolish men do not know the secret ; they 
 want to rule mankind. Man does not know that 
 he can rule the whole world if he waits. Let him 
 wait a few years, restrain that foolish idea of 
 governing, and when that idea is wholly gone, that 
 man will be a power in the world. But we are such 
 fools." 
 
 What I do question is whether the average boy is 
 well enough trained not to fall in the struggle and 
 so lose his precious self-respect through persistent 
 failures. It is one thing to give him a stiff up-hill 
 fight now and then. It is another thing to hamper 
 and handicap him heavily and incessantly, so that his 
 whole moral life is a regular series of losing games. 
 
 Nor need we fear that the boy '* will have nothing 
 left " if we take away some of the most objectionable 
 
Il8 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 articles of food. Anticipating what I shall say in the 
 next chapter, I may mention here that a diet inchid- 
 ing good wholemeal bread and butter, fresh cheddar 
 cheese, milled or leisurely eaten nuts, and a few well- 
 cooked vegetables and some fruit, should, according 
 to Science, give the boy all that he needs for build- 
 ing his body, repairing loss, supplying fat and heat 
 and energy, giving work to the organs, and last but 
 not least, excreting waste. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 BETTER FOOD, FEEDING, AND ABSTINENCE FOR 
 BOYS. 
 
 IN these days of slovenly hurry, it is extremely 
 hard to get readers to realise fairly what one is 
 trying to express ; and the least ineffectual plan is 
 repetition. Slipshod critics see the words * cheese ' 
 and * nuts ' among the various foods mentioned, and 
 at once rush into the careless lie that I command 
 everyone henceforth to live entirely on cheese and 
 nuts, or to become a "vegetarian." After which 
 they generally add some correct remark about pota- 
 toes and cabbages being poor food by themselves, 
 and about man's constitution — that man was not 
 intended to live on grass, like a cow : certainly man 
 is not by nature herbivorous. But these critics are 
 less correct when they say that man's constitution 
 proves him to be by nature either an eater of all or 
 
Fig. 12.— The Teeth of a Dog. 
 
 Notice how the "eye-teeth " (canines} are separated from, 
 
 and project far beyond, their neighlxmrs. 
 
 ( Pholoi^raph hy .h'asoii &* liost'hc, CamhrU^^e.) 
 
 Face pp. 119. 
 
BETTER FOOD, ETC., FOR HOYS. IIQ 
 
 any foods (like a pig), or an eater of flesh-foods espe- 
 cially (like a tiger). Man is not formed like an 
 omnivorous pig, nor like a carnivorous tiger, nor 
 even like a dog, which can live and thrive on cereals 
 as well as on flesh-foods — my own dogs are very fond 
 of cheese and nuts. This is not a text-book of 
 human anatomy and phy.";iology ; but I must at least 
 make it quite clear that, as distinct from flesh-eaters 
 or carnivora, man sweats, has teeth with compara- 
 tively level heads and without large gaps (contrast 
 this dog's eye-teeth, in Fig. 12), has a longer food- 
 canal in proportion to his body's length (if he puts 
 himself on all fours, or if the tiger is stretched out), 
 and a corrugated colon (as if to retain food, and get 
 the full virtue slowly out of it, and not, as the smooth 
 colon does, pass out the quickly-poisonous flesh-foods 
 very rapidly after absorbing the nutrient value verj' 
 rapidly also). In fact, man is more like an ape, 
 whose usual diet consists of fruits, cereals or grains, 
 and nuts. 
 
 I must point out here how utterly futile it is tg rely 
 on arguments from animals. They tend to justify a 
 diet like my own, but they only tend — they are 
 not conclusive. For most people • to-day (a) live 
 sedentary lives in cities, and (b) eat many cooked 
 foods : whereas animals naturally (a) live active lives 
 in the countr}', and (b) eat only uncooked foods. 
 Cooking alters the effects of food considerably, help- 
 ing us to digest starch, for example, but coagulating 
 the Proteid of meat. Besides, as a third point, most 
 animals can be trained to live on most diets — car- 
 
120 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 nivora (tigers) on cereals and milk, herbivora (sheep 
 and cows) on fish ; and so on. 
 
 The question is not what this or that animal takes 
 in a state of nature, nor what it can take : the ques- 
 tion is not what some men take or can take without 
 death or even without noticeable disadvantage. The 
 question is this : On what foods is the average boy or 
 man likely to thrive physically and athletically and 
 aesthetically J intellectually, morally, socially, economi- 
 cally ? 
 
 Neither is it a question simply of food-analysis. 
 Science claims to have found out all the elements 
 necessary for building the body, repairing its losses, 
 giving it fuel, excreting its waste. It is generally 
 agreed that all these elements are to be found in 
 fleshless foods, both as animal-foods like milk, and 
 plant-foods like wheat — for the word " vegetable- 
 foods " is disastrously misleading. Science can guide 
 us : Science has guided me and saved me from much 
 trouble. But alone it cannot dictate laws. 
 
 The only real solution seems a fair personal experi- 
 ment. It is not enough merely to experiment in a 
 haphazard way, " giving up meat and eating the 
 rest," which " i*est " ma}- give discomfort without 
 nourishment. One must take nourishment, espe- 
 cially body-building Proteid, in place of meat. One 
 must be reasonably careful at the start. One must 
 not judge by immediate results (which many people 
 find unsatisfactory). One must note alL-round re- 
 sults after a fair trial. One must adapt ways to 
 circumstances. 
 
BETTER FOOD, ETC., FOR BOYS. 121 
 
 This contrast between the effects of at least two 
 diets is the only rational evidence. Otherwise it is 
 always open to the flesh-eater to say that the flesh- 
 less eater would thrive better on flesh, and to the 
 fleshless eater to say that the flesh-eater would thrive 
 better on — what ? The diet still lacks a good name 
 to describe it. 
 
 So many people think loosel}', and say that we 
 must live either on a meat-diet (rather, a diet includ- 
 ing meat), or else on vegetables. What egregious 
 dishonesty ! Here is a list of meat-less foods (or, 
 better still, fleshless foods, as " flesh " will include 
 not only meat but also fish and fowl). 
 
 (I.) Animal but fleshless food (eggs ; milk and 
 its products, such as milk-proteid and cheese and 
 butter). 
 
 (2.) Pulse-foods (peas, haricot-beans, lentils, pea- 
 nuts). 
 
 (3.) Cereals or grain-foods (including bread, maca- 
 roni, porridge, etc.). 
 
 (4.) Nuts. 
 
 (5.) Green vegetables and salads. 
 
 (6.) Roots and tubers (such as potatoes). 
 
 (7.) Fruits, fresh and dried. 
 
 It is not a choice between roast beef on the 
 one hand, and potatoes and cabbages (drained of 
 their precious juices, by an ignorant cook) on the 
 other. We have no such dilemma. The mistake is 
 mainly due to the awful word *' vegetarian," which 
 suggests vegetables, not fleshless-animal foods like 
 cheese, nor cereals, nor nuts, nor even fruits. When 
 
122 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 I go out to meals, my hostess usually provides extra 
 potatoes and cabbages for me, as if these papp\- 
 pulps were my staple. Why ? Because she persists 
 in calling me a '' vegetarian " ! 
 
 Now I myself know of about twenty varieties of 
 fleshless dietaries. My own favourite recipes have 
 been served to over a hundred well-known guests 
 now, and all but five have been pleased and satisfied ; 
 most have been quite delighted. And I get many 
 letters every week to say that — though there are 
 failures — usually the fleshless diet, properly chosen, 
 agrees better than the mixed diet. These people 
 speak with authority. They speak from contrast. 
 But it is not a contrast between beef and vegetables. 
 It is a contrast between mixed foods and nourishing 
 fleshless foods, not relying on well-cooked vegetables, 
 but including them as a basis. In one large manu- 
 facturing town alone there are, I believe, at least 
 4,000 people — so a local doctor tells me — preferring 
 the effects of my diet to the effects of the mixed diet. 
 
 Will it be possible for a critic to tell me now that 
 I live on vegetables ? I trust not. But if any one 
 should begin to theorise against my diet as I offer it 
 — namely, as a diet worth trying, a diet to be judged 
 by its all-round results after sensible experiment — 
 kindly ask him if he has made such an experiment, 
 and, if not, how he can possibly prophesy failure ? 
 
 Here is my own personal experience, put forward 
 not as a proof that my diet must suit all (it certainly 
 does not suit all), but as a proof that it does suit me 
 better than the orthodox diet and may suit many 
 
BETTER FOOD, ETC., FOR BOYS. I23 
 
 Others. I have been told more than once that it had 
 suited some 30,000 in England already, as early as 
 1903: but I cannot check the figures. 
 
 Over eight }ears ago I suffered from depression, 
 cramp (which lost me three tennis matches), craving 
 for stimulants, constipation, quite frequent illnesses, 
 and — so more than one doctor told me — Bright's 
 disease. I had plenty of exercise and plenty of food. 
 Then I changed, and gave up all flesh-foods (includ- 
 ing fish and fowl), and even eggs; almost at once the 
 above diseases and dis»eases disappeared. To cite 
 two details (for others see a special chapter in 
 " Muscle, Brain, and Diet "), I have been almost free 
 from colds and coughs and corns, and my memor}' 
 has improved more than I imagined to be possible. 
 The book which I wrote appealed to a large public, 
 because no universal law was laid down. My way 
 was offered as just worth a fair trial. Its theory 
 seemed sound ; its results in my case were wonderful ; 
 its results in other cases have since proved at least 
 satisfactory. But any verdict before personal experi- 
 mentation is unscientific. 
 
 I do not pose as an ascetic ; I prefer my present 
 diet for every reason, including its tastes (see ** Some 
 of My Recipes"). I do not pose as a scientist. I 
 simply tr\' to be an of)en-minded searcher after 
 feasible truth. I want to get people to think, to 
 reason, and then to act according to the decisions of 
 reason. I want to remove the careless and sloppy 
 generalities of those serious-looking parrots of plati- 
 tudes who are about as accurate as proverbs ; and 
 
124 II- PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 often, by the way, like proverbs, can be arranged in 
 contradictory pairs. A good example is given below. 
 
 Neither do I claim originality. I prefer to quote 
 my authorities whenever I can, unless my remarks 
 are too obvious to need any special authorities. 
 
 Mixed - food eaters, '* vegetarians," and " fruit- 
 arians " alike admit that Dr. Robert Hutchison, of 
 the London Hospital, who agrees in the main with 
 Professor Atwater, of the American Government 
 Department of Agriculture, writes as fairly and 
 impartially as anyone. He knows that a fleshless diet 
 would be cheaper. Here is his contrast : the fleshless 
 meal would be, to most palates, very unappetising. 
 A "Calorie" is a unit of ''energj'." 
 
 (Unattractive) Lunch of 
 Skim Milk and Bread. Restaurant Lunch. 
 
 Cost I Jd. + ^d.^2d. Cost 8d. 
 
 Net Value in 
 "Calories." 
 
 I pint Skim Milk 755 75 8oz. Soup. 
 
 10 oz. Bread 170 275 2 0z. Bread. 
 
 100 20Z. Potatoes. 
 
 15 1 oz. Turnips. 
 
 300 4 oz. Bread. 
 
 100 ^oz. Butter. 
 
 20 1 oz. Milk. 
 
 55 ioz. Sugar. 
 
 925 940 
 
 Now most readers will consider Dr. Hutchison's 
 opinions all the more readily when they know that 
 on the whole he is in favour of a mixed diet — a diet 
 containing flesh-foods. Hut he is open-minded on 
 the subject, and his clearest and strongest views 
 
BETTER FOOD, ETC., FOR BOYS. 125 
 
 favour my own diet just as much as they favour a 
 mixed diet. Let us see what would be the first and 
 foremost principle that he would impress upon chil- 
 dren and managers of children, whichever diet they 
 were adopting. 
 
 He would insist that the boy should have enough 
 body-building material (or Proteid) daily ; and the 
 right proportions of the other elements (fats, starches, 
 •' salts," etc.) ; but Proteid at any rate. Here are 
 some of his words (from his " Food and Dietetics," 
 which is now one of the standard authorities on 
 Food-values all over the world). 
 
 " A lack of Proteid in the food seeming to be more injurious than 
 a shortcoming in respect of carbohydrate or fat. . . . An insuffi- 
 cient supply of Proteid leads to imperfect tissue-repair, more 
 especially, perhaps, of the muscles and blood ; it causes the body 
 to become unduly watery, whence the pallor and puffiness of the 
 underfed. ... It must not be concluded that merely because a man 
 is fat he cannot at the same time be underfed. . . . 
 
 "The bad effects of underfeeding fall most heavily upon the 
 young, for the greater the demand on the body for food, the more 
 severely is any deficiency felt. The recognition of this fact is as old 
 as Hippocrates, who devoted a special aphorism to the statement of 
 it. ♦ Old men,' it runs, ' bear want of food best ; they next that 
 are adults; youths bear it least, most especially children, and of 
 them the most active are the least capable of enduring it.' 
 
 •' The remote results of underfeeding are not less injurious than 
 its more immediate effects. Amongst such results, impairment of 
 digestive power is very conspicuous. . . . The more their nutrition 
 fails through not eating, the less they are able to digest. . . . 
 
 " Another of these remote dangers is the influence, of imperfect 
 feeding, on the mind. I refer not merely to a lowering of mental 
 power, but to that feeling of dissatisfaction, discomfort, and depres- 
 sion, culminating sometimes in madness and hallucinations. . . . 
 ' .\ hungry man is an angry man.' Famine is naturally the mother 
 of crimes and vices." 
 
126 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 The first care of the caterer, then, will be to secure 
 enough Proteid, and not to neglect the other elements 
 in their proper proportions. As so few people know 
 what Proteid is, and not a few think themselves 
 rather " sensible " or " funny " to scoff at the idea 
 of body-building, it is necessary to re-inforce Dr. 
 Hutchison's opinion by the opinions of others. 1 
 quote these from " Good Digestion " (George Rout- 
 ledge & Sons) : 
 
 '* Why is it that we need Proteid ? Because Pro- 
 teid, with its natural ' Salts,' helps to form the skin, 
 the muscles, the nerves, the tendons, the cartilages, the 
 bones, the blood, the ceils, the digestive juices, the fat, and 
 some of the energy ; and to repair waste. Knowing this, 
 w^e see at once why it is that many ' Vegetarians ' 
 naturally fail if they neglect Proteid. 
 
 " It is generally agreed that Proteid or Albumen 
 should be our first consideration. Professor Sir 
 Michael Foster says of Proteid that we might manage 
 to live on it alone, with the help of a few ' Salts.' 
 The pre-eminent importance of Proteid is recognised 
 by a long list of authorities, including the following : 
 Atwater, F. G. Benedict, A. Broadbent, Brown- 
 Sequard, Bunge, Carpenter, Church, A. Davies, de 
 Chaumont, Demuth, Michael Foster, Forster, 
 Gamgee, Gautier, Haig, Haughton, Hirschfeld, 
 Hutchison, Klein, Landois, Letheby, Lippe, Mar- 
 cuse, Micko, Moleshott, Mtlller, Munk, Parkes, 
 Pavy, Pawlow, Payen, Pettenkofer, Playfair, Poda, 
 Prausnitz, Ranke, Rubner, F. Schmidt, E. Smith, 
 Sterling, Virchow, Voit, Wicke, and Ziemssen." 
 
BETTER lOOI), ETC., FOR BOYS. 12/ 
 
 This — the pre-eminence of Proteid among food- 
 elements — being ahnost taken for granted to-day, it 
 is amazing to tind how few people know, not how 
 much a food costs, but how much Proteid it con- 
 tains. Ask the cook, or the caterer for the household 
 or school, the amount of that essential in a cup of 
 beef-tea, a cup of cocoa, a plateful of tapioca, refer 
 her to any standard book, and she will still persist 
 that they are highly nourishing ! As a matter of fact,, 
 they scarcely build the body at all. What, then, h 
 rich in Proteid ? 
 
 The Table (F'ig. 13) will give a rough and ready 
 idea of certain commonl}- used sources of Proteid. 
 
 Of the price of Proteids both our classes and 
 masses are supremel\' ignorant. Dr. Robert Hutchi- 
 son says that i lb. of Proteid costs yd. from dried 
 peas, 7jd. from oatmeal, is. 6d. from bread, 2s. 2d. 
 from milk, 2s. 8d. from beef. Mr. W. S. Sheppard 
 has calculated that an ounce of Proteid — which 
 might be enough of this element at an ordinary 
 meal of an average boy — would cost jd. from pulses 
 (peas, haricot-beans, lentils), j^yjd. from skim-milk, 
 id. from oatmeal, ^j^d. from whole wheat meal, i^{id. 
 from white bread, fine wheat flour, and potatoes, 
 ifd. from rice, 2jd. from dry haddock, and so on. 
 
 The next question is, how much of this Proteid 
 does a boy need daily ? If a boy is in good spirits, 
 he digests and uses more of what he eats — much de- 
 pends on that ; much also on the season of the year, 
 his build and weight, his age (for the growing body 
 needs extra Proteid for increase as well as repair). 
 
128 
 
 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
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BETTER FOOD, ETC., FOR BOYS. I29 
 
 his pace of eating (a leisurely eater may need only 
 half the amount of a fast eater), and " individuality." 
 We want to know not how much he can put in, but 
 what and how much he will assimilate. The matter 
 is still undecided. Recent experiments in America 
 and elsewhere seem to show (as Cornaro and others 
 maintained) that a man thrives on rather more than 
 half the " orthodox " amount of food. But, as a 
 rough and ready guide for the time being, here is 
 Dr. A. M. Davies' Table of ounces of Proteid that a 
 man is supposed to need daily. 
 
 A 
 At rest. 
 
 Proteid ... 2.5 
 Fat . . . . i.o 
 Carbohydrates 12.0 
 Salts . . . 0.5 
 Taking the food of a man engaged in moderately 
 active work, who is supposed to need 4J oz. of Proteid 
 daily. Professor At water, of the United States De- 
 partment of Agriculture, considers that an average 
 boy of 12 would need oVer 3 oz., and a boy of 13 to 
 14 over 3J oz. He says that : — 
 
 A child 2 years old needs .3 of the man's food. 
 A ,, 2-5 ») j> »> -4 >» '» »> 
 
 ordinary 
 work. 
 
 At hard 
 work. 
 
 4-5 
 
 6.5 
 
 3.0 
 
 5.0 
 
 14.0 
 
 16.0 
 
 1.0 
 
 1.5 
 
 M .5 
 
 I need .6 
 
 A „ 6-9 „ 
 
 A girl 10-12 „ 
 
 A boy 10- 1 1 „ 
 
 A girl 13-14 „ 
 
 A boy 12 „ „ ^ , ^ 
 
 4 ^ 1- ux r need .7 
 
 A woman at light ' 
 
 work j 
 
130 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 A girl 15-16 years old| 
 
 A boy 13-14 „ „ 
 
 A woman at moder- 
 ately active work ' 
 If a boy of 13-14 needs nearly 3J ounces of 
 Proteid, perhaps over i ounce at each of his meals, 
 how can he get it ? As Broadbent says, " physiolo- 
 gists and medical men are generally agreed that 
 flesh-food is not good for young children ; but, if it is 
 withheld, its place should be taken by something 
 else " ; and he suggests *' milk, cheese, nuts, or 
 pulses." But much depends on how these foods are 
 going to be eaten. He is quite right in saying that 
 "it is a great mistake to feed little ones who are 
 constantly hungry, with soups and sloppy foods 
 flavoured with meat, as it merely fills them, without 
 supplying nourishment. Physiologists inform us 
 that the metabolism [change within the body] 
 of growing children is 2i to 6^\y greater than in 
 adults whose structure is fully formed." He quotes 
 Dr. Winters, the Cornell University specialist for 
 Children's Diseases. This authority says that *' the 
 constituents of growth are Proteid and mineral 
 
 * Salts.' Phosphate of potash is the predominating 
 
 * Salt ' in muscle. . . . Rapid changes in growing 
 structures, with correspondingly large acid products, 
 necessitate an equivalent of neutralising potash. 
 Muscle-growth in a child, to be normal and healthy, 
 must be chiefly of that Proteid which carries with it 
 the fullest ratio of potassium * Salts ' — that is, plant- 
 proteid. To reach the tissues and tissue-fluids, these 
 
BETTER FOOD, ETC., FOR BOYS. I3I 
 
 must be in organic combination as produced by 
 Nature. Plant-food contains 3 to 4 times as much 
 potassium as animal-food. Cereals, potatoes, whole- 
 meal bread, and all important plant-foods (when 
 properly prepared) are rich in potassium. Whereas 
 savoury broths, soups, beef-juice, excess of meat, 
 etc., create a repuj^^nance for the vitally indispensable 
 cereals and plant-foods. Animal broths are totally 
 [?] destitute of food-properties." 
 
 As a simple guide, not accurate, since much 
 Proteid may pass through the body unused, but 
 convenient, we might turn Mr. Broadbent's figures — 
 based on Professor Atwater's analyses — into ounces 
 of Proteid, and offer the following rough and ready 
 Table, in descending order of Proteid-values : — 
 
 Oz. of Proteid Grains of 
 =r 28 grains. Proteid. 
 
 I OZ. of Pine-kernels - - - J§ ' 9i 
 
 „ Cheese - - - - ^g " 9 
 
 I cupful of Milk - - - - ^ - 8 
 
 I oz. Lentils, Dried Peas, Haricots, 
 
 Shelled Peanuts - - i - 7 
 
 I Egg, I oz. Almonds - - - j^ - 6 
 
 I oz. Walnuts - - - - A " 5 
 
 Brazil Nuts - - - t% - 4i 
 
 Shelled Hazel-nuts, Oatmeal /^ - 4J 
 
 Whole- Wheat, Macaroni - J - 3j 
 
 Rice A - 3 
 
 Barley, Chestnuts - - -j^ - 2f 
 
 Bread - - - - ^ - 2J 
 
 Hominy or Maize Meal - ]ft - 2j 
 
 Cocoanut - - - - 7^ - ^i 
 
 Cake ^ - i 
 
 K 
 
132 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 He says, *' If mothers will see that enough Proteid 
 is supplied, it is not necessary to trouble about heat- 
 formers, as they will fall into their proper place, 
 being other properties of the food taken." 
 
 For the mother's diet before childbirth he recom- 
 mends '* a free use of salad foods, also fruit, bread, 
 milk, cheese, and quite fresh eggs." 
 
 As to the other elements — fats, etc. — I shall speak 
 of them directly. It is held that they should bear a 
 certain ratio to the Proteid, but exactly what ratio 
 is much discussed. As a rough-and-ready guide, for 
 the man who has 125 grammes of Proteid (nearly 
 4^ oz.), one might allow 50 grammes of Fat (butter, 
 oil, etc.) and 500 of Carbohydrates (starches, etc.), 
 i.e. less than 2 oz. of fatty material, more than i lb. 
 of starchy, etc. Atwater would prefer up to 4J oz. 
 of the fatty. It seems generally agreed, however : — 
 
 (i) That Proteid must be secured first and fore- 
 most ; 
 
 (2) That less Proteid is needed if there be plenty 
 of the fatty and starchy, etc., elements ; 
 
 (3) That boys need more Proteid and less of these 
 elements than men do, not absolutely, but in propor- 
 tion to their body-weight. The child needs more 
 Proteid, not only to repair waste, but also to supply 
 growth. While a man might need one part of Pro- 
 teid to, say, five parts of butter and starchy food, 
 a boy might need one part of Proteid to four parts 
 of these. But while a man might need 4J oz. of 
 Proteid, a boy might need only 3J oz., or less. 
 
 Now the fat or oil is easy to get, from certain 
 
BETTER FOOD, ETC., TOR Bt)YS. 1 33 
 
 foods as they are (milk, cream, butter, nuts, etc.), or 
 from oil (used with salads or vegetables). It will 
 *' spare the Proteid," supply fat, heat, and energy, 
 and may help to open the bowels. 
 
 This — except the last advantage — applies to 
 starches and sugars also. Starches abound in bread, 
 potatoes, and rice. There is no difficulty in getting 
 them. Only they need to be eaten very leisurely, 
 in order that saliva may be mixed with them freely, 
 to digest them. And common sugar (see the note 
 in the previous chapter) does not suit everyone. 
 
 Water, again, is easy to get. It should be pure 
 and soft. Pure and soft water is found naturally in 
 fruits, salads, and well-cooked vegetables. 
 
 These, with good cereals or grain-foods, contain 
 ** Salts," which have various uses. Apparently they 
 help the digestion and the assimilation of food, and 
 may help to cool the body and to cleanse it of its 
 waste. Some of the most precious " Salts " for these 
 purposes are to be found in wholemeal and bran, 
 lettuce and endive and (well-cooked) cabbage and 
 spinach, celery-, (well-cooked) potatoes, and fruits in 
 general. Many of those who live on a mixed diet 
 seem to need abundance of " Salts " as correctives — 
 especially to prevent or cure over-acidity. But it 
 would be cheaper, surely, to avoid what causes the 
 over-acidity. 
 
 Things which it may be safer to avoid are sug- 
 gested in the previous chapter (XVI.). They include 
 not only alcoholic drinks, heating sauces, purin-con- 
 taining foods, but also things that disagree with 
 
134 II- PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 individuals. Perhaps they may produce fermentation 
 and flatulence, or some other kind of indigestion^ 
 Sir James Crichton Browne's words are worth quot- 
 ing ; and the diagrams in Chapters IV. and XVL 
 should be studied side b}- side with them : 
 
 " Nightmare may generally be traced to states of the alimentary 
 canal, its most common cause being a full stomach pressing, owing 
 to a supine position having been assumed, on the semi-lunar ganglia 
 of the sympathetic system of nerves which lie behind it. But other 
 disordered and diseased states of the abdominal organs may bring 
 
 it on In every case of nightmare, however, one's first duty 
 
 is to look to the stomach, and in a large majority of cases abstemi- 
 ousness in the evening, with precautions against rolling or lying on 
 the back during sleep, will effectually ward oflf the enemy." 
 
 Though I cannot agree with the absoluteness of 
 the following words by a successful *' Sanitarium " 
 (or Health Resort) manager, Dr. Jackson, in New 
 York, yet as an extreme statement they are striking: 
 
 " It is morally and physically impossible for any man to remain 
 a drunkard who can be induced to forego the use of tobacco, tea,, 
 coffee, spicy condiments, common salt, flesh meats, and medicinal 
 drugs. If his diet consists of grains, fruits, and vegetables, simply 
 cooked, and he keeps his skin clean, he cannot, for any length of 
 time, retain an appetite for strong drinks. The desire dies out of 
 him." 
 
 But, coming back to what most boys should eat — 
 rather than what they should avoid — how can we 
 get the right elements in the right proportions ? 
 For, as I shall repeat below, it is less a matter of bulk 
 than of balance. The question needs a sensible and 
 open-minded study — first of theor}' — then of results 
 of rational and not too extreme practice. It may 
 seem faddy to weigh out foods. But, considering the 
 importance of eating enough Proteid (instead of half 
 
BETTER FOOD, ETC., FOR BOYS. 
 
 135 
 
 the right amount), and of eating not too much starch 
 (instead of just twice the right amount), is it more 
 faddy to weigh foods until we can judge the weight 
 by sight and by instinct, than it is to weigh — what 
 shall I say ? — letters for the post, parcels, or things 
 which N'ou buy by the ounce or pound in a shop ; or 
 for a chemist to weigh and measure drugs while he 
 makes up a prescription ? 
 
 I shall take two foods. The first, milk, has too 
 
 much water for its bulk, 
 too little fatty and starchy 
 material, too little Proteid. 
 Here is Dr. Hutchison's 
 diagram, adapted. It shows 
 that milk by itself is not a 
 perfect food for boys or 
 adults. With other foods — 
 such as wholemeal bread 
 and butter and fruits — it 
 may be good, if it be pure 
 and well-digested. 
 
 Cheddar Cheese is very 
 rich in Proteid, having far 
 less water in it. But it is too compressed a food for 
 many, at least for use at all meals (I like an occa- 
 sional meal of cheese alone), and it also lacks some 
 elements. It has no starch, and no " fibre." These 
 are its percentages, as given by Hutchison : — 
 
 Proteid 33.4, Fatty material 26.8, Water 31.9, 
 ^* Salts " 3-9- 
 
 Now most foods will need additions to make them 
 
 O 49 Crms. 
 
 oB4c»n»S. 
 
 Fig. 14. 
 A glass of milk, which is too 
 watery and therefore too bulky 
 a food. 
 
136 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 well-balanced meals for the human body. We may 
 regard these additions as to some extent correctives 
 — in so far as they will help to remove from the body 
 unused or used-up elements. 
 
 First there is, for most people, fibre, to give work 
 to the digestive and excretive organs, and to give 
 a sense of satisfaction. Fibre is found in most plant- 
 foods. Apparently it is not digested, and does not 
 build the body or supply fuel. 
 
 Then there is water, which should not be swilled 
 during meals, but should rather be taken in the early 
 morning and late at night and between meals. Water 
 serves not only to cleanse the body, but also to 
 convey nourishment all over the body, which is 
 itself largely composed of water. Most plant-foods 
 have plenty of water in them. 
 
 And they have in them also " salts " which we 
 need, in order to digest and assimilate our food, and 
 remove waste, etc. A writer, who is against a flesh- 
 less diet, speaks with high praise of the plant-foods. 
 We must remember, however, that his remarks are 
 exaggerations, and, at the best, can only apply when 
 the plant-foods are taken with their native juices 
 in them, and are assimilated by the individuals. He 
 
 says : — 
 
 *' The virtues of vegetables are innumerable. 
 
 " Celery is invaluable as a food for those suffering from any form 
 of rheumatism, for diseases of the nerves and nervous dyspepsia. 
 
 •* Lettuce is useful to those suffering from insomnia. 
 
 " Watercress is a remedy for scurvy. 
 
 " Onions are almost the best nervine known. 
 
 " Spinach is useful to those suffering with gravel. 
 
 " Asparagus is used to induce perspiration ; carrots are helpful to 
 sufferers from asthma. 
 
BETTER FOOD, ETC., FOR BOYS. I37 
 
 " Turnips serve for nervous disorders and for scurvy." 
 
 [Once again, this does not apply to vegetables as they are usually 
 served in England — I mean, with the juices boiled out and poured 
 down the sink. It applies, if at all, to vegetables cooked with their 
 juices, say in a double-pan cooker, with a little butter.] 
 
 •• The tomato I class as one of the kings among wholesome fruits 
 . . . . it is not only a tonic, which contains iron in a form that 
 is useful in the animal economy, but in some measure an antiseptic 
 and a narcotic ; it stimulates the appetite, and in the summer cools 
 the system. Tomatoes are beyond all praise, and may be eaten 
 ripe and raw thrice daily. 
 
 " To the sweet fruits a special hygienic virtue is ascribed, particu- 
 larly to the plum, as a remedy in rheumatism of the joints or as a 
 preventive of gout. 
 
 *' The acid class is the largest, including as it does raspberries, 
 strawberries, p)eaches, apples, gooseberries, cherries, lemons and 
 oranges. All these fruits are prescribed for ' stomach troubles.' 
 
 " In many cases of nervous and other kinds of chronic illnesses 
 a course of judiciously chosen fruit may be taken with almost 
 certain benefit. 
 
 " The ripe fruits of our own country are best at their season, and 
 the best time to eat them is about half-an-hour before breakfast, and 
 [?]just after dinner, if that meal has not been a heavy or too hearty 
 a one. 
 
 " In the early morning the stomach is, or ought to be empty, and 
 the fruit-juices have then a good opportunity of quickly entering 
 and purifying the blood, stimulating the liver and kidneys as well as 
 the pancreas. After dinner they enter the blood with the food, and 
 again do good. Unripe or over-ripe fruit is poison, however. 
 
 " But let me remind the reader that if he goes in for a course of 
 fruit, this fruit must be taken as regularly as if it were medicine— 
 which indeed it is, and that, too, the best and safest. 
 
 " Fresh ripe fruits are excellent for purifying the blood and toning 
 up the system. 
 
 ** As specific remedies, oranges are aperient. 
 
 '• Water-melon for epilepsy and yellow fever. 
 
 " Lemons for feverish thirst in sickness, for biliousness, low 
 fevers, rheumatism, colds, coughs, liver-complaints, &c. 
 
 ♦* Tomatoes are a powerful aperient for the liver and a sovereign 
 
138 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 remedy for dyspepsia and indigestion. They are invaluable in all 
 conditions ot the system in which the use of calomel is indicated. 
 
 " Figs are aperient and wholesome. They are said to be valuable 
 as a food for those suffering from cancer, when they are used exter- 
 nally as well as internally. 
 
 " Bananas are useful as a food for those suffering from chronic 
 diarrhoea. 
 
 " Apples are useful in nervous dyspepsia, they are [?J nutritious, 
 medicinal, and vitalising, aid digestion, clear the voice, correct the 
 acidity of the stomach, and are valuable in rheumatism, insomnia, 
 and liver-troubles. An apple contains as much nutriment as a 
 potato, in a pleasanter and more wholesome form. 
 
 " Grapes dilute thick blood, send the circulation to the surface, 
 remove obstructions from liver and lungs, dissolve and dislodge 
 gravel and calculi, and bring the stomach and bowels to a healthy 
 condition. 
 
 " Honey, I may add, should be far more popular than it is. It is 
 not only softening to lungs and throat, thus giving extra voice- 
 power, but it is a tonic and a delightful pick-me-up. The best 
 honey is that from the heather. 
 
 " Those who are troubled with the liver or kidneys can hardly 
 use too much of these — apples, good oranges, grapes, lemons, 
 tamarinds, dates, tomatoes, and all and every British fruit in season, 
 especially gooseberries, strawberries, and pineapples. How sorry I 
 am, truly so, that fruits on the whole are so dear, and, therefore, 
 beyond the pale of the working classes, who had l)etter never touch 
 them than buy bad. 
 
 " For rheumatism fruits are essential, especially apples and pears ; 
 for nervousness also, and in many complaints peculiar to girls and 
 women, such as hysteria or St. Vitus's dance. 
 
 " Gout, too, may be kept at bay by substituting well-chosen fruit 
 for the nerve-destroying nips of brandy and the bucketfuls of beer 
 in which some indulge. 
 
 '* Finally, let me add that fruit is an essential for the purity of the 
 blood in winter as in summer, and those who care for apples may 
 eat them almost (ui lih., either raw, cooked, or in pies 
 
 *' A roasted apple or two, taken about half-an-hour before break- 
 fast, are, almost in themselves, a cure for constipation. They 
 stimulate the liver in a far less dangerous way than anything I can 
 
^ or THt 
 Of 
 
 BETTER FOOD, ETC., FOR BOYS. I39 
 
 think of. Moreover, they cool the hlood, and consequently calm 
 the mind. 
 
 '* Apples contain malic acid, which has the power to destroy uric 
 acid, which produces both rheumatism and gout. They are said by 
 some medical men to cure the drink crave. Of this I have no 
 surety; anyhow, they are worth a trial. Apples, I may add, will 
 Kive good nights and quiet sleep when nothing else will without 
 injury to the system." 
 
 Now for a few simple recipes, as examples of foods 
 that might suit large numbers of boys, and not — by 
 excessive blood-pressure, etc. — lead them into temp- 
 tation. My own favourite meals include as their 
 bases more than one patent-food, and therefore will 
 not be mentioned in this book. Those who care to 
 know what dishes I find most satisfactory for athletics, 
 brain-work, self-control, etc., are referred to " Some 
 of My Recipes" (Routledge & Sons), especially to 
 Nos. 2, 4, 9, 10, II, 12, 13, 15, 16, 19, 25, 26, 28, 29, 
 30, 31, 40, 41, 43, 45, 47, 49, 50, 52, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 
 59, 60, 61, 62, 64, 65, 67, 69, 70, 71, 72, ^-^^ 76, ']'], 79, 
 81, 82, 88, 89, 93, 94, 96, 97, 99, 100 — particularly 81 
 and 82. With regard to other recipes, and to some 
 of these, the less pepper and condiment the better. 
 Only, in passing to this diet, a little flavouring may 
 help to make the new dishes more appetising. The 
 body-building or Proteid value is given, in ounces, 
 under each recipe in the book. One might allow an 
 ounce of it for an average meal. That makes calcu- 
 lation easy. 
 
 Here I must be content with a few very simple 
 recipes for fleshless foods that are not proprietary'. 
 They are for a salad, with pieces of fresh Cheddar 
 
140 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 cheese in it; and some haricot-bean sandwiches made 
 with wholemeal bread (unfermented). 
 
 Salad (for two or threk persons). 
 
 The heart of a Lettuce; the tops of a bunch of Watercress ; a 
 small piece of Cucumber ; a small piece of boiled Carrot ; a small 
 piece of Beetroot ; a small Onion ; a little Parsley ; 2 thin slices of 
 Tomato. 
 
 Wash and crisp the lettuce and cress, and put them into a clean 
 cloth to dry. Then pull them into small pieces with your fingers. 
 (Never use a knife unless it be a silver one.) Put into a salad-bowl 
 and mix with the parsley. Then cut up the carrot, onion, beetroot, 
 and cucumber, and sprinkle them on the top. Dress the bowl with 
 whole leaves of lettuce and watercress, to please the eye. Then 
 take the following dressing, and pour it on the top ; do not mix it 
 at all with the Salad, as it will gradually work its own way through. 
 Dressing for this Salad. 
 
 I tablespoonful best Salad Oil ; [i dessertspoonful Tomato Chut- 
 ney ; a few drops of Savoury Sauce ;] the juice of a Lemon ; [a 
 little Pepper and Salt ;] mix all well together and add them to the 
 salad. The dressing is far more wholesome without the ingredients 
 in brackets. With them, it and the salad will cost about 6d. 
 
 If you mix small pieces of Cheddar cheese with it, you will get 
 rather more than i oz. of Proteid for every 3 oz. of cheese. So, for 
 three persons, the salad and dressing and ^ lb. of Cheese should give 
 about enough Proteid for an ordinary meal. 
 
 Or else, instead of the cheese, add pieces of nut, pounded or 
 milled (or else — better still— to be eaten leisurely). To give you the 
 3 oz. of Proteid (i oz. for each person) you might use i^ lb. of 
 Filberts. 
 
 Wholemeal Bread made without Yeast. 
 
 3^ lbs. finest Wholewheat Meal ; i pint new Milk ; 2 oz. Butter ; 
 a little water, if necessary; [i teaspoonful Salt]. 
 
 Put the wheatmeal in a baking-bowl, [add the salt], and rub the 
 butter well in. Now add the milk, and with a wooden spoon mix to 
 a stiff batter. If it be found too stiff, add a little warm water. 
 Then place in front of the stove or fire, with a clean cloth over it, 
 for an hour; then roll it out into loaves, place these in tins, and 
 bake for an hour in a moderately hot oven. 
 
HETTKK FOOD, KTC, FOR BOYS. I4I 
 
 This bread should give about 8 oz. of Proteid. 
 Do not eat the bread directly it is made. Keep it for a day. then 
 cut it into slices for bread and butter or sandwiches. 
 
 Haricot Hkan Sandwich material. 
 
 4 oz. uncooked Haricot or Butter Beans; [i dessertsp)Oonful 
 Tomato Chutney ; i teaspoonful Savoury Sauce] ; i tablespoonful 
 chopped Parsley; i tablespoonful Lemon Juice; [a little pepper 
 and salt]. 
 
 Soak the beans for 12 hours before you cook them. Put them in 
 a pan and cook them, until they are soft, with as little water as 
 possible. If more water is required, add it during the cooking. 
 When they are cooked, leave them in the pan to cool, and you will 
 find that the water has been absorbed. Then mash them to a pulp, 
 add the other ingredients, and mix all well together. Put into pots, 
 and run a little melted butter over them. 
 
 This material should cost about j^d., and should give you about 
 I oz. of body-building Proteids. With the wholemeal and butter it 
 should give you about 9 oz. of Proteid altogether— perhaps enough 
 for 9 persons at one meal. 
 
 It will be seen that the recipes contain body- 
 building elements — chiefly from the cheese, nuts, 
 wheat, and beans — but no flesh-food, no flesh-extract. 
 Why ? Because, in many cases, flesh-foods and their 
 extracts make the pulse beat too fast, and produce a 
 sort of fever, or else an equally undesirable heaviness. 
 I can remember both feelings well. It is likely that 
 they were, at least, partly due to the ** purins " in 
 the flesh-foods (see the Appendix). The animals 
 that we eat have used their muscles, have worn out 
 their tissues, have turned them into acid waste- 
 products. Dr. Haig calls these purins uric acid, and 
 points out how, by increasing the blood -pressure, 
 they tempt some people to mistakes, in order to 
 relieve the pressure for the time. A further account 
 
142 II. PHYSICAL AND MXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 will be found in the Appendix. Here I must con- 
 fine myself to saying, with satisfaction, that I have 
 many letters from young men, telling me that when 
 they gave up flesh-foods and took nourishing bases in 
 place of them, they found the almost overwhelming 
 craving for alcohol, and the tendency to mistakes of 
 various kinds, including the loss of self-control, 
 disappeared. 
 
 But, with all my belief in the nourishing value and 
 purifying influence of fleshless foods well-chosen (it is 
 easy to choose wrongly), I must be fair. When I 
 was recently consulted with regard to the diet of an 
 important Government School for bo\s, I freely 
 admitted that many who live on fleshless foods are 
 remarkably " immoral " from our point of view. 
 Among the most prominent are the Arab boys, 
 Indian Sikhs and other orientals, and some natives 
 of Jamaica. But, on the other hand, these people 
 live in hotter climates than ours, and for the most 
 part — like the Athenians of old — do not consider 
 what they do to be " immoral." I am advising a 
 fair trial of a less stimulating diet for those who, 
 by their present diet (and as well as by other 
 influences), are strongly tempted to do that of which 
 afterwards they are ashamed. This seems to me an 
 entirely different case. 
 
 I am not guaranteeing the self-control of all who 
 give up flesh-foods: there are many strong stimulants 
 (tea, hot sauces, ginger, etc.) in the plant- world. I 
 am speaking merely as an open-minded searcher after 
 feasible truth — as one who asks whether the present 
 
BETTER FOOD, ETC., FOR BOYS. 1 43 
 
 orthodox diet of boys does not put far too great 
 a strain upon the comparatively undeveloped wills of 
 those who are left in ignorance of vital truths and of 
 easy helps against mistakes. I am asking all honest 
 managers of bo}s whether the customary foods — the 
 abundance of meat, in particular — is best for the 
 boys, in the light of what Science teaches with no 
 uncertain voice. / aju pleading against looseness of 
 argument. 
 
 Few things are more annoying to any open- 
 minded searcher after feasible truth than such state- 
 ments as " We all eat too much," and " Boys need to 
 be fed up." People who say this sort of thing pose 
 as philosophers : they are really the very sloppiest 
 thinkers, masquerading as world- reformers. They 
 unwittingly do a great deal of harm. 
 
 With regard to that first statement, that " We all 
 eat too much," a table of food-requirements for the 
 average human body shows a certain balance of 
 elements. Now boys need more body-building stuft^ 
 or Proteid than fattening and heating material, in 
 proportion to their weight, but* far less Proteid than 
 a full-grown man needs. Most boys do not eat toa 
 much Proteid, if orthodox Science is right in its views. 
 Examine the diet of a Public School boy, and you 
 may find that when the boy eats too fast, as he 
 probably does, he has too little of the Proteid, far 
 too much of the starch and sugar, far too little of 
 the alkaline " salts," far too much stimulant and 
 irritant. Suppose, now, we listened to these would- 
 be reformers, and halved this boy's daily dietarj-, the 
 * See page 132. 
 
144 ^^' PHYSICAL AND EXTHKNAL HELPS. 
 
 whole amount, what ridiculous results we should 
 get ! We should, perhaps, have about the right 
 amount of starch, but less than half the right amount 
 of Proteid and alkaline " salts," and still far too 
 much stimulant and irritant. 
 
 With regard to the second statement, that '* boys 
 need to be fed up," the error of it is that food is not 
 a matter of sheer bulk : it is much more a matter of 
 balance. Analyse the food, and you will find that 
 for the most part it is neither body-building nor 
 cleansing : it is heat-giving and fattening, at least 
 the part of it that is not water and waste and stimu- 
 lant or irritant. Boys do not need " feeding up " 
 with masses of starch. 
 
 These would-be reformers omit also to mention 
 the pace at which the food is eaten. That is one of 
 the great faults of the age. So long as people eat 
 too fast, probably they must eat larger quantities of 
 food, since far less of what they eat is assimilated 
 and used. 
 
 The critics seldom say anything about the times 
 for meals. We might approach towards correctness 
 if we altered the first statement to '* Many of us eat 
 too much in the morning," or if we altered the 
 second one to " Boys need to be fed up with food 
 in good proportion, and at the right times." 
 
 The first warning, the warning against over-eating 
 and excess, is necessary, because though many critics 
 preach unscientific abstinence from food, most 
 parents practise very little sensible moderation for 
 themselves or their children. *' Take half of every- 
 
BETTER FOOD, ETC., FOR BOYS. 1 45 
 
 thing," says a reformer who mentions diet, though 
 he may thus be ordering far too Httle of the body- 
 building stuff. " Cram the boy with bulk," says 
 the parent, though every ounce of excess is worse 
 than useless — it has to be removed at the expense of 
 vast physical energy which is needed for the building 
 and restoring of the boy's body. 
 
 Let me admit that the present ways of feeding 
 boys may develop a splendidly strong character 
 which can stand almost any strain if the boy himself 
 survives ; but few boys do survive with normal 
 health. The great majority of boys lose correct 
 instincts and become slaves of unhealthy desires. 
 
 So I am offering a few hints, in order that the 
 correct instincts of most boys may be developed. 
 So long as we treat all boys alike and in great 
 classes and masses like reams of paper, some must 
 suffer of necessity. My aim is that comparatively 
 few shall suffer. I base my advice on personal 
 experience and the experience of others who have 
 tried more than one way (I count no other evidence 
 as of much value here), and have kindly written or 
 talked to me. 
 
 " But what of individuality ? " you may ask, some- 
 what as the proverb-quoters tell me that '* what's 
 one man's meat is another's poison," and that the 
 diet which suits me will not suit others ; and then — 
 proceed to give precisely the same diet at every 
 lunch to every boy — the same old round of badly- 
 cooked meat, execrably cooked vegetables, stodgy 
 pudding, uninteresting water, or too interesting beer, 
 
146 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 and violent exercise fifteen minutes after. Orthodox 
 hypocrites ! At present, you know thoroughly well, 
 individuality in schools and homes is almost entirely 
 neglected. I except a ver}' few homes and private 
 and public schools. As a rule a boy is told to eat 
 what is put before him and ask no questions. What 
 a vile command ! Almost as well might you tell him 
 to read what is put before him, to go into a shop and 
 there buy any foolish literature (which corresponds 
 closely to the kind of food which he usually gets), 
 and then forbid him to make any demur or ask any 
 questions. It is typically academical; and at present 
 there is no way out of it. The boy cannot take his 
 own food-supply with him. " What am I to do with 
 my son ? " a lady writes to me to-day, " his restless- 
 ness and nervousness and weakness have all dis- 
 appeared on the diet you advised. Is there any 
 school where he may continue this diet ? " I had to 
 reply, "I do not know of any large school." (For- 
 tunately I now know of an excellent school where 
 boys can have my diet if their parents wish them to 
 have it.) 
 
 Yet the evidence that physical health — agility, 
 strength, endurance, especially endurance — can be 
 maintained on a fleshless regime, is singularly strong. 
 To the list (in *' Muscle, Brain, and Diet ") of nations 
 and groups of individuals who have flourished or still 
 flourish on fleshless (animal and plant) foods, I add 
 this quotation from the Scientific A mcrican : — 
 
 " The Roman soldiers, who built such wonderful 
 roads and carried a weight of armour and luggage that 
 
BETTER TOO I), ETC., FOR HO VS. 1 47 
 
 would crush the average farm-hand, Hved on coarse 
 brown bread and sour w inc. They were temperate 
 in diet and re^ailar and constant in exercise. The 
 Spanish peasant works e\er}- da\' and dances half the 
 night, \et he eats only his black bread, onion and 
 water-melon. The Smyrna porter eats only a little 
 fruit and sour olives, yet he walks off with his load of 
 a hundred pounds. The coolie, fed on rice, is more 
 active and can endure more than the negro, fed on fat 
 meat. The heavy work of the world is not done by 
 the men who eat the greatest quantity. Moderation 
 in diet seems to be the perquisite of endurance." 
 
 In modern times we have successful cyclists like 
 Olley and Ragan, successful walkers like Allen and 
 Karl Mann (the latter did his 125 miles, without 
 fatigue, in less than 27 hours), and other athletes — a 
 constantly increasing number, who find the fleshless 
 regime amply sustaining for the body. Three Ameri- 
 can schools have arrived at the same result; Har\'ard 
 University is tending in that direction. 
 
 But there are two grievous obstacles. 
 
 First, there are the cranks! I candidly admit that 
 my regime does 7wt suit everyone — it may fail with 
 one out of every ten, the other nine preferring it 
 to the mixed diet. But many who are benefited by 
 some one of the various branches of fleshless foods, are 
 not fair : they close their eyes to the failures, they 
 cite only the successes, they actually guarantee com- 
 plete health. Some say that it does not matter what 
 \ou eat, so long as it is not meat ! Others insist on 
 a narrow dietar}- — of apples and wholemeal bread 
 
 L 
 
T48 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 and nuts, or of grain-foods and fruits, or of this 
 or that variety (or monotony). Here is the sort of 
 dogma that does infinite harm. " One of the most 
 remarkable cases, which once for all dispelled any 
 doubts there might have been in my mind as to the 
 infallibility of Schroth's method, was . . ." Imagine 
 one case convincing a scientist that the same results 
 must come in all cases ! Oh the pitifulness of this 
 self-satisfied fanaticism ! 
 
 Then there is custom, the god of parents and 
 of those schoolmasters who dare not talk candidly to 
 parents. Scarcely one in a thousand parents or 
 masters has ever troubled to study the question of 
 food- values, stimulants, irritants, and so on. Yet, 
 with blatant crassness, the utterly ignorant manager 
 will tell you, without a shadow of hesitation, that 
 boys need this and that — he or she who knows 
 scarcely anything about \\hat builds the body and 
 what breaks it down, dares to dogmatise as if such 
 matters had been his or her life-long study ; then he 
 or she will order the boys to take foods and drinks 
 that make self-control — for an untrained mind — a 
 feat beside which the attempt of Dun Scotus (to 
 copy out the Bible before he tasted food or drink) 
 pales into insignificance. 
 
 When these managers go on to say that ** expe- 
 rience" justifies the orthodox diet, when they pretend 
 that the boys are, as a rule, self-controlled, their 
 ignorant complacency really passes all bearing. Truly 
 they are — to use an expressive phrase — as blind as a 
 suet-pudding. 
 
BETTER FOOD, ETC., FOR HOYS. 1 49 
 
 Is there nothing to be done for the many boys 
 (I am not so unfair as to say all the boys) thus 
 literally ruined by their managers who insist on 
 highly-stimulating diets ? 
 
 Great though the harm of some wrong foods may 
 be, it will be far smaller if the boy be taught leisurely 
 eating in his very earliest years. That art the 
 schoolmaster cannot easily deprive him of. He may 
 deprive the boy of his originality, of his correct 
 pronunciation of French — but he must leave the 
 leisurely eating alone. 
 
 For a fuller description of this important practice 
 in modern life, I must refer to a special book. The 
 habit should be taught to boys as a matter of course. 
 It is far more important than nine-tenths of what 
 they learn. We hear much boasting about anatomy 
 as a subject learnt to-day ; about physiology, 
 hygiene, and even psychology. As these subjects 
 are taught at present, their effects are remarkably 
 small. They should be all connected with practical 
 life. Here, for instance, let the boy see the con- 
 nection between the muscles of mastication and 
 those of the nasal passages, and hence between 
 leisurely eating and better breathing. Let him learn 
 something of the physiology of digestion and excre- 
 tion, which can be taught well in connection with 
 leisurely eating ; for this breaks up the food, mixes it 
 with saliva, counteracts its over-acidity, and leaves 
 less unpleasant waste in the body. Some hygiene 
 could also be taught in connection with leisurely 
 mating, inasmuch as it tends towards cleanness of 
 
I50 
 
 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTKKNAL HELPS. 
 
 every kind. As to psycholog}-, the boy could learn 
 by leisurely eating how an instinct can be formed 
 and become a regular habit no longer requiring care. 
 Starting with that lesson, the boy could now or after- 
 wards build up his other instincts similarly. 
 
 '/3 OF Body-Building 
 
 
 m 
 
 T 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 Vz OF Fa 
 
 TENING AN 
 
 HeATING. 
 
 
 u 
 
 l/> 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 ■ 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^Z 
 
 or P 
 
 \STE 
 
 . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^— 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Fig. 15. —Mr. Horace Fletcher claims that, thanks to thorough 
 
 mastication, his foml has only i^ of the body-building material, 
 
 ^ of the fattening and heating, and ^ of the waste, of the 
 
 "scientific" amounts. 
 
 Besides this, leisurely eating will train his senses,, 
 specially his sense of taste. It will cultivate that 
 spirit of thoroughness which the Prince of Wales has 
 been advocating of late. It will cultivate the dis- 
 crimination which we all need. It will also culti- 
 vate the self-control which we all need. 
 
 We cannot too often insist that a habit formed 
 early is the easiest habit of all. Such a habit as 
 this one, so far reaching in its effects, must be an 
 integral part of the education of every- child who- 
 does not p>ossess the instinct as its own sweet pro- 
 f)erty alread) . 
 
 This leisurely eating applies not only to solid 
 foods, but also to half-solid foods, such as porridge^ 
 
BETTER FOOD, ETC., lOK HOYS. I5I 
 
 which require it like all the starchy foods ; and also 
 to liquid foods, particularly milk, which nearly always 
 agrees with people when it is drunk leisurely, but 
 when it is swilled down is apt to disagree in many 
 ways, tending to dyspepsia and constipation. 
 
 With leisurely eating we should need to attend 
 less to individuality in diet. As I have said in the 
 special book, we must either chezef carefully or else 
 choose carefully. Most of us absolutely refuse to 
 choose carefully, at least for boys. Therefore we 
 must train them themselves to chew carefully. 
 
 We need not do away with the humour of the 
 practice. There is no harm in laughing while we 
 eat leisurely. Certainly it is, from one point of view, 
 grotesque. I suppose that, from the point of view of 
 many people, our present way of dressing and living 
 is grotesque. There is no harm in laughing at this 
 grotesqueness ; if we refuse to alter it, the next best 
 thing is to take it good-naturedly — neither to swear 
 by it nor to swear at it. 
 
 But elders must set the example. There is the 
 main difficulty. The boy who sees his master eat 
 fast, or his father and mother gobble down their 
 food, will not be much impressed by preaching. 
 
 Remembering that masses of people of all ages will 
 continue to eat fast, we feel inclined to ask : Is any 
 food almost unobjectionable even if it be eaten fast ? 
 That is a question worth answering. I doubt if there 
 is any single food which will not be objectionable to 
 one or more of the boys at a school, but I will trj' to 
 choose those that are likely to be least disastrous. 
 
152 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTKKNAL HELPS. 
 
 Fruits and salads are rich in soft water, and are 
 purifying and cooling. They have a valuable place in 
 school diet. But they are not body-building. Among 
 the body-building foods few are harmless if eaten 
 fast. Probabh' the foods which can be eaten fastest 
 with fewest bad results are the best milk-proteid 
 made into stock and then added to foods ; raw or 
 slightly cooked meat ; and raw fresh egg. Assuredly 
 many will suffer if the}- eat fast such " vegetarian " 
 foods as wholemeal bread, nuts (unless they are 
 grated or milled or pounded), cheese (unless it is 
 grated or milled), eggs (unless they are nearly raw), 
 milk, and the pulse-foods — peas, beans, lentils, and 
 pea-nuts. 
 
 But, so long as there is leisurely eatin^c* the 
 following foods may be found as unobjectionable 
 as any : — 
 
 (i) Wholemeal biscuits or bread, with butter or nut- 
 butter. The meal need not always be wheat. If it is 
 wheat, the wheat should be very finely ground, not 
 coarse and irritating. The meal may sometimes be 
 rye, sometimes barley. Notice that crusts contain 
 far more nourishment, and are more digestible, than 
 crumb. The boy should be taught this. Biscuits 
 may be even more nourishing and more digestible 
 than crust. One advantage of crusts and biscuits is 
 that they compel mastication. If the boy is genuinely 
 hungry, he will not object to them. It is generally 
 agreed that wholemeal is better than " fine " white 
 meal for the teeth and nerves. 
 
 (2) Nuts. Nuts differ in nourishing values and 
 
BETTER FOOD, ETC., FOR BOYS. 1 53 
 
 in prices. Some are rich in body-building elements, 
 others in oil, others in starch. All must be eaten 
 leisurely, even more leisurely than wholemeal foods. 
 
 (3) Fresh cheese. For my own part I prefer 
 cheddar now. Buttermilk-cheeses may also be satis- 
 factory. The hard stale stuff usually provided is not 
 good for boys unless they eat it very slowly. 
 
 (4) Milk-Proteidy as a powder which should first 
 be formed into stock or jelly. All the kinds which 
 we can obtain at present are patent foods and there- 
 fore are not mentioned in the body of this book. I 
 have alluded to Milk-Proteid, and given recipes for 
 it, in ** Some of My Recipes," published by Rout- 
 ledge and Sons, in their Fitness Series. 
 
 Valuable as drinks and cleansers and coolers, and 
 for a few others purposes as well, rather than as 
 body-builders, are the following : — 
 
 (5) Vegetables, which should be served with their 
 juices or else served in soups. Some of their juices 
 are alkaline, and will tend to relieve excessive blood- 
 pressure and to counteract over-acidity. 
 
 (6) Salads, which should be fresh, clean, and dried, 
 and then dressed with oil and lemon rather than 
 vinegar. A boy should be taught how to cook vege- 
 tables and how to dress salads. A salad may be 
 made body-building if cold boiled beans or pieces of 
 fresh cheese are added to it. 
 
 (7) Fruits. The less sugar we eat with them 
 the better they are likeh' to be, especially as they 
 contain good natural sugar of their own. As a rule 
 they should not be unripe, nor yet over-rip>e. Of 
 
154 n- PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 course the fresh fruits are best in their season : 
 but dry fruits are excellent all the year round — figs, 
 raisins, prunes, etc., serve as aperients as well as 
 providers of fat and heat and energy, and of some 
 body-building Proteid. 
 
 (8) Barley-water or apple-water and lemon are also 
 likely to be good for boys. 
 
 Notice that in this list, to which we should add 
 various well -chosen and well -prepared grain or cereal 
 foods, especially the patent kinds mentioned in my 
 book, there is very^ little cooking to be done. What 
 there is, is easy. Wholemeal bread, nuts, fresh 
 cheese, milk and its products, salads, fresh fruits, 
 dried fruits, require no cooking at all. Neither do 
 many of the patent cereal foods. 
 
 Wholemeal bread, made according to the recipe 
 below, with butter and perhaps with nuts, or with 
 fresh cheese — this forms a most magnificent meal if 
 it is well digested. Then I know most bo\'s would 
 enjoy a little fruit (of course more fruit in summer 
 than in winter), plenty of salads, especially in summer, 
 well-cooked vegetables in moderation, and puddings 
 of not too stodg}' a kind, and of not too sugar}' a 
 kind. Sugar suits some boys admirably, but I do not 
 approve of ordinary sugar for the majority of them. 
 I find that puddings can be sweetened well enough 
 by the help of the very best honey, or else by dried 
 fruits. 
 
 Less unobjectionable are eggs, unless they are very 
 fresh and not overcooked. Even then they seem not 
 to agree with all, though they may not be as stimu- 
 ating as meat. 
 
BETTER FOOD, ETC., lOK HOYS. 1 55 
 
 Not altogether unobjectionable are the pulses ; 
 but they certainly suit many. They are cheap and 
 highly nourishing, and " stand by " one for many 
 hours ; and they are fairly easy to prepare if they are 
 well soaked first. But I become more and more 
 doubtful every year whether I should recommend 
 them as an important food-basis for boys. Occa- 
 sionally they may be very valuable, and probably we 
 shall soon discover better wa\s of cooking them which 
 will remove the heating and other unpleasant effects. 
 
 The same applies to oatmeal. 
 
 My experience of these foods is that, during a 
 sedentary life, the less I have of them — provided I 
 get my body-building elements from other sources — 
 the fitter cleaner I feel. I use the word " cleaner " 
 in all its senses. 
 
 As to the times for eating, my experience may be 
 of interest. At one time I never guessed that I 
 could do without breakfast. I used to take the 
 heavy breakfast that is orthodox at home, at school, 
 at the university, and elsewhere. When I tried the 
 no-breakfast plan, I found it disagreed with me ; 
 soon after ten o'clock I felt empty and faint. I 
 naturally thought it was food that I needed. Then 
 I tried again, and after a few days the faintness and 
 weakness passed off. Now I find I do a better 
 morning's work or exercise or both when I have had 
 nothing except a cup of weak tea until i.o or 1.30, 
 or even later. 
 
 On the other hand, this plan does not suit every- 
 
156 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 one. Some are better with a light breakfast of fruit 
 or else some dry cereal or else cocoa; others are 
 better (as on the Continent) with tea or coffee and 
 roll or toast ; others are better, apparently, with a 
 heavy breakfast and a light lunch. Instead of the 
 unwarranted dogmatism of Dr. Dewey and others, 
 who have done not a little harm together with very 
 much good, I know that there are some who are 
 better with no lunch or light lunch than with no 
 breakfast or light breakfast. 
 
 But in neither case is it necessary to rush into 
 complete abstinence at once. Simple progressive 
 stages are quite easy. 
 
 Of course the objection will be made that the 
 home or school is disorganised if children do not 
 take their breakfast or lunch ; but at present we have 
 absolutely no statistics whatsoever as to what would 
 happen if all the children were given only fruit until 
 their mid-day meal. 
 
 Suppose, for the sake of argument, that this was 
 better for nine children oiit of ten, then it would 
 follow that our present system is unsatisfactory. It 
 is suiting one child out of ten, the other nine are 
 being sacrificed. The matter is still undecided. It 
 can only be decided after experiments on a large 
 scale. But what I do insist on is this : where all- 
 round tests of health (such as I suggest) show that a 
 no-breakfast plan, or a no-lunch plan, or a light break- 
 fast plan, or a light lunch plan, suit an individual 
 and become instinctively preferable, then it is wrong 
 to force that individual to eat heavily at such times. 
 
BETTER FOOD, ETC., I OK BOVS. 1 57 
 
 Hut, whatever ma\' be said about these earlier 
 meals, there is little doubt that the evening meal, say 
 three hours before bed-time, should be the least lij^ht 
 or the most heavy. Many nations agree here, that 
 the main meal of the da}* should be the evening 
 meal. 
 
 There must not be heavy feeding just before dull 
 work or violent exercise. If there is to be dull work 
 or violent exercise soon after certain meals, then let 
 these particular meals be the most digestible and 
 light, with as much body-building nourishment as 
 possible — such meals, in fact, as I have suggested 
 in the chapter for invalids in "Some of my Recipes." 
 
 A word more about times. Sunday is a day for 
 making up physical arrears and for restoring upset 
 physical as well as mental and moral balances. 
 There is no need that Monday should be, as it 
 always was with me at school, the blackest and most 
 unhealthy day of the \\ eek ; that was because on 
 Sunday I ate more than usual but took less exercise. 
 Now Sunday is a day both for remedial exercise, 
 and (to repeat the phrase) to restore upset balances 
 of all kinds, and a day for the practice of better 
 habits, more leisure!}- eating, fewer meals, better 
 clothing. In fact, we can scarcely say anything that 
 Sunday should be, without saying something which 
 Sunday, with all its rest for some parts of us, at 
 present is not. It is unhealthy, drear\', cramping. 
 It should be healthy, cheerful, and for freedom. 
 It is the day when health-experimentation is almost 
 forbidden : it should be the day of the week for this. 
 
158 II. PHYSICAL AND KXTKRNAL HELPS. 
 
 It should be the day, not necessarily for fasting, but 
 for a more sensible abstinence and self-control. I 
 am not urging fussiness. I merely want to see the 
 normal restored somehow ; then great and safe free- 
 dom of choice and action. 
 
 To take one example, if it were made a day for the 
 practice of more thorough mastication, it would soon 
 be a day of no less pleasure with respect to food, but 
 of much greater profit with respect to the body and 
 the mind, giving rest to our faithful digestive slaves. 
 
 This seems to be a chapter advocating thorough 
 reform, especially of the managers. I hope I shall 
 not be misunderstood, however. In case any critic 
 is so slopp}-minded as to say I lay down a law that 
 no one shall ever eat meat again under penalty of 
 death, I had better risk a repetition somewhat 
 tedious to conscientious readers. I admit that my 
 own diet does not suit all. What I do maintain is 
 this : — 
 
 1. A properly chosen fleshless diet has suited many, 
 
 2. In theory it has in it all that any body needs, and 
 especially the body-building Proteid (from cheeses, 
 nuts, eggs if they agree, cereals, pulses if they agree, 
 and so on). 
 
 \. But the diet needs to be a well-balanced one. 
 
 4. And it needs to be eaten leisurely^ probably to 
 be eaten more leisurely than flesh-foods need to be. 
 
 5. It is not necessary to rush into the extreme diet 
 all at once. It may be better for many to try an 
 occasional meal of well-chosen and well-prepared 
 
BETTKR F(H»I), I:TC.7^"UII UUTb. 159 
 
 Heshless foods, to note and register results, to find 
 out what disagrees and avoid that, to find out what 
 agrees and extend this to other meals, to judge 
 according to effects. 
 
 6. All tests should he applied — among them not 
 only the physical and mental quickness and power 
 and endurance and so on, but also the self-control. 
 
 7. The fleshless diet, however well chosen and well 
 prepared, is not a panacea for all human ills and 
 mistakes. There must also be sensible attention to 
 exercise, repose, and — the mind itself. 
 
 Hut the mind would surely find this as profitable a 
 subject as any, for its intellectual work. 
 
 True, it is not every learner that would be able to 
 apply all his or her information at once. The child 
 who heard that this or that food was undesirable for 
 him or her, might still be forced to eat it at home. 
 But some day, as a free adult, he or she might find 
 the knowledge very helpful ; as a manager himself or 
 herself, he or she might find it invaluable; and a 
 good deal — including the knowledge of ways of 
 cookery, etc. — could be used quite early in life. 
 
 A moment's reflection will show that a large 
 amount of mathematics, chemistry, anatomy and 
 physiology, hygiene, and natural history, to say 
 nothing of economy, might be taught in a most 
 attractive way with food as a starting-point in the 
 teaching. For what child is not interested in food ? 
 
 But many people are lazy. They refuse to study 
 deeply. Even such people will find .here a line to help 
 them. With it I close this already too long chapter. 
 
l6o II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 If you will not or cannot (or think you cannot) both 
 select and prepare food sensibly and eat food leisurely 
 and thoroughly, then either select and prepare 
 sensibly or else eat leisurely- and thoroughly. If you 
 can't choose, then chew ; if you won't chew, then 
 choose. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 NOTES ON THE ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY 
 OF BOYS. 
 
 " There is no great and no small 
 To the Soul that maketh all : 
 A nd where it cometh all things are ; 
 And it cometh everywhere."' 
 
 — Emerson. 
 
 ANATOMY and physiology are enormously im- 
 portant subjects for boys — if the items are 
 well selected and well imparted. But perhaps one 
 would not guess the importance from the stereotyped 
 text-books on the subject. Let a boy read through 
 a " Physiology" text-book by some great and learned 
 professor, and let him then say what useful lessons 
 he has assimilated for his daily life, and he will 
 probably tell you " Not a single one." 
 
 Why is this ? Is it not because the subject is 
 approached by the professor without any regard 
 whatsoever to the daily life and daily faults of 
 ordinary people ? Masses and masses of statistics are 
 compiled — all are put forward as if they were equally 
 well worth learning by rote — from nine out of ten of 
 them absolutely no practical conclusion is drawn. 
 
NOTES ON BOYS PHYSIOLOGY. 
 
 i6i 
 
 In a word, the writer does not start with what is 
 familiar and interesting to the average reader ; he 
 does not choose and apply what is practically useful 
 — nay, essential — to the health of the average reader. 
 In his desire to be accurate and complete, he forgets 
 to be human and helpful. How grand it would be 
 if our professors could be put through a course of 
 advertisement-writing, in order that they might learn 
 what sorts of things people want to know ! 
 
 What if, instead of starting with the names of 
 bones and muscles, and so on, name upon name, we 
 started with what the boy had himself felt — fatigue ? 
 In the Physical Educator I have written a whole 
 chapter on fatigue, a sensation full of absorbing 
 interest for everyone. Now suppose we showed a 
 ^■^ boy the experiment 
 
 (not with a living ani- 
 mal, but with a mus- 
 cle detached from a 
 dead animal) ; sup-- 
 pose we used the 
 Myograph, with elec- 
 tric shocks applied to 
 the muscle to make 
 it contract and work, 
 as in Fig. i6. Sup- 
 pose we showed him 
 that the work used 
 up tissues, and produced waste-matter which poison- 
 ed the muscle chemically. Suppose we showed him 
 how terribly the work overtaxed the muscle which 
 
 -rnrocRAFH- 
 
 Fig. i6. — The Myograph : an instru- 
 ment which writes down, on paper, 
 a muscle's work and fatigue. 
 
l62 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 was already tired or poisoned — how strong a shock, 
 Hke a will-shock, was needed to make the muscle 
 move now. Suppose we performed a number of 
 other experiments. Should we not here have the 
 beginning of a fine lesson in Anatomy, Physiolog}-, 
 Hygiene, Pathology — a lesson, for instance, against 
 overstrain at games ? 
 
 Then it could be pointed out how emotions alter 
 the breathing, the heart-beat, the attitude of body — 
 these changes speak for themselves directly any boy 
 in a class becomes angry or otherwise excited. The 
 recent researches as to the chemical effects on the 
 whole blood-stream, on the effects upon the mo\e- 
 ments of the digestive organs, and so on, could easily 
 be mentioned. Perhaps Science will prove some day 
 that all morally bad things are physicall}' bad also. 
 Researches are moving in this direction. Once we 
 used to consider fatigue and depression as, to a great 
 extent, mental ; now we know that they are physical 
 as well — that fatigue is a chemical poison of an acid 
 nature. So it ma}- be that everything which is bad 
 morally is also bad chemically and physically. This 
 is the kind of thing that would interest a boy. If he 
 could be shown that cheerful and clean thoughts 
 have a chemical and physical and muscular effect 
 every time, then he would have learnt a fact of 
 physiology which would really benefit him. 
 
 For it is a great fallacy to suppose that a boy 
 must be benefited by all knowledge that comes out 
 of a text-book of anatomy and physiology and is 
 accurate and true and proven. These books for the 
 
NOTES ON HOVS' PHYSIOLOGY. 163 
 
 most part are like school ^^eoj^raphy- books — a mass 
 of names and positions with no practical lessons for 
 daily life. With all my painstaking learning of 
 geography , divinity, and history at several schools, 
 I am scarcely able to recall a dozen facts of the least 
 use in daily life. 
 
 The reason is that the text-books of anatomy and 
 physiology are written by men who are ''specialists.'' 
 They are written about machine-men, not about 
 living boys. They are written for men who are 
 '* specialists," they are not written with a view to 
 improving daily ways. There is great need of a work 
 for boys and a work about boys. The writer must 
 keep in his mind the boy who is on the one hand 
 ignorant, on the other hand ready to be interested. 
 I take it that is the state of the typical boy. I have 
 no hesitation in saying that ordinary text-books of 
 anatomy and physiolog}' are utterly inappropriate for 
 him. 
 
 I think that very early in any physical text-book 
 intended for practical help should be quoted these 
 words of Herbert Spencer. Otherwise a person 
 reads the pages almost as if the\' did not concern 
 his ordinary life and its constant choices; he reads 
 about the lungs and air, the mouth and stomach and 
 food, the excretory organs and waste, almost as he 
 might read and learn by note that Archidamus was 
 King of Sparta at a certain period, or that St. John 
 was probably imprisoned in the castle of Machaerus. 
 What he needs is the point of view that will stir him 
 to sensible action in common spheres of life. Here 
 are words that will tend to do this : — 
 
164 11. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 "Now that our state is relatively peaceful — now that our muscu- 
 lar power is of use for little else than manual labour, while social 
 success of nearly every kind depends very much on mental power — 
 our education has become almost exclusively mental. Instead of 
 respecting the body and ignoring the mind, we now respect the 
 mind and ignore the body. Few seem concious that there is such a 
 thing as physical morality. Men's habitual words and acts imply 
 the idea that they are at liberty to treat their bodies as they please. 
 Disorders entailed by disobedience to nature's dictates they regard 
 simply as grievances ; not as the effects of conduct more or less 
 flagitious. Though the evil consequences inflicted on their depen- 
 dents, and on future generations, are often as great as those caused 
 by crime, yet they do not think themselves in any degree criminal. 
 It is true that, in case of drunkenness, the viciousness of a purely 
 bodily transgression is recognised : but none appear to infer that if 
 this bodily transgression is vicious so too is every bodily trans- 
 gression. The fact is that all breaches of the laws of health are 
 physical sins. When this is generally seen, then and perhaps not 
 till then will the physical training of the young receive all the 
 attention it deserves." 
 
 Afterwards, as an example of what may be a 
 *' physical sin " (or mistake) for most children, if not 
 for many men and women, one might with advantage 
 learn immediately what Sir James Crichton Browne 
 says about cigarettes and tobacco generally : — 
 
 '• Boys at fourteen years of age are apt to drop into a habit that 
 is then deleterious — namely, the habit of smoking. Whatever 
 differences of opinion there may be as to the effects of smoking, 
 physicians will agree that it is injurious before eighteen or twenty 
 years of age. Nicotine, the active principle of tobacco, which is 
 taken into the system during smoking, first excites and then de- 
 presses the heart's action, and slows the respiration. A small 
 quantity augments the secretion of the gastric juice, and so in- 
 creases appetite, while it also produces a certain degree of cerebral 
 excitation and facilitates mental work ; but an excess, and the 
 smallest amount is an excess to the young, causes sluggishness in the 
 voluntary muscles, mental irritability, dizziness, neuralgia, and also 
 
NOTKS ON hoys' PHYSIOLOC.Y. 1 65 
 
 — aitii this makes it vxcivJini^ly pernicious at puberty —ixcites tin 
 Jeelings. It is not unlikely that smoking stunts growth. The habit 
 ought to l)e invariably discountenanced in l^)ys and youths." 
 
 Boys do need interesting starting-points as well as 
 practical applications. In orthodox text-books they 
 seldom get either. 
 
 Comparisons are perhaps the best ways of teach- 
 ing boys. Let a boy read a description of the 
 lungs, and he will probably be unimpressed, unin- 
 fluenced. But let him compare his lungs to a room 
 with flexible (expandable and contractable) walls, 
 and he will be impressed and influenced. Let him 
 be shown how he can move the floor downwards, the 
 walls outwards, and even the ceiling slightly up- 
 wards. Then, again, let him be reminded of the 
 time when he was out of breath after a race : how 
 he felt, what he was inclined to do — perhaps to rest 
 his arms against a fence. Let him be told why that 
 was. Let him be shown a plant and be told about 
 the circulation of the sap to rebuild and feed the 
 plant. From such easy beginnings he will learn 
 naturally about his own body, about its anatomy, 
 physiology, and hygiene. 
 
 As a warning against mistakes, let a boy be 
 shown a plant ; let him be shown on it several 
 flowers ; let him notch the stalk of one of the 
 flowers with a knife ; let him leave another flower 
 on the plant untouched ; let him cut off a third and 
 put it in water ; let him take a fourth and keep it 
 without water. After a few days let him watch the 
 results, and be told what lessons he can draw from 
 them, after he has tirst worked these lessons out for 
 
i66 
 
 II. PHYSICAL AND PJXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 himself. The notching of the plant and the conse- 
 quent fading of it will teach him a lesson too obvious 
 to explain in detail here. Only he must be told that a 
 few days or weeks of a plant are 
 equivalent to many years of hu- 
 man being; that the human being 
 does not reach his prime perhaps 
 till twenty-five, or even forty, 
 whereas the plant reaches its 
 prime after a very short while,. 
 a fraction of a single year. As. 
 another simple illustration from 
 plants, take two flowers, and leave 
 one in ordinar}' water, the other 
 in red ink. It will be seen that 
 the red ink entering the stalk cir- 
 culates everywhere, even to the 
 extremities of the flower. 
 
 Hence he can learn about the 
 circulation of blood. He can see 
 that whatever he puts into his 
 mouth tends to reach through- 
 out his body, and to influence 
 every part of it, since it tends to 
 enter the blood and so to circulate 
 everywhere, pumped by the heart.. 
 This would naturally lead to a description of some 
 blood-vessels (Fig. ly) and of the heart. The 
 wrong way of beginning is to start with the heart, 
 and never to reach the human interest at all. 
 
 The heart teaches an extremely useful lesson, the 
 
 Fig. 17. — The heart 
 pumps fresh blood 
 into the arteries, 
 which branch oft' 
 into little pipes or 
 capillaries, where 
 the blood gives up 
 some of its fresh 
 material, and takes 
 up some waste-mat- 
 ter, which it now 
 carries into the 
 veins. 
 
NOTES ON boys' PHYSIOLOGY. 1 67 
 
 lesson of rhythm as a saver of energy. Here per- 
 haps the beginnin^^ would rather be some exercise 
 that the boy practises. Let the boy be reminded 
 how long he can swing clubs, or walk, or do other 
 things that are rhythmical, partly because a rhythm 
 finds something corresponding to it in the human 
 body. But disturb that rhythm, and the effort is in- 
 creased. So the heart has its rhythm ; keep to that 
 rhythm, and you give the heart an easy time ; disturb 
 it, and you give the heart a difficult time — you tax 
 your powers. 
 
 Dr. Ridiard Berry applies the art of teaching by 
 comparisons, to the work done by the nerves, etc. 
 He is lecturing from his written or printed notes, 
 and, starting with this familiar fact, he says : — 
 
 " My eye sees on the paper in front of me certain marks which 
 are to it absolutely meaningless and unintelligible ; it accordingly 
 photographs them and telegraphs the impressions along the optic 
 nerve to that portion of my brain which was trained by the 
 schoolmaster to interpret written signs in the form of words. This 
 part of the brain, known as the word-seeing centre, is situated at 
 the back part of the brain in what is technically known as the 
 parieto-occipital area. The written signs having been there inter- 
 preted are telegraphed on to the speech-centre situated on the left 
 side of my brain in the inferior frontal convolution, and thence re- 
 directed along the various nerves to the muscles of the tongue, 
 larynx, palate, and so forth, which thus cause a series of air- 
 explosions producing articulate speech in the shape of the Anglo- 
 Saxon tongue. These air-vibrations, if they are uttered in a 
 sufficiently loud voice, will reach your ear and there set in motion a 
 series of minute tones whicli stimulate your auditory nerve in 
 precisely the same manner as the needle of a phonograph indents 
 the wax cylinder. Your auditory nerve will convey these stimuli 
 to your word-hearing centre, situated in that part of your brain 
 which is known as the first temporo-sphenoidal convolution, 
 
1 68 
 
 I. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 and there interpreted according as to whether the impressions 
 formed by the words used are familiar or not. Were the printed 
 characters before me in some unfamiliar form, such as Arabic, my 
 eye would, it is true, transmit those signs to my word-seeing centre, 
 but there they would stop, inasmuch as that centre, not having been 
 trained to interpret such signs, would fail to do so ; consequently, 
 no further orders would be transmitted to the speech centre, and I 
 should remain silent. Similarly, were I to pour forth a series of 
 strange and quaint guttural sounds by means of which Germans 
 are in the habit of conversing, those sounds would reach your word- 
 hearing centre, and be interpreted or not according as to whether 
 that centre has been trained to the interpretation of such sounds." 
 
 Besides the comparisons, there 
 should be a good deal of direct 
 teaching; but it should start with 
 the boy, and especially his positions 
 and movements. 
 
 For instance, you 
 can show him the 
 effects of this or that 
 exercise upon various 
 muscles and organs 
 of the body, as in Figs. i8 and 19 
 Instead of beginning, as Dr. Alexan- 
 der Hill does, with a mention of the 
 diaphragm and names of the vari- 
 ous organs above it and below it, 
 let the boy be taught such things 
 first by the various effects — let us 
 say of a wrong position. Or let him Fig. iS. -a Kick. 
 imagine his stomach distended with too much food 
 eaten too fast ; let him recall the feeling of breath- 
 lessness and perhaps of disturbed heart-beat. Why is 
 
NOTES ON BOYS PHYSIOLOC.V 
 
 169 
 
 this ? Because (see Chapters XXII. and XXIV.) the 
 stomach, stretched out by food and gas, presses on its 
 
 ceiling the dia- 
 (see Fig. 26) on 
 above. That 
 stomach, over- 
 food, will also 
 below it, and 
 
 feel generall}' 
 A boy should be 
 deal about the 
 their neighbour- 
 effects on one a- 
 
 phragm, and hence 
 the heart and lungs 
 same distended 
 weighted with 
 press on the organs 
 will make a boy 
 
 
 uncomfortable, 
 taught a great 
 main organs and 
 hood, and their 
 nother. He may 
 
 Fig. 19. — Some muscles used in a kick, which, with the 
 
 left leg, helps to massage the stomach, with 
 
 the right leg, the liver. 
 
 be told quite purely and simply that he has within 
 him (see Fig. 21) certain storehouses of energy, cer- 
 tain glands that contain a precious fluid which he 
 must not waste now because it has its use hereafter. 
 Upon these glands there may be indirect over- pres- 
 sure from above; hence he must learn to hold up his 
 diaphragm and strengthen by exercises the muscles 
 that hold it up — for instance, by raising his arm 
 above his head, by bending his trunk in various 
 directions (Chapters XX. and XXV.), and so on. 
 
170 
 
 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 He can be shown also how the bladder presses 
 upon these glands, and hence the importance of 
 
 LETT LUNG 
 
 RIGHT LUNG 
 
 OISTEMOED STOMACH 
 PRESSING ON HEART- I ',.' 
 
 emptying it before sleep. 
 Then he may be shown 
 the pressure which 
 would come through ^■''^'^^' 
 constipation, and the 
 importance of regular 
 excretion. It is of 
 little use to tell 
 him this if you do 
 not give him the 
 simple remedies. 
 Every boy should 
 know how certain 
 trunk-exercises 
 
 Ureter 
 
 Bladder 
 
 4> ^ 
 « c 
 
 11 
 
 
 
 1^ 
 
 ^ Q 
 
 - a 
 
 — 3 < O 
 
 ^ i? c ^ c 
 
 c i ^ ^ S 
 
 -^ T3 "^ 2- 
 
 d g 
 
 > Xi 
 
 Great Abdominal Artery 
 ..■■Spermatic 
 .y /Artery 
 
 Spermatic 
 Vein 
 
 Reciih 
 
 (such as the golf Ve^se7'orLck 
 
 swing), and at least 
 
 (^ VretJia 
 Te.stick^ 
 
 Place of Discbar^ 
 or Seminal Sacks 
 
 Fi<;. 21. —Organs of excretion and 
 reproduction. 
 
NOTES ON BOYS PHYSIOLOGY. I7I 
 
 one form of massage (the circular movements round 
 the navel) may help the excretion. 
 
 As to the organs of reproduction, there are many 
 ways of teaching about them. Some prefer one way, 
 some another. Some begin with a study of flowers 
 and their pollen, etc. ; others with a study of 
 animals low down in the scale of animal evolution ; 
 others teach directly about human beings. Great 
 tact is needed, especially if a boy has already been 
 wrongly taught. Otherwise the best general rule for 
 elders is to study the subject, and especially Nature, 
 and then to wait for a child's questions, and, not 
 necessarily to answer them in a moment, but to 
 answer them some day soon. Personally I am not 
 quite sure that a good beginning, in certain cases, 
 would not be the histor}- of compound words like 
 '' heart's-ease." The two parent words, ''heart's" 
 and " ease " contribute to form a new word, which 
 has a life of its own. Anyhow it must be made 
 clear that, if thoughts and the blood are pure and 
 active, a special element in the body will be pure 
 and active and strong, and this element may be 
 needed to become part of the body of a new child. 
 That to welcome and keep impure thoughts or 
 blood now, may mean to poison and weaken that 
 child, and "generations yet unborn." How much 
 besides this a child should be taught, is a question 
 reserved for a later chapter (XLV), in which a 
 mother's views are offered. Whatever else an}'one 
 may think it best to omit, the vital imp)ortance of 
 clean mind and clean blood would be emphasised. 
 
172 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 The bad effects of constipation must surely be 
 made clear to boys, again by comparisons. What 
 would be the condition of a city if the drainage were 
 sent back into the water-supply and even mixed 
 with the food-supply ? Boys must be told (see 
 XXI.) that what should be removed is, by consti- 
 pation, re-absorbed, so as to poison the whole body 
 and depress its energy and spirits ; how the clogged 
 organs may press against the tender seminal vessels 
 on one side (as the over-full bladder may press on 
 another side) ; how a strain to move the bowels 
 may squeeze these vessels still further; how the 
 habit of pill-taking, to which so many thousands of 
 Anglo-Saxons are slaves to-day, can be prevented 
 now by carefulness. A word should be said about 
 clogging in general, which may be likened to dust 
 or rust in machinery, necessitating more power to 
 work the machinery, which even then gives poor re- 
 sults. 
 
 The vital arts of excretion must be explained — the 
 washing of the mouth, the blowing of the nose, the 
 fuller exhaling from the lungs, the sweating and the 
 cleansing of the skin, and so on. 
 
 Let boys learn that sentence, exaggeration though 
 it is, WE ARE WHAT OUR BLOOD IS. Professor Tyn- 
 dall said, " the morality of clean blood ought to be 
 one of the first lessons taught us by our pastors and 
 masters. The physical is the substratum of the 
 spiritual, and this fact ought to give the food we eat 
 and the air we breathe a transcendental significance. 
 In recommending this proper care of the physical 
 
NOTKS ON HOYS PHYSIOLOGY. I73 
 
 organism, it will not be supposed that I mean the 
 stuffing or pampering of the body. The shortening 
 of the supplies or a good monkish fast at intervals is 
 often the best discipline for it." 
 
 Boys should also be told some of the bad effects of 
 over-pressure of the blood and feverish ness, or at any 
 rate local heating, and hence the importance of cool- 
 ness. But it is useless to tell them of these evils — 
 we might almost call them diseases — unless you also 
 tell them of the remedies — the uses of cold water, 
 the way to relieve over-pressure of the blood by cer- 
 tain exercises, or by alkaline foods, such as salads, 
 and so forth. 
 
 Food-values (see Chapter XVII.) the boy must 
 certainly be taught. First come the body-building 
 or Proteid elements, and their sources in order — for 
 instance, milk-proteids, cheeses, nuts, and so on. Also 
 the boy might be taught a little about their prices — 
 how much body-building stuff he can get for a half- 
 penny from various foods. How an ounce of Proteid 
 will cost him about a halfpenny from buttermilk or 
 the pulse-foods, and more than ten shillings from 
 oysters. Then come the fattening and heating and 
 energy-producing and Proteid-saving foods ; and so 
 forth. But, taught in this way, the food-values 
 would not interest a boy very much. Rather let 
 him be shown a meal or part of meal, a piece of 
 bread and butter, an apple, a bit of cheese, and so 
 on. Let him be told that the piece of white bread 
 contains perhaps ten per cent, of body-building 
 material if it be stale ; that it contains a lot of starch 
 
174 11- PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 to give fat, heat, and energy, and save Proteid. Let 
 him be told at the same time that it is very poor in 
 the elements that help to cool the body and that 
 tend to excretion — namely, certain '* salts " and 
 hbrous materials. Let him be shown that these 
 materials abound in the apple which, however, is 
 not rich in body-building elements. 
 
 But he must also be taught what foods and drinks 
 serve as doggers of the system. He is not too young 
 to learn about irritants, and about those purins (see 
 the Appendix) on which Dr. Walker Hall has writ- 
 ten even more convincingly than Dr. Alexander 
 Haig. Let him learn their probable effects upon 
 the blood-pressure, and upon the arteries, etc. This 
 could be illustrated by an india-rubber tube with 
 water circulating through it. 
 
 An important lesson which he has to learn is that 
 Nature's changes are gradual. Let him be told 
 about a man who fell down in a lit of apoplexy when 
 he ran to a station directly after a heavy meal. Let 
 him understand that in his own case this exercise 
 soon after excessive eating is bad, even if he does 
 not feel it at the time : that it takes years and years 
 before some changes show themselves : that it is like 
 adding grain to grain until you get a certain weight of 
 mischief. He will gather i\n' himself how important 
 it is to rest for a short while, and breathe deeply and 
 rhythmically after a heavy meal ; or else not to take 
 all that heavy meal. 
 
 It has often seemed to me that one of the hardest 
 things to impress on one's realisation and memory is 
 
NOThS («N l'.()\S I'HYSIOLOGY. 1 75 
 
 that a state which feels like a sudden change has 
 actually been coming on b\' degrees for da}'s and 
 weeks and months and years. It finds us surprised ; 
 it takes us unawares. The alterations have been 
 added '' line upon line." Looking back, I cannot 
 help thinking that the right way would have been 
 to learn early what one was to expect, and to learn 
 early how to guard against mistakes in good time. 
 Instead of this, we are allowed to wait till the 
 process is over. Then, all unready, we find our- 
 selves driven to some inadequate and make-shift 
 protection. We ought to have been well -fortified, 
 well-provisioned, well-manned from citadel to out- 
 post. Instead of this, through want of teaching 
 about vital anatomy and physiology, and vita! pre- 
 ventives and remedies, we know nothing of the 
 danger till the enemy is almost in our citadel itself. 
 It is thus that pubert\- takes most boys unawares. 
 Here is a passage that might be improved on ; but 
 something of the kind a boy ought to know long 
 beforehand, for the sake of his self-respect, his self- 
 knowledge, self - reverence, self-control; for surely 
 Tennyson put those three words in the wrong order. 
 
 *' Until the sexual organs begin to grow and show signs of 
 activity, the average boy, in structure, tastes, and character, is 
 naturally very much like the average girl of the same age ; his 
 lx)dy has the same general shape ; the shoulders are sloping and 
 of about the same breadth as the hips ; the muscles are soft, some 
 times even toflabbiness; the hair on the head is fine and glossy; 
 there is no beard, and the hairs on the general surface of the body 
 are hardly discernible; his voice is thin and lacks volume; if he 
 sings, it is either soprano or alto, for the vocal cords are too short 
 to vibrate in bass tones. His tastes, sports, and ambitions are 
 
176 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 about the same as those of the girl ; unless, as is the case in most 
 civilized countries, the two are early taught that certain ways of 
 acting are' for girls' and other ways are ' for boys.' Customs and 
 fashions do much to obscure and even to change natural tendencies. 
 But when the sexual organs begin to develop, several changes are 
 immediately noticed. For example : — The boy's body becomes 
 more erect, his shoulders begin to grow broader and more nearly- 
 square, his chest expands to make room for his enlarging lungs, his 
 muscles increase and strengthen, the hair on his head becomes 
 coarser, and the fine, almost invisible hairs that cover the entire 
 body, begin to grow longer and take on more color. A profusion 
 of beard develops on the face, and a thick growth of hair appears 
 on the lower part of the belly. The larynx also enlarges, pushing 
 out the skin and forming what is known as ' Adam's apple ' ; the 
 vocal cords elongate correspondingly and the voice changes from 
 the thin, piping tones of boyhood to the heavy, full, rich tones 
 characteristic of manhood. The soprano voice becomes the deep 
 bass or the ringing tenor ; perhaps the change produces the thun- 
 der-tongued orator ; it certainly should produce the silver-voiced 
 lover. And all this because the testicles develop normally and 
 secrete fertile semen which, by being again re-absorbed into the 
 general system, and by reason of its reflex, stimulating influence 
 over the entire system, enables a youth to stand up like a creature 
 in the image of God, and when he hears the call, ' The world 
 wants men ; large-hearted, manly men,' he instinctively and 
 cheerfully responds, ' Behold, here am I ; send me.' 
 
 •' To the competent observer, the mental and moral quickenings 
 that occur within a normally developing young man at puberty 
 are quite as striking as the physical changes. 
 
 " Mental enthusiasm and moral courage should keep pace with 
 muscular strength and general physical vigor. ' That is mean ! ' 
 bursts spontaneously from the lips of a properly developed young 
 man, whenever he sees an act of cruelty, wrong, or injustice. It is 
 as natural for a manly youth to escort and protect a lady in all 
 places of danger, as it is for the fully developed males in a herd of 
 wild animals to protect the females and their young. 
 
 •' Sometimes budding, unsettled manhood exhibits itself in 
 eccentric and objectionable ways. A rapidly developing boy 
 hardly knows what to do with himself. 
 
NOTES ON liOYS' PHYSIOLOGY. I77 
 
 " How he would like heroically to stop the terrified runaway 
 horse that is dashing toward some destruction with the prettiest, 
 richest girl in the community, and, after saving her life, marry her 
 and take charge of her millions! " 
 
 The obvious lesson, from this knowledge of the 
 vigour that will one day press for self-expression, 
 is to prepare interesting outlets of self-expression, 
 and simple, unobtrusive helps to self-control, long 
 beforehand — games, athletics, hobbies, exercises — 
 lest when the time of stress comes, the period of 
 great responsibility, the **good game to win," the 
 boy lose his poise, his purity, his power, his self- 
 respect. 
 
 The lesson of timely prevention might so easily be 
 taught from war, politics, and other subjects. 
 
 Rhythm (already mentioned) and regularity are 
 another lesson. These can be illustrated by excre- 
 tion. Let a boy learn to relieve his bowels on a 
 regular occasion every day, till the body gets that 
 rhythm. The rhythm can be illustrated from the 
 whole of nature, and indeed from almost anywhere. 
 
 The teaching must not be morbid. While a boy 
 realises that every cause must have its effect, he 
 must realise that the causes are to a great extent in 
 his own hands; that now is the time when he is 
 forming habits according to which he will still be a 
 good cricketer, let us say, at the age of forty-five or 
 fifty, or else a " hopeless crock " ; a man enjoying 
 life and cheerful, or a man tired of life and miser- 
 able, as well as unpleasant to look at. Let him be 
 told the importance of early habits, and the ease 
 with which he can build them. 
 
178 
 
 I. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 Illustrations are invaluable throughout the teach- 
 ing. Here are some, for instance, of the cells of the 
 brain. They are copied from Dr. Clouston's little 
 essay in the Penny Health Series. In the young 
 brain the cells are unconnected ; they are scattered 
 more or less regularU- over 
 the brain (Fig. 22) like the 
 
 Fig. 22. — Brain-cells liefore birth. 
 They are not yet associated in 
 groups, nor connected by " pro- 
 cesses " or fibres. 
 
 Fig. 23. — Brain-cells of a 
 grown-up person, grouped 
 together and associated by 
 fibres, etc., in a most com- 
 plex way. 
 
 divisions of an orange when we cut it across. 
 Later on, see how complex the brain is (Figs. 23 
 and 24), how some cells have approached nearer to 
 others and have connected themselves with others. 
 Let a boy realise that the time for cell-planting 
 and cell-connection is now : the earlier the better. 
 
 Let him train his senses and his imagination so 
 that he may enjoy things which are clean and useful 
 
NOTES ON BOYS PHYSIOLOGY. 
 
 179 
 
 otherwise his first enjoyments will be of things that 
 are foul and harmful. Let him not only connect what 
 is useful with what is pleasant to him, but let him 
 also know just why that connection is important ; 
 just how that connection is registered in the brain, 
 and will be with him 
 perhaps through life, 
 and decide the way in 
 which he thinks and 
 feels afterwards, attrac- 
 ting him to duties. 
 
 He must again and 
 again be taught that 
 everything counts, and 
 especially every thought. 
 On no account must his 
 anatomy and physiology 
 be separated from his 
 psychology and religion. 
 He must be reminded 
 constantly of such inter- 
 esting ideas as those of Professor James and Profes- 
 sor Elmer Gates. He can experiment now and then 
 for himself, e.g., by positions and breathings, and see 
 how, for instance, muscular relaxing with rhythmical 
 breathing may relieve him of anxiety, just before a 
 match or an examination ; how, on the other hand, 
 pleasant thoughts will relieve him of unrhythmical 
 breathing and muscular tension. He must under- 
 stand that every thought has its chemical and physi- 
 cal effects ; that it is altering his body for the better 
 
 N 
 
 Fig. 24. -Brain-cells associated in 
 groups — every member of a group 
 is connected with every other 
 member, and the whole group is 
 connected with the general nerve- 
 system, thanks to the fibres. 
 
l80 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 or for the worse ; and that he is responsible for his 
 body because he is responsible for his thought. This 
 must not make him fussy — a serious danger, requir- 
 ing great tact on the part of teachers. What we 
 want is that he should understand what is normaly 
 and what helps to form or restore the normal, to 
 remove the abnormal. 
 
 Let him understand that he is the manager of his 
 body, and that he must without morbidness correct 
 its mistakes. That correction is as truly an art as 
 the working out of any exercises that he does in the 
 class-room or the playing-field. He can be told that 
 now his body is in the wrong position, the chin too 
 far forward, the spine abnormally curved, and so on ; 
 and then he can be told- what exercises would affect 
 the muscles and remedy the faults. Teachers of 
 anatomy and physiology have no idea how many 
 useful lessons they can easily extract from just the 
 common things which boys are doing unconsciously. 
 A boy frowns — there is a chance for a lesson about 
 the muscles of the face and about the effects of 
 muscular tension. 
 
 But almost the only people who draw striking 
 conclusions and practical conclusions from the data 
 of anatomy and physiology are — advertisers ! Read 
 their scientific notes, really for the most part 
 accurate, about the liver and kidneys. The masses 
 of our people get their entire education about the 
 body, from advertisements, chiefly from fraudulent 
 yet clever advertisements which begin with fact, but 
 pass on to fiction ; having interested the person with 
 
NOTES ON boys' PHYSIOLOGY. l8l 
 
 a true description of ailments or of health-conditions, 
 they then go on to suggest not the permanent 
 remedy and the way of avoidance of causes, but some 
 liver-spur, some kidney-reliever for the time. The 
 pity of it is that the writers and teachers of anatomy 
 and physiology, though they may begin as the adver- 
 tisers do with facts, do not often begin with 
 interesting and familiar facts, and do not proceed, as 
 the advertisers do, to practical conclusions. They 
 miss their more than golden opportunity. 
 
 The above scattered remarks are meant to be 
 merely suggestive. Hundreds of other equally good 
 or better remarks might be cited. For instance, one 
 could take cold water as a thing interesting to all 
 boys, either because they like it or because they hate 
 it. From the effects of cold water upon the sensa- 
 tions and feelings many facts and principles of 
 anatomy and physiology might be drawn. How 
 much better this would be than to begin with the 
 names of the bones of the body and their joints and 
 so on, then to proceed to the names of the organs, 
 their uses and so on, in which at present the boy 
 does not take the very least atom of interest, except 
 in so far as he expects to score marks by his know- 
 ledge, or else avoid impositions. 
 
 Somehow there seems to be a sort of shrinking 
 fear on the part of learned lecturers and writers, 
 lest, if they drew a practical conclusion, some critic 
 should jump on them and say, ** This is outside your 
 province: your province is pure science — this is 
 practical conduct." The specialist may tell you, as 
 
l82 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 Dr. Hill does, of the individual cells in the human 
 body, and of the ways in which they help one 
 another. But when it comes to the ways in which 
 we should help the cells, the " specialist " fears to 
 come off holy ground, and to walk upon the land of 
 human interests and needs. Still less does he dream 
 — or dare to tell his dream — that as each cell in our 
 body depends for much of its welfare upon all the 
 other cells and upon us as its owner, so each human 
 being in our world, you and I and all the rest, may 
 depend for much of its welfare upon all the other 
 human beings, and upon God as its owner. I sup- 
 pose that if the anatomists and physiologists of the 
 *' schools • ' were to teach us our mutual dependence 
 and duties and responsibilities and privileges, they 
 would exist in mortal terror of being accused of 
 trespassing on the grounds of hygiene, or poaching 
 on the preserves of religion. How can a real teacher 
 of anatomy and physiolog}- help trespassing ? How 
 can he so devitalise his subject as to strike out from 
 his lecture such a phrase as this, because it savoured 
 of religion and ethics ? " There are many spirits in 
 
 man, good spirits and bad spirits Ever}- little 
 
 cell in the body incarnates a spirit. Ever}- group of 
 cells is the incarnation of a larger spirit — an ego — 
 composed of an aggregation of harmonious spirits, 
 just as ever}' society has a * spirit,' even though each 
 separate individual has a spirit — is a spirit." 
 
 This dread of preaching is so morbid. It is not 
 the preaching that one needs to be afraid of — it is 
 the wrong wa}* of preaching, and especially the 
 
PHYSICAL TESTS, WITH RECORDS. 183 
 
 preaching from a pinnacle, out of touch with the 
 listener and his dangers and difficulties, his interests, 
 attractions, yearnings 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 PHYSICAL TESTS FOR BOYS: WITH RECORDS. 
 
 Physical tests, with records, are needed by the 
 whole nation, including those about to marry ; but 
 they are especially needed for the young as a pre- 
 ventive. It would be well if we had a register, 
 perhaps not annual, but renewed every few years, 
 a census of people and their general state of health. 
 Let it be as compulsory as any other registration. 
 
 For boys, however, the tests and records must be 
 very thorough. Those which have been made by 
 Dr. Roberts are not nearly wide enough, valuable as 
 they are in certain respects. Dr. Clouston gives 
 some interesting statistics as to the height and 
 weight of boys at different ages, taking a very low 
 standard — the lowest standard, he says, with which 
 parents who are at all well-to-do should be con- 
 tent :— 
 
 Gain in weight. In height. At what age. 
 
 9 lbs. - - - — - 4 to 5 
 
 4 to 5 lbs. - - — - 5 to 6 
 
 2 to 4 lbs. each yearjij inches a year] 
 
 (say 18 lbs.) ( (9 to 12)" I - 6 to 12 
 
 (The weight should be 5 stone 4 lbs., the height 
 
 4 feet 5 inches, at the age of 12), 
 
 4 to 10 lbs. each year 2 J inches each year - 12 to 15 
 
184 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 10 lbs. each year - 3 inches each year - 15 to 17 
 
 6 lbs. - - - less than 2 inches - 17 to 18 
 6 lbs. - . . ji inch - - - 18 to 19 
 4 lbs. - - - i inch - - - ig to 20 
 10 lbs. - - - 1 inch - - - after 20 
 
 Dr. Roberts (in his " Manual of Anthropometr}' ") 
 says that: — 
 
 The weight (with clothes) was — 
 
 50 lbs., the height 41 inches, at the age of 5 
 
 66 lbs., „ 50J „ „ „ 10 
 
 94 lbs., „ 60J „ „ „ 15 
 
 132 lbs., „ 66J „ „ „ 20 
 
 The difference between the tallest and shortest 
 boys at the age of 14 was 20 inches. These figures 
 are taken from the (often underfed) artisan class, and 
 so give the mtmnmm average with which one should 
 be satisfied. 
 
 The height and weight are useful as evidence, but 
 they are apt to be fallacious. A boy may be tall, yet 
 may have overgrown his strength ; he may be heavy, 
 yet may also be too fat; or he may apparently be 
 too light, yet owe his lightness to his fine and thin 
 bones. 
 
 Then, again, the size of the chest is not a satisfac- 
 tory criterion by itself. The chest may be over- 
 developed, as distinct from a small chest which yet 
 is lithe and flexible and has no waste-room for dust 
 and disease-germs. 
 
 The sight should always be tested. This is of vital 
 importance, so long as the sole prescription is not a 
 pair of spectacles, a prescription, like drugs, generally 
 
PHYSICAL TESTS, WITH RECORDS. 185 
 
 recommended far too early. There are plenty of 
 other ways worth trying first. 
 
 The heart, of course, should be examined, though 
 different doctors are liable to give different if not 
 contradictory reports. What one wishes to know is 
 whether the rhythm is regular, whether the blood- 
 pressure is too strong or too weak, and so forth. 
 
 The examination should be made not only when 
 the boy is in an ordinary- condition but also — and 
 particularly — after various kinds of exercise, and 
 after work ; so that one may know better which 
 forms of exercise are good or bad for this or that boy. 
 It is noticeable that, after his walk of a hundred and 
 twenty-five miles in less than twenty-seven hours, 
 Mann's heart was not morbidly enlarged or in any 
 way out of order ; neither apparently was his blood 
 remarkably acid. This speaks in favour of a pure 
 diet, at any rate for certain people. 
 
 The tongue, again, is another good test commonly 
 applied. As with the heart, so with the tongue, an 
 attempt should be made to find out what disagrees. 
 
 The blood should be examined, as well as the 
 urine, but occasionally and with great caution. 
 Many premature conclusions have been drawn from 
 the urine — for instance, with regard to " Bright's 
 Disease," which the boy never had at all. But it is 
 as well to test and see whether the urine is not 
 over-acid. The test with litmus-paper is extremely 
 simple. 
 
 The lungs are not tested well at present. Records 
 should be kept, not merely of the measurement of 
 
l86 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 the chest, but also of the rhythm and the number of 
 breaths in a minute, and of the extent : that is to 
 say, of the extent to which the boy uses his lower 
 and his middle breathing (in various directions) ; and 
 of his capacity in cubic inches. These tests should 
 be made and registered at intervals, so that some 
 effects of various exercises and dietaries may be 
 estimated. They are quite as important as — and far 
 easier to make than — the terminal examinations in 
 " learning." 
 
 As examples of the interest of these tests, especially when duly 
 certified, at schools, I quote first from McMillan's " Means and 
 Ends in Education," then from Behnke's " Speaking Voice." 
 
 " In Bradford, where experiments in breathing-drill have been 
 made in two Board-schools, the measurements (taken by Dr. Kerr, 
 the Howard Medallist for this year) show that of eighty boys, of 
 average physique, forty who took the breathing lessons grew one- 
 tenth more in stature within six months than did the remaining 
 forty who had no lung-drill. Yet the boys taking the breathing- 
 lessons were older than the others, and would, under ordinary 
 circumstances, have grown less rapidly than the younger com- 
 panions. The exercises are now being given in four large schools.' 
 
 After about two months' work in class, with only one lesson a 
 week, pupils of seventeen to twenty years of age are stated by 
 Behnke (p. 257) to have gained in breathing-capacity, 18. 17, 39, 41, 
 62, 31, 14, 31, 24, 31, 57, 44, 68, 62, 34, 41 cubic inches respectively: 
 and, in chest-girth, i^, i^, 2, 3^, 2^, 2^, i, 2J, 2J, ij, — , — , 24, 
 
 I notice here that the increase in chest-girth is not the same as 
 the increase in breathing-capacity : the pupils who had the greatest 
 increase in chest-girth (3^ inches) had not the greatest increase in 
 breathing-capacity (41 inches). This is partly because the measure- 
 ment of the chest-girth (outwards) does not take into account the 
 full increase in lung-capacity (partly downwards). 
 
 The nostrils should surely be examined. One is 
 likely to be less free than the other. Remedies such 
 
PHYSICAL TESTS, WITH RECORDS. 187 
 
 as the special breathing through one nostril, water- 
 breathing, and leisurely mastication should be sug- 
 gested. 
 
 The spine and its curvatures should be noted, and 
 abnormal curvatures should be corrected by such 
 exercises as have been offered in the Physical Edu- 
 cator. One or two are cited in the next chapter. 
 Other spinal tests might include the one with acetic 
 acid. I have known cases where it has led to a 
 recognition of disorders not suspected before, and 
 thus has led to sensible remedial work. 
 
 A simple index is the state of the skin, not only of 
 the face but also of the shoulders. To have spotty 
 shoulders is, as a well-known teacher of physical 
 culture has pointed out, a bad sign. The boy should 
 take a pride in having a clean skin, not merely 
 thanks to frequent washing but also thanks to 
 general purity of blood. 
 
 The excretion should be attended to. The boy 
 should be encouraged to perfect candour, and an 
 individual diet should be suggested, with certain 
 exercises, etc. (see Chapter XXL), in case of con- 
 stipation. 
 
 Occasionally the excreta themselves might be 
 analysed, in order that it may be known which foods 
 are nourishing the boy and which are not. Merely 
 to pass foods through the body does not nourish the 
 body. But whether this or that food is passed 
 through the body unused or not, cannot easily be 
 found out except by the examination of the excreta. 
 The process of examination is, for a specialist, not 
 
l88 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 more objectionable than many post-mortem examin- 
 ations, and not a few operations. 
 
 Then, again, the pace of eating should be regis- 
 tered, the average pace for average mouthfuls, in- 
 cluding mouthfuls of half-liquid foods. Tact will 
 have to be used in order that morbid fussiness may 
 be avoided. 
 
 And of course the teeth should be examined also, 
 and attended to at once. Much of their health will 
 depend upon the pace of eating and the kind of food. 
 It is generally agreed that flesh-foods are bad for the 
 teeth, while dry grain-foods or cereals are good for 
 them. 
 
 All the tests and records should be with a view to 
 remedial work and a legitimate pride in a normal 
 body — to such remedial \\'ork as the care of the feet, 
 their cleanliness and shape ; the removing of over- 
 tension of the muscles, as shown in gripped hands 
 and frowning faces ; and even the removal of a ten- 
 dency to secretiveness : these matters seem to me to 
 be a part both of school-education and of home- 
 education. 
 
 How utterly wanting schools are, except for their 
 occasional *' reports," in tests and records of the 
 feelings of the boys! Surely it is just as essential 
 that a boy should be comfortable, energetic, and 
 self-controlled, as that he should be a certain height, 
 a certain weight, or a certain age ! Or, dear soul, 
 should know long lists of places, battles, temple- 
 furniture, mathematical formula;, " irregular " duals 
 and genitives, and so forth. The things that really 
 
PHYSICAL TESTS, WITH RECORDS. 189 
 
 count are the comfort, energy, and self-control. 
 Hence there is urgent need of candour between 
 boys and their elders, candour which can onl}- come 
 through real and tactful friendship. 
 
 This record of the boy's feelings is very important 
 according to modern views about emotions and their 
 effects on physical health. Dr. Schofield has rightly 
 maintained that the person who thinks himself 
 diseased, and }et has no sign which the doctor can 
 find out, is as really diseased as a person who has 
 many signs. For surely the imagination of a disease 
 is itself as genuine a disease as any. The feelings 
 become a test, and indeed may become the test, of 
 health. 
 
 To attend to these things may make certain boys 
 too introspective : that is the danger. But in most 
 boys — if the managers have tact — it will develop a 
 proper pride, a pride in a normal body. 
 
 And it is b}- all these and other data as well, that 
 any changes of diet, etc., must be tested. It is not 
 sufficient to test them through effects on the height 
 and weight, we must also test them by effects on the 
 brain-work, feelings, etc. After a fair trial such tests 
 and records will be simply invaluable evidence for 
 the home and the nation. 
 
 The illustration of the Ergograph, invented by 
 Professor Mosso, of Turin, shows a way of register- 
 ing some effects of brain-work, etc., upon muscular 
 work and physical energy — a way that is likely to 
 be deeply interesting to ever^'one, and not likely to 
 tend to morbid and self-centred fussiness. The 
 
igo II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 finger (to the right) Hfts a weight or pulls against 
 resistance, and its energy and endurance (its weak- 
 ness and fatigue) are tested by up and down lines 
 
 Fig. 25.— Mosso's Ergograph. 
 
 traced on paper. After severe examination-work the 
 weakness and fatigue are more noticeable, as a 
 general rule. This is only one example out of many 
 to show how there are easy, yet none the less 
 important tests, if only we would apply them. If 
 only we could get absolute candour on the part of 
 boys (and this implies genuine friendship on the part 
 of his managers), we should get still more valuable 
 evidence. 
 
 Such candour would prevent many punishments 
 by preventing the mistakes themselves. I know one 
 master who says to his boys, '* I can forgive mis- 
 takes. I cannot forgive secretiveness and lying. I 
 want to help you, to work with you. If you will not 
 tell me openly where your weaknesses are, you must 
 go away from here and make room for another boy 
 whom I can help. If you will tell me, I believe we 
 can conquer them together." He applies the test 
 
PRIDE IN THE BODY: REMEDIAL WORK. I9I 
 
 of the boy's own feelings and experiences. And the 
 excellent physical and mental and moral results at 
 his school speak for themselves. 
 
 For of what use is height, weight, size, etc., even 
 together with activity, if all the time there is discom- 
 fort, if all the time mistakes are made which now and 
 afterwards breed self-disrespect in the boy and man. 
 Such discomfort and such mistakes must be regis- 
 tered as far as they can, not with a view to a collec- 
 tion of morbid statistics, but with a view to sensible 
 preventives and remedies before the age cometh at 
 which no remedial work will be done. That age is 
 getting earlier and earlier every year, at least so far 
 as I can judge by results. As civilisation goes on, 
 people need nervous as well as muscular remedies at 
 an ever earlier age, and at an ever earlier age they 
 begin — alas ! — to despair of themselves. It is during 
 youth that the tests should be made and the 
 disorders anticipated and remedied. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 PRIDE IN THE BODY : PREVENTIVE AND REMEDIAL 
 WORK. 
 
 THERE are some who hold that a boy should 
 never be proud of his body. They are not 
 altogether wrong if the boy thinks that he is any- 
 thing but normal, anything better than he should be^ 
 when he is well-developed and lithe and clean. 
 Even if he is conceited, however, that abnormal 
 
192 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 speciality, perhaps the big biceps which he has over- 
 developed, may be useful as a starting-point for 
 self-respect. I know so many cases of boys and 
 young men who have received their first step to- 
 wards self-control and self-respect through the 
 development of a big biceps which could lift in- 
 creasingly heavy weights. Such weight-lifting did 
 much harm, but at least it made the individual 
 think, for the first time, '* Well, after all, I have a 
 body that is not quite helpless, a body that it is 
 worth while to attend to and to train, and that it is 
 worth while not to abuse." 
 
 Anything is better than to regard the body as a 
 thing to be neglected or bullied. It is at least our 
 instrument of expression. In reality it is far more 
 than that : it is our constant companion ; it in- 
 fluences us more than any friend, any external con- 
 dition. It is always with us, impressing its state 
 upon our plastic mind. 
 
 Rather, the boy should compare it with his own 
 garden (if he is taught gardening, as he should be) ; 
 or with a house or a study, in which he should take 
 a pride, or even with his notebooks, which he should 
 keep orderly and neat. He must take as much sen- 
 sible pride in his body as in anything else of his, 
 much more pride than he takes in his cricket-bat. 
 
 For remedial work, however, the boy cannot at 
 first depend entirely on his own judgment : he needs 
 an expert with heart and soul in his work, a man 
 who understands boys and their needs; a man who 
 knows that boys need plenty of rest and repose, that 
 
PRIDE IN THE BODY : REMEDIAL WORK. I93 
 
 they must not have long stretches of violent or ex- 
 hausting work ; a man who understands the interests 
 of boys, and especially their ambition to succeed 
 in games ; a man who knows that boys have a sense 
 of humour, and at the same time are intelligent and 
 ready to understand what is put before them in the 
 right way. 
 
 It follows that the trainers of boys must be better 
 educated and better paid than they are. There must 
 be more of them. It is ridiculous to expect one 
 single instructor to attend properly to hundreds of 
 boys at once, especially if he be — from the ordinary 
 point of view — uneducated, well-trained though he 
 may have been in a certain routine of gymnastics. 
 Why should not gentlemen take up Physical Culture 
 as their profession ? What is there infra dig. about 
 it ? Surely nothing. The amount of qualifications 
 required are as striking as those required for any 
 profession. The man must know his Anatomy, 
 Physiology, Hygiene, some Pathology, Mechanics, 
 Psychology ; he must have sympathy, patience, tact ; 
 he must be a gentleman ; he must have a strong will ; 
 he must have great intelligence ; he must be himself 
 heathy and fit in mind as well as in body. Does 
 any profession demand more gentlemanlike qualifica- 
 tions ? I think not. 
 
 The expert will graduate the work. Of course, as 
 far. as possible, he will classify the boys, so as to 
 relieve himself of too much individual work ; but he 
 will not put all the boys at once through some hard 
 if not dangerous performance. The nervous boys he 
 
194 ^I- PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 will train by degrees. When he is teaching nervous 
 boys to swim, his first aim will be to give these bo}s 
 confidence. He will start them well within their 
 depth ; probabl}- he will not start them till he has 
 taught them the movements of the arms and legs ; 
 he will not make them dive from a high board before 
 they can swim ; he will gradually increase the height 
 of the dive and its difficulty. 
 
 The expert must train the boys to self-correction 
 afterwards, and indeed must go a step further; he 
 must train them to sensible correction of others. 
 When a small boy is going wrong in any way, a hint 
 from a big boy will often carr}' far more weight than 
 a hint from the master himself. " Why don't you 
 hold your head up? Try this exercise for it" — such 
 a hint, let us say, from the captain of the eleven, 
 would be singularly effective in the case of an ordi- 
 nary boy at school. 
 
 In a little chapter like this it is impossible to go 
 into much detail. All that I can do is to cite a few 
 common remedial practices as samples. 
 
 First come the feet. If the boy does not stand 
 evenly, if one leg is rather shorter than the other, 
 then let him stretch down first the heel then the toes 
 of that leg, standing perhaps upon a footstool or a 
 raised plank. If he does not walk with his feet at 
 the proper angle, if he turns them too much in or 
 out, let him go through the lunge-drill suggested in 
 Chapter XXV. If his feet are flat, let him walk up 
 the inclined plank, and let him practise the starting- 
 exercise in the same chapter ; and so on. 
 
PRIDE IN THE BODY : REMEDIAL WORK. 
 
 195 
 
 His neck will probably need remedial work. Some 
 exercises are cited in the drill in Chapter XXV. The 
 first will probably be the most useful. Others are 
 given in the Physical Educator. 
 
 For developing atrophied or weak muscles about 
 the abdomen and spine, he may try the inclined 
 plank or the quarter-circle or the ladder, so long as 
 in each case he does not strain, and attends to the 
 correct position — chin in and back hollow. The 
 illustrations (copied from some exercises selected by 
 
 W 
 
 Fig. 26. Fig. 27. 
 
 Lfieut. Flynn for the Physical Educator) show types 
 of remedial work in case a boy "pokes" with his 
 chin, has his shoulders too far forward or his chest 
 too far back, and his back rounded. 
 
 In Figs. 26 and 27 the boy is doing an exercise 
 
 o 
 
196 
 
 I. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 under supervision 
 and with help. In 
 Fig. 28 he is doing 
 one under super- 
 vision ; in Figs. 29 
 and 30 without su- 
 pervision; in Figs. / 
 31 and 32 without 
 apparatus, unless 
 we count the floor 
 as apparatus. In 
 all these exer- 
 cises, important 
 neck-mu scles 
 
 Fig. 29. 
 
 Fig 30. 
 
PKiDH IN thh: body: remedial work. 
 
 197 
 
 and trunk-muscles are strengthened ; in some of 
 them other muscles are strengthened also (for in- 
 stance, those of the arm and leg). Addi- 
 tional remedial work is suggested in the 
 special chapter on Positions and Expres- 
 sions (XXIV.). 
 
 IG. 31. 
 
 The movements in 
 Figs. ^^ and 34 belong 
 to the ''Full Contrac- 
 tion " System, and deal 
 especially with these great and much- 
 needed muscles, the latissimus dorsi, 
 which is used in so many 
 forms of athletics and exer- 
 cise, and the trapezms, 
 which is too often 
 neglected in physi- 
 cal culture. Notice 
 how the hand may be relaxed, and should generally 
 be so, if the object is to exercise the other muscles. 
 Sandow's advice to everj'one to grip a spring-grip 
 •or dumb-bell with both hands all the time is most 
 unscientific. It not only produces stiffness and ten- 
 sion : it also distracts the attention from the special 
 parts. For a few muscles the dumb-bell is good, 
 especially if used occasionally. 
 
 As helps towards such remedial work, there should 
 be provided plenty of good models, including statues; 
 though there should not be an attempt to make a uni- 
 form type of boy. There must be individual ideals 
 according to age, height, weight, etc. ; and also 
 according to character. 
 
198 
 
 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 Another help will be the large mirror. Without it 
 the boy will perhaps be unconvinced that he is stand- 
 ing crookedly, that one nostril is nearly closed, that 
 his face is frowning, that he has this or that fault. 
 Properly used, no apparatus is more likely to lead to 
 good remedial work. The lungs could not easily be 
 tested in this 
 way. The}- 
 coud be test- 
 ed, and then 
 their weak- 
 nesses reme- 
 died, chiefly 
 by the hands. 
 A boy might 
 test his low- 
 est breathing 
 by putting 
 his hands on ^ 
 
 Fig. 33. r-K.. 34. 
 
 niS abdomen ; Fk;. 33.-" Full-Contraction " exercise to 
 
 his middle strengthen the trapezius muscle, 
 
 breathing bv ^'^' 34- ""^"^^"^""t^^ction" exercise (for each 
 o / side in turn) to strengthen the latissituiis dorsi 
 putting his muscle. 
 
 hands now on his front ribs, now at the sides, now 
 on his back ribs, and so forth. 
 
 Not only should muscles and organs be remedied 
 if they are abnormal ; other things should be re- 
 garded as abnormal as well — nervousness, secret ive- 
 ness, untruthfulness, temper. Sluggishness and mor- 
 bidness should be regarded as no less abnormal and 
 undesirable than a weak biceps or a wrongly curved 
 spine. 
 
PRIDK IN THE BODY : RENfEDIAL WORK. I99 
 
 The best of remedial work of the right kind is that 
 it can be worked out to a great extent by practices 
 that are good for all purposes. Let us take an 
 example from this list — a case of secretiveness and 
 untruthfulness. Nothing seemed to appeal to one 
 boy until he was taught Sloyd, which, as everyone 
 knows, is a training in manual and mental accuracy, 
 especially in carpentering. When the boy had be- 
 come proficient in Sloyd, which interested him, he 
 had not only exercised his arm, hand, and fingers : 
 he had also become much more open-minded and 
 truthful. 
 
 Or, again, consider leisurely breathing while the 
 boy stands in a good position. It can be practised 
 between the exercises and at intervals during work- 
 ing hours. Such practices are bound to be remedial 
 for most boys, but not morbidly so : they serve a 
 number of purposes as well — thus they prevent the 
 boy from fixing his attention solely on his own faults. 
 
 The same applies to most of the trunk-exer- 
 cises, such as the Golf-swing. While a boy should 
 know the many uses and values of a ;novement, he 
 need not always be thinking of it as remedial. It is 
 remedial, but that aspect of it need not be over- 
 emphasised. 
 
 Nor should a boy be allowed to imagine that it 
 is a special merit on his part to do the exercises ; he 
 should be led to regard them as the least that could 
 be expected of him ; he should regard the normal body 
 as a matter of course, as no less a matter of course 
 than legible writing or intelligible reading out loud. 
 
200 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 So with constipation — that must be remedied. 
 A boy should be led to regard his daily excretion 
 (I shall deal with it in the next chapter) as equally 
 important with his daily feeding. At present there 
 is no doubt that the want of free excretion is a great 
 bar to self-respect. How can a boy look upon his 
 body as God's house, how can a bo}^ consider his 
 body worthy of God, if that body sends out foul 
 excreta, or, worse still, if it keeps them in ? Few 
 have realised how much this habit of constipation — 
 almost a national habit now — not only poisons the 
 blood and the body, but also stands in the way of 
 self-respect and consequent pride and sensible self- 
 control. 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 WATER, CLEANLINESS, AND EXCRETION. 
 
 WATER, when rightly used, is valuable as a 
 help to self-control, as a soother, as a 
 hardener, as a tonic, and also as a cleanser. 
 
 The most cleansing kind of water is of course the 
 warm. Warm water should be applied to the skin 
 before soap is used. Then good soap should be 
 used, together with energetic rubbing. This is for 
 cleanness. Cold water is rather for self-control, for 
 hardening, and for a tonic ; it is especially advisable 
 after the body has become warm and after the bod>' 
 has been cleansed. With the cold water there 
 should as a rule be energetic rubbing, as with the 
 
WATER, CLEANLINESS, EXCRETION. 
 
 201 
 
 warm. This will invigorate the body, and give it a 
 pleasant glow. 
 
 Local uses of cold water are invaluable. First there 
 is the use as a tonic, when cold water is sponged over 
 the head, especially the forehead and the back of the 
 neck (at least so I find), and when it is allowed to 
 flow over the wrists. Another use which helps self- 
 control is the application 
 icERvicAL(NECK) ^f ^q\^ water to the base 
 BRACHiAL(ARMs; of the spinc, as well as the 
 back of the neck. This 
 should be followed by 
 brisk exercise. And indeed 
 that is a general rule after 
 the use of cold water. 
 Breathe fully and rhyth- 
 mically, then move briskly, 
 to restore the poise and 
 the circulation. 
 
 The regions of the spine 
 near which the water may 
 be applied, are shown in 
 Fig. 35, and the nerves 
 
 Fig. 35.-Some nerve-centres, ^f ^j^g i^^^.g^. region— the 
 Cold-water sponeriner over the ^, , . . n j • 
 
 u- u . 11 . » f .u^ Sacral, as it is called — in 
 
 highest and lowest parts of the * 
 
 spine, and cold sitz-baths. may Fig. 36. Fig. 37 shows a 
 
 be very helpful. cold sitz-bath, not to be 
 
 taken soon after a meal or any severe exertion. 
 
 In some cases a gradual progress from cool to cold 
 water is better. The nerve-specialists. Professors 
 Proust and Ballet, in their useful little work on 
 
202 
 
 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 SYMPATHETIC 
 GANGLIA « NERVES 
 
 *' Neurasthenia," say : " Sitz-baths with still water 
 are to be administered, first temperate, then cool, and 
 finally cold. Thus one will arrive progressively at 
 
 the use of cold baths 
 with jets of water 
 (perineal douches or 
 douches localised to 
 the region of the gen- 
 ito-urinary centre in 
 the spine). Beard 
 recommends cold 
 enemata." 
 
 Both hot and cold 
 water can be used 
 internally as well as 
 externally. 
 
 As to the enema, 
 we cannot recom- 
 mend it indiscrimi- 
 nately. With many people it has become a neces- 
 sity. At the best it seems to be a temporary and 
 makeshift re- 
 medy; it does 
 not suit every 
 one even as 
 that. I do not 
 think much of 
 the objection 
 
 that it is *'un- ii«;- 37- 
 
 natural." Constipation itself is surely unnatural, 
 and it is less unnatural to remove the poisonous 
 
 SfiiCRfi 
 NERVES (!/T0 5) 
 
 Scrotum sciatic nerve 
 
 Fig. 36. — Some Nerves from the 
 
 Sacral Plexus near the base of the 
 
 Spine. These may be affected by 
 
 cold water sponging, etc. 
 
WATER, CLEANLINESS, EXCRETION. 203 
 
 matter by means of water than to let it remain 
 within, or even to remove it by irritant drugs. We 
 must remember, also, that the enema may be of 
 service in cases of diarrhoea as well as of constipation, 
 and is surely preferable to the strong astringents 
 which keep the cause of the trouble unexpelled. 
 And if, while the enema is being used, say daily 
 for a fortnight, then ever}' other day for a fortnight, 
 and so on, the trunk-muscles are strengthened, the 
 organs brought into position again, and the food and 
 drink regulated, and so forth, the enema may be the 
 least harmful remedy for that evil which simply must 
 be cured if we are to be clean and healthy. 
 
 There are several ways of using it ; for instance, it 
 may be used with glycerine or pure oil alone, or with 
 warm or hot or cold water and salt or pure soap. 
 This seems a good plan for many : — 
 
 Lie on the left side, easy and relaxed, and very gradually inject 
 about a quart of warm water with very pure soap dissolved in it. 
 Turn over upon your right side. Hold in the water (this should 
 not be difficult if you have injected it leisurely) for ten to fifteen 
 minutes, then let it come out into the pan while you gently massage 
 your abdomen in the fashion to be described directly. 
 
 Massage to relieve constipation will include a cir- 
 cular movement of the abdomen, first up the right 
 side, from just above the leg to below the ribs, then 
 across and well under the ribs, then down the left 
 side (Fig. 38) to the leg. It may help if you rub, 
 not too violently, over the spine, about the regions 
 marked L and S (in Fig. 35). 
 
 Then practise the lowest breathing (Chapter 
 XXII.), to send the stomach down upon the colon. 
 
204 
 
 PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 DESCEN DING 
 COLON 
 
 LEFT SIDE 
 
 RECTUM 
 
 ASCENDING 
 COLON 
 
 RIGHTSIDE 
 
 VERMIFORM 
 APPENDIX 
 SMALLER 
 INTESTINES 
 
 ANUS 
 
 Fig. 38. — Some of our organs — a Dia- 
 gram to suggest various Exercises to 
 squeeze and massage the digestive 
 secretive organs {e.^. the Liver and 
 Colon). (Adapted from Dr. Creighton 
 Hale's "Massage.") 
 
 and after it draw up 
 the diaphragm and 
 relieve the stomach 
 of pressure and hence 
 the colon. In the 
 lowest breathing, un- 
 less you are weak, 
 hold in your abdo- 
 men, so that your 
 stomach may be sent 
 down rather than out. 
 The relaxed breath- 
 ing will remove over- 
 tension, which is a 
 common cause of 
 constipation. 
 
 Never strain; never 
 worry if you miss your 
 
 Viscera 
 Seminal'vessels,^^ _ 
 
 scrotum}^ 
 
 Fici. 39. — How the Seminal Vessels lie between 
 two of the Organs of Excretion. 
 
 ^ Levator An; 
 muscle. 
 
WATER, CLKANLINKSS, EXCRETION. 205 
 
 regular motion ; but take sensible trouble to help 
 yourself by some of the means offered here, or by 
 others that you know of. To-da\' you have a better 
 chance than ever before, since writers and speakers 
 are not too shy to give advice, and to point out the 
 mischiefs of self-poisoning. 
 
 This is what Sir Lauder Brunton, for example, 
 says on the subject. Look at the diagram (Fig. 39) 
 in the light of his very outspoken words : — 
 
 '* Accumulation of faeces has a similar action to 
 accumulation of gas, and patients liable to emissions 
 should have their bowels empty when they go to 
 
 sleep Considering that the prostate and the 
 
 seminal vesicles lie close in front of the rectum, with 
 very little tissue between, the wonder is, not that 
 sometimes the fluid is squeezed out of them by a 
 hard scybalous mass in the rectum, or by muscular 
 strain, but rather that this does not happen every 
 time a constipated person goes to stool." 
 
 Of the many movements that may help to bring 
 the organs into better position (so that the stomach, 
 for instance, does not cramp the colon), to strength- 
 en the abdominal muscles, to quicken those move- 
 ments of the organs that pass their contents along, 
 and that improve the general health, the following 
 may be as good as any. Some belong to the chapter 
 on drill (XXV.). Of course games, athletics, gym- 
 nastics, swimming, boxing, etc., are not to be neg- 
 lected ; they have great value here, when rightly 
 practised. 
 
 I. Breathe fully in through the nostrils (Chapter 
 
206 
 
 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 XXII.). While you hold the breath in, put your hands 
 on your abdomen and move your stomach in and 
 out. This is sometimes called '' muscular breath- 
 ing." It may help to remedy indigestion as well as 
 constipation. It should not be tried just before a 
 meal ; it should not be tried violently. 
 
 2. With your hands on your hips, thumbs behind 
 and fingers forward (to support the organs), and with 
 firm legs, as in Fig. 40 (a), turn the body round to 
 
 A B c 
 
 Fig. 40. 
 
 the right (6), and then to the left, stretching the trunk- 
 muscles without straining them. Then, keeping the 
 face to the front, circle the body round, again 
 stretching the muscles without straining them, first 
 forward to the right, and round and back to the left, 
 then in the reverse direction. Don't frown. Keep 
 the chin in and the small of the back hollow, and 
 breathe leisurely through the nostrils. 
 
WATER, CLEANLINESS, EXCRETION. 207 
 
 In Chapter XXW you will find other useful 
 movements, especially the Golf-swing, the Lawn 
 Tennis Service, the cricket-series (bowling, stretch- 
 ing, stooping, throwing, batting), the Leg-series 
 (particularly the drawing of each knee in turn up 
 towards the chest), the kick with straight leg, and 
 the floor exercises : q.v. 
 
 Attend to the position of the body, for the reason 
 given above. These practices will encourage a 
 better carriage. 
 
 Do not neglect the mental side, however. Suggest 
 to yourself (see Chapter XLL) — for example, just 
 before you go to sleep — that you are going to be 
 regular : give the " suggestion " at least a fortnight 
 in which to sink down into your mind and be 
 effective. 
 
 And be regular. Go to the lavatory, perhaps soon 
 after you have got out of bed, or after breakfast. Be 
 leisurely. Once more, do not strain, do not worry. 
 
 It is possible that a pack round the waist might be 
 useful, though boys at school seldom care for such 
 " fads." The plan is to soak a towel in cool water, 
 wring it out, and put it round the waist, and over it 
 fasten a piece of blanket, just before bedtime. When 
 you have taken these off, in the night or the next 
 morning, rub the skin with a dr}' towel, bathe it 
 with cold water, rub it again, and get into bed. Be 
 sure that the wet towel is not used again without 
 being washed first. 
 
 Probably it will be far easier to seek some diet- 
 remedy; as, wholemeal biscuits or bread (or oat- 
 
208 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 meal biscuits or porridge, if oatmeal agrees with 
 you), bran-tea, nuts eaten leisurely, fruits (prunes, 
 figs, raisins, or others that act as aperients in your 
 case), properly-cooked spinach, and so on. Avoid 
 too much meat, hard-boiled eggs, strong cocoa, 
 strong tea, and astringents generally — such as black 
 currants. 
 
 If you are in an uncomfortable state, it may be 
 best (or least bad) to take some gentle aperient — 
 say some effervescent salts, which may also help 
 you owing to the fact that they have some anti-acid 
 bicarbonate of soda in them. But regard this sort 
 of thing as only temporary. Meanwhile get yourself 
 fit by massage, exercises, etc. 
 
 I speak from personal experience. When a boy I 
 suffered severe depression and discomfort through 
 constipation. The lavatories at my first school were 
 abominable (schools are better in this respect to- 
 day) ; and I knew nothing about suitable diet or 
 exercise. I worried considerably, about this and 
 most matters. Of course I was polluting my whole 
 blood-stream, and hence my body and mind. 
 
 I had no idea that the pressure on the seminal 
 vessels was so bad for me. I had some idea that 
 there was unpleasant pressure somewhere when I 
 failed to empty my bladder before going to sleep. 
 This is an important matter. It applies to the early 
 morning hours as well. Figs. 41 and 42 will show 
 how the organs of excretion may affect the tender 
 sacks in which the precious fluid is stored. 
 
 Then there is the excretion through the skin. 
 
WATER, CLEANLINESS, EXCRETION. 
 
 209 
 
 URETER 
 
 RECTUW 
 
 This you can quicken by breathings, exercises, warm 
 baths, etc. After them, you should cleanse your 
 
 body thoroughly with 
 pure soap, and wash 
 that soap off, and 
 sponge with cold 
 water. This applies 
 especially to the feet, 
 to the region between 
 BLADDER the Icgs, to thc penis 
 (including its under 
 skin), and to the arm- 
 -pits. These parts 
 probably have special 
 waste - products and 
 poisons of the body 
 to remove ; and, if 
 any will not work 
 easily by themselves, 
 you must relieve 
 them till they do. 
 There have been 
 cases of people who 
 have closed the pores 
 of their skin and 
 have suffered diseases 
 through this clog- 
 ging — for instance, 
 consumption through 
 the use of boracic 
 acid powder for the 
 
 Fig. 41.— Some Organs of Excretion. 
 
 VAS DEFERENS 
 
 (WHICH CARRIES THE 
 
 SEMEN down) 
 
 PROSTRATE 
 
 URETHR 
 
 Fig. 42. — How the Seminal Vessels 
 may be affected by the Bladder. 
 
2IO II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 feet. On the other hand, I know a man who can 
 reheve his most painful headaches by warming his 
 feet at the fire : it seems that the warmth — which 
 he might also get by a hot foot-bath, as in Fig. 43 
 — draws out some of the poisons, besides altering 
 the circulation. 
 
 Then there are the foul thoughts that must be 
 excreted — thoughts of impurity or unkindness or 
 unhappiness or failure. Drive them out by not 
 attending to them (they, like spoilt children, hate not 
 to be noticed), and by attending immediatel}- to some 
 healthier thought that interests you. For my own 
 part, I find imaginations of some game most effective ; 
 needless to say, I picture myself as playing far better 
 than I do in actual games. 
 
 But to return to the uses of water. Less objec- 
 tionable than the enemas, etc., is the drinking of soft 
 and pure water the first thing in the morning, 
 perhaps about eleven a.m., and the last thing at 
 night, though the eating of fruits and salads may be 
 equally good or even better, because of the valuable 
 " salts " which they contain, and because their water 
 is softer and purer than ordinary water. 
 
 Another use of water is for cleansing the mouth 
 and the nose. The mouth should be washed and the 
 teeth brushed after meals, before bedtime, and, of 
 course, in the early morning. 
 
 At that time, too, the nose should be blown ; and, if 
 the air be not ver}- fresh, the nose may be washed 
 occasionally with water breathed up into the nostrils 
 and then let out through the nostrils and the mouth. 
 
WATER, CLEANLINESS, EXCRETION. 
 
 211 
 
 In the water may be dissolved a pinch of table-salt, 
 and another pinch of bicarbonate of soda. For nose- 
 washing, cool or cold water seems best. 
 
 Other uses of water are not so easy to procure, 
 but there is no doubt that they would be of value 
 for boys. Among them I might cite again the wet 
 wrap or pack — for instance, the partial pack round 
 the waist in case of Indigestion or constipation, 
 round the chest in case of cold. The instructions 
 for the chest -pack are like those for the waist-pack. 
 Wring out a towel or cloth in cool water; set it — 
 not too tightly — round the chest; then over it, so as 
 to cover it completely, wrap a piece of blanket, and 
 fasten securelw Do this the very last thing at 
 night, when a little water may be drunk (sipped) as 
 well. If the pack is uncomfortable, then take it off, 
 dry yourself with a towel, and sponge 
 yourself with cold water; rub your- 
 self well, and get into bed again. 
 Such a pack will help to open the 
 pores of the skin, will cleanse the body, 
 and may equalise the circulation. 
 
 Then, in case 
 of cold feet and 
 
 the insomnia *^ "\/ -V^ 
 
 which so often 
 accompanies it. 
 the alternate hot 
 and cold foot- 
 bath might be 
 tried — two min- Fig. 43. 
 
212 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 utes in the hot bath or basin, as in Fig. 43, then 
 one in the cold, with friction ; then a repetition of 
 this; then a thorough drying and rubbing; then bed 
 and sleep. 
 
 But the various water-treatments, as practised in 
 Germany and elsewhere, require a whole volume 
 to themselves. The least unscientific work on the 
 subject is probably the one by Baruch, entitled 
 '' Hydrotherapy." 
 
 A 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 AIR AND BREATHINGS. 
 
 S I have said before, in order to realise any new 
 truth or set of truths, it is most useful — if not 
 essential — to hear exaggerated accounts, and after- 
 wards to put them in perspective. So I cite some 
 extreme statements by an American specialist. First 
 read them, then reflect how much fact and how 
 much fiction they contain. Attend to the fact ; for- 
 give the fiction. 
 
 He maintains that health, strength, and endurance 
 depend principally upon the amount of oxygen your 
 lungs breathe and digest (scientists make them 
 depend at least equally on your freedom from clog- 
 ging poisons) ; that the development of breathing 
 power should be the central object of every system 
 of physical exercise ; that there is only one rational 
 method of counteracting the evils that must result 
 from a sedentary life — deep breathing (diet, exercise, 
 
AIR AND BREATHING. 213 
 
 massage, repose, etc., he ignores) ; that the Kings, 
 when one breathes fully and correctly, transform the 
 foul sewage of your city into pure drinking-water, 
 changing the (?) black venous blood, foul with the 
 ashes of burnt up brain-cells and debris of worn-out 
 tissue, into pure, bright red blood; that a third of the 
 world's population dies of either consumption or 
 pneumonia, which practically means weak lungs 
 (wrong thoughts, wrong positions, wrong food, are 
 ignored here) ; that he knows of no " strong men " 
 whose muscles are not too large for the capacity of 
 their lungs (he himself was a good wrestler in earlier 
 life, before he trained his lungs; and he suffered 
 frequently from colds, dyspepsia, and constipation) ; 
 that the size of the chest-cavity is no sure test of 
 the breathing-capacity; that one extra cubic inch 
 breathed with each respiration means about one 
 hundred and twelve gallons of extra air breathed 
 each day ; that the vital machinery of the body is 
 in the internal body, not in the muscles of the arms, 
 legs, chest, etc. ; that health and long life depend on 
 the condition of the internal organs ; that good 
 breathing massages, kneads, and stirs up these 
 organs : that diaphramatic (or lower) breathing 
 exercises these organs directly ; that such breathing 
 (why not middle and upper and relaxing breathing 
 also, as well as the kind mentioned in Chapter 
 XXL?) prevents or cures consumption, hay fever, 
 bronchitis, catarrh, asthma, colds, indigestion, con- 
 stipation, poor circulation, leanness, obesity, ner- 
 vousness; builds the muscles, enlarges the chest, 
 
214 II- PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 broadens the shoulders, and removes " that tired 
 feehng " ! 
 
 Then, of course, there follows an advertisement I 
 Of course the advertiser has the world's secret, he 
 does not know what it is to fail with a patient, he is 
 sure there there is only one way of breathing — that is 
 his way ; and that this is the way, this fuller breathing, 
 whether the air be fresh or foul. The idea of 
 breathing any less energetically when the air is foul, 
 the idea that anyone may be forced to live in rooms, 
 etc., where the air is foul, never seems to have 
 occurred to this " respiratory specialist," in spite of 
 all his really valuable researches and experiences. 
 Imagine it ! Apparently he has not realised that the 
 right way to inhale at the top of a cliff by the sea- 
 shore is not the right way to inhale in a railway- 
 carriage with closed windows. 
 
 Ventilation is generally outside the boy's manage- 
 ment. Obviously it is a matter ot great moment ; but 
 surely the bo}' should never become a slave to fresh 
 air, as he does at more than one school which I 
 know, so that he is upset by a journey in a railway- 
 carriage with closed windows. That is rather too 
 much of a good thing. He should learn to control 
 himself and be fairly fit even when the air is not 
 quite fresh. It is hard to know how this practice 
 should be given, apart from the ordinary course of 
 life ; but certainly to accustom the boy to sleep out 
 in the open air every night would be likely to spoil 
 him for sleeping in a bedroom or steamer afterwards,, 
 delightful though the sleeping out is at the time. 
 
AIR AND BREATHING. 
 
 215 
 
 When the boy has air that is not quite fresh, then 
 he must make up for this by breathing more fully 
 than usual directly he has the fresh air. So it is 
 in cities. It is not a bad habit to take a few deep 
 breaths through the nostrils ivhenevcr one goes out of a 
 honse-door. 
 
 This way of employing odd moments and fixed 
 occasions for practice must be part of the boy's 
 education. In a special book on Breathing (pub- 
 lished by Gale and Polden), I have suggested other 
 times. Here I may cite the early morning before the 
 bath, the time before one goes out, after meals, and 
 
 ^ at intervals during 
 
 exercises (a fine 
 feature in the Swe- 
 dish and Japanese 
 systems). 
 
 I must refer to the 
 
 a b ov e-m e n t i o n e d 
 
 book also for details 
 
 to the different 
 
 pml 
 
 i 
 
 3-^ 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 / 
 
 / 1 
 
 
 1 1 
 
 (3 ; 
 
 
 E . ^i 
 
 
 fA 
 
 i.:;-^-! 
 
 as 
 
 Fig. 44, — The Lungs compared to a 
 room with flexible walls. 
 
 ways of breathing. 
 There, and in Cas- 
 sell's Physical Edu- 
 cator, I have com- 
 pared the breathing -apparatus to a room nearly 
 filled by a spongy substance. The room (Fig. 44) 
 can send out its floor downwards, its walls outwards, 
 and its ceiling slightly upwards. 
 
 The boy should learn first and foremost to breathe 
 in and well up through his nostrils. Nostril-breath- 
 
2l6 
 
 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 ing should, as it were, send the air almost — at least it 
 feels so — up to the eyes and beyond. Each nostril 
 should be developed in turn, but more attention 
 should be paid to the weaker one, probably the left. 
 The boy should use his handkerchief not always with 
 the right hand, but sometimes with the left. 
 
 The first breathing (Fig. 45) is downwards. The 
 boy sends his floor down. He helps this breathing 
 at first by sending his abdomen out, though after- 
 wards he should master the lowest breathing even 
 when he keeps his abdomen in, and, later on, when 
 he actually presses his abdomen in with his hands. 
 This breathing massages his stomach and liver when 
 he sends the diaphragm down, and relieves these 
 organs when he lifts and keeps his diaphragm up. 
 
 A special form called 
 " muscular breathing," 
 excellent in many cases 
 of indigestion and con- 
 stipation, has been sug- 
 gested in Chapter XXI. 
 
 In the second or mid- 
 dle breathing he keeps 
 his abdomen in and his 
 diaphragm up, puts his 
 hands on his ribs (as in Fig. 46, which shows the 
 three breathings), and feels his chest expand out- 
 wards as he takes a deep breath in through the nos- 
 trils. He must be sure to breathe out as thoroughly 
 as he can, as well as to breathe in thoroughly. 
 
 The third or top breathing is preceded by the first 
 
AIR AND BREATHING. 
 
 217 
 
 and second. As he breathes in through the nostrils 
 he first sends his abdomen out and his diaphragm 
 down ; then, while still breathing in, he draws his 
 abdomen in and his diaphragm up, and sends his 
 chest-walls well outwards ; then, still keeping his 
 abdomen in and his diaphragm up, he draws his 
 chest-walls in, so as to force the air, though not too 
 violently, to the apex of his lungs. A further stage 
 
 is when he can 
 do this exercise 
 and force the air 
 higher up still 
 by bending for- 
 wards from the 
 hips, shoulders 
 down, as in the 
 third position of 
 Fig. 46. 
 
 The fourth 
 kind of breath- 
 ing is the relax- 
 ed kind. I shall 
 speak of repose and economy for boys in the next 
 chapter. This relaxed breathing is preceded by the 
 lower and middle breathings. After them — that 
 is to say, after a full and deep breath through the 
 nostrils, a breath which lifts up the chest and head 
 and shoulders with it — the boy, who (in privacy, of 
 course) is standing with his arms limp at his side, or 
 is sitting thus on a bed or chair without arms, now 
 lets his diaphragm down, closes his eyes, lets his 
 
 Fig. 46. 
 
2l8 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 head sink forwards upon his chest, and lets his trunk 
 bend forwards from the hips. With every outward 
 breath he relaxes more and more. An illustration 
 in the next chapter shows him lying flat on his back 
 upon the floor, after rather severe exercise. He has 
 first relaxed the top part of his body in this wa}- while 
 he stood up ; then he has gradually let himself down 
 upon the floor. There he rests for a minute or two 
 while he thinks of something pleasant yet peaceful. 
 
 It is not enough that a boy should know the differ- 
 ent ways of breathing and practise them. Three R's 
 are as essential here as " Reading, Rriting and Rith- 
 metic." He must know about the Reasons, about 
 Rhythm, and about Remedial breathing. 
 
 First, as to reasons, there is no doubt that Dr. W. 
 G. Anderson, Principal of the Yale University Gym- 
 nasium, is right. When boys or men have the values 
 of exercises explained to them, they gain more advan- 
 tage, they do the exercises themselves better, than 
 if the whole time were spent over the exercises 
 alone. A boy can easily understand from personal 
 experience how oxygen invigorates him, how excess 
 of carbonic acid poisons and depresses him. He can 
 understand how the diaphragm alternately massages 
 and relieves the lower organs, how the relaxed breath- 
 ing affects economy and repose, how every kind of 
 breathing affects the mind. Let him notice his 
 shallow, sharp, and jerky breathing when he is angry. 
 Let him then experiment and see how deep and 
 rhythmical and leisurely breathing will bring back a 
 better state of mind, a more sensible self-control. 
 
AIR AND BREATHING. 
 
 219 
 
 The rhythm he will easily understand. He knows 
 how rhythmical walking and swimming tend to 
 endurance. He can understand how rhythmical 
 lung-movement and heart-beat tend in the same 
 direction. Nature is a mass of rhythms. The indi- 
 vidual has his rhythm too. It is ridiculous to make 
 all boys breathe " in time." Rather let an exercise 
 be set, and let each boy do it in his own time. The 
 boy should not worry, but should be " drawing still 
 breath beneath calm brows unbending." 
 
 Individual, too, must 
 be the remedial work, 
 though among the re- 
 medial work for nearly 
 all boys (and others) is 
 almost certain to be 
 this : the boy will be 
 holding his diaphragm 
 too low ; hence he will 
 let his lower organs sink 
 too low. There will 
 be too much pressure 
 (see Fig. 47) upon his 
 stomach and liver, and the pressure may even affect 
 to the colon below and the sexual organs. He must 
 learn to be able to hold his diaphragm well up, 
 and so relieve the organs of such pressure. These, 
 and the relaxing movements to overcome tension, are 
 among the best of the general remedial movements 
 for boys. There are probably very few boys who do 
 not need them. More frequent breathing through 
 
 Fig. 47.— Some of the Organs 
 
 above and below the Diaphragm. 
 
 and affected by its positions and 
 
 movements. 
 
220 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 the nose might be a third kind. So general are the 
 habits of keeping the organs too low, of keeping the 
 body too tense, and of keeping the mouth open, that 
 these three remedial practices might safely be in- 
 cluded in a general Course for most boys, if not for 
 all. 
 
 There are several tests of breathing, one of them 
 being an examination of the nostrils, another being 
 a register of the breathing-capacity by the spiro- 
 meter or some better instrument ; but a still wiser 
 test probably is the general feelings of the boy, his 
 endurance, his energy, his comfort, his self-control. 
 It does not do to wait for a disease to show itself, 
 whether that disease be consumption or anaemia ; we 
 must anticipate. In encouraging fuller and deeper 
 breathing of fresh air through the nostrils, we are 
 not likely to do any harm ; we may do an almost 
 incredible amount of good, especially if the breathing 
 be taken leisurely and not too much as a dull duty. 
 
 There are plenty of helps to make the breathing- 
 practice interesting and easy. Among them are exer- 
 cises which I have suggested in the special book, 
 published by Gale & Polden. One of these is to 
 keep the left hand limp and relaxed and to raise up 
 the right hand above the head with its palm to the 
 front, as you take a full breath in through the nos- 
 trils ; then, as you let that breath out, to lower the 
 the right hand ; afterwards to do this with the left 
 hand, keeping the right hand limp and relaxed. 
 Another exercise is similar, but now the hand goes 
 out at right angles to the body, with its palm at first 
 
AIR AND BREATHING. 
 
 221 
 
 downwards, then upwards — this as you breathe in. 
 As you breathe out quietly, quietly you let the hand 
 go down and back. 
 
 I know one "expert " who says that any attention 
 to breathing is unnecessary. His plan is to make 
 the pupils go through free and gymnastic exercises. 
 He says that any other breathing-exercises are not 
 only fanciful and faddy but also impossible in a class, 
 and apt to strain the boy. He calls them forced 
 breathing. Now there are three exercises invented 
 by Fitzsimmons, the boxer, which are indeed forced 
 (they are shown in the three figures of the diagram), 
 
 Fig. 48.— Various movements to be done (without strain) 
 while the lungs are full. 
 
 but even these, in a gentle form without strain, are 
 decidedly good for most boys; and for all boys it 
 is advisable to have breathing exercises — first the 
 lower, then the middle, then the upper, then the 
 
222 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 relaxed — not only at the beginning and ending of the 
 physical 'work and drill, but also at intervals during 
 it, directly breathlessness or palpitation appear. This 
 almost does away with the chance of strain, and 
 forms a pleasant rest, and allows time during which 
 a teacher can explain reasons for exercises, and 
 suggest health-hints. 
 
 As to the exercises being faddy, that is an objec- 
 tion brought against every reform ; but let a boy 
 laugh if he likes when he does the relaxing exercise ; 
 it will do him no harm. His sense of humour is one 
 of his strongest senses. Let it be turned into harm- 
 less channels like this ; such laughter will do him 
 good. 
 
 Laughter is a good form of voice-production ; which 
 should be taught as a matter of course in every 
 school. Much of it can be taught as singing. Some 
 say that there are boys who have no ear for music, 
 but a friend of mine has told me that, if you start 
 with the highest and the lowest notes, every boy can 
 distinguish them. Hence, by degrees, you can get 
 him to distinguish smaller shades of difference. The 
 singing should be very carefully taught at the start. 
 
 Part of the practice for it and for voice-production 
 is shown in Fig. 49. It is, first to learn to breathe in 
 through the nostrils and out through the nostrils 
 while the mouth is closed ; then to breathe in 
 through the nostrils while the mouth is closed, and 
 out through the mouth, which is now opened. After 
 constant practice it will at length become easy to 
 breathe in through the nostrils even when the mouth 
 
AIR AND BREATHING. 
 
 223 
 
 is open. This is a necessit}' when we are speaking 
 or otherwise producing our voice and is especiall}' 
 useful if the air be not fresh. Very few speakers 
 are able to breathe in through the nose while they 
 have their mouth open ; yet it is an art well worth 
 acquiring. 
 
 Fig. 49. — Graduated practise in Voice-production, so that 
 
 eventually you may breathe in through the nostrils even if 
 
 you have your mouth open. 
 
 Reading aloud is another art which teaches the 
 boy not only to produce his voice and to be less sh}\ 
 but also to pronounce his words clearly and to know 
 his own language. In many ways it is better than 
 recitation and than original speaking, though these 
 two are important as well. For, when the boy is 
 reading, he can concentrate his attention on reading 
 correctly : he has not to think so much of what will 
 come next. 
 
 All voice-production should be accompanied with 
 repose, as well as better position of the body. This 
 reposefulness, this muscular relaxing, will overcome 
 the boy's harshness of voice. I shall say a few 
 words about the art of repose in the next chapter, 
 and, about the better position of the body, in 
 Chapter XXIV. 
 
224 
 
 PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 Fig. 50 will show some of the muscles that help to 
 keep the body in better positions. Those of the 
 
 neck will be illus- 
 
 trated later on. 
 To "realise" these 
 muscles will help 
 a boy to under- 
 stand his breath- 
 ing and other exer- 
 cises better. 
 
 Needless to say, 
 it is easier to ex- 
 plain things to 
 him when he is 
 stripped. For this 
 reason I suggest 
 that the excellent 
 plan of the open- 
 air bathing -place 
 should be extend- 
 ed; that there 
 should also be an open-air play-ground, enclosed by 
 a fence, within which the boys could do their exer- 
 
 FiG. 50. — Some of the Muscles that may 
 
 help better breathings and better 
 
 positions of the body. 
 
 
 ti^£^^=^ 
 
 Fig. 51. — An Air-and-Light-Bath (Luft-bad) in Germany, 
 
REPOSE AND ECONOMY. 
 
 225 
 
 « 0) ' 0) 
 
 i ^^ 
 
 ai 
 
 cises in bathing-dress, and so not only enjoy an air- 
 
 and-light-bath (see Fig. 51), but also learn not to 
 
 regard the naked human frame as a thing "indecent," 
 
 or " improper," or ** shameful " — unless, indeed, it be 
 
 ugly or dirty ; in which 
 
 case its faults should 
 
 be remedied as soon as 
 
 possible. 
 
 But again and again 
 boys and girls, and el- 
 ders too, must be told 
 the importance of better 
 breathing. The exagger- 
 ations at the beginning 
 of the chapter will serve 
 as samples — only they 
 must be modified. When 
 a boy is being taught about his nerve-systems, he 
 can be told about the Pneumogastric Nerve (see 
 Fig. 52), so that he may see how the breathing, 
 heart-beat, and digestion may influence one another. 
 
 h v> "T ^ 
 
 rt rt rt »: ^ 
 
 X u S c 3 
 
 £ E u I -5 
 
 STOMACH I -o "35 .^ a 
 
 fii !" C CU t^ 
 
 - Sf 3 O 9 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 REPOSE AND ECONOMY FOR BOYS. 
 
 ^T^HE reader must have realised by now that my 
 A main object is to offer — for what they are 
 worth — my personal experiences ; from that point of 
 view repose and economy are invaluable. I owe to 
 the habit of relaxing (taught me by Mrs. William 
 
226 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 Archer, according to the Delsarte System) nearly as 
 much general benefit as I owe to the simpler foods. 
 It does not in the least follow that all boys need the 
 practice; but I suggest the exercises as certainly 
 worth a fair trial by those who are inclined to be 
 *' jumpy" and nervous, or, on the other hand, too 
 stiff and tense. 
 
 Is the normal child uncontrollably restless ? He 
 is usually assumed to be so. Whatever may be 
 thought about this, it is certainly not true that the 
 normal child is apathetically slack. Dr. Clouston 
 has recently maintained that this slackness is much 
 less moral than physical. 
 
 In either case I should look to the wrong con- 
 ditions; I should not neglect remedial practices, 
 carefully graduated, for the mind as well as the 
 body ; I should not neglect attractive training — by 
 athletics, gardening, cooking, etc. — of the nerves and 
 senses, as well as the muscles ; I should not neglect 
 the habit of more leisurely breathing, and so on ; but 
 I should attend to the various conditions, especially 
 the diet. It is probable that errors in diet make one 
 child uncontrollably restless, another apathetically 
 slack ; the diet being too stimulating for the one, too 
 heavy for the other. 
 
 If the child be normal, it needs no care, except that 
 we must obey the child's instincts. There are some 
 children who need no care of this particular kind, 
 this muscular relaxing : already their muscles are too 
 much relaxed. It is essential to class children 
 according to their natures. We must not give 
 
REPOSE AND ECONOMY. 227 
 
 precisely the same physical treatment to those who 
 are like the oak, the willow, or maidenhair. We 
 must not give sluggards regular drill in repose, 
 though tense people invariably need it, so far as I 
 can see. We must not confuse slowness through 
 over-tension (many weight-lifters exhibit it) with 
 economy through scientific relaxing : they are two 
 iTtterly different things. A person who can repose 
 well should also be able to move with extraordinary- 
 speed and power w hen the occasion arises ; the tense 
 person cannot move with speed anyhow. 
 
 The exercises must be adapted to the individual 
 boy, err at least to the large groups of boys of the 
 same kind. One boy is sleepy. He will probably 
 need less heavy and less clogging food, though he 
 must not be starved ; he will also need prompt 
 exercises, such as those in a book I have written on 
 " Quickness." These exercises must be made inter- 
 esting to him, so that he will practise them by him- 
 self. On the other hand, there are boys who are 
 troubled with sleeplessness. Sleep is of vital impor- 
 tance for boys. Without it they cannot properly 
 assimilate their food and grow. Advice for an ordi- 
 nary case of insomnia will also serve as advice for an 
 ordinary case of nervousness or restlessness. 
 
 First must come control of the mind, on which I 
 have offered a few hints in Chapter XLI. 
 
 Then must come attention to the positions of the 
 body, which will be treated in Chapter XXIV. 
 
 Then must come repose, with which I am dealing 
 in this chapter. 
 
 Q 
 
228 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 Last, but not least, will come attention to other 
 conditions, such as the temperature, and moderation 
 in exercise. Too much exercise is as liable to cause 
 sleeplessness as too little exercise. One cannot pro- 
 test strongly enough against long and dull stretches 
 of work, especially sedentary work ; or of exercise, 
 especially strain exercises such as rope -climbing, 
 horizontal bar work, etc., and also of long-distance 
 running. 
 
 But, even if a boy is not sleepless, yet at any rate, 
 in view of the probable rush and worry of later life, 
 perhaps as a business-man, he must learn now 
 economy together with gracefulness. 
 
 At first it seems hard to persuade a boy with 
 regard to physical economy. An interesting starting- 
 point will be his pocket-money. He knows that it is 
 worth while to spend some of it for enjoyment, food, 
 etc. ; that it is worth while to save the rest for special 
 purposes : for instance, for a stamp-book or a cricket- 
 bat. Let him regard his energ}' in the same light. 
 Just as he would be sorry- to lose his pennies through 
 holes in his pockets, just as he would not dream of 
 throwing them away, so let him be sensible with his 
 energy. Let him know that fidgetiness and useless 
 ugly tension are simply waste of energy ; and that, 
 while the body is growing, the waste is more fatal 
 than it would be in later years. 
 
 Repose and economy of the muscles are important 
 for the purpose of concentrating as well as of saving 
 energy. By the art of muscular repose you can with- 
 draw energy from parts which do not need it ; you 
 
REPOSE AND ECONOMY. 229 
 
 can learn what Professor Gates calls dirigation, the 
 practice of withdrawing your attention from one 
 part, and, as it were, making that dead or at peace, 
 and carr\inj^ your attention, and with it your excess 
 of blood, to another part. 
 
 Repose and economy of the muscles is equally 
 important for prayer, where, if anywhere, tension 
 is out of place. If prayer is to be with faith, if it 
 is to be with the expression of faith, how on earth 
 can we encourage little children to be anxious over it 
 and to express anxiety ? With me the first condition 
 of prayer is physical repose and economy. To grip 
 my hands or show any other sign of anxiety would be 
 to spoil the whole prayer itself; it would be a sign 
 that I did not believe in the all-goodness and all- 
 power of God. 
 
 During work, also, there should be physical repose 
 and economy. Though at first it might seem that 
 the knitted brow was a help to concentration, yet 
 after a time, with fair practice, many people tell me 
 that the relaxed face and body are a far greater help. 
 The benefit is not felt at once, but my personal 
 experience is that, for any severe intellectual work, 
 the more I relax the muscles of the body and the 
 face, the better my work invariably is. Once it was 
 not so. That was before I had practised muscular 
 relaxing. 
 
 The practice is useful at intervals between exer- 
 cises — for instance, the relaxed breathing (after the 
 full breathing) and the relaxed hands, etc., even 
 during a football match ; and certainly one should 
 
230 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 learn not to keep tense the muscles which one gains 
 nothing by keeping tense. For example, when one 
 uses the right hand at a ball-game, there is no point 
 in keeping the left hand rigid; in fact it stands in 
 the way of success. Mr. C. B. Fry has recog- 
 nised the importance of this in games. Very few 
 *' gymnasts" have the slightest notion that it is 
 important in the routine of physical drill ; yet it is 
 an indispensable part of the full art of exercise. 
 
 Nor is it merely " exercise " that repose will bene- 
 fit : it will benefit the time after meals — a time of 
 exercise for certain organs. Schoolboys are often sent 
 out to play directly after meals, and to play violently 
 too. If this is bad for a man, it is also bad to some 
 extent for a boy. But, in so far as the boy enjoys his- 
 game, the harm may be smaller than the benefit. 
 Undoubtedly, however, the exercise must take some 
 blood away from the stomach, where it is needed, to 
 the muscles and the brain, even if, up to the verj^ 
 end of his school life, the boy shows no disastrous 
 effects. 
 
 Is not the practice of repose and econom}- 
 ridiculous for boys, whatever it may be for anxious 
 grown-up people? No, the practice is not ridiculous 
 if boys are ever to become grown-up people. If they 
 do not learn the art now, probably they never will 
 learn it. At one school, I know, the effect has been 
 singularly beneficial to the boys. That is at an 
 American school, where, of course, boys are more 
 highly strung than they are in England. 
 
 Besides this, we must remember that there are 
 
REPOSE AND ECONOMY. 
 
 231 
 
 two preliminaries to the art of relaxing, and both of 
 these are invaluable for every one. The first is an 
 extension or stretching which frees the limbs and 
 overcomes the crampedness of city life. The second 
 is deep and full breathing through the nostrils. So, 
 if only for the sake of these preliminary practices, 
 muscular relaxing is worth while. 
 
 A third point is that it may be treated as a 
 humorous practice. During the sitting movement, 
 there is no reason wh}- we should not laugh if we 
 feel inclined. We can do the exercise as a more 
 serious matter in private, and as a grotesque yet 
 none the less useful practice occasionally in drill. 
 Only we must be the first to laugh at ourselves. 
 
 I have described the first exercise elsewhere. With 
 your legs and body comfortable but straight, sit well 
 
 Fig. 53. 
 forward on a bed or armless chair. Let your hands 
 hang down loosely at your sides: Take a full breath 
 in through the nostrils, first down and out, then out, 
 then up as you draw up your diaphragm (see C hapter 
 
 ^ OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 Of 
 
232 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 XXII.). This breath should lift up your trunk, your 
 shoulders, your head, your eyes. Hold it in for a 
 moment or two. Then do not force it out, but let it 
 ooze out ver}^ gently and gradually. Take advantage 
 of the outward breath, the expiring, to feel your 
 hands heavy and dead ; with it your eyes will natur- 
 ally untense themselves and close, your mouth will 
 relax, your head will sink forward, your trunk will 
 bend forward (beginning at the top vertebrae). Repeat 
 the inward breath, but without allowing it to raise 
 your head, etc., and then relax more and more as you 
 gently and gradually breathe outwards again. You 
 will find yourself in the pose of Fig. 53. Stay thus 
 for a short time, while you think of some broad 
 expanse of sea or other grand view, or of something 
 pleasant and soothing. 
 
 Then, without one atom of hurry, draw back your 
 arms towards your body, and you will find that this 
 will raise your trunk. As you breathe in fully, raise 
 your trunk still further, and raise your head, and, as 
 you breathe in again, open your eyes, and you are 
 awake. 
 
 This is usually agreed to be a fine exercise to 
 remove nervousness and worr}- and sleeplessness. I 
 have found it good as a help to freeing the body for 
 athletic promptitude and rapidity, together with 
 calmness and endurance. A more elaborate exercise 
 you can begin as you stand up. After sinking for- 
 ward with your trunk, as in the sitting exercise, you 
 very gradually bend your legs and " crumble " down 
 on to the floor, till eventually you lie on your back, 
 
REPOSE AND ECONOMY. 233 
 
 as in Fig. 54. Now stretch your arms out at right 
 angles to your body, while all the time you breathe 
 leisurely and rhythmically yet fully. Take advantage 
 of every outward breath to relax more and more 
 completely, and to straighten out the kinks and 
 knots in your muscles. It is a function of muscles 
 to relax, and not only to contract. 
 
 While you lie thus, stretch out each shoulder, 
 arm, and finger in turn, as far as it will go without 
 
 strain ; then 
 
 roll each hand 
 
 round as far 
 
 as it will go in 
 
 Fig. 54.— a similar exercise starts with the either direc- 
 
 standing position, and ends thus. This lying tion lettinjT it 
 
 position helps the breathing. , , - 
 
 come back of 
 its own accord to the comfortable position. Then do 
 the same with the legs and feet and toes. Let relax- 
 ing follow the stretchings. 
 
 When you get up, get up very leisurely not lifting 
 your head till you are upright again. 
 
 If you do not care to perform either of these 
 exercises, at least you can relax your eye-muscles 
 and face-muscles and hand-muscles a little. You 
 can imaorine yourself going through these exercises. 
 Dr. W. G. Anderson and others have proved that to 
 imagine an exercise is actually to do it in a mild and 
 unobtrusive way. 
 
 In addition to the sitting or standing exercise, 
 which may lead up (or down) to the King exercise, 
 there is another which is quite simple. It is sugges- 
 
234 
 
 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 ted by yawning. After \ou have sat at work for a 
 long time, your inclination is to put your hands above 
 
 your head, and stretch 
 your arms, as you take 
 a deep breath in. Alter 
 the practice slightly, 
 and take that deep 
 breath in not through 
 the mouth, as in yawn- 
 ing, but through the 
 nostrils. Hold your 
 breath in, and your 
 hands and your head 
 up and back for a 
 moment or two, as in 
 
 Fig. 55. 
 Fig- 55; then by 
 degrees go limp all 
 over, as you let 
 your arms down 
 and your head for- 
 ward. Repeat this, 
 if you like, and you 
 are almost sure to 
 find relief. I pre- 
 fer this exercise as 
 I lie on my back 
 upon the inclined 
 plank. There the 
 body is in a better 
 position, with no 
 
 Fig. 56. 
 
REPOSE AND ECONOMY. 235 
 
 excess of blood rushing to the head. The hands can 
 hang down heavy, as they cannot do while you lie 
 on the floor. 
 
 The number of other exercises is great, but there 
 is no space for them here. Sufficient for ordinary 
 purposes will be the sitting, standing, lying, and 
 yawning practices. Later on, to these can be added 
 an exercise like the first, but in this case the body 
 bends not straight forwards, but first to the right 
 side, then to the left. For further practices, see the 
 volumes on " Breathing " and " Quickness," in Gale 
 and Polden's series. 
 
 Two or three hints must be offered in conclusion. 
 First of all, do not hurry with the movements. Be 
 leisurely throughout. Give plenty of time to the 
 practice. Rather do the exercise once well than 
 three times hurriedly. Do not frown or be anxious 
 during it ; smile and broaden your face. 
 
 Secondly, if you like, before the stretching and 
 deep breathing, shake your extremities about. It is 
 easy to shake your hands at the end of your limp 
 arms as if they were flags at the end of sticks. Tr}' 
 to treat each foot in the same way, raising the other 
 foot slightly upon a footstool or the inclined plank. 
 You can even shake yourself like a dog after a bath, 
 if no one is looking. 
 
 Thirdly, attend to the positions, especially to 
 straight ness. We should remedy a cramped body, 
 which has, let us say, its spine curved forwards, and 
 its chin poking, and its fingers and face cramped 
 and tense ; we should also remedy unevenness, as 
 
236 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 when one shoulder is higher than the other. But 
 the question of better positions and expressions 
 demands a chapter to itself. 
 
 Before I proceed to that chapter, let me say, most 
 emphatically, that over-tension of muscles, which we 
 gain nothing and lose much by using them, is an ugly 
 and extravagant mistake. It has not a little to do 
 with other mistakes — such as worr}-, anger, fear, want 
 of perspective. It has not a little to do with athletic 
 as well as intellectual failures. On the other hand, 
 reasonable muscular relaxing of the parts which we 
 should gain nothing and should lose much by using, 
 generally tends to better moral results, better intel- 
 lectual results, more economy of energy of muscle 
 and nerve, greater endurance, calmness, and even 
 quickness, more athletic success, improved appear- 
 ance, better health. If tension serves a useful 
 purpose (as when you are doing certain gymnastic 
 work with fixed apparatus), then use your power in 
 that way. But even here do your best to avoid using 
 more tension than you are obliged to use. The mere 
 fact that you are gripping with one hand is no excuse 
 for gripping with the other hand and frowning, and, 
 generally, stiffening most of your body. If you must 
 grip, then grip with just the parts that 3'ou want to 
 grip with, and at just the moment when you want to 
 grip. If you do not believe me when I tell you that it 
 is likely to help you succeed in games, etc., making 
 you not only more graceful, and a better '* stayer," but 
 also giving your stroke more power, write and ask 
 Mr. C. B. Fr)', Athletic Editor of " The Captain. 
 
BETTER POSITIONS AND EXPRESSIONS. 2yj 
 
 He will bear out at any rate the greater part of 
 what I say. Ask him if he thinks it right to grip 
 hard with the face and spinal and other muscles all 
 the time you are batting, or to grip with just a few 
 muscles, especiall\- those of the hand and forearm and 
 upper arm, at just the moment of playing the ball. 
 I have not the very least doubt as to what his answer 
 will be. 
 
 Or, if you are too shy to write, go to some gallery 
 and look at the best Greek statues of athletes. Do 
 these models grip perpetually and unnecessarily, as 
 if they were holding spring-grip dumbbells, when 
 they are throwing the discus or spear ? No. You 
 will find that the highest forms of beauty, graceful- 
 ness, poise, and power, and rapidity, show not ten- 
 sion all over, but as much repose as possible of the 
 unused parts which are not needed in the particular 
 action. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 BETTER POSITIONS AND EXPRESSIONS FOR BOYS. 
 
 " TT is the greatest mistake to encourage boys to 
 A fuss about their health: let them be natural" 
 — this is the sort of remark that even the most sane 
 and sensible reformers arouse on the part of the lazy 
 ignoramus who poses as the authority on all matters 
 connected with life. With his idee fixe, he repeats 
 this formula without listening to any explanation. I 
 warn readers against him here, by asking them to 
 
;33 
 
 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 look at these two drawings of boys in positions 
 which are now natural (easiest) to them (Figs. 57 
 and 58). They are obeying our pompous ass; they 
 
 
 d -^ <x 
 
 o -c 
 
 o o o 
 o o 2 
 
 g. 
 
 »© u 
 
 > ^^ 
 
 u a 
 
 o ^- 
 
 4) rt 
 
 S O 
 
 Fig. 58. — A bad position to allow- 
 as a habit. 
 
 are not fussing about their health. The standing 
 boy, Fig. 57 (copied from the Physical Educator), 
 will probably stand with this poke of the head and 
 lateral spinal curve, as a matter of habit, not vary- 
 ing it by reversing the poses of the legs; certainly 
 the writing person will tend to write thus, and he 
 never writes left-handed. 
 
 Now every intelligent being will agree that it is a 
 mistake to encourage boys to fuss about their health. 
 Hut no rational being will hold that boys (or anyone 
 ■else) should be allowed to develop a bad habit simply 
 because it is easy. The line of least resistance is not 
 always the best. Let the boy be " natural," so 
 long as that means normal. But if the abnormal — 
 
BETTER POSITIONS AND EXPRESSIONS. 
 
 239 
 
 whether it be constipation, or frowning, or some 
 other mistake — seems to be natural (that is to saw 
 the easier habit) to him, 
 then restore the normal by 
 sensible training. 
 
 There is no need to 
 "fuss." A certain number 
 of exercises in stretching 
 the arm or arms above 
 the head, and so on (see, 
 for example, the chapter 
 on Remedial Work) : an 
 occasional practice of left- 
 handed writing, at a well- 
 shaped desk (see Figs. 59, 
 60, and 61), will go far to- 
 wards preventing or curing 
 the undesirable attitude 
 without any of that fret- 
 ting or worrying which 
 
 Fig. 59. — An improved desk, 
 adapted from an illustration 
 in the Morning Leader. It is 
 recommended by Mr. James 
 Graham, Inspector of Schools. 
 
 Jesus Christ condemned as /xc^/xm. 
 
 Fig. 61. 
 
 Fig. 60. 
 
240 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 Tell the boy what is normal, what is the least that 
 is demanded of him as a boy, and show him how to 
 reach the normal ; theu, when he has reached it and 
 made it an acquired instinct, now his very own and 
 no longer needing conscious attention, let him be 
 natural by all means. 
 
 But first make him normal ; first, with a view to 
 his whole future life, athletic as well as hygienic, see 
 that his muscles are well brought up ; see that he 
 has learnt his physical preventions or cures once for 
 all. 
 
 In order to emphasise that this is my point of 
 view — first, a study of the normal ; then sensible 
 practice, with patience, until the normal is also the 
 habitual ; then no more training in this sphere — I 
 had better quote the words of a medical man who 
 was once an international football-player. I think 
 they will appeal to everyone. He says : — 
 
 " As the mind works most easily when the attention alternates 
 between concentration and expression, so the muscles work most 
 smoothly and with least fatigue when we learn not to exert them 
 constantly, but to relieve them whenever possible. Over-attention, 
 both in muscular and in mental work, is one of the vicious products 
 of an age of hurry. We fail to realise that, if our muscles /iave been 
 well brought up, they can do their work quite well without our inter- 
 ference. I^t me take a very simple example. Any healthy man or 
 woman can walk across a room without any sense of effort. But if I 
 ask one of you to show me how to cross the room, and if you attend 
 to the act of walking; you will certainly over-attend and dissipate 
 a lot of energy in various excesses of muscular tension. Let me tell 
 you to walk along a narrow gravel path across a lawn, and you will 
 do so smoothly and easily. But, before you return, if I warn you 
 that the innocent-seeming grass is a pitfall, and that, if you deviate 
 so much as a foot from the path, you will be precipitated a hundred 
 feet, what will happen ? Every nerve will be strained, every muscle 
 
BETTER POSITIONS AND EXPRESSIONS. 24T 
 
 will be tight strung, you will be tired and uncertain, you will be 
 contorted, and you will totter. 
 
 " I have, of course, chosen a fanciful case, but it is a type of most 
 of our activities. Nearly all our movements, whether of mind or of 
 body, suffer from over-attention. It seems I must repeat until I 
 weary you that the best work is done easily. The golfer wins who 
 stands lightly to address his ball, whose mind is easy, and whose 
 swing is smooth. The hammer will strike your fingers less often, 
 and oftener hit the nail on the head, if you hold it loosely, not 
 clutch it. The lines of your carving will be cleaner, and its surface 
 smoother, if it is a soft hand that holds the chisel. It is the hand 
 whose joints are loose, whose muscles are none of them set, that has 
 a touch on the piano which we call fine ; it is still a free touch 
 which we call firm. There is no muscular work whatever rvhich we 
 have once leanud which our muscles will not best perform if we 
 attend quietly and see to it that we relax all contortions." 
 
 Alter the italicised words to " which we once 
 learned rightly and made into natural habits," and 
 you have my point of view stated so convincingly 
 that I think everyone must concur. 
 
 The words *' positions " and expressions " cover a 
 Avide range. We are in " positions " whenever we 
 are still, and also when only certain parts of us are 
 moving ; we are showing " expressions " always. 
 Professor Bain says ** that the organs [or instru- 
 ments] of expression by movement are primarily the 
 features, next the voice, lastly the movements and 
 gestures of the body at large — head, trunk, and 
 extremities." In addition we must cite all expres- 
 sions by tension, all expressions by absence of 
 tension or contraction — namely, expressions of re- 
 pose. Among the most obvious will be the attitudes 
 of the body in general. 
 
 No one who thinks for a moment can deny the 
 
242 
 
 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 value of good positions. Take, for instance, the 
 spine which is laterally straight, or which instinc- 
 tively recovers its straightness. This helps both the 
 figure and carriage, and even the success at play and 
 the endurance at all forms of exercise and work. 
 The important nerve - channel is not hampered- 
 Then there are the correct positions and mechanisms 
 during movements, particularly during play. Then,, 
 more generally, there are expressions : the expres- 
 sion of rest when the expression of activity would 
 profit nothing, and the expression of promptness 
 when sleepiness would be a mistake. It is wonder- 
 ful what an amount of alertness we can express — 
 and hence come to feel — by the position of the feet 
 alone. By standing alert, rather 
 on the insides of the balls of the 
 feet, I find that a feeling of energy 
 and readiness gradually comes to 
 me. This drawing, adapted from 
 a photograph of Hackenschmidt, 
 by Miss Leon, in the Physical 
 Educator, may serve as a type 
 of the expression of readiness. 
 (Fig. 62.) 
 
 Here, as always, I should advise 
 people to attend to the external 
 conditions at first ; not because they want always; 
 to be slaves to them, but in order to give them- 
 selves a fair start in life. Afterwards they will 
 learn to adapt themselves to new needs, to remedy 
 themselves bv a kind of instinct ; such conditions. 
 
 Fig. 62. 
 
BETTER POSITIONS AND EXPRESSIONS. 
 
 243 
 
 as a good light put 
 the left side, so that 
 
 ill the proper 
 the head shall 
 
 place behind 
 not stoop in 
 
 order to read, 
 and the use | 
 of good type 
 also, will en- 
 courage up- 
 rightness of 
 carriage. Bet- 
 ter desks (see 
 Fig. 59), and 
 better chairs 
 will encour- 
 age better positions gener- 
 ally. Remedial apparatus, 
 like the inclined plank, will 
 serve the same purpose. 
 Games and athletics will 
 develop promptitude. Such 
 cond i tions 
 
 lected. Only 
 ways be re- 
 treatment, 
 ber of posi- 
 quired or re- 
 medial work, 
 sugge sted 
 ercises to be 
 fully at first 
 necessar\', bv 
 
 are not to be neg- 
 they must not al- 
 lied on as the sole 
 A certain num- 
 tions can be ac- 
 acquired by re- 
 Elsewhere I have 
 - three or four ex- 
 fk;. 63. done very care- 
 
 and with the body supported, if 
 a friend or a teacher. They are for 
 strengthening the trunk-muscles and neck-muscles 
 and leg-muscles, and improving the carriage. 
 
 R 
 
244 
 
 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 The first few were on the back, with apparatus. 
 The second began as one lay on the stomach ; it 
 belongs to most systems of exercise. A third type is 
 a floor or inclined plank movement with something to 
 keep the feet down. (If the lower end of the inclined 
 plank rests against a wall, the angle thus formed will 
 keep the feet firmly down.) In the early stages of 
 practice the hands are limp by the sides, as in 
 Fig. 63, or — better still — they may be supporting the 
 organs, with the thumbs behind and fingers in front, 
 
 to maintain 
 the organs in 
 front,with the 
 fingers behind and thumbs in front, 
 to maintain the organs behind. Then, 
 after plenty of practice, pro- 
 ceed to the exercise with the 
 arms behind 
 
 the neck (b), 
 
 ^ and, still later 
 
 on, raised be- 
 hind you (c). 
 Be sure to lift 
 the waist and chest re- 
 gions first, not the head. Let a boy 
 get someone 
 to support 
 him, rather 
 than strain 
 himself. 
 Fig. 64. 
 
BETTER POSITIONS AND EXPRESSIONS. 
 
 245 
 
 O 
 
 So, in doing the floor-movements of Fig. 64, to 
 Strengthen the neck and trunk muscles that help 
 a better position of the body, a boy should begin 
 gently, first raising his arms (as in Fig. 64, b), or — 
 *— V better still — one arm at a time, 
 V y but not so far as to injure himself; 
 then raising his legs, as in c, or one 
 leg at a time ; then one arm and 
 one leg together; then, after abun- 
 dant practice, both arms and both 
 legs together, as in d. 
 
 Figs. 65 and 66 show exercises 
 in stretching. Fig. 67 shows a com- 
 bined neck and trunk exercise, to 
 be added to those in Chapter XXV. 
 Many of the more general exer- 
 cises in that chapter will also serve 
 
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 as exercises to give or restore better positions of the 
 whole body. 
 
246 
 
 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 These are just a few samples of the man}- reme- 
 dial or preventive movements b}- which expert- 
 teachers are training their physical pupils. I have 
 adapted these movements somewhat, especially with 
 a view to encouraging independent control of the two 
 sides, so that while one side works the other side may 
 know how to rest. Much of our modern daily work 
 is one-sided, and this training in partial rest and 
 partial mastery is absolutely essential. 
 
 Fig. 68. — An orthodox exercise Fig. 69.— I prefer, as a rule, to 
 for the two hands together. let each side rest in turn while 
 
 the other works. 
 
 To show the difference between my way and the 
 way of the orthodox "experts," look at Fig. 68, in 
 which a boy is bringing his shoulders back and 
 his chest and trunk forward, and remedying some of 
 his want of poise. He works both hands and both 
 arms at once. I prefer to work one side (Fig. 69) 
 while the other is relaxed. I believe that this is a 
 help to brain-work (resting one part of the brain 
 while another is exercised) ; and certainly it teaches 
 
BETTER POSITIONS AND EXPRESSIONS. 
 
 247 
 
 me not to use a large number of muscles quite un- 
 necessarily in the daily movements that I do with 
 one hand or the other. 
 
 In some cases, as in Fig. 70, it is advisable to use 
 the two sides together. But I should like, as a 
 
 general rule, subject 
 to important excep- 
 tions, to avoid this 
 sort of " freehand 
 drawing "exercise 
 whenever I could 
 manage to do so, at 
 least until the two 
 sides have been 
 trained to act inde- 
 pendently. 
 
 A second point 
 seems to me quite 
 essential, with a view- 
 to the sedentary life which most of us will live. We 
 shall be tempted to get into unhealthy attitudes as 
 we work with our brains, or as we eat or travel 
 or wait, or even as we try to rest. Now remedial 
 exercises like these will be excellent in themselves, 
 especially if we do as Professor Halleck suggests. 
 He says, " if you wish to remedy a stoop in the 
 shoulders, innervate the muscles as vigorously as 
 possible. Keep firmly in consciousness the motor- 
 idea of forcing the shoulders back. If the idea 
 vanishes, recall it, and keep the voluntary act of 
 attention busy." That is good. But I would go 
 a step further. 
 
 Fig. 70. — A gentle exercise with the 
 two sides together (as recommended 
 by Dr. Alexander Bryce, and adapted 
 from the Physical Educator) to ex- 
 pand the chest and draw back the 
 shoulders. The Exerciser involves 
 no severe strain. 
 
248 
 
 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 After assuring yourself that the movement is 
 really an appropriate one for you, realise which 
 muscles it will contract, and which muscles it will 
 
 Shoulders forward. Shoulders back. 
 
 Fig. 71. — Diagram showing trapezius and deltoid muscles 
 used in drawing shoulders back. 
 
 stretch. It will help you if }ou study some chart 
 or diagram (see Figs. 71 and 72) of these muscles. 
 Now, as you do the exercise attentively (having re- 
 minded yourself of its advan- 
 tage for your carriage, etc.), twa 
 or three times in succession, 
 vividly see and feci the muscles 
 stretching, not straining. (Do 
 not grip or frown. Use only the 
 necessary muscles.) Then, at 
 once, close your eyes and repeat 
 the exercise, and remember or 
 imagine the sight and feeling of 
 yourself doing it, three times in 
 succession. Then repeat the 
 
 exercise, with concentration but 
 Fig. 72. — Diagram show- . , 
 
 ing digastHcus muscle {d) Without tension, once or twice 
 used in drawing thechin in. more. Then, at intervals, during 
 
BETTER POSITIONS AND EXPRESSIONS. 249 
 
 the day, remember or imagine the sight and feel- 
 ing of yourself doing it ; but do not do it. Merely 
 "sense" the stretching movement. That will actu- 
 ally be — so Professors Mosso, James, and others, as 
 well as Dr. W. G. Anderson, have proved — a gentle 
 yet none the less actual practice of the exercise 
 itself. 
 
 After writing this, and a special article on the 
 subject for the Strand Magazine, I come across 
 the following words of Sir James Crichton 
 Browne : — 
 
 '• The information thus received (by the supreme centre through 
 the nerves) is carefully registered for future guidance. For just as 
 there is a memory of the sights we have seen and the sounds 
 we have heard, so there is a memory of the movements we have 
 performed, and of the mode in which we performed them. We 
 have a sense-memory and a muscle-mef/iory, and ideally revived 
 movements form a no less important element in our mental stores 
 and processes than ideally revived sensations. Our idea of a circle 
 is a combination of an ideal coloured outline (sense-memory), with 
 an ideal circular sweep of the eyeballs or it may be of the tactile 
 impressions coinciding with an ideal circumduction of the arm 
 or hand, or perhaps both these factors combined (muscle-memory). 
 An analysis of our ideas at once reveals to us that we have few 
 that are of purely sensory origin. It might be questioned if there 
 are any objects that are known to us by their sensory characters 
 alone. And so it is with our ideas of weight, distance, resistance, 
 which all involve sensory and muscular factors. The centres of 
 motor ideation require to be exercised in order that they may 
 be properly developed, and may contribute usefully to mental 
 processes, and hence muscular training is likely to assume a more 
 important and precise place in our educational systems of the 
 future than it has hitherto done.'' 
 
 This means of self-development and self-cure you 
 have always with you. You now become indepen- 
 
250 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 dent of special facilities. You will not fail to use the 
 special facilities when you can secure them. But 
 you need not rely on them. You have made a great 
 stride towards self-sufficiency and self-respect. 
 
 Do not be fussy about yourself. Once again, just 
 practise to restore the normal, the boy that you 
 ought to be; practise without strain but regularly; 
 wait patiently. Study good models, and pretend 
 that you are these models. Act the part with full 
 realisation. I am myself practising at least half a 
 dozen remedial movements now. I gi\^ about ten 
 minutes a day at them. I am doing some neck- 
 exercises and shoulder-exercises to cure a bad chin- 
 poking and stooping habit that I have not yet quite 
 overcome. But I am not impatient. I am kind to 
 myself. For I know well enough that within a 
 reasonable time I shall be free to stand and sit and 
 walk " naturally " — that is to say, without particular 
 attention to myself. Similarly, I am practising 
 some leg-movements (including the " Hundred Up'') 
 with a view to better walking and running. During 
 my actual walking and running out-of-doors I do not 
 bother about myself. It is only for a few minutes of 
 the day, between whiles, that I focus my mind con- 
 sciously on the leg-work. Occasionally I recall the 
 memory, and imagine the movements, when I should 
 otherwise be idle. I know that my under-mind will 
 soon be trained to see to these matters for me, just 
 as reliably as the Post Office authorities convey my 
 letters to their destination, or my servant cooks and 
 serves the neat little dinner I have ordered. Mv 
 
BETTER POSITIONS AND EXPRESSIONS. 
 
 251 
 
 conscious mind has delegated its task, thanks to 
 frequent and " sensible " repetitions. It is now at 
 liberty for any other work or play that I choose. 
 
 -?s^.^ yr^:. When I find it 
 
 ha rd to keep 
 myself up to the 
 mark, to do the 
 exercises or to 
 attend to them 
 when I do them, 
 :r then I remind 
 myself of my 
 motives : for in- 
 stance, athletic 
 improvement. 
 
 ASCENDING, . ,, 
 
 COLON It IS as well to 
 know as man\- 
 raisons d'etre as 
 possible, so that, 
 if one motive is 
 tired, another 
 may relieve and 
 supplement it. 
 
 Fig. 73.— Some of the Organs, seen from It may impress 
 behind. It is easy to work out how wrong ^^ ^ j^^ j ^^^^ 
 positions (as well as wrong clothing) would 1 • 'f 4.U 
 
 press-some Organsout of position, and allow PCOP*^ " tnC} 
 some to sag down too low, and so perhaps realise how m- 
 press on others. correct posi- 
 
 tions (as shown in Chapters XX. and XXIV.) may 
 hurt the health of the internal organs (digestive, ex- 
 cretive, and generative), and how correct positions 
 
252 
 
 I. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 (see Chapter XXIV.) may help their health. Figs. 73 
 and 74 will perhaps emphasise some of the probable 
 results. 
 
 The lying position is a more difficult problem than 
 the sitting and standing. 
 For my own part I am 
 inclined to think that the 
 one-sided attitudes are not 
 nearly so bad if we re- 
 store the upset balance 
 and p)oise by the opposite 
 (other - sided) attitudes — 
 for example if, without 
 letting the chin or shoul- 
 ders come forward, we sometimes rested our weight 
 on the unfavourite leg, sometimes wrote, etc., left- 
 handed, sometimes lay on the unusual side. There 
 are exceptions; and against the straight attitudes 
 I have nothing whatever to say. All that I resent is 
 the scathing condemnation of all crooked attitudes, 
 by many so-called ** experts," regardless of whether 
 or no these attitudes are compensated for by the 
 reverse attitudes. 
 
 With regard to the straight position as one lies 
 down, obviously it is easiest as one lies on the 
 stomach or on the back. For my own part, I find the 
 former uncomfortable ; and Sir Lauder Brunton, like 
 many other authorities, points out a disadvantage of 
 the latter, perhaps partly due to local warmth. He 
 says that "another means of prevention is to make 
 the patient lie on a hard mattress and not on a soft 
 
BETTER POSITIONS AND EXPRESSIONS. 2$^ 
 
 feather bed. In some patients lying on the back 
 tends to bring on excitement. I am not sure of the 
 modus operandi of this, but in order to treat it, it is 
 best to get a cotton reel and tie it round the back sa 
 that it lies against the spine ; if the person in sleep 
 should roll over on to his back, the reel makes him 
 turn over on the side, and that will tend to lessen 
 the excitability." 
 
 This being so, Mr. E. F. Benson's plan may com- 
 mend itself to many. What he does unconsciously, 
 others may do purposely till they have made it a 
 sub-conscious habit. He begins his rest on one side, 
 but, apparently changing at ** half-time," he finishes 
 it on the other side. A pre-suggestion, like the one 
 by which one wakes oneself at any required hour 
 (Chapter XLI.), may help to insure the change. 
 There is a well-known case of a person who cured 
 himself of frequent emissions by " suggesting " to- 
 himself, just before sleep, that in case of any un- 
 desirable thoughts he would wake up and wash. In 
 another case that I know, the suggestion was that 
 the person would get up and empty his bladder (see 
 the Chapter on Excretion). 
 
 This may be a good place to mention that a boy 
 must not be anxious if he has emissions. If his diet 
 has been too stimulating, if he is too full-blooded, and 
 in certain other conditions, a loss of the fluid may 
 serve as a sort of relief, somewhat as nose-bleeding 
 does. True, the fluid is precious. But to lose some 
 of it (perhaps about once a fortnight), as I used to 
 find, may not be a cause for anxiety if the boy is 
 
254 II- PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 living in circumstances that tend to too severe a 
 blood - pressure (see the Appendix). It is worth 
 while to observe the conditions, and to remove any 
 that are over-exciting, and perhaps to apply cold 
 Avater (as recommended in the special chapter). 
 But any " fussiness " is out-of-place. Certainly any 
 self-condemnation, such as I suffered from in my 
 ignorance, is quite wrong. 
 
 It might be useful to make a study of positions as 
 seeti in the best Greek statues. So healthy was the 
 life of the Athenian male citizens in their prime, so 
 wonderful their instinct in matters of attitude, that, 
 while we need not follow them slavishly, we can at 
 least note and get hints from them where the hints 
 commend themselves to our own reason. 
 
 As I have suggested already, these statues, and 
 healthy people, will serve as models for positions and 
 expressions ; they should be studied part by part ; 
 they should be imitated : they should be fixed in the 
 sensation-memor}' as well as in the eye-memor}', so 
 that one may vividly recall them at will. At the 
 same time, elders should set a good example. It is 
 of little use for the boy to have models of Greek 
 statues when his father and his master and mistress 
 and other so-called '' betters " are carrying them- 
 selves, and otherwise expressing and beh^lving them- 
 selves, quite wrongly. 
 
 Delsarte may be called the father of the art of ex- 
 pression. Many of his theories sound cranky, yet all 
 sorts of people have benefited by the practices, in- 
 cluding athletes, fencers, actors, musicians, speakers, 
 
BETTER POSITIONS AND EXPRESSIONS. 2^y 
 
 brain-workers, singers, stiff people, nervous people,, 
 sleepless people. 
 
 Professor James, whose " Talks on Psychology " I 
 am constantly reading and (}uoting, speaks most em- 
 phatically of the effects of positions and expressions, 
 not only upon the boy, but also upon the mind. 
 I cite his words here. The\' must be applied to 
 expressions of other feelings besides that of cheer- 
 fulness. And among the expressions we must 
 certainly include the breathing — its rhythm or jerki- 
 ness, its fulness or shallowness, and so forth. The 
 words, etc., in square brackets are mine. 
 
 •' Action," he says, " seems to follow feeling, but really action and 
 feeling go together : and, by regulating the action, which is under 
 the more direct control of the will, we can indirectly regulate the 
 feeling which is not. 
 
 " Thus the sovereign voluntary path to cheerfulness, if our spon- 
 taneous cheerfulness be lost, is to sit up cheerfully, to look round 
 and to act and speak [and breathe] as if cheerfulness were already 
 there. If such conduct does not make you soon feel cheerful, 
 nothing else on that occasion could [?]. So, to feel brave, act as if 
 we were brave, use all our will to that end, and a courage-fit will 
 very likely replace the fit of fear. Again, in order to feel kindly 
 towards a person to whom we have been inimical, the [?] only way 
 is more or less deliberately to smile, to make sympathetic inquiries, 
 and to force ourselves to say genial things. ... To wrestle with 
 a bad feeling only pins our attention on it and keeps it still fastened 
 in the mind. Whereas, if we act as if from some better feeling, the 
 old bad feeling soon ' folds its tent like an Arab, and silently steals 
 away.' . . . Act faithfully, and you really have faith, no matter 
 how cold and even how dubious you may feel. . . . From our 
 attitudes ceaseless inpouring currents of sensation come, which help- 
 to determine from moment to moment what our inner, states shall 
 l)e. That is a fundamental law of Psychology which I will there- 
 fore proceed to assume." 
 
 Dr. Maudsley, as I remarked in a previous chapter,. 
 
256 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 held that **he who is incapable of controlling his 
 muscles [we might say, his expressions] is incapable 
 of controlling his mind." Elsewhere he says : " The 
 special muscular action is not merely the exponent 
 of the passion, but truly an essential [?] part of 
 it. If we tr}% while the features are fixed in the 
 expression of one passion, to call up in the mind a 
 different one, we shall find it impossible to do so." 
 I think that Professor Alexander Bain also main- 
 tains that, if we get and hold the expression of any 
 •one emotion, we cannot possibly feel or entertain 
 the opposite emotion. 
 In one place he says : — 
 
 " So constant are the appearances characterising the different 
 classes of emotions, that we regard them as a part of the emotions 
 themselves. The smile of joy, the puckered features in pain, the 
 stare of astonishment, tlie quivering of fear, the tones and glance of 
 tenderness, the frown of anger — are united in seemingly insepar- 
 able association with the feelings that they indicate. (If a 
 feeling arises without its appropriate sign of accompaniment, we 
 account for the failure either by voluntary suppression, or by the 
 faintness of the excitement, there being a certain degree or intensity 
 requisite to affect the Ixxlily organs. On this uniformity of con- 
 nection between feelings and their bodily expression depends our 
 knowledge of each other's mind and character. When anyone is 
 pleased, or pained, or loving, or angry, unless there is purposed 
 concealment, we are aware of the fact). 
 
 " From a variety of causes, we are deeply interested in the out- 
 ward display of emotion. The face of inanimate nature does not 
 arrest our attention so strongly as the deportment of our fellow 
 beings ; in truth, the highest attraction of natural objects is im- 
 parted to them by a fictitious process of investing them with human 
 feelings 
 
 "To the painter, the sculptor, and the poet, every feeling has 
 its appropriate manifestation. Not only are the grosser forms of 
 feeling thus linked with material adjuncts ; in the artist's view, the 
 
BETTER POSITIONS AND EXPRESSIONS. 257 
 
 loftiest, the noblest, the holiest of the human emotions, have their 
 marked and inseparable attitude and deportment. So far as con- 
 cerns the entire compass of our feelings or emotions, it is the 
 [?] universal testimony of mankind that these have no independent 
 spiritual subsistence, but are in every case embodied in our fleshly 
 form. 
 
 *' This very strong and patent fact has been usually kept out of 
 view in the multifarious discussions respecting the Immaterial 
 Soul. Apparent as it is to the vulgar, and intently studied as it has 
 been by the sculptor, the painter, and the poet, it has been dis- 
 regarded both by metaphysicians and theologians when engaged in 
 discussing the boundaries of mind and body." 
 
 I must insist, however, that these writers omit an 
 essential consideration. 
 
 Not only must you have the expression, or rather 
 the various expressions (including that of the eye, the 
 mouth, the hands, the body's attitude, and the 
 breathing) : you must also let yourself go, become 
 passive to, permissive and submissive to, the expres- 
 sions. Otherwise you may be like certain actors, 
 who can express emotions without feeling them, or at 
 least without feeling them strongly as dominant and 
 overpowering, as absolutely convincing or conquering, and 
 re-creating influences. 
 
 The practical application is clear. If an unfavour- 
 able emotion or mental change threatens you, express 
 some other emotion and hold to it and let yourself go 
 to it. 
 
 If you feel that the unfavourable emotion still 
 possesses your mind, your conscious sensations, your 
 citadel, yet do not surrender to it your town and your 
 outposts. Stick to these ; fortify them ; attend to 
 them ; divert the citadel's food (which is, your 
 
258 
 
 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 attention) to them ; and starve the citadel out. As 
 Professor HOffding advises, *' even if we cannot pre- 
 vent a feeHng from arising, we may possibly prevent 
 it from spreading, by inhibiting the organic move- 
 ment which accompanies it, and indulgence in which 
 augments it." 
 
 A boy must not be a hypocrite : that is the last 
 career I should wish for him. But he must realise 
 that mental states depend not only on the mind, but 
 also on the body's position and expression. He must 
 realise that position and expression are a matter of 
 muscles ; that muscles are controlled by nerves and 
 nerve-centres, and, until habits are formed, by the 
 
 will. That the master^' and 
 direction of them is largely 
 ^^^<vL \ a matter of his choice. He 
 
 should be constantly remind- 
 ed of Dr. Maudsley's words 
 . , .^. . (above), that he who is in- 
 
 Wi iff Al capable of controlling his 
 
 \\\/l // )/ /^ muscles is incapable of con- 
 \i\ I rc^ Ji ^ trolling his mind. Now part 
 of the control of the muscles 
 is to give the body its right 
 position; part of it is to give the body its right 
 expression ; part, again, is not to use muscles 
 wrongly, to control the muscles in the sense of 
 not using them needlessly, and, sometitnes, not 
 using them at all. 
 
 Professor James' words, once again, are not entirely 
 accurate. A man may have the position and expres- 
 
 FiG. 75. — A dog alert. 
 
BETTER POSITIONS AND EXPRESSIONS. 259 
 
 sion of cheerfulness and yet not feel cheerful. In that 
 case he may belong to the class of actors whom Jesus 
 Christ condemned so often as " hypocrites " : the 
 " hypocrite " being at first merely the actor who did 
 not express himself from his best and inmost centre, 
 but " played to the gallery," wishing to please igno- 
 rant men and women. A boy must decide to let 
 himself go and submit to the good expression, which 
 should not be objectionably bland and oily and pious 
 and sleek. He must allow it to work its effects upon 
 him; he must, again, become passive, permissive, 
 submissive, receptive to it. 
 
 So, when he bathes, he must let himself go to the 
 water, open his pores to it. He must do the same 
 with fresh air; he must do the same with good 
 scenery ; he must even tr}' to do the same with good 
 exercises. If an exercise is good, let yourself go to 
 it ; let it work its full effects upon you. A friend of 
 mine says that he does not do any exercise by 
 choice ; rather he first relaxes his muscles, and then 
 does just whatever exercise he feels inclined to do, 
 and gives himself up to the feeling of the moment. 
 Living by himself, in private solitude, far away from 
 anyone else, he is able to express himself freely. 
 Sometimes he jumps and dances ; sometimes he 
 kicks; sometimes he shouts and sings; sometimes 
 he goes through the movements of swimming, at 
 other tnnes the movements of rowing or boxing. He 
 finds that he gets the best results when he allows the 
 ffood exercises to play with him, as it were, and when 
 he entrusts his whole self to them and their sweet 
 influences. 
 
 S 
 
260 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 But few of US, I think, have the energy or the 
 faith to do this. Most of us want definite instruc- 
 tions at the start. Most of us want attractive 
 exercises, if the bedroom or plain room practice of 
 them is to be continued. In the hope that my own 
 favourites, and a few others, will enable readers very 
 soon to choose and devise a better Course for them- 
 selves, and so become as independent of outside 
 directions as possible, I offer the following Chapter, 
 not as a final order, but merely as a makeshift sug- 
 gestion, which it may be worth while to try and 
 then judge by its all-round results. 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 SUGGESTIONS AS TO BETTER DRILL FOR BOYS. 
 I. INTRODUCTORY NOTES. 
 
 ALREADY I have warned readers against ex- 
 cessive exercise, pointing out, however, that 
 there is less danger if early physical alphabets have 
 been mastered and if better food has been taken more 
 leisurely ; if more appropriate times for exercise have 
 been chosen ; if better health-tests have been ap- 
 plied; if some remedial (or preventive) work has been 
 done ; and if much attention has been paid to clean- 
 liness and excretion. 
 
 I have also outlined some practices for breathing 
 (Chapter XXII.), for repose (Chapter XXIII.), and 
 for better positions and expressions (Chapter XXIV.), 
 
SUGGESTIONS AS TO DRILL. 261 
 
 Then, in the next chapter I shall deal with games 
 and athletics in particular, including the walk and 
 run ; and self-defence, under w hich heading I shall 
 class self-preservation by swimming ; I might add 
 shooting also. Chapter XXVIII. will treat of "un- 
 athletic " hobbies, such as gardening, carpentering, 
 and modelling. There will be suggestions as to 
 competitions, which, when badly organised, are apt 
 to strain boys ; especially is it important that proper 
 handicaps should be arranged and that the boys 
 should be sensibly grouped. 
 
 This question of groups is an essential one so 
 long as we deal with boys in batches. Group-drill 
 is good if the boys be classified less according to age 
 and size than according to heart-strength, lung- 
 capacity, and build, and if the groups be re-arranged 
 from time to time in harmony with physical tests ; 
 for sometimes it is impossible to tell how certain 
 exercises will suit a boy. They may strengthen him : 
 they may wear him out. The physical tests will 
 show the effects. Here is an example. 
 
 One question is sure to be asked by many 
 managers and boys themselves : Is the Sandow 
 Course a good one for boys ? It is widely adver- 
 tised, and, we must say, misleadingly advertised. I 
 emphatically assert that it is not suitable for boys if 
 it is used indiscriminately. The almost incessant 
 grip and strain, of both hands at once, is thoroughly 
 bad for the young, owing to the relative sizes of their 
 heart and arteries. The spring-grip dumbbell as a 
 constantly used implement is worse than the ordi- 
 
262 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 nary dumbbell. The Scottish Commission was not in 
 favour of the Sandow System for children, owing to 
 the bad effect upon the heart. The System is a dull 
 one, demanding — as an expert says — little " nerve," 
 little co-ordination, little variety, little poise, little 
 gracefulness ; and, I should add, little if any lithe- 
 ness of extremities, economy, freedom, abandon ; and 
 its movements are almost entirely rhythmical. But 
 a little Sandowism is not bad for boys occasionally^ 
 especially in order to lead up to gymnastics. 
 
 Then there is the question of gymnastics with 
 fixed apparatus. Vevy much the same answer may 
 be given here. Excellent as gjmnastics are if they 
 are proper!}- supervised b}- a tactful expert, who will 
 divide the boys scientifically into groups, and treat 
 some of the boys as individuals, indiscriminate gym- 
 nastics with fixed apparatus are vile for the young, 
 especially as the sole or the main training. 
 
 Of course there are some stubby elders who seem 
 to be born to be gymnasts and nothing else in the 
 athletic or in any other sphere. For these, and some 
 others, gymnastics are interesting and attractive. 
 
 But, even for these, gymnastics should not be re- 
 lied on as the sole training, nor should they be prac- 
 tised much till speed and ease have been acquired. 
 Occasional gymnastics, in brief spells arranged tact- 
 fully, with plenty of variety, and with intervals for 
 rest, free work, and play, are decidedly valuable. 
 
 But now as to a drill, apart from such uses of 
 dumbbells, spring-grip dumbbells, fixed apparatus, 
 etc., occasionally and in strict moderation: — Can we 
 
SUGGESTIONS AS TO DRILL. 263 
 
 get a drill which a boy is in the least likely to con- 
 tinue of his own free will when, let us say, he has 
 become a clerk or a business-man in the city ? I 
 have done my best to devise such a drill for boys, 
 and to give a few hints as to what seem to me to 
 be the best ways of practising it. 
 
 Some of the conditions of healthful exercise I have 
 suggested more than once elsewhere — fresh air, good 
 light, less clothing, certainly less cramping clothing, 
 frequent clean clothing, cleanliness generally, and 
 brevity. 
 
 If the exercises are brief, arranged in short sharp 
 spells, the boys will find it easier to concentrate their 
 attention on them and to do them correctly ; for the 
 interest will be less likely to flag. 
 
 The interest can also be kept up by explanations at 
 intervals, as to how this or that exercise affects the 
 body, how it affects the breathing, digestion, appear- 
 ance, athletics, brain-work, and so on. These inter- 
 vals for studying the reasons of certain movements, 
 and other intervals for fuller breathing and relaxing, 
 would prevent a great deal of strain, Mosso's book 
 on " Fatigue," and my article, with hints on its pre- 
 vention, in the '' Physical Educator," may be studied 
 in regard to details. 
 
 There is urgent need for moderation and gradual 
 increase. It is very easy to strain a boy for life, even 
 though he may not feel the effects or show them till 
 he is, let us say, thirty, at which time he will attri- 
 bute the cause to something else, not to his school- 
 drill, or runs, or games in former years. 
 
264 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 I am not for a moment urging private and indi- 
 vidual drill to the exclusion of class-drill. Let the 
 two schemes alternate. It is essential for boys to 
 get the group-feeling, and the feeling of leadership as 
 well. They should learn that they do not exist or 
 move for themselves alone. Some boys should be 
 given responsibility in setting the drill to others. 
 
 In fact, the drill should be a preparation for the 
 whole life, including the commercial, social, and 
 recreational. As a rule the drill at schools is not a 
 preparation for the recreational : it is too dull for 
 that. 
 
 Some apparatus is of decided use. The chest- 
 expander and the light dumbbell and the light 
 Indian club seem to me among the best. But for 
 most ordinary purposes the floor and the walls will 
 suffice, if they are clean ; and a ball. There simply 
 must be a ball. 
 
 To the Course will belong the three kinds of 
 breathing through the nostrils (outlined in Chapter 
 XXII.), the fourth kind of breathing, and the relax- 
 ing that naturally goes with it (in Chapter XXIIL), 
 and the practice of better positions and expressions, 
 especially the normally curved spine, the prominent 
 chest, and the retracted chin (Chapter XXIV.). In 
 order to make these positions habitual, some reme- 
 dial work (Chapters XX. and XXIV.) must be added 
 by the manager or the expert teacher. 
 
 Without wishing to do away with any good drill 
 which already exists at a school or in a home, I 
 am bound to sa\' that most drills, as far as I have 
 
SUGGESTIONS AS TO DRILL. 265 
 
 examined, are not very interesting to the boy unless 
 the teacher is really skilled in teaching. As a make- 
 shift drill, which is pronounced to be quite healthy^ 
 and at the same time far more attractive to boys, I 
 have offered " An Alphabet of Athletics," in Rout- 
 ledge's Fitness Series. 
 
 The boy who practises these or any other exercises 
 should feel his muscles stretch ^ without violent or painful 
 strain ; should gradually increase the extent, the speed, 
 and the number of repetitions ; should have intervals for 
 breathing and repose, and explanations by the teacher ; 
 and should not use unnecessarily any parts of his body. 
 As a rule he should be lithe and flexible and easy, not 
 tense. 
 
 The order of the following exercises is not strictly 
 scientific. I have thought it better to insert duller 
 movements among the more interesting, and, gener- 
 ally, to get variety rather than strictly physiological 
 sequence. 
 
 The scheme is offered not as an idee fixe, but 
 rather as a working basis to be improved on, as ex- 
 perience teaches, by omissions, additions, substitu- 
 tions, alterations. 
 
 It should be learnt not as a whole, all at once, but 
 part by part, on the plan that I have outlined in my 
 other writings. First master one movement ; then 
 repeat that, and master another; then repeat the 
 first two, and master a third; and so on. As the 
 Romans conquered their Empire (at least in its 
 early stages), attack a little, conquer it, assimilate it, 
 use it in order to conquer another little, and so forth. 
 
266 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 Divide ct inipcra. Or, to be more detailed, Divide j 
 vince, vinci, utere — Divide, conquer, bind safely, use. 
 
 Three more words before I begin the Course. 
 Forgive the delay. My own ideas differ so widely 
 from those of the orthodox schools (British, German, 
 Ling, etc.) in these two respects, that I must justify 
 them. 
 
 The first is repetition by the memory and imagination 
 directly after the movement itself — and therefore a 
 far more thorough realisation and sensation of the 
 movement itself at the time. 
 
 The second is the relaxing and repose of as much 
 of the body as possible when any given parts are 
 being moved. I do not mean mere stillness, which 
 may involve enormous strain (hold your hand out at 
 right angles to your body, quite still — that is not 
 repose!) I mean real rest, real economy. Instead 
 of doing most movements generally with the two 
 sides together, I am sure that, in the yet early 
 stages of learning, the right side should move or stretchy 
 etc., while the left really rests, then vice versa. 
 
 I believe that these two principles, as stated here, 
 are original contributions to the art of Physical 
 Education. But more of them directly. Here, for 
 instance, is an orthodox movement with the two 
 sides together. Do it, and you should feel which 
 muscles are being stretched. Such an exercise (like 
 the one in the leg-series, in the Course) will help, 
 e.g., to squeeze the liver and so to promote digestion 
 and excretion. The two hands are used together in 
 Fig. 76. In F"ig. yy only one side is used, but the 
 
SUGGESTIONS AS TO DRILL. 
 
 267 
 
 other is stiff, not relaxed. Try it first with one side 
 relaxed, then with the other side relaxed. 
 
 Or, again, look at Fig. 78, and contrast F'ig. 79, 
 which has one side relaxed. For my own part I 
 prefer to have my feet com- 
 fortably apart, though not 
 quite so far as in Fig. 80. 
 Instead of Fig. 80 I should 
 prefer sometimes to relax 
 each side in turn, while I 
 stretched the other side. 
 
 Besides, I should like to 
 make such exercises inter- 
 esting and attractive to most 
 Anglo-Saxon boys. For want 
 of a better way, I think a fair 
 plan would be to introduce 
 Fig. 76. the athletic element — to bring 
 these positions and movements nearer to the familiar 
 and attractive positions and movements of some 
 forms of sport. Out of many suggestions I propose 
 
 Fig. 79. 
 
 Fig. 80. 
 
268 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 that one exercise be part of a hopping exercise, or of 
 " kneeing " the ball (as occasionally in Association 
 Football), while the other be (as in the Course) part 
 of the fielding at Cricket. 
 
 This is chiefly for the sake of attraction and en- 
 joyment, which, as we have seen, can act as a 
 harmless ''chemical" tonic to the nerves and blood 
 and whole system. It is also in order to make con- 
 centration easier at the start. 
 
 For a third requisite, besides the vivid sensation 
 at the time and the vivid memory and imagination 
 directly afterwards, and the repose and economy of 
 the muscles and nerves not required for use, is 
 closely connected with these, and yet is not identical 
 with them. It is concentration. 
 
 There is a concentration almost independent of 
 any interest inherent in the thing being done. Pro- 
 fessor James alludes to it when he says : " Keep the 
 faculty of effort alive in thee by a little gratuitous 
 exercise every day ; do every day or two something 
 for no other reason than thou wouldst not do it, so 
 that when the hour of dire need draws nigh it may 
 find thee not unnerved and untrained to stand the 
 test." (To which we might add Marcus Aurelius' 
 words, " accustom yourself to master things that you 
 seem to despair of.") Some of this power is "a very 
 present help in time of trouble." 
 
 But there are other helps to concentration. There 
 is the knowledge of the muscles, etc., which you are 
 using, the sight and sensation of them as you feel 
 them contracted or extended, the thought of the 
 
SUGGESTIONS AS To DRILL. 269. 
 
 good that the movement is doing you. Then there 
 is my plan, suggested in the " Strand " Magazine, of 
 remembering and imagining the sight and sensation 
 of the movement as you close your eyes immediately 
 after the movement : the knowledge that you are 
 going to try to recall and revive the exercise later 
 will tend to make you focus your mind on it at the 
 time. You can imagine yourself doing it, or, if you 
 like, imagine another person doing it, and, in your 
 own mind, do it with that person. 
 
 As an instance, turn your neck round to the rights 
 and then bow to an imaginary person at your right 
 side, drawing \our chin in. Repeat this three times. 
 Then relax, close your eyes gently, and revive the 
 sight and sense memor}' as really as possible. Do 
 not grip with your hands — that is no good what- 
 soever, here. Now repeat the movement itself, so 
 as to correct and fill up the gaps in, and impress 
 upon you again, the feeling of the movement. Then 
 do it, similarly, to the left side. Be aware of the 
 muscles stretching, but stop short of injuring them 
 by excess. 
 
 Try this with all the exercises in the Course, 
 especially with the Swimming series ; and also 
 with the Relaxing-practice, in Chapter XXIII. 
 
 Needless to say, the more you attend to the exer- 
 cises, act them, realise them, live them, the more 
 you make them integral parts of yourself, assimilate 
 and build them in your brain and spinal nerve- 
 system, the more they will influence you. Therefore 
 you must be extremely careful what exercises you do. 
 
270 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 If you do undesirable exercises (like those to which 
 I have alluded in Chapters IV. and XVI., at least 
 for many boys), then you get within your very cells 
 and fibres, within your very self, undesirable influ- 
 ences. I hope that none in my Course are very bad. 
 I am rather sensitive myself, and do not find any of 
 them undesirable. But if you do, give them up at 
 once. 
 
 One more warning. While I want you to attend 
 to the positions and movements, and to do them 
 correctly and therefore scrupulously and perhaps 
 slowly at first, so as to save self-correction after- 
 wards, and while I want you to correct your faults 
 partly by the opposite faults, exaggerated, / do not 
 want you to think of these exercises when you play. I 
 do not want you to make your play grim and slavish 
 business. When you play, play. Attend to the 
 ^ame, your opponent, your tactics, your play-spirit 
 (Chapter XXXIX.), only just occasionally to your 
 mechanisms, except, as it were, to make a mental 
 note of where they are going wrong. But between 
 whiles correct yourself. Your bat is not moving in 
 a straight line — it and your left foot are too far 
 away to your left. Very well, then, the next time 
 you practise see to that. Practise the opposite fault. 
 Send your bat and your left foot purposel}- too far to 
 your right. But during the play, as a general rule, 
 live the play — be as unconscious as you can of the 
 mechanism. 
 
 Now for the Course, at last ! 
 
SUGGESTIONS AS TO DRILL. 27 1 
 
 II. A MAKKSHIFT COURSE. 
 
 N.B. — Intervals for reviving sights and sensations vividly by 
 memory and imagination ; and for explanations of reasons ; and 
 for fuller and more rhythmical breathing and muscular relaxing. 
 
 Golf-swings, including one-handed swings. 
 
 Fencing lunge. 
 
 Cricket-series. Batting, especially forward-play, drive, running 
 
 out, bowling, fielding, throwing, catching. 
 Catch, etc. 
 Neck-movements. 
 Swimming practice. 
 Startings and Runnings. 
 
 Trunk-exercises — twist, circle, leg-raising, etc., on the floor. 
 Kicking, with arm-exercise : led up to by free leg-swing. Balance- 
 
 (E. F. Benson's Exercise). 
 Wrist and forearm movements, with relaxing. 
 I^wn Tennis Service, and run forward. 
 A leg-series. 
 
 Stretchings, previous to shakings and relaxings. 
 Skipping and hopping. 
 Self -massage. 
 
 Peg-top whipping. Racquet-stroke, Racquet-service. 
 Fives-strokes. 
 
 Rowing-ex-ercise, with or without apparatus. 
 George's Hundred-Up. 
 Movements with an easy stretcher. 
 Position-drills and two useful full movements. 
 Boxing-exercises, with or without punch-ball. 
 Alternative and additional Exercises : — 
 
 Plank-practices. 
 
 Japanese (Jujitsu) training in alertness, etc. 
 
 Hindu (Yoga) training for trunk-muscles, etc. 
 The left side by itself. 
 Mental and moral aims. 
 
272 
 
 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 Ji/aster each exerrt?,e, and learn lo recall it in your iuiaginalion^ before 
 procetiini;^ to the next. Do not frown or grip needlessly. Increase 
 the extent, pace, and repetitions, gradually. Stop directly you 
 begin to be out of breath. Give up exercises that do not suit you. 
 Add others that do. 
 
 Golf -swings. 
 
 The illustrations (Figs. 81 and 82) explain the 
 
 beginning and finishing positions. With an Indian 
 
 •club or a stick held (but not tensely gripped) in the 
 
 two hands, and brought well back behind the right 
 
 shoulder as far 
 as it will go 
 comfortably, 
 swing down and 
 out to the right, 
 and then along 
 a straight line, 
 still out and a- 
 way to the left, 
 thus bringing 
 the weight from 
 the right foot on 
 to the left, and 
 Fig. 81. Fig. 82. finishing up in 
 
 the second position. Keep your eye, for as long as 
 you can, on the ball or some mark. Get a good 
 •driver to give you hints. Pretend that you are 
 some good driver, though \ou should not begin 
 too violently, and you should not imitate slavishly. 
 Repeat twice more. Then close your eyes, relax, 
 and revive the memory. 
 
 Now do this swing as if you were playing golf 
 left-handed. In both cases look at some mark or a 
 
SUGGESTIONS AS TO DRILL. 
 
 273 
 
 Master each exercise, ana learn to recall it in your i machination, before 
 proccedini; to the next. Do not frmvn or grip needlessly. Increase 
 the extent, pace, and repetitions, grcuiually. Stop directly yon 
 detain to he out of breath. Give up exercises that do not suit yon. 
 Add others that do. 
 
 ball upon the floor, just as you would fix your eye 
 on a golf-ball if you were driving. But, once again, 
 ^et some good player to put you right at the start. 
 
 Having begun to master the stroke, especially the 
 long straight line followed by the club, commencing 
 far away to the right and going parallel to your feet, 
 and far away to the left ; now learn the right-handed 
 
 
 Fk;. 83. 
 
 Fig. 84. 
 
 -drive with each hand in turn, while the other hand 
 rests limp and relaxed. Figs. 8^ and 84 show this 
 practice, which will give independent control, will 
 be valuable for many ball-games (such as Racquets 
 and Fives), and will work one side of the brain more 
 actively while it rests the other side more thor- 
 oughly. The better each side does its proper work 
 by itself, the more likely it is to do its work — after 
 practice — in co-operation with the other side. 
 
 What I say here about the use of each side in 
 
2/4 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 Master ecuh exercise, and learn to recall it in your imagination, be/ore 
 proceeding to the next. Do not frown or ^rip needlessly. Increase 
 the extent, pace, and repetitions, gradually. Stop directly you 
 begin to he out of breath. Give up exercises that do not suit you. 
 Add others that do. 
 
 turn while the other rests, will apply to many of the 
 following exercises also. Professor Liberty Tadd, of 
 Philadelphia, has had many years' experience in 
 training thousands of children to use either hand 
 at will in manual work (carpentering, modelling, 
 drawing, etc.). He says most emphatically that this 
 not only increases the skill of the left side, but also 
 actually increases the skill of the right side, lessens 
 some physical deformities, and makes the children 
 more bright and intelligent. 
 
 I need not give the reasons again, then, with each 
 of the following exercises in turn. It will be suffi- 
 cient to refer readers back to this paragraph, and for- 
 ward to the remarks near the end of this Chapter. 
 
 Fencing Lunge. 
 From the unimportant first position (a) of Fig. 85, 
 with the legs straight, the right heel touching the 
 
 Fig. 85. 
 
SUGGESTIONS AS TO DRILL. 275 
 
 Master ear h exercise, and learn to recall it in your imai^i nation, before 
 goin;^ on to the next. Do not frown or ^rip needlessly. Increase 
 the extent, fHi<e, and repetitions, ji^radually. Stop directly yon 
 dci^in to fie ont of breath. Give up exercises that do not suit you. 
 Add others that do. 
 
 side of the left heel, pass, with a step of the right 
 foot, into the position (b), with the body crouching 
 well down, but with the back hollow and the chin 
 in, and with the two arms behind the back as in 
 the illustration (a), facing with a quarter-turn of the 
 body, but with the eyes straight forward and up. 
 Now make a good lunge forward (c), in a straight 
 line, with the right foot, not lifting it too high, and 
 not letting the left foot come off the ground. Be 
 sure that the right foot points straight forward and 
 not — as it tends to do — towards your left. If it 
 does, remedy the fault by practising the opposite 
 fault. Let your right knee come over your right 
 foot, but do not stretch too far at first ; increase the 
 distance by degrees. Then return to the crouching 
 position. 
 
 Repeat this movement twice more, then shut your 
 eyes, relax, and vividly recall the sight and sensation. 
 
 Next do it with the sides reversed : lunge with 
 the left foot and leg, sending the left foot forward. 
 Then revive the memory-. 
 
 Crouch well down, but do not grip or frown. 
 
 When you can do this movement easily, then add 
 the arm-movement. For the lunge with the right 
 foot have 3'our left hand and arm well back and 
 down, palm upwards, and at about the level of your 
 hips ; your right hand — also with the palm upwards 
 — up at about the level of the top of your chest. 
 
 T 
 
276 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 Master each exercise, and learn to recall it in your imagination, before 
 ^oing on to the next. Do not grip or fro'von needlessly. Increase 
 the extent, pace, ami repetitions, gradually. Stop directly yon 
 begin to be out of breath. Give up exercises that do not suit you. 
 Add others that do. 
 
 Look straight in front of you the whole time, except 
 occasionally for the purpose of correcting the posi- 
 tion of your feet. 
 
 Repeat twice more. Revive the memory. Then 
 do this second lunge and arm-movement with the 
 left side. 
 
 For further details see any good volume on 
 Fencing {e.g., the All-England Librar}- Volume), 
 or the article, by an experienced teacher, in the 
 *' Physical Educator." I owe the arm-exercise to 
 him, though he did not originate it. I differ from 
 him in that I am sure the self-teacher ought not 
 always to keep his eyes up straight ahead at the 
 start. He ought sometimes to look down at his feet, 
 or at their reflection in a mirror, to see that the 
 forward foot be pointing straight ahead, the back 
 foot be firm on the ground. This occasional atten- 
 tion will send more blood and energy to the feet. 
 Of course later on it will become unnecessary. The 
 feet will regulate themselves — or, rather, will be 
 regulated by the under-mind in the spinal nerve- 
 system. 
 
 As an additional exercise, practise advancing and 
 retiring in the crouch position, advancing with the 
 front foot first, and with the toes and balls coming 
 down on the ground first, but retiring with the back 
 foot first, and with the heel of the front foot then 
 coming down on the ground before the ball and toes. 
 
SUGGESTIONS AS TO DRILL. 
 
 277 
 
 Master each exercise, and leant to recall it in yonr iin(u:;inatioH, before 
 goin<^ on to the next. Do not frorvn or orip needlessly. Increase 
 the extent, pace, and repetitions, i^rcuinaily. Stop directly you 
 hes^in to be out of breath. Gi'v, uh exercises that do not suit you. 
 Add others that do. 
 
 Keep the distance between the two feet as nearly the 
 same as you can, all the time. 
 
 Then, as usual, relax, and revive the memories. 
 
 Then advance and retire with the left foot in front. 
 
 Get a good fencer to guide and correct you at the 
 beginning. '' The beginning is half of the whole." 
 
 Cricket Series. — {i.) Batting. 
 Taking a light club or a stick, 
 so as to get freedom of action 
 before you have to use much 
 strength, imagine yourself to be 
 batting. The illustrations are all 
 adapted from good models : for 
 instance, the first is from L. C. H. 
 Palairet. Now go through various 
 strokes, and after each come back 
 to the waiting position of Fig. 86. 
 In playing forward, see that 
 your stick comes straight up and 
 back, then straight forward and nearly touching 
 your left foot, which should also move straight for- 
 ward. Get a good player to show you the stroke. 
 I have tried to describe the forward-play of two or 
 three professionals, in "The Cricket of Abel, Hirst, 
 and Shrewsbury" (Hurst and Blackett). 
 
 Add other strokes (see XXVI.), such as the drive 
 to the off, then to the on ; back-play ; cutting ; gliding. 
 
 Fig, 86. 
 Ready to bat. 
 
278 
 
 I. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 Master each exercise, and learn to recall it in yaur imagination, before 
 going on to the next. Do not frown or giHp needlessly. Increase 
 the extent, pace, and repetitions, gradually. Stop directly you 
 begin to le out of breath. Give up exercises that do not suit you. 
 Add others that do. 
 
 F'lG. 89. —The stick is here too 
 
 far out to the batsman's right : 
 
 it should be nearer to his left 
 
 foot. 
 
 Fi<i. 90. 
 A Forward -drive. 
 
SUGGESTIONS AS TO DRILL. 279 
 
 Master each exercise, and leartt to recall it in your imagination, before 
 going on to t/ic next. Do not Jroicn or grip nee J less ly. Iturecue 
 the extent, face, and repetitions, gradually. Stop directly you 
 begin to be out of breath. Give up exercises that do not suit you. 
 Aiid others that do. 
 
 Learn to run out, perhaps using Abel's plan, as in 
 Fig. 92 ; learn to turn neatly at the crease; learn to 
 recover poise and be ready to run immediately after 
 your stroke. For suggestions as to other exercises, 
 see the next Chapter. Do the series left-handed 
 also. But first get the attitudes and movements 
 
 correct for right-handed play. During games, enjoy 
 the games. Keep the learning of mechanisms for 
 the practice-times. 
 
 {ii.) Bowling and Fielding. 
 
 The same remarks apply here. 
 
 First you stoop down and pick up an imaginary 
 
28o 
 
 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 Mastei- each exercise, and leatit to recall it in your imagination, bsfore 
 going on to the next. Do not froton or grip needlessly. Increase 
 the extent, pace, and repetitions, gradually. Stop directly you 
 begin to be out of breath. Give up exercises that do not suit you. 
 Add others that do. 
 
 ball, then you take a little run, draw your right side 
 back and down, and bowl with \our hand extended 
 very high, and with your body-weight and power, 
 ending up in a position in which your weight has 
 passed on to your forward foot. Afterwards recover 
 your poise and be ready to field. 
 
 Imagine a catch being hit to you, sometimes as in 
 Fig. 94, sometimes as in Fig. 95 (b). Catch the 
 
 Fig. 93. — Stoop, pick up the (imaginary) ball, bowl. Do this 
 with the left hand. Then use the two sides together. 
 
 imaginary' ball. Get some good fielder to show you 
 how to catch, or read the article by Sewell in C. B. 
 Fry's Magazine. 
 
 Then practise fielding a ball and throwing it in. 
 Bring your hand well up and back behind your ear, 
 then, for a short-distance throw, send your hand well 
 forward, as in Fig. 95 (c), the first and second fingers 
 now pointing at the mark at which you have been 
 
SUGGESTIONS AS TO DRILL. 
 
 281 
 
 Master each exercise, ami leant to recall it in your imagittation^ before 
 goint:; on to the next. Do not frown or grip needlessly. Increase 
 the extent, pace, ami repetitions, i^radually. Stop directly you 
 begin to be out of breath. Give up exercises that do not suit you. 
 Add others that do. 
 
 aiming. (The Americans sometimes 
 throw with the right leg forward). 
 Practise also a long-distance throw, in 
 which \ou send the ball far higher. 
 Do the series left-handed. 
 Then do a useful exercise, going 
 through the Series, as far as you can 
 adapt it, with the two sides together — 
 picking-up, running, bowling, recover- 
 ing, catching, alert again, fielding, 
 throwing. One or two reasons why this 
 left-side practice is important, will be 
 given at the end of this chapter. Per- 
 sonally I find that, when I learn to play better with 
 my left hand, my right hand play improves also. 
 Of course the above exercise is not meant to dis- 
 
 A B c 
 
 Fig. 95 — Or catch it in this way. Then draw the right hand 
 up and back behind the ear, and throw. Do this left-handed 
 also. 
 
282 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 Master each exercise, aud learn to recall it in your imagination, before 
 going on to the luxt. Do not frown or grip neealessly. Increase 
 the extent, pace, and repetitions, gradually. Sto/> directly you 
 begin to be out of breath. Give up exercises that do not suit you. 
 Add others that do. 
 
 courage net-play, and such practices (with the stump 
 between two players, for throwing, bowling, and 
 fielding, etc.) as I have outlined in the volume 
 already mentioned. It is rather meant to make net- 
 play and games themselves more attractive, owing to 
 greater success ; and also to keep people in some 
 training and practice when games and net-play are 
 hard to obtain. 
 
 Then there should be a slight rest for deep and 
 leisurely breathing (see Chapter XXII.), and mus- 
 cular relaxing (Chapter XXIII.). When you have 
 recovered your breath, you can begin the next series. 
 During most exercises keep your chin in, your 
 shoulders square, and your trunk inclining slightly 
 forward from the hips. When you are not looking 
 at the muscles which you are using, look well to the 
 front. Feel the muscles stretching but not straining. 
 This series, contributed to the " Physical Educator " 
 by an expert-teacher, belongs to several Systems. 
 Some of its movements are illustrated here. First 
 send your head back ; then draw your chin in, and 
 bend your head forward. Then turn your head to 
 the right, and to the left. After this movement, 
 this turn to the side, I add a bow to an imaginary 
 person on that side. Then bend your head over to 
 the right, and to the left. Then rotate your head, 
 keeping your face facing forwards all the time. Do 
 
SUGGESTIONS AS TO DRILL. 283 
 
 Master each exercise^ and learn to recall it in your imagination, before 
 going on to the next. Do not froiun or grip needlessly. Increcue 
 the extent, pace, and repetitions, grculually. Stop directly yon 
 hej^in to he out of breath. Give up exercises that do not suit yon. 
 Add others that do. 
 
 all these movements slowly ; otherwise you will be 
 liable to feel giddy, if not to hurt yourself. 
 
 The neck-movements are important as an aid to 
 better breathing, as well as to better carriage and 
 position. It may help you at first to hold your hands 
 
 Fig. 76. — Neck-exercises common to several systems. Afterwards 
 turn to the right, and make a bow ; then do this to the left. 
 
 on your neck — for instance, clasping them behind 
 your head or behind your neck. This raising of the 
 hands will tend to bring your trunk-organs into their 
 right place. Sometimes, if your neck-muscles are 
 stiff, you can massage them with your hands. 
 
 Later on, you can practise these movements 
 against resistance. You can give enough resistance 
 with your own hands, putting them behind your 
 neck or head when you bend back ; in front of you, 
 on your chin or your forehead, when you bend for- 
 ward ; on either side, when you bend towards that 
 side. 
 
284 
 
 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 Master each exercise, and learn to recall jt in your imagination^ before 
 going on to the next. Do not frown or grip needlessly. Imtease 
 the extent, pace, and repetitions, gradually. Stop directly you 
 begin to be out of breath. Give up exercises that do not suit you. 
 Add others that do. 
 
 I find it gives me more independent control of 
 the two sides, and saves energy as well, to do this 
 resisting-work with each hand in turn, while the 
 other rests relaxed at my side. 
 
 Breast-stroke, with Leg-movement, 
 In this swimming-exercise you can practise each 
 side at first by itself, so as to get more independent 
 control. Keep the other side relaxed. Throwing 
 }'our head well back, go through the movements 
 shown in the illustrations. 
 
 Fig. 97. — A Breast-stroke swimming-exercise, but with each arm 
 resting in turn. 
 
 First raise your open right hand, with its palm 
 downwards and its back touching your chin ; then 
 send it straight and well out to the front and upward, 
 keeping your fingers together, but not bent. Then 
 turn your thumb down and sweep your hand round 
 
SUGGESTIONS AS TO DKILL. 285 
 
 Master each exercise, and leant to recall it in your imagination, he/ore 
 goini( on to the next. Do not frown or ^i,n-i/> needlessly, liurease 
 the extent, pace, and repetitions, gradually. Stop directly you 
 begin to be out of heath. Give up exercises that do not suit you. 
 Add others thtU do. 
 
 towards the right, as if to push the water back and 
 keep yourself up and propel yourself forward. Feel 
 \our shoulder mme ; but do not strain. Bring your 
 hand up again under your chin, and repeat. 
 
 Then do this exercise with the left side, resting the 
 right side. Then with the two sides together. But 
 be sure to keep your head well back, and the small 
 of your back hollow. 
 
 When this movement is easy, you can add the leg- 
 movements. It is too severe a strain to begin by 
 practising the whole swimming-stroke at once as you 
 lie across a bench or a chair, as in Fig. 100. That 
 may be all right later on. It is easier to begin learn- 
 ing as you lie on your back upon an inclined plank. 
 There you can go through the movements just de- 
 scribed. 
 
 There also — or upon a clean floor or bed — \o\\ can 
 go through the leg-movements, practising each leg at 
 first by itself. Draw }Our right knee up towards 
 \our chest, with the toes down. Then draw the toes 
 up also, move the right knee away to the right, and 
 then kick away from you as you would in swimming, 
 and finish up with your leg extended and your toe 
 pointing downwards. Next do this with the left leg ; 
 then, when the movement is easy, occasionall>' with 
 the two legs together. 
 
 Afterwards do this as you stand, as in Figs. 98 
 and 99. 
 
:?86 
 
 PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 Master each exercise, aiid learn to recall it in your imagination, before 
 going on to the next. Do not frown or grip needlessly. Increase 
 the extent, pace, and repetitions, gradually. Stop directly you 
 begin to be out of breath. Give up exercises that do not suit you. 
 Add others that do. 
 
 Now go through 
 the full swimming 
 exercise with the 
 arms and legs 
 together. It is a 
 good plan to do 
 this standing, 
 sometimes com- 
 bining the arm- 
 movements with 
 the leg-movements 
 of Figs. 98 and 99, 
 Fici. 98. Fig. 99. one leg at a time ; 
 
 Practice for a leg-stroke, with each sometimes with the 
 leg m turn. crouching and ris- 
 
 ing movements of Fig. 97. 
 
 If the trunk-muscles are strong, there will be no 
 harm in trving the practice of Fig. 100 occasionallv. 
 
 Fig. 100. — Another way of learning the breast-stroke. 
 (Adapted from an American photograph.) 
 
 Now rest again, and breathe rhythmically while 
 you relax. 
 
SUGGESTIONS AS TO DRILL. 28/ 
 
 Master each exercise, and learn to recall it in your imas^na'ion, itefofe 
 goinir on to the next. Do not frown or grip needlessly. Increase 
 the extent, pace, and repetitions, gradually. Stop directly yon 
 begin to be out of breath. Give up exercises that do not suit you. 
 Add others that do. 
 
 Starting^ and Runnings. 
 This is a magnificent exercise for many forms of 
 athletics, as well as for general promptitude and the 
 art of adaptation. I certainly find it one of the best 
 and simplest of all the exercises that I know. 
 
 Beginning with the alert position of F'ig. loi, unless- 
 you prefer Hackenschmidt's (see Chapter XXIV.), 
 
 start first from one foot, 
 
 then from the other, first 
 
 in one direction, then in 
 
 another, losing your poise 
 
 as little as you can, or 
 
 recovering it as quickly as 
 
 you can. After each start, 
 
 return to the alert position. 
 
 When this is easy, 
 
 \^ add to it a couple of 
 
 steps of running. 
 
 Then return to the alert again. 
 Var}' this, occasionally, with 
 the Jujitsu-exercise, as described 
 below. 
 
 Occasionall}-, also, practise the 
 start straight forwards from the 
 sprinter's attitude of Fig. 102 
 
 Fig. 102. 
 
 Ready to start straight 
 
 forwards. 
 
288 
 
 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 . Master each exercise, and learn to recall it in your imc^inalion, before 
 going on to the next. Do not frotvn or ginp needlessly. Increase 
 the extent, pcue, and repetitions, gradually. Stop directly you 
 begin to he out of breath. Give up exercises that do not suit you. 
 Add others that do. 
 
 -(other sprinters — see Chapter XXV. — prefer other 
 attitudes), and run two or three steps nearly at full 
 speed. 
 
 After these vigorous movements, again breathe 
 deeply and leisurely, and relax, and listen to or think 
 of some reasons why these exercises are useful. Think 
 
 of the games, such as 
 football, cricket, lawn 
 tennis, boxing, etc., in 
 which such movements 
 would be important. 
 Vividly recall the above 
 movements, the sight 
 and the sensations of 
 them, in your memory- 
 and imagination. Do not 
 frown, as the instructor 
 is represented as doing 
 in one of the Figures. 
 
 Fic.s. 103 and 104. , . 
 
 A trunk-swing, healthy and useful ^ hat IS quite unncces- 
 
 for many games. It is better not Sary. It does not look 
 
 to grip the hands, Follow this by nice ; it only wastes 
 
 trunk-circling (Chapter XXII.). gnergV. 
 
 Now we will give the feet a little rest and do some 
 trunk-exercises. 
 
 The turning-exercises are shown in Figs. 103 and 
 104. The circling-exercise was described in a pre- 
 vious chapter. Both can be done at first w ith the 
 
SUGGESTIONS AS TO DRILL. 289 
 
 Master each exercise, ami learn to recall it in your imaf^iuatiou, he/ore 
 ^'oiui,' on to the next. Do not frown or grip needlessly. Increase 
 the extent, pace, and repetitions, gradually. Stop directly you 
 begin to be out of breath. Give up exercises that do not suit you. 
 Add others that do. 
 
 hands on the waist, thumbs behind, fingers forward, 
 to supp)ort the organs. As to the position of the feet, 
 for my own part I hate the stiff " heels together, toes 
 out " attitude. I prefer in nearly all exercises to 
 stand with my feet between six and twelve inches 
 apart, and my toes turned very slightly outwards, 
 and to stand rather on the insides of the balls of my 
 feet. In the circling movement keep your head and 
 shoulders facing forwards and your chin in and the 
 small of your back hollow, as far as you can without 
 strain. 
 
 The other movements, especially those of Figs. 105 
 and 106, explain themselves. With regard to the 
 
 ^y^ 
 
 Figs. 105 and 106. 
 Lift up each leg leg in turn, then both legs together. 
 
 movement in which you lift your trunk from the 
 floor as you lie on your back (see Chapter XXIV.), 
 be careful over it. At first you will find it easier to do 
 it with your arms down at your sides, and you must 
 have something to keep your feet down. Later on. 
 
2go 
 
 I. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 Master each exerche, and leant to recall it in your imagination^ before 
 going on to the next. Do not fro7on or grip needlessly. Increase 
 the extent, pace, and repetitions, gradually. Stop directly you 
 begin to be oitt of breath. Give up exercises that do not suit you. 
 Add others that do. 
 
 you will be able to do it with your hands clasped 
 behind your neck ; still later on, with one or both of 
 your hands stretched out beyond and above your 
 head. But begin gently at first. If the exercise 
 does not suit you, give it up. The same applies 
 to the circling-exercise. I know that in some cases 
 it is not satisfactory^-. 
 
 The kicking and arm exercises, of Figs. 107 and 
 108, first appeared in Cassell's " Physical Educator." 
 
 That also ex- 
 plains itself. Do 
 not kick as you 
 would in Foot- 
 ball, but kick 
 up here with 
 a straight leg. 
 Keep your left 
 hand relaxed 
 while you exer- 
 cise your right 
 arm. Gradually 
 increase the vig- 
 our of the move- 
 ment, doing it 
 with each leg and arm in turn ; then with right leg 
 and left arm, and vice versa. 
 
 Now, helping your balance at first by means of a 
 chair or some other support, practise a free swing of 
 
 Figs. 107 and 108. 
 Arm and leg movement. Adapted from 
 Cassell's " Physical Educator." Use each 
 side in turn. 
 
SUGGESTIONS AS TO DRILL. 
 
 291 
 
 Master each exercise^ ami learn to recall it in yonr ima;^} nation, before 
 ^in<^ on to the next. Do n of frown or^!>ri/> needlessly'. Increase 
 the extent, pa<e, ami repetitions, gradually. Stop directly yon 
 bciiin to he out of breath. Give up exercises that do not suit you. 
 Add others that' do. 
 
 each leg in turn ; but rise on the toes and ball of the 
 foot as you swing forward, and also as you swing 
 back again. 
 
 Fig. io(j. Fk;. iio. 
 
 An exercise to free tlie leg. Adapted from Cassell's " Physical 
 Educator." Rise on the toes and ball of the foot as you kick 
 forwards. 
 
 Mr. E. F. Benson is the in- 
 ventor of the fine movement of 
 Fig. Ill, which I take from 
 our book on " Daily Training." 
 Send your right leg up in front, 
 and your right arm back behind, 
 then swing your right leg well 
 back and up while }'ou swing 
 your right arm well forward and 
 up. Then do this with the left 
 
 u 
 
292 
 
 I. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 Master tach exercise^ and learn to recall it in your imagination^ before 
 going on to the next. Do not frown or grip needlessly. Increase 
 the extent, pace, and repetitions, gradually. Stop directly you 
 begin to be out of bteath. Give tip exercises that do not suit you. 
 Add others that do. 
 
 side. Avoid rounding the back or poking the chin. 
 Keep the unused side relaxed. 
 
 Figs. 112 and 113 show a wrist and forearm exer- 
 cise for the right side, and a different exercise for 
 the left side. Afterwards reverse the sides. 
 
 First hold your right elbow against your ribs, 
 bring your right hand up towards your face, and 
 look into its palm as if into a looking-glass ; clench 
 
 your right hand, 
 and send its thumb 
 well out to the 
 
 Vy^ r^^ stretch your left 
 
 [\ I I shoulder and open 
 
 \ / \ I hand well down 
 
 and behind to the 
 left, as in Fig. 112. 
 Now, with a brisk 
 snap, open your 
 right hand, shoot 
 the thumb across 
 to the right and 
 your little finger 
 across to the left, 
 each as far as it will go. Meanwhile briskly bend 
 your left arm, and bring it up with the elbow back 
 and down as far as it will go, and the palm of the 
 left hand facing outwards. Do not poke your chin 
 
 Figs. 112 and 113. 
 
 Wrist and arm exercise for one side, and 
 
 stretching exercise for the other. Then 
 
 reverse the sides. 
 
SUGGESTIONS AS TO DRILL. 
 
 293 
 
 Master each exercise, and learn to recall it in your intaj^i nation , before 
 jioing on to the next. Do not frovon or n^rip needlessly. Increase 
 the extent, />ace, and repetitions, gradually. Stop directly yon 
 begin to be out 0/ breath. Give up exercises that do not suit you. 
 Add others that do. 
 
 forward. This exercise for the right hand is adapted 
 
 from the '* Full Movement " system. 
 
 The imitation Lawn Tennis Service (Figs. 114, 115, 
 
 116) also appeared in the " Physical Educator." It 
 
 is based on the service of R. F. Doherty, as described 
 
 in his excellent book on 
 the game. You can do that ; 
 or, if you like, you can 
 pretend to put the weight. 
 This latter exercise I 
 described in Pearson's 
 
 Figs. 114 and 115. 
 
 A Lawn Tennis Service. 
 
 Adapted from K. F. Doherty. 
 
 Weekly. It is illustrated in the 
 following Chapter. First do it 
 with your right hand, keeping 
 your left relaxed ; then with 
 your left hand, keeping your 
 right relaxed ; then adapt it and do it (as far as you 
 
 Fig. 116. 
 After the follow-through, 
 start forward as if to run 
 up to the net. Then do 
 the exercise left-handed. 
 
294 
 
 I. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 Master each exercise, and learn to recall it in your imagination, before 
 going on to the next. Do not frown or grip needlessly. Increase 
 the extent, pace, and repetitions, gradually. Stop directly you 
 begin to be out of breath. Give up exercises that do not suit you. 
 Add others that do. 
 
 can) with your two sides together, as if putting two 
 weights. 
 
 After it, form the ready position, and imagine 
 yourself running up to the net at Lawn Tennis. 
 Then, without turning, run back again. It is im- 
 portant to learn to run backwards. 
 
 Here, for a rest, there may follow some thoughts 
 about leisurely eating. Either the teacher can ex- 
 plain how important it is to eat leisurely (see 
 Chapter XVII.) or boys can think for themselves. 
 Perhaps they might imagine themselves enjoying 
 something that they like, and masticating it thor- 
 oughly, and laughing at the absurdity of the game 
 (which, however, they may find a great help in 
 developing a very useful habit). Here, again, they 
 should breathe deeply, and relax. 
 
 Next will come the leg series, as given in "An 
 Alphabet of Athletics." The illustrations (Figs. 117 
 
 Figs. 117 to 121. -A leg-series, adapted from an " Alphabet of 
 Athletics" (Koutledge's). Do it afterwards with the other leg. 
 
SUGGESTIONS AS TO DRILL. 295 
 
 Master each exercise^ and leant to recall it in your imagination, before 
 going on to the next. Do not frown or grip needlessly. Jnereast 
 the extent, pace, and repetitions, gradually. Stop direetly yoit 
 begin to be out of breath. Give up exercises that do not suit you. 
 Add others that do. 
 
 to 121) will explain it. Keep your chin in, the small 
 of your back hollow, and both your hands relaxed. 
 
 First you bring your right knee straight up, as far 
 as it will go comfortably. Then you shoot your 
 right leg down, well in front of you. Then you tr>' 
 to kick yourself behind. Then you straighten your 
 right leg well back. Then you swing your right 
 leg forward and up, as in the leg-swinging exer- 
 cise. You can rise on the ball and toes of your foot 
 as you swing backwards and forwards. Now, how- 
 ever, you dispense with the support. 
 
 To this, if you like, you can add foot-movements — 
 flexions, extensions, and circlings; and last of all you 
 can add a vigorous '* punt," and then a drop-kick, 
 which should now almost take you off your balance. 
 As you kick, rise on your left foot ; otherwise you will 
 kick the floor. 
 
 Then for a quieter exercise — simple stretching. 
 Standing with your chin in and the small of your 
 back hollow, and your feet in the " apart " position 
 that I prefer, flrst stretch downwards, as it were, as 
 if you were trying to stretch into the floor with your 
 
 STRETCHING. 
 
 heels. Then stretch your head upwards, as if you 
 were on a try-your-height machine. Do not let your 
 heels come off the floor. Then stretch your arms 
 outwards with the palms downw^ards. Then rotate 
 
296 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 Master each exercise, and learn to recall it in yanr imagination, he/ore 
 going on to the next. Do not frown or grip needlessly. Increase 
 the extent, pace, and repetitions, gradually. Sto/> directly you 
 
 begin to he out of breath. 
 Add others that do. 
 
 Give up exercises that do not suit you. 
 
 your hands, bringing the 
 palms upwards. Then 
 stretch your arms upwards 
 with the palms forward, 
 and rotate the palms. 
 
 Do similar exercises, but 
 this time first keep one side 
 relaxed, then the other. 
 
 Then relax, standing 
 and lifting your head and 
 trunk first as you breathe deeply in. Fig. 122 shows 
 the relaxed finish (see Chapter XXIII.). Do not get 
 
 up hurriedly. 
 
 Skipping. 
 
 As a change from this, skip; 
 but do not overstrain your- 
 self : stop when you get out 
 of breath. Be sure to send 
 the rope not alwajs first 
 down, then under your feet, 
 then up behind you and for- 
 ward over )'our head, but 
 more frequently in the re- 
 verse direction, so as to bring 
 your shoulders back. Fig. 123 
 shows only one of the many 
 Fig. 123.— One of the many ways of skipping. There are 
 
 ways of skipping Try others ^^^.^^.^^ ,,.^11 - knONN n wavs. 
 as well. 
 
 / 
 
 I 
 I 
 \ 
 
SUGGESTIONS AS TO DRILL. 297 
 
 .\ faster each exercise y and learn to recall it in your imai^i nation ^ before 
 goin^ on to the next. Do not frotvn or grip needlessly. Increase 
 the extent, pai\\ and repetitions, gradiictlly^ Stop directly yon 
 begin to be out of breath. Give up exercises that do not suit you. 
 Add others that do. 
 
 One is with the arms almost straight, in which case 
 you get a shoulder and back and trunk muscle exer- 
 cise. The other is with the arms bent : you move 
 your forearm and wrist. Both kinds are good ; both 
 should be practised. 
 
 There are many varieties besides. The hop- 
 skipping is a good one. Instead of skipping with 
 both legs, skip with one. Practise also skipping with 
 the two legs alternately ; and so on. There is an 
 almost infinite variety ; but begin with the simpler 
 kinds. 
 
 Then could follow an interval for advice or thought 
 about massage and its importance, especially the 
 massage round the navel in increasing circles, up the 
 right side and down the left (see Chapter XXL). 
 Harry Andrews' system of massage is entirely differ- 
 ent : it includes rubbing and pinching each side of 
 the body with the hand of the other side. 
 
 During this, of course, there should be the usual 
 deep and leisurely breathing and relaxing. 
 
 Then for an imitation of pegtop-whipping. This 
 should prove very useful as a stroke at Racquets 
 and Fives and other ball-games. 
 
 As an implement-exercise for these games, bring 
 your right hand well up and back, as in Fig. 124. 
 Your weight is now on your right foot. Send your 
 right hand, with a snap, down and out and away 
 
298 
 
 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 Master each exercise, and learn to recall it in your imagination, before 
 going on to the next. Do not frown or grip neealessly. Increase 
 the extent, pace^ and repetitions, gradually. Stop directly vou 
 begin to be out of breath. Give up exercises that do not suit you. 
 Add others that do. 
 
 as far as it will go. Then " follow through," as in 
 
 Fig. 125. This will carry your weight on to your 
 
 rt left foot. The line on the floor will 
 
 U help you to keep your "drive" — 
 
 / O yO something like the 
 
 one-handed golf-drive 
 above — straight and 
 effective. 
 
 Now do this back- 
 handed. 
 
 Then left-handed. 
 Then imitate a 
 back-hand service at 
 ^H- ^'^^ ^^5- Racquets, as some 
 
 players do it. It is shown in Figs. 126, 127, and 
 128, which need no implement at first. You bring 
 your right hand, arm, and shoulder well up and back 
 to your left — with it you turn your trunk also. Then, 
 
 Fu.s. 126, 127, and 12S. 
 
SUGGESTIONS AS TO DRILL. 
 
 299 
 
 Master each exercises and learn to recall it in your itnaginations before 
 going on to the next. Do not fro-ion or grip needlessly. Increase 
 the extent, pace, atul repetitions, gradually. Stop directly yon 
 Seisin to fie out of breath. Give up exercises that do not suit you. 
 Add others that do. 
 
 somewhat as in sword-play, or in single-stick (but 
 with a full follow-through), you sweep out and across 
 and down, till you finish up as in Figs. 127 and 128. 
 .4 Fives Scries will be something like pegtop- 
 whipping, but it will combine this with foot-drill. 
 Imagine yourself playing in a Fives court. You 
 start with the alert position. Then you imagine 
 a ball coming to your left side. You send back 
 your left foot, so that now }'ou are facing the 
 left-hand side-wall. Then you do a stroke like 
 the pegtop-stroke ; but do three such strokes at 
 different heights : first high up ; then on a level 
 with your shoulder, as in Figs. 129, 130, 131; then 
 
 Figs. 129, 130, and 131. 
 
 low down (Fig. 131, b and c, show a stroke before 
 the full follow through is finished). Keep your 
 hitting hand nearly flat, not gripped. This is a fine 
 antidote for most kinds of gymnastics, and for 
 excessive spring-grip-dumbbell-exercises, which keep 
 
300 
 
 I. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 Master each exercise, and learn to recall it in yonr imagination, before 
 goin^ on to the ttext. Do not frown or grip needlessly. Increase 
 the extent, pace, and repetitions, gradually. Stop directly yoti 
 begin to be out of breath. Gi7'e up exercises that do not suit you. 
 Add others that do. 
 
 the hand too much gripped. Have your other hand 
 
 easy and relaxed. 
 
 Now recover the alert position, and imagine the 
 
 ball coming to }'our 
 right-hand side. Send 
 back your right foot, and 
 go through the three 
 strokes with your right 
 hand, as you did with 
 your left just now. 
 
 Fig. 131 {h and c). 
 
 A rowing-exercise follows. It has been adapted, 
 so as to give independent control of the two sides. 
 Vary the rhythm, first doing the movement slowly, 
 then faster, then still faster. 
 
 ■%^ 
 
 Figs. 132, 133. 134. and 135. 
 
 A Rowing-exercise, but with each hand resting in turn ; then 
 
 with the two hands together. Do not grip all the time. 
 
 With your chin in, and the small of your back 
 hollow, come well forward with your right hand, 
 as in Fig. 132. Do not yet grip it tightly — that 
 would spoil the freedom of the swing. Then bring 
 
SUGGESTIONS AS TO DRILL. 
 
 301 
 
 Master each exercise^ ami learn to recall it in your imagination, before 
 going on to the next. Do not frown or grip mrdlessly. Itureasf 
 the- extent, pace, and repetitions, gradually. Stop directly yon 
 begin to be ont of breath Give up exercises that do not snit yon. 
 Add others that do. 
 
 your trunk back, with your right arm straight, then 
 bend your right arm and " feather." Do this twice 
 more. Then with the sides reversed. 
 
 Get someone to show you the action of the legs 
 with a sHding seat, and add that. Figs. 136 and 137 
 show work with an apparatus, and under supervision. 
 
 Fio. 136. — A Rowing-exercise with apparatus, under supervision. 
 
 (Copied from an expert-teacher's photograph, in Cassell's 
 
 "^Physical Educator '). 
 
302 
 
 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 Master each exercise^ and learn to recall it in your imagination^ before 
 ^oing on to the next. Do not frown or grip needlessly. Increase 
 the extent^ pace, and repetitions^ gradually. Stop directly yon 
 begin to be out of breath. Give up exercises that do not suit yon. 
 Add others that do. 
 
 The apparatus need not be so elaborate ; the instruc- 
 for is wrongly represented as if he were looking dis- 
 pleased and anxious ! 
 
 Fig. 137.— A Kowing-exercise with apparatus, under supervision. 
 
 (Copied from an expert-teacher's photograph, in Cassell's 
 
 " Physical Educator "). 
 
 W, G. George's ''Hundred Up'" is a valuable train- 
 ing for a straight walk and run. Stand with your feet 
 parallel and pointing forward, your chin in, and the 
 
SUGGESTIONS AS TO DKILL. 
 
 JOi 
 
 Master each exercise^ and learn to recall it in your imagination^ lie/ore 
 going on to the next. Do not frorvn or grip needlessly. Increase 
 the exti'Nt, />(ii(\, and repetitions, gradually. Stop directly yon 
 begin to be out of breath. Gi7'e up exercises that do not suit you. 
 Add others that do. 
 
 small of your back hollow. Do not grip your hands^ 
 but at first keep them relaxed by your sides, as in 
 Fig. 138. Now lift up your right knee and foot 
 straight, so that your knee comes to about the level 
 of your hips. Send it straight down to its original 
 
 place, and then lift up- 
 and send down your 
 left knee and foot 
 similarly. 
 
 When this has be- 
 come easy, add the 
 arm-movement, each 
 arm (see Fig. 139) 
 coming up and for- 
 ward with the hand 
 of the opposite side. 
 Bring your arms ra- 
 ther across the body. 
 Figs. 138 and 139. Do not grip your 
 
 George's " Hundred-up." The hands hands. It is «o/ your 
 
 had better not be gripped. hand and forearm 
 
 muscles that you want to train here. 
 
 Increase the pace, and the number of repetitions 
 (up to the hundred), by slow degrees, stopping when 
 you feel palpitation or breathlessness. Be sure to get 
 the action straight, and not too high nor too low : 
 and be sure to keep your body straight, not tilted too 
 far forward or too far back. 
 
304 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 Master each exercise^ and learn to recall it in your iinaginatton, before 
 going on to the next. Do not grip or frown needlessly. Increase 
 the extent^ pace, atui repetitions, gradually. Stop directly you 
 begin to be out of breath. Give up exercises that do not suit you. 
 Add others that do. 
 
 The above-mentioned teacher selected certain ex- 
 pander-exercises for the Courses in the " Physical 
 Educator." I do not recommend the strong expanders 
 for the average boy. And for my own part I should 
 prefer not the grip-expander always, but often an 
 open expander, which keeps the palms of the hands 
 stretched out and does not insist on the perpetual 
 stiffening strain and tension.^ 
 
 Here also might come some of the remedial work 
 which the same expert supplied to the '' Physical 
 Educator." For further information I must refer 
 to the articles in that book. Only a few types of 
 movements are given here. Though they may be 
 
 ^yyyyys 
 
 Figs. 140 and 141. 
 
 Exercise to strengthen weak muscles by apparatus. (Copied from 
 
 an expert-teacher's photograph in Cassell's " Physical 
 
 Educator"). 
 
SUGGESTIONS AS TO DKir.L. 
 
 305 
 
 Master each ejcercise, and learn to recall it in your intqgination, before 
 going on to the tuxt. Do not fro'on or grip needlessly. Increase 
 the extent, pace, and repetitions, gradually. .Stop directly you 
 begin to be out of breath. Give up exercises that do not suit you. 
 Add others that do. 
 
 regarded as remedial work to some extent, yet they 
 are remedial work that most boys need : they can 
 safely form part of a general Course. 
 
 Figs. 140 and 141 explain 
 themselves. Use each hand 
 in turn, while the other is 
 relaxed. In these, and in 
 Fig. 142, the other end of the 
 exerciser is attached safely 
 to something fixed. In Fig. 
 142 the movement is to be 
 from this position to the 
 one with the arm stretched 
 straight out to the side. At 
 first the hand can be as it is 
 
 Fig. 142. 
 
 here, then with its back towards the body 
 
 Fig. 143 gives an exercise — 
 again for each side in turn — to 
 train the biceps and other mus- 
 cles. Lift up from this position 
 as far as you can without strain. 
 Do each of these three move- 
 ments twice more with each 
 side in turn. 
 
 This might be followed by 
 some advice about good posi- 
 tions and attitudes and their im- 
 portance. Boys should realise 
 
3o6 
 
 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 Master each exercise, and learn to recall it in your iinagitiation, before 
 goiuii^ on to the next. Do not fro7vn or grip needlessly. Increase 
 the extent, pace, and repetitions, gradually. Stop directly you 
 begin to be out of breath. Give up exercises that do not suit you. 
 Add others that do. 
 
 what we have said already : that if the position is 
 cramped, as in Fig. 144, the chest and lungs are 
 
 Figs. 144, 145, 146, and 147. 
 
 A bad position, a better position, a more alert but rather stiff 
 
 position, and a bad position again (tilted back too far). 
 
 hampered, and the diaphragm is apt to come too 
 low and press upon the stomach and liver, which in 
 their turn may sink too low and press upon the 
 colon ; indeed, the organs in the lower part of the 
 trunk may be one, two, or three inches lower than 
 they should be. The position may affect the sexual 
 organs. Figs. 145 and 146 show better attitudes. 
 
 While better positions are being explained and 
 practised, there should be deep and leisurely breath- 
 ing and relaxing. 
 
 Bad sitting-positions have been mentioned and 
 illustrated already. Fig. 148 again illustrates a wrong 
 
SUGGESTIONS AS TO DRILL. 
 
 307 
 
 Fio 
 
 Master each exercise, and learn to recall it in your imati^nation, before 
 going on to the next. Do not grip or fro-wn needlessly. Increase 
 the extent^ pace, ami repetitions, gradually. Stop directly you 
 begin to he out of breath. Give up exercises that do not suit you. 
 Add others that do. 
 
 curvature of the spine, due to a bad position. Left- 
 handed writing would help to remedy it. 
 
 Part of the wrong 
 position is due to the 
 weakness of certain 
 neglected muscles. 
 The exercise shown 
 in Fig. 34 (Chapter 
 XX.) has given a 
 complete contraction 
 of the important la- 
 tissimus dorsi muscle, 
 
 -Eftect of bad sitting-position, SO much USed in ath- 
 
 on the spine. le^j^s^ Fig. 33 (Chap- 
 
 ter XX.) has dealt with the trapezius^ which most 
 systems neglect. Both exercises are from the Full 
 Movement System. Do not grip either hand. It is 
 not the hand and forearm muscles that you want to 
 exercise. 
 
 Boxing Practice. 
 Fig. 149 shows a boxing lunge, following the 
 boxing-position illustrated in a previous chapter. 
 Notice that the left foot faces straight forwards. 
 The body, when waiting, does not usually crouch as 
 it does in the fencing-position: it is much more up- 
 right. But the chin is still well in and the small of 
 the back fairly hollow. In the lunge the left foot 
 keeps facing forwards. Do not let its toes point 
 
 V 
 
308 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 Master each exercise^ and learn to recall it in your ivtagination, before 
 going on to the next. Do not frown or grip needlessly. Jmrease 
 the extent, pace, and repetitions, gradually. Stop directly you 
 begin to be out of breath. Give up exercises that do not suit you. 
 Add others that do. 
 
 towards the right. But here you may do what you 
 were not allowed to do in the fencing lunge: you 
 
 may let your right heel 
 come up off the ground, 
 so long as you do not 
 lose your poise. Strike 
 out vigorously with the 
 left fist, but do not keep 
 it gripped all the time. 
 Let your left shoulder 
 come well and forcibly 
 forward with it. Put 
 some go into it, but do 
 not frown. Let your 
 right hand make small circular movements about 
 the level of your navel. 
 
 When you can do this lunge easily and recover 
 poise directly after it, practise dodging with your 
 head, as if to avoid your opponent's blow. Dodge 
 sometimes to the left, sometimes to the right. 
 
 Of course, if you have a Punch-ball, so much the 
 better ; that makes the exercise more real. With 
 the Punch-ball will probably be provided a book of 
 fairly good exercises. Practise some of these; but 
 do not look severe and brutal or anxious, as many 
 ball-punchers do in the illustrations. 
 
 For further advice about the ABC of boxing, I 
 must refer to special volumes, as to the article and 
 
 Fig. 149. — Lungeing-exercise, with 
 Punch- ball. 
 
SUGGESTIONS AS TO DRILL. 309 
 
 Master ecuh exercise^ and learn to recall it in your imai^ination, before 
 goin^ on to the next. Do no! frown or ^rip needlessly. Increase 
 the extent, pace, and repetitions, gradnally. Stop directly you 
 begin to he out of breath. Give np exercises that do not suit yon. 
 Add others that do. 
 
 illustrations of the expert-teacher, in the " Physical 
 Educator." 
 
 Here, during the rest, could come some advice 
 about washing: the importance of warm water for 
 cleansing, of cool and cold water for invigorating and 
 hardening, and so on (see Chapter XXI.) ; and, once 
 more, there should be the deep and leisurely breath- 
 ing and relaxing. 
 
 All this implies that the superintendent should be 
 well-educated and experienced. The Americans 
 attend carefully to this matter: in America the 
 typical instructor is a qualified medical man ; in 
 England he is not. Very few qualified medical men 
 teach gymnastics of any sort, or indeed know any- 
 thing about them — all praise to those few who do. 
 
 Now, though there is much ignorance on the part 
 of the *' expert-teachers," yet nearly all of them 
 are contributing much hard and solid work. I can- 
 not mention names in this book ; otherwise I might 
 advise the use of a certain proprietary System. I 
 cannot urge its use here, indiscriminately, because 
 it is too expensive for the public — far too expensive. 
 Its exercises, however, are brief and sharp, and serve 
 as a nerve-tonic. They cover a wide range of move- 
 ments, and of full movements too, which tend to 
 purify the blood. One result of the System is found 
 
310 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 Master each exercise, and leant to recall it in yonr imagination, before 
 going on to the next. Do not frown or grip needlessly. Increase 
 the extent^ pace, and repetitions, gradually. Stop directly yon 
 begin to be out of breath. Give 7ip exercises that do not suit you. 
 Add otJicrs that do. 
 
 to be a power of prompt adaptation and independent 
 control. The exercises can be used by a class, one 
 setting the movements and the others imitating 
 these. The System allows of great variety and 
 admits of little strain. The principle of it is the full 
 contraction movement, usually fast. This principle 
 is not new in physical education and gymnastics. 
 The new part of the System is that all the 
 movements are full, and that there are no move- 
 ments except those that are full. We wish the 
 inventor would publish the movements in book-form. 
 He prefers to keep them in his own hands. So long 
 as he does this, he must not expect public support. 
 
 Besides this, his System does not seem to me to 
 appeal to all. There is need of great variety if every 
 one is to be interested. Personally I prefer games, 
 and practice with a view to athletic improvement, as 
 well as some more strictly "hygienic" work. Others 
 are attracted by gymnastics, others by small appar- 
 atus work (with dumb-bells, etc.), others by Jujitsu, 
 and so on. 
 
 In order to make the training of a boy wider 
 and more varied, I offer a few selected exercises 
 as occasional alternatives. 
 
 First comes the inclined plank, already alluded to. 
 It gives fine training for the feet and ankles and 
 legs, as well as an air-and-light-bath for the bare 
 feet, which have their toes stretched well out* 
 
SUGGESTIONS AS TO DRILL. 3II 
 
 Master each exercise, and learn to recall it in your imagination, before 
 going on to the next. Do iu>t froivn or gi-ip needlessly. Increase 
 the extent, pace, and repetitions., gradually. Stop directly you 
 begin to be out of breath. Give up exercises that do not suit you. 
 Add others that do. 
 
 Walking up and down the plank, first forwards, then 
 backwards, does all this, and serves as training in 
 poise as well. The Oertel treatment, to remedy 
 certain kinds of heart-trouble and obesity, is similar, 
 but, I think, a greater strain, since it has a long- 
 continued walk up-hill. The inclined plank has 
 cured some obstinate cases of indigestion and con- 
 stipation ; obviously it gives plenty of exercise to 
 the trunk-muscles. The angle can be made more or 
 less severe, and in this and other ways the exercises 
 can easily be graduated to suit different conditions. 
 
 In contrast with exer- 
 cises when one lies on 
 the floor, the plank has 
 more than one great 
 advantage. It can easily 
 be kept clean ; it will 
 not send an excess of 
 blood to the head ; it 
 will allow you to send 
 your shoulders well 
 down (as in the breast- 
 stroke at swimming), 
 and it will help relax- 
 ing, as in Figs. 150 and 
 Figs. 150 and 151. j^j^ In this exercise 
 
 Inclined plank exercise. Stretching ^ .1 • -i 
 
 andrelaxingvvitheach side in turn, (compare the Similar 
 then with the two sides together. one in Chapter XXIII.), 
 
312 
 
 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 Master each exercise, and learn to recall it in your imagination, before 
 going on to the next. Do not frown or grip needlessly. Increase 
 the extent, pace, and repetitions, gradually. Stop directly you 
 begin to be out of breath. Give tip exercises that do not suit you. 
 Add others that do. 
 
 you first breathe in as you lift one arm, then let the 
 breath ooze out as you let the arm sink down. The 
 other arm hangs limp all the time. 
 
 The inclined plank will help to develop not only 
 ^^^ the power of re- 
 
 ('*5 pose — it is a real 
 
 ^tr^^X^ power — but also 
 \^^ T^fe) the nerve. For the 
 training of the 
 nerve, however, 
 few means could 
 be better than the 
 Jujitsu system, on 
 
 Figs. 152 and 153. ^^'^^^^ ^^^^"^ ^^"- 
 
 Jujitsu exercises, No. i. As an COck has written 
 
 occasional change. ^n excellent book, 
 
 published by Put- 
 nam's. I select from 
 it a few sample exer- 
 cises, already de- 
 scribed in the " Phy- 
 sical Educator." I 
 quote the descrip- 
 tion here : — 
 
 I. Leap forward, as if 
 to grapple an opponent in 
 front of you. Then leap 
 sideways, as if with the 
 same object. 
 
 ¥ 
 
 ^==^= 
 
 
 // 
 
 
 ■ // 
 
 t 
 
 // 
 
 Fig. 154. — Jujitsu exercise, No. 2. 
 
SUGGESTIONS AS TO DRILL. 
 
 313 
 
 Master each exercise^ and learn to recall it in your imai^nation, before 
 going on to the next. Do not frown or grip needlessly. Iturease 
 the extent^ pace, and repetitions, gradually. Stop directly yon 
 begin to be out of breath. Give up exercises that do not suit you. 
 Add others that do. 
 
 II. Vault over a breast-high obstacle as if to meet an opponent 
 on the other side of it. 
 
 III. Rise as quickly as you can from a sitting posture, or from 
 certain other postures at which you might have arrived after a fall. 
 
 Jujitsu exercise 
 No. 3. 
 
 Fig. 155. Figs. 156 and 157. — Jujitsu exercises, No. 4. 
 
 Figs. 158 and 159. — Jujitsu exercises, No. 5. 
 
314 
 
 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 Master each exercise, and learn to recall it in your imagination, before 
 going on to the next. Do not frown or grip needlessly. If urease 
 the extent, pace, and repetitions, gradually. Stop directly you 
 begin to be out of breath. Give up exercises that do not suit you. 
 Add others that do. 
 
 Throw yourself forward on your knees, your hands not touching 
 
 the floor ; then rise at once. 
 
 IV. While you hop forward with one leg, kick backward with 
 the other, and while you hop on one foot, send the other now far 
 back, now high up, now well to the side. 
 
 V. Rush at full speed towards a swinging object, and grasp it 
 securely without diminishing your speed. 
 
 VI. Practise feinting. Pretend to spring at 
 the knees of an opponent, then change suddenly, 
 and spring higher up or to the side. 
 
 Very occasionally, also, the Hindu 
 exercises, shown in Figs. i6o to 165, 
 may be tried. But strain should be 
 avoided carefully. The Hindu writer, 
 who cites them from the Yoga- 
 system, has already been quoted in 
 the " Physical Educator." Some are 
 too severe for any but strong boys. 
 
 One of their objects is to strengthen 
 the large muscles of the body. But 
 they will not appeal so forcibly to 
 Anglo-Saxons as the Jujitsu prac- 
 tices will. 
 
 Before I finish this chapter with 
 some hints as to the training of the 
 left side, I wish to point out a few 
 advantages that such exercises as I 
 offer, mastered gradually, line upon 
 line, are likely to have for boys and 
 men. 
 
SUGGESTIONS AS TO DRILL. 315 
 
 Interesting, partly because of their likeness to ath- 
 letics, they should attract boys to practice even in 
 solitude. They should prepare for successful play, 
 keep people in better practice and training, and help 
 to make more of us sensible players (and sensible 
 ^vatchers too, now and then), instead of senseless 
 and lazy watchers or loafers. 
 
 The main aim, however, is the well-being of the 
 whole body, without too much dull drill and without 
 morbid fussiness ; not least of all should such a 
 system train and strengthen the body's king — or at 
 least its king's palace — the brain. 
 
 With the increased self-respect that a fitter body 
 will bring, there will be self-expression more worthy 
 of the highest self, self-expression by better instru- 
 ments. 
 
 When exercises and play are not feasible, the 
 memory and imagination will have been trained by 
 the plan of recalling the sight and sensation of each 
 exercise immediately after its performance. There 
 are many idle moments, moments of strong tempta- 
 tion, when you might do worse than revive the exer- 
 cises in your mind. When you know that you will 
 be trying to revive the memory after the exercises, 
 you are far more likely to be interested in and to 
 attend during the exercises. 
 
 Then there will be that rest and recreation, which 
 can often come most effectively through change to 
 another pursuit. Sometimes the exercises will be 
 tried, sometimes play itself, sometimes an unathletic 
 hobby, as advised in Chapter XXVII. Among these 
 
3i6 
 
 I. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 hobbies will be at least one that may prove useful 
 in after-life as a money-earner. 
 
 In this way, then, besides the physical effects in 
 appearance, health, athletic success, etc., there will 
 be rest and recreation and a better outlet for exces- 
 sive energ}', and, without too much grim seriousness, 
 an educational, economical, and moral value as well 
 — if the exercises are good in themselves, as I hope 
 they are, and if they are properly practised, as I 
 believe they will be. 
 
 In view of all these possible or probable results, I 
 hope that no critic will be so careless as to say that 
 my object is to make boys devote an even more ex- 
 cessive attention to play than they devote at present. 
 That is not my goal : my goal is all-round fitness by 
 the pleasantest and easiest ways that I can devise. 
 
 In conclusion, a few words must be added to 
 justify a far wider range of uses and practices for the 
 
 left side, and especially 
 the left hand. I am not 
 alluding simply to the 
 ^ZZ'O movements of the left 
 side together with 
 similar movements of 
 the right side, as in 
 many movements of 
 all orthodox Courses; 
 this (see Fig. i66) does 
 some good. Neither 
 am I alluding simply 
 to movements of the 
 
SUGGESTIONS AS TO DRILL. 317 
 
 left side while the right side performs other and 
 different movements ; though this also does some 
 good. I am alluding particularly to the movements 
 of the left side while the right side, and as much 
 as possible of the rest of the body, reposes relaxed 
 and peaceful — not merely still, but limp like a 
 flower asleep. 
 
 How much the right side needs this ! Notice 
 youself for the next half-hour, and you will realise 
 how often and how unnecessarily you exert your 
 right hand. 
 
 Professor Tadd holds that the right hand does not 
 suffer by being relieved of strain and of some of its 
 work. He says that it actually gains in skill — I have 
 certainly found this to be true in my own case in 
 right-handed games after left-handed practice. 
 
 Besides, such training of the left side and rest- 
 ing of the right side tends to remedy deformities of 
 lopsidedness, over-development, atrophy, and so on — 
 such deformities as show themselves in nostrils, 
 lungs, shoulders, spine, etc. — being partly due to 
 right-handed monopoly in writing, etc. 
 
 The command of the left side seems to lead to 
 improvement in the speech-area in the right side 
 of the brain. 
 
 Certainly it improves the appearance, if only by 
 removing some of the clumsiness of the left side ; 
 you would realise it if you tried to do the whole work 
 of your own household, as I did for some days, or, to 
 take a less severe test, to brush your hair, sponge 
 yourself, open a door, pour out water, cut and butter 
 a slice of bread, with your left hand. 
 
3l8 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 Obviously you will get more self-respect — more 
 respect for, more sense of duty towards, more parts 
 of you which you are bound always to carry about 
 with you. How, once again, can a person respect 
 his whole self, if he has to take about with him, 
 something so gauche, so sinister, as the average left 
 hand is ? 
 
 Then there are the useful occupations, especially if 
 your right hand be injured or cramped or tired; but, 
 apart from this, three hundred money-earning and 
 a vast number of pleasure-earning (and therefore 
 labour-saving) occupations require skill of the left 
 side. 
 
 Take games alone. What an interesting handicap 
 you have at once, if the very great player plays left- 
 handed against the very obscure one. By left-handed 
 games, as an occasional change, we almost double 
 the number of our games, and their social influence. 
 Golf-experts, Lawn-Tennis experts, Cricket-experts 
 — imagine them left-handed : how would the mighty 
 be fallen ! And it would be a capital thing for many 
 of them ! 
 
 I think that even from these few hints selected out 
 of a large number (the Ambidextral Society pub- 
 lishes a special pamphlet, by Mr. John Jackson), you 
 will agree that the left side, and especially the left 
 hand, is worth a far better training than it gets. 
 
 At any rate, if you try, as I am sure you will, you 
 may be encouraged by remembering that you are 
 helping the nation in case there should ever be need 
 for you to serve in war. A war which you must 
 
GAMES, ATHLETICS, SELF-DEFENCE. 319k 
 
 serve in, is a no less real one against your own self- 
 disrespect. Give yourself fewer things, fewer parts, 
 or functions of yourself, that you would like to hide. 
 Clumsiness is one of the things you would like to 
 hide. Rather get rid of it. The practice costs not 
 a single penny. It is fine for self-control. 
 
 If all this does not yet appeal to you, then* 
 aim at more all-round success in games, as in the 
 strokes of Golf, Cricket, Fives, etc. — which games I 
 shall consider in the following Chapter. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 GAMES, ATHLETICS, SELF-DEFENCE. 
 
 IF Emerson's words were true, " to be great is to be 
 misunderstood," I might feel happy every time I 
 wrote about play, knowing that some slipshod 
 readers were doing their best to make me great ! I 
 urge that play is a birth-right of human beings ; that 
 those who manage affairs for themselves or for 
 others, should estimate play with an all-round fitness 
 in view, asking how far our play is likely to help us 
 physically, mentally, and so on ; that they should 
 then give good play its proper position in the scheme 
 of life — a position neither too high nor too low, but 
 according to what it is likely to do for us ; then to 
 see that the play is good, and that there are oppor- 
 tunities for it — and to adapt play and make it better 
 where it does not seem so good as it might be : for 
 example, to teach children a simple little Alphabet 
 
320 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 of Play (see Chapter XXV.), as part of their physi- 
 cal drill for health as well, and to give or to utilise, 
 •especially in cities, large spaces or rooms where 
 people can play adapted cricket and football, etc., as 
 an outlet for their physical energies and their self- 
 activity, and as a pleasant training for social and 
 -competitive and other branches of life. Then per- 
 haps I quote some such authorities as Lord Avebury 
 (Sir John Lubbock, when he wrote this), and Sir 
 James Paget, neither of whom could possibly be 
 accused of " excessive devotion to athleticism." 
 
 " Games not only keep a man in health, but give him spirit for 
 his work ; they teach him how to get on with other men : to give 
 way in trifles, to play fairly, and push no advantage to an extremity. 
 
 '• They give moral, as well as physical, health ; daring and 
 •endurance, self-command and good humour— qualities which are 
 not to be found in books and no teaching can give. The Duke of 
 Wellington truly said that the battle of Waterloo was won in the 
 playing fields of Eton. Many of the best and most useful lessons 
 of public schools are those which the boys learn in the playground. 
 Only let games be the recreation, not the business of life." 
 
 " Games are admirable in all the chief constituent qualities of 
 recreations; but, besides this, they may exercise a moral influence of 
 great value in business or in any daily work. For without any 
 inducement of a common interest in money, without any low 
 motive, they bring boys and men to work together, they teach them 
 to be colleagues in good causes with all who will work fairly and 
 well with them ; they teach that power of working with others 
 which is among the best powers for success in every condition 
 ■of life. And by custom, if not of their very nature, they teach fair- 
 ness : foul play in any of them, however sharp may be the competi- 
 tion, is by consent of all disgraceful ; and they who have a habit of 
 playing fair will be the more ready to deal fair. A high standard 
 of honesty in their recreations will help to make people despise 
 
 many things which are far within the limits of the law 
 
 Now I think that if we look for the characteristics which may be 
 
GAMES, ATHLETICS, SELF-DEFENCE. 32I 
 
 found in all good active recreations, and on which their utility 
 chiefly depends, we shall find that they all include one or more of 
 these three things : namely, uncertainties, wonders, and oppor- 
 tunities for the exercise of skill in something different from the 
 regular work. And the appropriateness of these three things seems 
 to be, especially, in that they provide pleasant changes which are 
 in strong contrast with the ordinary occupations of most working 
 lives, and that they give opportunity for the exercise of powers and 
 good dispositions which, being too little used in the daily business 
 of life, would become feeble or be lost." 
 
 It seems a reasonable contention. We want play 
 to be used well if it is used at all ; we want everyone 
 to judge fairly and squarely how far it is likely to 
 help our all-round life, and to give it a place just as 
 important as it seems to deserve and therefore to 
 claim. Then I set forth my view, describing what my 
 play has done for me : for instance, how my practice 
 for it (in order that I might master its mechanisms, 
 play it better, and enjoy it more) has taught me 
 a great many principles useful for my work and 
 indeed for all my life. " If a task is difficult as a 
 whole, divide it into parts, and master each part 
 in turn ; then combine the parts." " To correct a 
 fault, sometimes practise the opposite fault." "Attend 
 to the mechanisms during practice-times, till they are 
 correct ; then let them work by themselves." 
 
 But how do the slipshod readers treat me ? They 
 treat me here as they treat me when I say that 
 my diet is worth a fair trial by those who are not 
 satisfied with their present state of fitness. They 
 read the word "fleshless" — they will not read what I 
 actually state — they say, " Ah, fleshless diet — vege- 
 tarian — vegetables. He commands everj'one to live 
 
322 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 entirely on potatoes and cabbages." So here they 
 read the words " practice of mechanisms" : they will 
 not read what I actually say, that the practice should 
 be only till the mechanisms are correct, and that 
 it should be outside the play itself. They simply 
 condemn me : it saves them so much trouble to say, 
 " Ah, practice of mechanisms — serious business — 
 spoils play — play meant to be just a recreation — 
 already people play too much." In a word, they 
 give play a bad name and hang it. They call it 
 " frivolous," they deny its power to train people for 
 nearly the whole of life as it trains animals for 
 their life. This pleasant safety-valve, this living and 
 attractive apprenticeship in competition, honour, 
 social intercourse, cheerfulness, pluck, patience, skill, 
 health, method, and so forth, they refuse to consider 
 in these lights. 
 
 In order to avoid any such mistake on the part of 
 honourable and sportsmanlike readers, who fortu- 
 nately are the great majority, I demand forgiveness 
 for some pages of philosophy about games, athletics, 
 and self-defence. I want readers to work out for 
 themselves whether play is " worth doing," with a 
 view to self-control and self-expression at the time 
 and afterwards. For, if it is judged to be "worth 
 doing," then it must be " worth doing well," and 
 must also deserve sensible practice beforehand, of 
 course with moderation. 
 
 Why do people play ? Now there is no such thing 
 as universal play. What is one man's play may be 
 another's work. Chamberlain might find Balfour's 
 
GAMES, ATHLETICS, SELF-DEFENCE. 323 
 
 play work, some of his work pla}', and vice versa. 
 But, speaking generally, we may say that people, 
 whatever form their play may take, play owing to an 
 instinct. This is certainly true of normal animals 
 and children. An instinct has been defined as an 
 action which tends to more comfort or pleasure, less 
 discomfort or pain. 
 
 Among the instincts to play (not the only one, as 
 Herbert Spencer seemed to think) is the letting out of 
 superfluous energy, pla}- being a safety-valve. But, as 
 a dog, when seemingly dead-tired with a long walk, 
 will yet play vigorously, we must alter this definition 
 by adding to it. (Among the best books on the 
 subject are Professor Groos' " Play of Animals " and 
 " Play of Man," and Dr. Luther Gulick's pamphlet 
 on human play.) 
 
 Play is also a tendency to change. It is a tendency 
 not only to give forth superfluous energy, but also to 
 rest, parth' by altering the circulation of the blood, 
 and using the brain in a fresh way. 
 
 Then, later on, people play chiefly because in their 
 minds they have the habit. Play and enjoyment 
 (including enjoyment of health, but certainly enjoy- 
 ment of competition, among Anglo-Saxons) are firmly 
 associated together, perhaps by actual brain-fibres 
 connecting various brain-cells. Once it was curiosity 
 which led them to experiment ; now it is the record 
 and memor}' that the result of the experiment was 
 pleasant. 
 
 In one sense, however, real play is a vent. The 
 best play gives people an outlet not only for physical 
 
 w 
 
324 n. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 energy, but also for self-expression, which in ordinary 
 life is too cruelly crushed and driven in. We may 
 describe this self-expression in many ways, but 
 especially is there a desire to he a cause, a joy in being 
 a cause, and in feeling or " sensing " an effect, and 
 especially in feeling or " sensing " some mastery. 
 
 Players find also, incidentally, that the best play 
 increases their self-respect as well as their freedom, 
 and — not without humour and fun — increases their 
 knowledge of self and of others. 
 
 The master^' which they feel or " sense " may be 
 over the self, the muscles, external obstacles (in- 
 cluding apparatus), opponents, or some task. There 
 are various ways in which the power of mastering 
 or changing things could be classified. It may be 
 creative or destructive ; it may consist in finding or 
 catching or giving or destroying or hitting or moving 
 (there is a decided pleasure in certain movements) or 
 keeping still. Realise this vital instinct, and think 
 whether good play does not satisfy it more sanely or 
 less insanely than most other channels of activity — 
 how awful some of these are — or restraint. 
 
 Usually in good play there is restraint. In serious 
 life a dog bites hard ; in play he checks the bite ; he 
 jumps up, and, in spite of the muscular stress, still 
 bites your hand quite gently and painlessly at the top 
 of his jump. There is then in play a certain amour^t 
 of acting — a certain amount of artificiality, we may 
 call it. Play is not absolutely natural, except in so far 
 as acting itself — largely an imitative art — is natural. 
 
 Yet it is a relic, not a mere frivolity : it is a kind of 
 
GAMES, ATHLETICS, SELF-DEFENCE. 325 
 
 tradition, tending to healthy conservatism, a survival 
 and revival of half-serious or quite "serious" occupa- 
 tions of past generations : such as self-defence, attack, 
 the chase, and courtship. What our remote ancestors 
 did to preserve or prolong life, to raise its standard'^ 
 to propagate life, survives partly as the play-ten- 
 dency. 
 
 And to some extent play is a preparation for 
 ■''serious" life as well, though the " serious " life to- 
 day seems very much changed from the ages when 
 people killed one another and hunted without 
 weapons. It is interesting to notice how the com- 
 plex games of to-day are better training, than the 
 simple games of old, for the complex city-life and 
 co-operation and division of labour and specialisa- 
 tion of to-day. 
 
 As to other merits of play, besides these over- 
 Avhelming advantages, I must refer to the later 
 chapter, on the play-spirit, and to a little book 
 called " Let's Play the Game " ; a few merits may 
 be selected here in anticipation of Chapter XXXIX. 
 
 First come the social. In view of the fact that 
 some day boys will be men and girls will be women, 
 it is vital that the commonest relations of men and 
 women (with mutual knowledge, mutual respect) 
 should be understood as early as possible. Rational 
 co-education of the sexes in certain forms of play 
 works admirably in America, and in more than one 
 school in England. 
 
 And of course there should be more domestic play 
 than there is. The tendencv is rather towards the 
 
326 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 play of large groups, as in international competitions. 
 This is important ; but play in the family is no less 
 so. It is more so in fact, since it influences the 
 child, through its senses, in the most impressionable 
 years. As I have urged in C. B. Fry's Magazine,, 
 the best room in the house where there is a family 
 should be not the drawing-room but a room for play 
 and exercise. 
 
 There are moral and ethical advantages also. The 
 best play teaches the duty towards various groups,, 
 small or large, including the opponents ; there is no- 
 other sphere which teaches duty to opponents nearly 
 so satisfactorily. Where else in life are opponents 
 thanked for " the lessons they have taught " ? 
 
 Play is fine training for the competitive faculties, 
 which are strong in the Anglo-Saxon. All the time 
 that the competition seems to be against obstacles 
 and opponents, it is really against the former self,, 
 the muscles, or some task. 
 
 It is intellectual training as well — for instance, in 
 co-operation, specialisation, practice of mechanisms,, 
 and so on. And under the intellectual we may class 
 the economical. The best play teaches skill, the 
 value of indirect as well as direct attack, patience, 
 and so forth. 
 
 It is aesthetic training, training of the sense of 
 beauty and gracefulness, as well as of rational enjoy- 
 ment. 
 
 Among its chief claims is its attractiveness; not 
 that the same play is interesting to all, but that the 
 same play is interesting to large groups — as football 
 
GAMES, ATHLETICS, SELF-DEFENCE. 327 
 
 to some large groups of Anglo-Saxons, gymnastics 
 to other large groups. 
 
 The interest would be greater and the benefits 
 greater if people could learn to play better and to do 
 themselves more justice. 
 
 Therefore there should be scientific preparation 
 for most games, and for most people ; this prepara- 
 tion is not to be thought of during play, but to be 
 thought of before and between the games. 
 
 There should be a larger number of games for 
 choice, and a larger number of opportunities for the 
 games which we possess ; Cricket and Football are 
 pre-eminent among them. Cricket is admirable 
 when we can get it. Together with Football, it has 
 almost all the requisites of good play. But for much 
 of the week it needs to be adapted to city-life ; for 
 instance, to be played in well-ventilated and well- 
 lighted plain rooms in cities and suburbs. I can say 
 from experience that an hour of this play is as vigor- 
 ous and pleasant exercise and sport as one could 
 wish. 
 
 Doctor Luther Gulick, who has done so much for 
 Physical Education in America, proves conclusively 
 that play is an instinct of individuals as individuals 
 and as members of groups. He knows that play is 
 an outlet not only of physical energy, but also of the 
 desire or craving for noble action. It encourages self- 
 sacrifice to the group ; not morbid self-sacrifice, but 
 cheerful and plucky and active skill for the group. 
 In this respect he contrasts it with those caricatures 
 of religion which seem devised specially for the 
 
328 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 anaemic. Anyone who reads the description of pu- 
 berty, that I quoted from Dr. Sperry (in Chapter 
 XVIII.), will realise that, while the true religion is 
 splendidly satisfying to this over-vigorous and per- 
 haps romantic state of body and mind, the morbid 
 side of religion is not. 
 
 Whether my estimate of play appeals to others or 
 not, anyhow we should avoid a low estimate of pla}-, 
 or indeed a low estimate of anything to which we are 
 going to devote any time ; while, on the other hand^ 
 we should avoid taking play as our sole occupation 
 and interest, 
 
 The fault of being too much attracted by play rests 
 not with play, which in moderation is a wholesome 
 pursuit and a saving help, but with the other occu- 
 pations, which are too tediously dull for words. The 
 onus rests with those who manage these other occu- 
 pations; the onus to make these as attractive as play. 
 As I said in my little book, the onus does not rest 
 with managers of play, to make play as unattractive 
 as these occupations are. That would be simpl\- 
 criminal. It would be like destroying the parks 
 inside and outside our cities, because some people 
 went there when the)- should be staying and working 
 in the cities themselves. The onus rests with the 
 managers of cities to make the cities as attractive as 
 the parks ; for instance, to provide them with oppor- 
 tunities for play. 
 
 For just as great an evil as the excess of play 
 among our favoured few, is the deficiency among 
 our millions, who play badly when they do play, and 
 
GAMES, ATHLETICS, SELF-DEFENCE. 329 
 
 play seldom because the}- have few opportunities. 
 The excess is out of perspective altogether; so is the 
 deficiency. What we need is balance. We do not 
 need less play for most : we need more play for most, 
 more play, more sensibly learnt, more sensibly 
 practised and played, more sensibly estimated from 
 such all-round points of view as I have offered 
 in Chapter X. 
 
 Surely, on the whole, play is better for the world 
 and for posterity than most things that most people 
 do now, even if we set aside all the undeniable merits 
 of good play and regard it, with Herbert Spencer, 
 as an attractive outlet for superfluous energy, and 
 contrast it with most of the other outlets which 
 life offers as alternatives. How many of these are, 
 on the whole, both so genuinely attractive and so 
 harmless or positively useful ? 
 
 If, after an honest examination, it seems that good 
 play and sensible preparation for good play, together 
 with physical drill, unathletic hobbies, intellectual 
 and other education, will probably cultivate quite 
 easily all or nearly all the virtues needed in "serious" 
 life, then I urge every reader to do his best to en- 
 courage such play, neither excessive nor yet deficient, 
 and himself to set a good example. 
 
 To select one point that seems to set good play 
 in a class almost by itself as an essential factor in 
 all-round education, the reader may find that the 
 qualities needed in good play (including team-play) 
 help not only the self, but also every group with 
 which the self is connected, including the group of 
 
330 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 Opponents. In no other occupation is there a similar 
 respect for opponents. Look at so-called " society," 
 " commerce," " religion," " politics," anything. In 
 none of them is there such courtesy towards adver- 
 saries as in the best play ; in none of them is there 
 a tendency to be grateful to the adversar}- because 
 he is more skilful than oneself. 
 
 Under the heading of games and athletics we may 
 include self-defence, which is also the defence of 
 others. Whether we take boxing, wrestling, single- 
 stick, Jujitsu, or some other form of self-defence and 
 attack, we shall find that the person so trained is a 
 better person all-round, a better individual, a better 
 member of the family and nation and world ; that is 
 to say if the training has been carefully supervised at 
 the start. I cannot here discuss the relative merits 
 of these arts. Jujitsu is far the most deadly of them 
 unless the person who practises it is good-natured or 
 self-controlled. Probably it is also far the most 
 effective, though it should be combined with the 
 others. 
 
 These exercises, together with games and athletics, 
 may be an outlet for stored energy. But, on the 
 other hand, they may be misunderstood and mis- 
 used, and become a stimulus and spur, calling forth 
 and diverting energy that is needed either as a 
 reserve, or for other purposes of life. We notice 
 this with the professional athlete, or rather with the 
 amateur athlete who devotes himself entirely to 
 athletics. The tired dog will naturally rest ; a game, 
 however, will induce it to over-exert itself by extra 
 
\ d n A ^ )f 
 
 "- Of TMt 
 
 HIVER8ITY 
 
 GAMES, ATHLETICS, SELF-DEFENCE. 33I 
 
 exercise. It is the force of habit. It enjoys the 
 play and simply cannot resist it. Such play is not 
 good. It may have its advantages as a safety-valve. 
 It has its danger as making an unnatural call on 
 reserve-force. 
 
 But, whatever we may say about the dangers of 
 play, it must be agreed that play is normal for all 
 3^oung animals. The interesting actions of play give 
 them fine lessons for their later life, appealing to 
 them through their senses and nerves, and not only 
 through their intellects by mere words. It has been 
 held by many scientists that all our future knowledge 
 is based on our early sensations, and that these are 
 most powerful when they are connected with inter- 
 esting movements. If this is so, then the study ot 
 moving nature, and the practice of moving play, may 
 be the chief influences on which our future know- 
 ledge and choices and actions will be built. It is 
 essential that these early foundations should be not 
 onl}' pleasant but also pure and helpful. 
 
 It is not only the young, however, who need play 
 and the play-spirit. Elder people need them just as 
 much, if they are to keep young and fair and cheerful 
 and skilful in mind as well as in body. 
 
 Besides this, it is in games, athletics, and self- 
 defence that we can most easily notice those charac- 
 teristics of boys, which are crushed utterly by much 
 teaching at schools and churches and homes. Watch 
 the young at play, when they are more free to express 
 themselves, and you will be able to classify them in 
 groups according to their characters — according to 
 
332 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 their strengths and their weaknesses. It is not too 
 much to say that by studying the behaviour of boys 
 in games, athletics, and self-defence, we could most 
 easily find out in what subjects, in what professions, 
 they are likely to succeed ; and also could remedy or 
 prevent the faults while there is still time. 
 
 But, let us repeat, the boys must not be allowed to 
 strain themselves. In order to prevent this, there 
 should be careful supervision and organisation at 
 first ; and in many competitions there should be 
 well-arranged handicaps. 
 
 Organised games, athletics, and self-defence are 
 especially needed now that most of us live in cities. 
 These "Sports" have already become less haphazard, 
 less instinctive, less simple. They have been adapted 
 to new needs, to a certain extent. But they have 
 not yet been adapted to needs and conditions of the 
 majority, after their school or college years; they 
 have not been adapted for the poor ; they have not 
 been adapted for people in cities or even for people 
 in the country. The performers are still far too few. 
 
 At once someone may object that a feature of 
 modern days is the walking and cycling and motor- 
 ing ever}'where, and even the running and swim- 
 ming. True. But we must broadly distinguish 
 such exercises from play. These forms of move- 
 ment are good. The walking, of course, should be 
 correct at the start ; the run should not be too long, 
 but could easily be alternated with the walk (for 
 instance, runs of thirty yards being sandwiched in 
 between walks) ; the position and movements in 
 
GAMES, ATHLETICS, SELF-DEFENCE. ^^^ 
 
 cycling, again, should be correct (I should advise 
 that boNS should be taught how to cycle, but should 
 not be encouraged to cycle much) ; so should those 
 in running and swimming. 
 
 Similarh- there are plenty of gymnasia furnished 
 with fixed apparatus, and plent}' of boys and young 
 men who are attracted by such exercises. Then 
 there are the exercisers, expanders, etc. Besides 
 these, there are many systems of free movements, in 
 addition to the system I suggested in Chapter XXV. 
 But all these are not pla\ . They are widely different 
 in their common use. They are exercise rather than 
 play. 
 
 I do not wish to decry them. Walking, running, 
 swimming are especially valuable for many reasons. 
 Remedial gymnastic work is also valuable. So is 
 ordinar}- gymnastic work, if properly organised by a 
 tactful expert. Such exercises (e.g., with the vault- 
 ing-horse, rope, etc.) are excellent training for the 
 nerves, and tend to self-preservation and the pre- 
 servation of others, and to self-respect. But they 
 are not pla\'. The}' do not necessarily develop the 
 play - spirit, with which we shall deal in a later 
 Chapter. 
 
 Even the arts of self-defence do not always 
 develop this spirit, though I think their tendency and 
 bias is towards general fearlessness and general 
 gentleness ; for the person who can defend himself 
 and others, looks at the world through different eyes; 
 he is more a man, more a member of mankind, than 
 the weakling who shrinks from saying or doing what. 
 
334 II- PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 in his genuine conscience, he feels to be right, for 
 fear of making a fool of himself or of being hurt. 
 He is bound to lose some self-respect. 
 
 As I have said already, whenever anyone praises 
 play, there always rushes against him some critic 
 who rants that "already we play too much." Let us 
 admit freely that play is far from complete physical 
 education ; it needs to be added to. There must be 
 other games besides those that we have already, 
 there must be preparatory and other drill and 
 remedial w^ork ; there must be work itself, and, of 
 course, religion. 
 
 Then, once more, our games themselves must be 
 adapted. Few of us can afford orthodox cricket. 
 Grand as it is for the successful few, it demands too 
 much money and time; in proportion, there is too 
 little exercise and play for the average or infra-aver- 
 age performer. Adapted cricket, especially tip and 
 run, left-handed play, and play in large well-lighted 
 rooms, may be far better for the majority, who will 
 of course play the game itself whenever they can 
 afford it. " Vigoro " is adapted cricket, which takes 
 only an hour or two for a match, and is fine exercise 
 for all the players. Indoor football is another 
 splendid form of sport. So is indoor hockey. The 
 use of the side-walls lends variety to all these games, 
 as it lends variety to Canadian Hockey on the Ice. 
 A room with artificial light for evening play makes 
 the players independent of time or weather. 
 
 The American cities have set us a fine example 
 in what we may call city-play, by their city-clubs 
 
) 
 
Why cannot we have more faciUties for evening-exercise 
 by artificial li«ht ? 
 {/Vio/<)i;rti/>/i /tv />! rf/tt'ssiftft of I.. liclhert, /i.u/.) 
 Face p. 3J5. 
 
GAMES, ATHLETICS, SELF-DEFENCE. 335 
 
 built upwards, storey upon storey. A single club at 
 Boston provides for nearly 2,000 athletic members,, 
 covering only a small space, and therefore needing 
 only a small rent. It thrives financially. We ought 
 to have similar clubs all over our large cities and 
 suburbs. Several have been started alread}', but 
 they are not sufficiently high. In a given building 
 there are too few rooms for play. An American 
 building, with a modification of it, has been described 
 in the Physical Educator. One of its features would 
 be a swimming-tank (Fig. 167). 
 
 Such recreation is what boys and men want. 
 Every boy and man has as much right to games and 
 opportunities for games as he has to food and light 
 and cleanliness. We must prepare all our young for 
 play, and let that be their chief recreation in after 
 years, instead of the enervating or degrading music- 
 halls and public houses and so on, to which other- 
 wise they may be attracted. At present no provision 
 is made for the majority. Their main or their only 
 pleasure is in such places. 
 
 The play, let me repeat, must be organised, es- 
 pecially for children. What has been done by 
 organised play in England already can scarcely be 
 estimated by those who have not visited some of 
 our Poor Law, Board, and Reformatory Industrial 
 Schools, or the Bermondsey Guild of Child's Play^ 
 If such institutions have turned the poorest and 
 ** lowest " and most criminal children into fine citi- 
 zens male and female, successful in all sorts of useful 
 occupations, what could not be done if the system of 
 
33^ II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 play, together with drill, etc., were made as integral 
 a part of our national education as are the so-called 
 intellectual subjects ? 
 
 But the play must be cheap. There are plenty of 
 cheap forms. For instance. Sister Grace, at the 
 Bermondsey University Settlement, has organised 
 many games without apparatus among the poor chil- 
 dren there ; the children thoroughly enjoy the 
 games ; and there they learn fairness, courtesy, pluck, 
 and other virtues. The expense scarcely exists, be- 
 yond the rent of a hall. The purchase of a few soft 
 balls, and a few chalk-marks, would enable us to 
 work wonders. The games, athletics, and self-de- 
 fence must be prepared for by suitable exercises, so 
 that the children may enjoy them, do themselves 
 justice, and not ov^erstrain themselves. 
 
 I have already suggested, in Chapter XXV., what 
 I mean by suitable preparatory exercises. (A few 
 suitable supplementary exercises are described in 
 Chapters XX., XXL, XXII., XXIII. and XXIV., as 
 well as in Chapter XXVIII., on unathletic hobbies). 
 Such samples of my drill as I have offered to the 
 public in " Pearson's Weekly," " An Alphabet of 
 Athletics," and other writings, seem to have suited a 
 very large number of people. A few readers have 
 told me that my drill did not involve enough strain- 
 work. But most of those who have tried the drill, 
 not all at once, but in moderation, and have then 
 written or spoken to me about it, have told me 
 that it was brief, attractive, good for improving 
 their play, good for their general fitness, good as 
 
GAMES, ATHLETICS, SELF-DEFENCE. 337 
 
 remedial work, good as an outlet for physical energy, 
 good as character -training, and not exhausting. 
 They have found that it made them play with 
 more success, more enjoyment, more freedom (since 
 they had more reliable mechanisms as already their 
 own, worked now by their under-minds) ; and helped 
 them to watch play with more interest and greater 
 advantage. 
 
 It may be as well, then, to enlarge here on what I 
 said in Chapter XXV., and especially to urge those 
 readers whb decide to practise, sensibly and in 
 moderation, for games, athletics, and self-defence, 
 to use their ow^n discretion as to what they shall 
 practise, and how and when and where they shall 
 practise it ; and to disregard my suggestions if 
 they seem unnecessary, to alter them if they seem 
 wrong, and to add to them if they seem insuffi- 
 cient. The best way will be to give examples 
 where they may exercise independent judgment with 
 advantage. 
 
 First I will take an instance from the Cricket- 
 drill. I offered room-practice in a few strokes only. 
 Now let any reader who feels inclined, observe the 
 actions of experts, in photographs or play or prac- 
 tice, and reproduce them, in order to find out 
 whether they are likely to improve his own play. 
 Most of the diagrams (Figs. 168 to 173) here are 
 adapted from that enthusiastic cricketer, the late 
 Arthur Shrewsbur>% who, without much advantage 
 in physique, achieved great success by thorough 
 mastery of a few safe strokes. 
 
338 
 
 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 Fig. 171. 
 Pulling (after 
 Shrewsbury). 
 
 Fig. 170. 
 Cutting (after 
 Shrewsbury). 
 
 Fic. 168. 
 
 Waiting for 
 
 the ball (after 
 
 Shrewsbury). 
 
GAMES, ATHLKTICS, SELF-DEFENCE. 339 
 
 As tielding-drill I add Figs. 174, 175, 176. The 
 American Base-ball player catches with wonderful 
 safety. It would be well worth while to experiment 
 in order to find out whether his 
 method of catching and fielding 
 certain high balls 
 may not suit some 
 fielders better than 
 the orthodox Eng- 
 lish way. 
 
 In boxing, again. 
 Fig. 177 will offer a 
 position which many Fig. 175. 
 
 Fig. 174. might find better Wicket-keeping (after 
 
 Fielding a low than the other one. ^' ^''^'^^^')' 
 ball (after Abel). 5^^ -^ self-defence, 
 
 there is the whole Jujitsu-system, 
 so excellently described by Han- 
 cock. Many of the 
 movements, like 
 the one in Fig. 178, 
 are suitable for 
 practice by two 
 people together. 
 The book should 
 most certainly be 
 studied. The value 
 \ I ofsuchpreparator}' 
 \ 1 training long be- 
 C^fore any crisis has Fig. 176. 
 
 Fi^i- 177- shown itself in the How an American Base- 
 
 A Boxing pose (after ball player catches a 
 
 Fitzsimmons). present war. higlj ^^^^,^ 
 
 X 
 
340 
 
 I. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 Then there are three departments of Athletic 
 Sports — the start and sprint, the hurdles, and the 
 
 weight or "shot." All, like 
 the above, can be imitated 
 and practised to some extent 
 in an ordinary- room. The 
 movements of weight-put- 
 ting are magnificent as 
 physical drill, virithout the 
 use of any actual weight 
 at all. 
 
 Which is the best start- 
 ing-position for jyow ? One 
 has been offered in Chapter 
 XXV. But good runners 
 do not all adopt it. Fig. 179 
 suggests variants. Figs. 
 *'read" from 
 American 
 
 Fk;. 178. — A sample of Japanese 
 
 self-defence (adapted from 
 
 Hancock's book). 
 
 180, 181, and 182, which should be 
 right to left, give the attitudes of 
 sprinter. 
 
 Why do the Americans regularly beat us at the 
 hurdles ? Chiefly because their mechanism is better 
 than ours. I have described it in the Physical Edu- 
 cator. Figs. 183, 184, 185, 186, 187, 188, 189 are 
 
 an 
 
 
 FIg. 179. — Various Starting-positions (after American models). 
 
GAMES, ATHLETICS, SELF-DEFENCE. 34I 
 
 adapted from an American model. These diagrams 
 
 also must be "read" from right to left. By constant 
 
 and correct repetition, 
 
 the American hurdler 
 
 — like the American 
 
 jumper — manages just 
 
 to clear the top with no 
 
 Fig. 182.— Finishing. 
 
 Fig. 181.— Racing. 
 
 waste of lifting-power: and he then makes his strides 
 of exactly the right length between the hurdles. 
 
 Figs. 190 explain themselves. Those who have 
 studied both physical culture and art must agree 
 that the positions and movements, especially if per- 
 formed with the left side for a change, are magni- 
 
342 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 Figs. 183 to 189. (Going from right to left). 
 
GAMES, ATHLETICS, SELF-DEFENCE. 
 
 343 
 
 ficent. In practice, one may begin with a light 
 weight, or with no weight at all, till one has acquired 
 accuracy, poise, speed, and ease. 
 
 Figs. 190. — Putting the weight or "shot" (adapted from 
 an American Model). 
 
 As a final 
 example, I 
 choose a prac- 
 tice in restor- 
 ing the breath 
 and circula- 
 tion of those 
 who have 
 nearly been 
 '^^ drowned. One 
 
 Fig. 191. — How to revive a half-drowned person . 
 
 (adapted from the " Daily Mail " article on advantage Ot 
 
 Prof. Schaeffers method). this method 
 
344 !!• PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 of artificial respiration, shown in Fig. igi, is that the 
 water flows naturally out of the mouth, and the 
 tongue does not choke the person. This art, in 
 addition to the art of saving a person in the water, 
 belongs to the art of preserving others. Swimn>ing 
 — among its many functions — is an art of self- 
 preser\'ation. A drill for it was given in Chapter 
 XXV. To this drill should be added a drill for the 
 side-stroke, etc. 
 
 Fortunately, here, no sensible person dares to tell 
 me that the drill is unimportant. A few may ignore 
 the overwhelming evidence afforded by schools in 
 Sweden, America, and England, and may hold that 
 we can learn to swim only in one way — namely, by 
 swimming ; and will deny that any practice of any 
 drill, in addition to the practice of swimming itself, 
 can help. Such people would hold that we can learn 
 to dance only by dancing, to play Beethoven only 
 by playing Beethoven, to march only by marching, 
 never by goose-steps, etc. But even they will not 
 have the audacity to tell me that one can learn how 
 to restore apparently drowned people only in one 
 way — namely, by restoring apparently drowned 
 people ! Let the genius learn to do things by doing 
 them ; or let him do them without learning them ; 
 but for goodness' sake let managers examine evi- 
 dences, and, when C. B. Frj- and others tell us that 
 bedroom-drill and practice with the swinging ball 
 have improved their cricket, let the managers ask 
 whether the principle is not the sound one for many 
 of us who fain would learn, and who find that hap- 
 hazard practice does not make perfect. 
 
GAMES, ATHLETICS, SELF-DEFENCE. J45 
 
 In these days of hasty and dishonest reading or 
 skipping, I am forced to repetition if I wish not to 
 be misinterpreted and accused of elevating a mere 
 ** sport " to the level of a " serious " occupation. I 
 want fair play. I want every reader to say, after 
 weighing the evidences, whether games, athletics, and 
 self-defence and self-preservation and the preserva- 
 tion of others, are indeed mere " sport," or are sport 
 and a great deal else besides. I insist again that the 
 play and the practice for it must be set in proper 
 perspective. Even as the play is, it is an essential 
 factor in education. It might be made at any rate 
 one of the two most valuable factors. It must be 
 set in perspective, however, as (to repeat a former 
 phrase) an essential member, but only one member, 
 in the living art of self-improvement. 
 
 With regard to self-defence, we must remember 
 that the boxer who can also play games and succeed 
 in athletics has an enormous influence for self-con- 
 trol among boys, if he himself be self-controlled. 
 Not only has he ready to hand a fine safety-valve, 
 one which, when properly used, is of service to the 
 whole individual and to all the groups to which 
 he belongs, and is very attractive ; but, what he does, 
 the boys will do, thanks to their inherent faculties of 
 imitation and hero-worship. It is not too much 
 to say that, if the few best athletes in any schools or 
 gatherings of boys were self-controlled, the rest of 
 the boys would be so as well. 
 
 The habit of play, like any other habit of sensible 
 self-control and safe self-expression, must be formed 
 
346 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 as early as possible. Each boy must link together 
 indissolubly, in his memory and mind, actions and 
 faculties which are useful for his whole self and for 
 all groups to which he belongs, and actions and 
 faculties which are attractive to himself; so that 
 in later life he will actually prefer to do useful things, 
 not through force, but through free choice and ten- 
 dency and bias, through stronger attraction, through 
 compelling instinct. We teach children useful things, 
 but, unless these things are attractive as well, the 
 children will not prefer them when they grow up. 
 Where the attraction is, there will the heart and the 
 mind and the choice be also. And part of the attrac- 
 tion is competition, at first perhaps against others, 
 later on for self-improvement. 
 
 So let there be play — good play for all, well 
 played. Healthy practice outside the play will tend 
 to make the play itself healthier, more successful, 
 happier, more free, because now the mind will devote 
 itself not to the mechanisms — the correct positions 
 and movements — but to the tactics, the opponents; 
 to the play itself, the self-control, and the self-expres- 
 sion, not to the instruments and technique of the 
 ^elf-expression. A great part of this technique must 
 be mastered separately by those who, like myself, 
 were not born players, yet wish to do things fairly 
 well if we are going to do them at all. If any- 
 one " entirely disagrees with every word I say," 
 as Dr. Arabella Kenealy did, then at least let the 
 reader believe that I am here stating without wilful 
 exaggeration what games and athletics have done for 
 
GAMES, ATHLETICS, SELF-DEFENCE. 347 
 
 me and for many far greater and far more successful 
 men and women, and what I believe they might 
 easily be made to do for most people, if only they 
 ^vere properly estimated and cultivated accordingly, 
 not grimly, but affectionately. 
 
 About another point I cannot speak from personal 
 experience. But I think that, if I first state that I 
 have many candid friends among all sorts of men, 
 and that I cannot consider any of them as my infe- 
 riors, I shall not be thought a preaching prig. The 
 following words must be spoken, and this Chapter 
 seems to be the least inappropriate place for them, 
 as it suggests the easiest remedy. 
 
 People who have reached a certain age are apt to 
 assume that play has no longer any function in their 
 lives. Among these people are many married men 
 who feed on highly stimulating and irritating foods 
 and drinks, but who imagine that, now they have 
 been through a ceremony sanctioned by the Church, 
 they are given a special licence for precisely that 
 sensuality which the world condemns in a bachelor. 
 Reproduction in due season demands a certain act 
 which the natural animal confines to a certain period. 
 At this period, what would be wTong for the bachelor 
 {according to a long list of great medical and 
 other authorities that I have before me), is right, if 
 not obligator}', for the husband. But the indis- 
 criminate matings at all periods of the year are at 
 least as wrong for the husband as they are for 
 the bachelor. The excesses in which I have known 
 numbers of husbands to indulge are not sanctioned 
 
348 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 by any one rite, and could not be sanctioned by a 
 thousand rites of a hundred churches. The married 
 man has among his duties precisely the same con- 
 tinence as the bachelor — a continence at once more 
 important because of the claims of the children 
 likely to be born, and more difficult because of the 
 constantly-recurring temptation. Whereas many of 
 my acquaintances have sought marriage as if it were 
 going to put an end to their temptations, they have 
 — through ignorance fostered in high places — rushed 
 into a state in which even the most noble and intelli- 
 gent and self-controlling men have found their will- 
 power strained beyond bearing. 
 
 What has this to do with boys ? It has every- 
 thing to do with them. Apart from the fact that 
 boys begotten under such mental (or infra-bestial) 
 conditions are likely to be born terribly handicapped 
 with regard to their own self-control, it is essential 
 that they should know quite early, of course with- 
 out unnecessary detail, that they must practise self- 
 control as a habit now, and get sensible outlets for 
 self-expression as a habit now, because the time of 
 indiscriminate freedom in sensual indulgence cannot 
 come ever, whereas after marriage the temptation to 
 it will come almost certainly. 
 
 Now I believe that if the husband paid more 
 rather than less attention to what he ate and drank, 
 and how he ate and drank it, and if he regarded 
 healthy play and other exercises and hobbies (adapted 
 to his new life) as more rather than less important 
 than before, he would at once minimise his tempta- 
 
GAMES, ATHLETICS, SELF-DEFENCE. 349 
 
 tions and improve his all-round fitness and the all- 
 round fitness of future generations. Only, the best 
 time for beginning this training is not now, when 
 the temptation is alread\- present with power, but in 
 boyhood. Better late than never ; better early than 
 late. And I think that play is the least morbid and 
 the least conspicuous outlet of the desire. 
 
 All those who have eyes to see and ears to hear, 
 and leisureliness to ponder and draw inferences and 
 work out subjects point by point, will go through 
 this Chapter once again, and, as they realise why 
 some people seek play, will realise also why others, 
 and often these same people too, seek mistakes. 
 They will realise, as I have done partly owing to 
 personal mistakes, that the ver}^ energy which now 
 shows itself in play (the desire for outlet, and the 
 desires which we have described above), and now 
 shows itself in some of quite the most benevolent, 
 self-sacrificing, intellectual, aesthetic, social, and 
 other directions of which we are capable, might 
 easily be turned into these channels once again, if 
 only we had accustomed it, habituated it, to these 
 channels as its regular lines of expression : that is to 
 say, if we had known its divine nature early enough, 
 and had guided it repeatedly along the better paths. 
 As it is, too often it is turned into another channel, 
 at first as its occasional line of expression. 
 
 Whatever others may think — and each must esti- 
 mate genuinely for himself — I think that the desires 
 are precisely and absolutely the same, equally divine, 
 up to a certain point, as illustrated by the diagram 
 
350 n. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 in Chapter IX. ; that then the expression of the 
 desire may branch up or down ; and that whether it 
 branches up or down, into a useful or a harmless or 
 a useless or a harmful action, depends in later life 
 still partly on will-power and tactics, I admit, but 
 mainly on habit, the line of least resistance. 
 
 This may sound very " improper." But it is not 
 the least use for me to write a book at all unless I 
 tell what I have found valuable in my own case as a 
 remedy, and what others may find still more valu- 
 able as a preventive. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 COMPETITIONS. 
 
 ALL competitions should really be against the 
 past and present self, and for the purpose of 
 greater self-knowledge, self-respect, self-control, so 
 that the person will have a sense of power, and on 
 the strength of it will be too proud to do wrong. If 
 success leads to conceit, and a resting upon the oars, 
 and especially if it leads to a contempt of others, it 
 is of the wrong kind. 
 
 Now, though this is the ideal of competition — to 
 surpass the self — and though as we read Froebel we 
 are struck with the beauty and purity and gentle- 
 ness of the system, yet competition against the self 
 need not be over-emphasised at the start. For it is 
 not everyone who has interest in that aspect. It 
 will be sufficient if the aspect presents itself or is 
 presented later on. 
 
COMPETITIONS. 35 1 
 
 In fact, there must be various appeals to various 
 people if all are to be encouraged to better them- 
 selves. The appeals must change according to the 
 nation and group and individual. Some peoples 
 (such as the Germans) are drillable in huge squads : 
 they submit to any sort of discipline, partly for the 
 sake of the nation. We Anglo-Saxons, however, find 
 competition a more attractive motive. It may be — 
 as I have said — competition against obstacles, such 
 as fixed apparatus in a gymnasium, or against a 
 reluctant muscle, or against 'some individual. 
 
 Bearing this in mind, we shall not wish to change 
 our competitions to the continental fete idea, which 
 would be too tame to attract most of us. At the 
 same time we can get hints from this fete. 
 
 First of all, there should be more competitions to 
 reach a certain standard, rather than to beat a 
 certain person or team. There are already such 
 competitions in golf and c\cling, where the struggle 
 is not always against a person. 
 
 Then there should be more competitions between 
 groups. The Americans are fond of team-races, for 
 women as well as for men. Three runners start, 
 three runners are read}' to relieve them at a certain 
 spot, and three runners beyond. Each touches the 
 next, and then the next continues the race. 
 
 There must certainly be more competitions with 
 handicaps. The best handicap in many games is the 
 use of the left side instead of the right. There are 
 many other kinds, of which golf and real tennis pre- 
 sent the finest examples. We do not wish for a 
 
352 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 moment to abolish or spoil the even competitions, 
 as, for instance, of county against county, or school 
 against school ; these reveal absolute differences. 
 But if on certain occasions one side were allowed 
 to add to its score at cricket, for instance, half of its 
 actual score, then we should have not only the 
 absolute difference, but also an exciting and level 
 game. As it is, there are too many " walks-over," 
 which are apt to make the winning side conceited 
 and careless, the losing side despairing and careless. 
 
 Sensible handicaps, moreover, tend to prevent 
 strain, to encourage the weaker, to keep the stronger 
 up to the mark, to level and bring into social 
 contact those who are otherwise separate. Indeed, 
 handicaps are an imitation of life itself, where people 
 are arranged, for the struggle, in different classes. 
 We do not demand from the factorj'-hand the same 
 money-earning success that we demand from the 
 millionaire ; each has his own standard, each earns 
 money not absolutely but in proportion to his status. 
 It is quite like the classes of players in a golf club. 
 We lack this to a great extent in cricket matches. 
 
 Then there should be more competitions in varied 
 feats. One of the best I know was a dribbling- 
 competition with a Rugby football, at Marlborough. 
 One had to send it between a series of gaps in 
 hurdles. It was an exercise in poise and balance 
 and many other virtues. Then there should be 
 competitions in combined throwing and catching, 
 boys being arranged in groups. Once again there 
 should be plenty of left-handed competitions. 
 
UNATHLETIC HOBBIES. 353 
 
 Without some sort of struggle, the Anglo-Saxon 
 does not yet take much compelling interest in play 
 or in work. If eventually he sees that all the time 
 his real object has been to improve himself, not to 
 beat his neighbour, then the early motive is 
 justified. But those who say that boys should never 
 compete against others fail to understand the Anglo- 
 Saxon nature. They fail to use one of the most 
 valuable starting-points for self-control and self- 
 expression. 
 
 N 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 UNATHLETIC HOBBIES. 
 
 OT ever}' boy, especially if he lack skill, is 
 attracted by athletics. There is need of some 
 athletics, if only for the sake of the play-spirit ; there 
 is need of some physical education besides ; some 
 walking, running, swimming, drill, etc. ; but there is 
 a vital need of healthy attractions, especially in view 
 of the future life, probably in a city. 
 
 Not long ago someone wrote a book called " The 
 Expulsive Power of a New Affection." We might 
 prefer the phrase "The expulsive power of a real 
 attraction." Far more important, however, is the 
 preventive power of a number of real attractions, one of 
 which will act when the individual is in one mood, 
 another when he is in another mood. 
 
 These healthy or, at any rate, harmless attractions 
 must be formed as early as possible by practice. 
 
 The object of them is some sort of education 
 
354 II' PHYSICAL AND MENTAL HELPS. 
 
 through genuine interest, some sort of self-control, 
 some sort of self-expression ; hence greater self-re- 
 spect. The boy who can easily turn from unde- 
 sirable yet attractive thoughts and ways to desirable 
 and attractive hobbies, is likely to gain in self-respect 
 more than most pious teachers imagine. What he 
 needs now is a present refuge in — or just before — 
 time of trouble. The more attractive it is, the more 
 certainly will he resort to it. 
 
 It would be impossible even to catalogue here the 
 different classes of hobbies. A few of them are illus- 
 trated in the photographs. Engineering, especially 
 electrical engineering, modelling, drawing, painting, 
 photographing and developing, carpentering, basket 
 work, gardening, dairy work, cooking — here are a few 
 of the hobbies that attract boys. Some of them 
 have the highest values : especially carpentering to 
 practise accuracy and self-correction, gardening to 
 increase responsibility and a love of nature, cooking 
 to train the senses and for many other reasons. We 
 may call these pursuits both imitative and creative. 
 For these and other reasons the}' appeal to boys. 
 
 Some of these hobbies — and (see Chapter XLI.) 
 the memory and imagination of them — will divert 
 the attention of a boy or a man easily to occupa- 
 tions which will improve his body and senses, his 
 nerves and mind. Certain of these hobbies, and 
 others that could be added, have at least two extra 
 values. 
 
 The first value they share with all appropriate 
 exercise. Only, it is essential that during the prac- 
 
Fig. 192 — Dairy-work at Bedales. 
 
 Fig. 193. —Gardening at Uedales. 
 
 Face p. 354. 
 
BRA/? 
 or THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 £4LlF0RHlt« 
 
Fig. 194. — Basket-work at Bedales. 
 
 Fk;. 195. — McKlelling at liedales. 
 
m^%i 
 
 < 
 
 
 1 
 
 V 
 
 S 
 
 .^H 
 
 ^" '1: 
 1 
 
 i 
 
 1 
 
 
 Fig. 196. — Carpentering at iSedales. This shed was made by the 
 boys and f^irls themselves. 
 
 Fig. 197. — A model of a locality near Bedales. 
 
UNATHLETIC HOBBIES. 355 
 
 tice the right positions and movements of the body 
 should be made habitual. The boy should, as a 
 rule, have the chin in and the small of the back 
 hollow, and should not use muscles unnecessarily 
 (by ugly gripping or frowning). The mind should 
 regard the work as an art worth}- of skill and enjoy- 
 ment. What Sir Lauder Brunton says, a propos of 
 various exercises and their effects on self-control, 
 should be read ver^' carefully : — 
 
 " The action of the organs may be lessened to a great extent by- 
 very high physical training. The ancient Greeks when training 
 for competition in the Olympic games were nearly impotent. The 
 higher training of the motor-powers for wrestling, boxing, and 
 running, seems to withdraw all the nervous influence from the 
 genital organs ; and so, when there is any excess of irritability 
 about the genital organs, /^e first thing to he done is to direct the 
 patient's attention to something else. Of course the best diversion 
 would be physical exercise like that of the ancient Greeks ; but 
 where this cannot be managed the next best thing is to direct the 
 man to hard work, either mental or bodily, and this will tend to 
 prevent any great excitability of the genital organs ; thus both these 
 forms of exertion will tend to act as anaphrodisiacs. But there are 
 differences in the class of work ; simple walking about does not 
 have this effect to any great extent. Rowing is sometimes even bad, 
 because the local irritation of the external organs seems to have the 
 effect, in some cases, of exciting sexual desire. A much better thing 
 is the movement of the upper arms in gymnastics, and more 
 especially in fencing, singlestick, or boxing. Another exercise that 
 is very valuable is the use of tools in carpenters' work, and sawing 
 wood or cutting down trees tends to divert all the nervous energy 
 and the blood to the upper part of the body, and to the arms 
 especially. Everything that tends to divert the blood to the upper 
 part of the body tends to do good, anything that tends to divert 
 the nervous energy to the genital organs tends to augment the 
 irritability and seminal emissions if there be a tendency that way. 
 Thus when we find a tendency to increased excitability of the 
 sexual organs, it is advisable to divert the mind from them, and to 
 avoid anything that would draw attention to them." 
 
356 II. PHYSICAL AXD EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 A second reason is the independence — financial, 
 and therefore mental also — which a few such hob- 
 bies, a few such " trades," may bring with them. 
 Too often I have known young men accept an 
 unsuitable post — hack-work utterly distasteful to 
 them — because they had no money-earning capacity 
 already trained. They drudged along, losing en- 
 thusiasm, losing the joy of life, losing self-respect, 
 because they had not been taught practical money- 
 earning pursuits as every Jew used to be taught as a 
 matter of course. Whereas a little market-garden- 
 ing, carpentering, typewriting, what not, might have 
 tided them over the waiting period, until their 
 special opening occurred, they felt forced to submit 
 to work that they hated, work that has tended to 
 make them sour pessimists, old before their man- 
 hood has really begun. Dr. George Wilson's little 
 penny pamphlet on " Relaxation and Recreation " 
 should be given an honest hearing by all managers 
 of boys. Though I cannot endorse what he sa}'s 
 about games (see Chapter XXVI.), as a point of view 
 which ought to be the physician's, I am bound to 
 agree that, had I known how to earn my living when 
 I had finished my years at Marlborough and at Cam- 
 bridge, and my two terms as an assistant-master at 
 Rugby, I should have been able to prepare for 
 writing, and for advising people about health and 
 exercise, and so forth, while I was earning enough 
 to keep me going by pursuits which I liked, instead 
 of having a great deal of anxiety and using severe 
 effort to make both ends meet. 
 
UNATHLETIC HOBBIES. 357 
 
 " Merely from the physician's point of view," he says, " there 
 seems no reason why we should play games at all. From the 
 economical point of view, there is no doubt that we might be much 
 better employed. One sees a lot of advertisements nowadays which 
 promise to disclose an easy way of making money in one's spare 
 time. I have never answered any of them myself, because I never 
 have spare time. But, to judge by their promises, it might pay 
 some of us very well to retire from our avowed occupations and ex- 
 change every hard-working day for one of lucrative leisure. At any 
 rate there is no harm in occupying your spare time, when you have 
 found it, in useful work. It seems to me that every skilled worker, 
 say a lithographer, might also be a passable carpenter, an amateur 
 cobbler, or a fancy gardener. In such pursuits as these, the litho- 
 grapher would at least find as healthy a recreation as in the amuse- 
 ment, which seems a popular one, of discussing with his friends the 
 hardness of his lot, and in organising the most effective method of 
 making it harder. 
 
 "If, as I am convined it is, monotony is an important cause of 
 exhaustion and a fruitful source of irritability and discontent, it 
 seems a mistake that every man should devote himself entirely to 
 one handicraft, trade, or profession. You will find that most of 
 our accepted proverbs give expression to a fallacy, and that sneer- 
 ing by-word, 'Jack of all trades and master of none,' certainly 
 does. Specialism is good, and division of labour is an economic 
 necessity, but a healthy specialism always grows out of general 
 capacity. The history of the evolution of our species supports this 
 side of the argument. The successful creatures of the earth, our- 
 selves among the number, have survived in virtue of special gifts 
 which have been added to a general fitness. So I would change 
 the proverb to suft a better ideal, and read, 'Jack of all trades and 
 master of one.' I look forward to a system of education under 
 -which every boy will serve a short apprenticeship m half a dozen 
 different trades under skilled teachers. There will then be a 
 chance that each boy will discover, not only some one thing which 
 he can do specially well, but some other useful things wherewith to 
 recreate himself without losing energy, time, and money. We have 
 not nearly realised the full value of an intelligent man's brain, just 
 because he is doomed to tire himself by a monotonous repetition of 
 the same movements day in and day out. The nervous system will 
 
358 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 stand a much larger effort than most men get out of it, it we can 
 learn to use it properly, to vary its activities sufficiently, to provide 
 change of the right kind and at the right time." 
 
 Later on, after speaking of the need of spells of 
 rest, in which one untenses the eye, relaxes, and 
 sees things in perspective, even now and then actu- 
 ally during the hours of work, he urges people to 
 tr\^ new work sometimes as a change from the work 
 by which they earn their daily bread : — 
 
 '• I should very much like this experiment tried in all trades or 
 handicrafts which are readily fatiguing. The difficulty, I appre- 
 hend, in most works, is the waste of time which would result from 
 the walk to and from the warehouse or the factory, for it must be- 
 admitted that walking, although better than nothing, is no great 
 recreation to most people. In a great many trades, however, pro- 
 bably in the majority, there is already a midday break, I should 
 like to see that dinner hour stretched to two and a half or three 
 hours, and, in that break I should like to see cabmen at carpentry 
 and carpenters driving cabs, stone-masons carrying letters and 
 postmen hewing stones ; telegraph operators tuning pianos and 
 piano-tuners at telegraph machines. You can add to this list at 
 pleasure." 
 
 Our estimate will not apply so forcibly, perhaps,, 
 to the various collections of stamps, flowers, leaves,, 
 etc.; all of which, however, involve classification and 
 order, and so make the boy's mind neat and tidy. 
 
 Others are attracted rather by reading, and 
 especially by reading novels. In spite of virulent 
 abuse of novel-reading, there is this in its favour ; 
 first, that novels do interest a boy, then that good 
 novels do teach him the prevalence of right over 
 wrong. The reading need not be all of novels. 
 Among really good books for boys, encouraging them 
 to struggle in the best direction, I may cite, from my 
 
UNATHLETIC HOBBIES. 359 
 
 own experience, many books published by Nelson, 
 many biographies (Benjamin Franklin's in particu- 
 lar), and many novels by such writers as Kingsley, 
 Henty, and Ballantyne. 
 
 Music appeals to most boys, but it must be care- 
 fully selected. Taken as a class, are musicians self- 
 controlled ? I think not. The music may stir their 
 emotions far too much. As a leading authority on 
 psychology says, there are few things worse than to 
 stir emotions and then not to expend energy in the 
 right direction. (I believe, by the way, that such a 
 book as Halleck's Psychology would interest most 
 boys. It certainly ought to be in the hands of 
 teachers). But properly chosen music, followed as a 
 rule by some kind of useful action, as soldiers follow 
 up or accompany it by marching, is excellent for all. 
 Of course it should include singing and voice- 
 production, to develop the lungs in good air, and 
 purify and invigorate the body and the mind. 
 
 Cards have been abused more strongly than 
 novels. Does ever\' game of cards rqerit this abuse ? 
 The various games of Patience may be a real training 
 for the mind and a genuine delight for the boy. 
 
 Even competitive card-games, so long as there are 
 not money-stakes, may be advisable, so that every 
 boy may have a hobby which he prefers to less 
 desirable pursuits. 
 
 For the hobby is not urged as the p>erfect way out 
 of the difficulty. It may be just a makeshift, far 
 from perfect, but decidedly preferable to the mis- 
 takes themselves. 
 
360 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 If boys do really and genuineh' like more serious 
 hobbies, so much the better. If Science really 
 interests them, by all means let them study Science. 
 What we wish to emphasise is that, if Science does 
 not interest the boys, then other attractions of a 
 useful or harmless kind must be found. 
 
 Needless to say, the health of the body is one of 
 the finest of all hobbies, and the regular reading 
 of some health-paper may be quite useful to a boy, in 
 the direction of self-control. It will probably teach 
 him to take a pride in a normal body. So long as it 
 does not make him fussy, it will be among the very 
 best of subjects. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 CLOTHING AND LIGHT. 
 
 IS it best to wear linen or wool or cotton or some 
 mixture ? 
 
 The ideal of clothing is to protect against chill, 
 and to absorb impurities, or at any rate to let them 
 through so that they may then be absorbed by the 
 air. Now linen will not always protect against chill, 
 especially if the skin be heated and moistened with 
 exercise ; though, if thicker clothes be added on the 
 top, it may be all right. Wool, on the other hand, 
 will not absorb ver>' satisfactorily. (A special kind 
 may be good in many cases, in so far as it lets the 
 impurities through). 
 
 Wool may also be bad in so far as it irritates. Linen 
 
CLOTHING AND LIGHT. 
 
 361 
 
 and cotton — which I personally find good material 
 for undervests all the year round — will not do this. 
 
 A fourth requisite 
 is that clothing 
 should not cramp 
 the body ; as most 
 socks and stockings 
 and boots and shoes 
 do. Fig. 200 sug- 
 gests a makeshift 
 pattern of boot. The 
 reasons for freedom 
 of the feet have been 
 given in the Physi- 
 cal Educator. 
 
 Nor should cloth- 
 ing overheat the 
 body locally. This 
 applies especially to bed-clothing. In bed the feet 
 should be warm ; the\' ma\' be warmed by alternate 
 hot and cold water, and rubbing. 
 
 Fig. 200. — A (rather ugly) shape of 
 boot or shoe, which does not distort 
 the big toe out of its natural line, 
 and allows the sole of the fool free 
 play. 
 
 Fig. 201.— a good Mattress and Pillow, cool and porous to 
 the air (adapted from a German model). 
 
 The head should be cool. The orthodo.x pillow is 
 a horrible invention ; its feathers make it unhealthily 
 heating. Fig. 201 shows a German bed and pillow 
 
362 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 that are comfortable, but not over-heating to the 
 head nor the body. 
 
 As to the body itself, it should be as cool as 
 possible without making one sleepless. With too 
 great cold, there is not likely to be comfortable sleep. 
 
 Of course there should also be good air and the 
 right position of the body. 
 
 The clothing, needless to say, should be clean. It 
 should be frequently changed. The plan of wearing 
 the same clothing in games and athletics day after 
 day is an abominable one. It is doubtful whether, if 
 the boy's skin acts freely, he should ever wear the 
 same athletic clothing twice, unless it has been ex- 
 cellently aired. But I believe this does not apply to 
 the special kind of wool mentioned above. 
 
 Often there should be no clothing at all. There 
 could easily be an air and light bath fenced in, as in 
 Fig. 202. This should be as much a matter of course 
 as the bathing-pool or the swimming-tank, when the 
 sea is not near. The boy should not be ashamed to 
 be naked. 
 
 With the air-and-light bath, there should be 
 rubbing of the skin, which is a ver\' healthy practice, 
 and vigorous exercise. After it there should certainly 
 be a good wash and another rub down with a dr\- 
 towel. 
 
 The light is almost or (juite as important as the 
 air. In a great Scotch city bright light was intro- 
 duced at night into the low quarters, and the 
 amount of crime and immorality decreased 
 astonishingly. This applies to all cities. The 
 
Fig. 202. 
 
 An Air-and-Light Bath (Luft-bad) in a German 
 
 Naturheilanstalt. 
 
 {By permission of Mr. Gossmanti). 
 Face p. 362. 
 
Of THE 
 
 VNIVERSfTY 
 
CLOTHING AND LIGHT. 363 
 
 almost invariable effect of light is to do away with a 
 certain amount of vice. 
 
 Light is also curative. In some way, not yet 
 thoroughly agreed on by scientists, it counteracts or 
 remedies poisons in the body, and so tends to clean- 
 ness and fitness. We see this most clearly in the 
 case of the special light and colour treatments for 
 various diseases. But simple light is effective in the 
 same direction. Every day ever}- boy should expose 
 his body to the light as well as the air. This should 
 be as much a part of his daily training as the 
 practice of full, leisurely, and rhythmical breathing, 
 and of muscular repose. 
 
 It would be easy to enlarge on this topic — to go 
 mto details ; to explain how a feather-mattress and a 
 non-porous over-covering may heat the spine, and so 
 forth ; to point out how certain clothing may irritate 
 certain parts of the body, and produce mischief by' 
 over-pressure. But these matters are fairly obvious 
 to ever^'one. 
 
 Besides, I should not like to see boys so absolutely 
 dependent on the ver}- best air and light clothing 
 that, when afterwards the}- had to put up with foul 
 air, feeble light, and cramping and otherwise ob- 
 jectionable clothing, they would be terribly upset. 
 A certain amount of hardship must be tolerated. To 
 keep poise and fitness in spite of a few temptations is 
 part of the game a boy has to win. 
 
 What I do wish to see remedied is a state of 
 affairs in which the boy's will-power is too heavily 
 taxed — too many unfavourable conditions allowing 
 
364 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 him about as much chance of standing up to the 
 attacks as he would have if he were put to face the 
 best bowHng of Lancashire or Yorkshire. 
 
 One item illustrates this point of view. Suppose 
 the boy is made to sit habitually on a badly-shaped 
 form and at a badly-shaped desk, with a feeble light 
 in his eyes to enable him to read a badly-printed 
 book when he alread}- feels quite disinclined for 
 mental effort ! Probably he will be inclined to poke 
 his chin forward and to curve his spine unhealthily, 
 so that, among other mischiefs, there is pressure upon 
 his lower organs. There is a limit up to which the 
 boy should practise and develop his self-control and 
 self-direction in such matters, sitting up and forcing 
 himself to attend. But beyond that limit the strain 
 is so severe that the boy may lose in physical health 
 and endurance and cheerfulnees more than he gains 
 in obstinate " iron " determination ; or, worse still, 
 he may yield to a temptation, and lose some of his' 
 self-respect. 
 
 The difficulty is to strike the happy mean between 
 under-training and over-taxing a boy's power of self- 
 control in ordinary difficulties — to remember that, on 
 the one hand, a boy is not a full grown and sturdy 
 oak, but is more like a shoot ; and yet that, on the 
 other hand, he must not be kept in cotton-wool and 
 prevented from meeting any trials at all. 
 
BETTER PUNISHMENTS FOR BOYS. 365 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 BETTER PUNISHMENTS FOR BOYS. 
 
 IN the last chapter I spoke about light. The New 
 Testament is absolutely accurate when it speaks 
 of people shunning the light because their deeds are 
 evil. In light and publicity (see Chapter XLIL), 
 and that includes the light of public opinion, the 
 worst mistakes cannot possibly be made. Light 
 alone is good ; publicity alone is good ; but the two 
 combined are -far more effective. They are a punish- 
 ment as well as a preventive. Notice how the over- 
 eaten or otherwise ill person shuns the light ; the 
 light is to him a punishment ; it may be a remedy as 
 well. 
 
 This type of punishment is among the best, be- 
 cause it serves as a self-punishment also. The boy 
 can inflict it upon himself. Instead of a gloomy self- 
 disrespect, which the unpunished boy is apt to feel, 
 the punished or self-punished boy afterv\^ards has the 
 idea that he is starting afresh. 
 
 Besides this, the general result is good. Looking 
 back, the boy does not regard such a punishment as 
 a convict might regard the cat-o'-nine tails. It has 
 been for his all-round fitness. It has not seemed 
 spiteful or vindictive on the part of his master. 
 
 That is the test : does the given punishment tend,, 
 on the whole, to improvement and self-improve- 
 ment ? 
 
 Let us judge corporal punishment by that crite- 
 
366 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 rion. Many boys at school have been kept from 
 mistakes by corporal punishment, or the fear of it. 
 Dishonesty of all kinds has been prevented in that 
 way. The fear may tide the boy over the severest 
 time of temptation. Afterwards he may see what 
 folly the dishonesty would have been, and he may 
 bless the punishment or the fear of it. 
 
 There is too great a tendency now-a-days to a 
 muling kind of '' humaneness," as it calls itself. 
 There is an appeal to Jesus Christ as being always 
 '* gentle." Now in the Old Testament there can be 
 no doubt that the Jews were compelled to better 
 action mainly by sheer fear, if not by harsh punish- 
 ment itself. Jesus Christ was far from gentle in his 
 dealings with certain classes. He drove the money- 
 changers out of the temple with a knotted rope ; he 
 clearly threatened certain people with outer darkness 
 where there would be weeping and gnashing of 
 teeth ; he threatened others with undying worms and 
 unquenchable fire. We cannot get over these sayings 
 of his. He knew that there were some people for 
 M'hom the most powerful motive still was fear. 
 
 Working on these lines, some parents may choose 
 to show their boys the results of extreme mistakes. 
 I have known cases where boys have been kept from 
 mistakes by a sight of the patients, victims of vene- 
 real diseases, in the Lock Hospitals. 
 
 But far better than this is the way in which 
 Government treats criminal children. 
 
 First of all, there is the light-cure and publicity, as 
 in Fig. 203. 
 
Vh.. 203. 
 
 An air-and-light bath, lK)th l)efore and after the sea-water, bath 
 
 of the Reformatory Industrial School boys at Ardwick Cireen. 
 
 ( Phot(^aph by permission of Mr. J. G. Lxgge). 
 
 Face p. 366. 
 
or THE ^ 
 
 VNIVER8/TY 
 
BETTER PINISHMENTS FOR BOYS. 367 
 
 Then there is austerity. The beds are not too 
 soft, and the water is not too warm. The criminal 
 child hates cold water — most people hate any water 
 at all for external application. Yet there can be no 
 doubt that the water does tend to benefit most poor 
 people. // is a real punishment ^ and at the same time 
 effectively remedial and preventive and healthy, and a 
 tonic. 
 
 Then there is simple fare — less stimulant, and 
 probably less nourishment too — though that is a 
 mistake. There should be added as well the punish- 
 ment of leisurely eating. This would be a real 
 punishment, and also a remedial and preventive and 
 healthy practice. 
 
 Early rising is another such plan. 
 
 Then there is exercise, almost to the fatigue-point. 
 This exercise includes good drill. Probably at first 
 the children do not like it ; afterwards, it seems, 
 they do like it, especially if it has military precision, 
 and if some call is made on the nerve and pluck. At 
 first it was a punishment, and, once again, remedial 
 as well as preventive and health}-. Now, like most 
 of these plans, the boys come to prefer it. They 
 come to prefer light and publicity, cold water, simple 
 fare, early rising, healthy exercises. 
 
 Besides this, there might be other forms of physi- 
 cal and manual work as a punishment. Household- 
 work and gardening, for example — this would be far 
 better than the meaningless '' imposition," during 
 which the boy sits still, probably in a bad position, 
 and writes what he hates writing. They would be 
 better also than caning, as a general rule. 
 
368 II. PHYSICAL AND EXTERNAL HELPS. 
 
 Should I do away with impositions and canings 
 altogether ? The decision I must leave to managers 
 of boys. 
 
 As to impositions, the words of Dr. Percival, when 
 he was headmaster of Rugby, have remained vivid 
 in my memor)\ At one breaking-up, he said to 
 the boys : " Do not do anything that you would 
 be ashamed of your masters and your parents know- 
 ing. Do not do anything that would pain them." 
 So long as the boy can keep in his memory and 
 imagination the picture of his loved managers and 
 parents, he is safe from the worst mistakes. So I 
 should suggest, as an imposition, drawing from 
 memory certain faces and scenes, so as to imprint 
 in the boy's memory and imagination the faces of 
 those whom he respects. I do not see any objection 
 to this type of imposition. 
 
 The severest punishment of all for those who have 
 a tender conscience is, however, in the mistake itself, 
 in so far as it brings a sense of separation from the 
 best self and from God. As a rule, however, people 
 use this sense of separation, which is a real punish- 
 ment, quite wrongly. Too often it leads them to 
 gloominess, and the additional sin of worr}- ; perhaps 
 to self-disrespect and despair ; it does not lead to 
 fitness, it does not lead to the play-spirit which 
 makes the boy say, " From this very moment I'll 
 play the game and be sportsmanlike and stick to 
 the right way like a man." 
 
 The object of all punishment should be to make 
 the boy play the game throughout his life, to make 
 
BETTER PUNISHMENTS FOR BOYS. 369 
 
 the boy fit all-round, to make him prefer sensible 
 self-control and safe self-expression to the mistakes. 
 It is by this condition that we would test any punish- 
 ments, it is by this criterion that we condemn most 
 of them. They rather tend to drive the boy's ener- 
 gies back again into him, not to release them in a 
 harmless or useful direction, not to train the boy as 
 to how to take pleasures sanely. They do not make 
 him feel that the person who punishes him is his 
 friend and wishes to be his helper. They make him 
 feel that this person is a spiteful avenger. That is 
 the savage idea of God, as shown in much of the 
 Old Testament. It is not the New Testament idea 
 of God at all. In the New Testament our duty is 
 not to fear God as a cruel or spiteful avenger, but to 
 know how perfect God is, and how the only sin is to 
 separate oneself from God, or, after separation, not 
 to return to God as soon as possible, and by all 
 means to avoid such a separation in the future. 
 
PART III 
 
 PART III.— MENTAL HELPS. 
 
 Chapter. Page. 
 
 XXXI. — Punishment and Fear not Sufficient 373 
 
 XXXII. — Good Intentions not Sufficient 380 
 
 XXXIII.— Power of the Mind over the Body 383 
 
 XXXIV.— Concentrations 398 
 
 XXXV.— .\ Boy's Interests and Attractions 408 
 
 XXXVI.— Intelligence to relieve the Will 412 
 
 XXXVII.— Better Methods of Teaching Boys 418 
 
 XXXVIII.— Better Subjects for Boys 430 
 
 XXXIX.— The Play-Spirit 444 
 
 X L. — Hero-worship, Friendship, Co-operation 456 
 
 . X LI.— Prayer, Self-suggestion, Imagination 462 
 
 XLII. — Privacy and Publicity 487 
 
1 
 
 FEAR NOT SUFFICIENT. 373 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 PUNISHMENT AND FEAR NOT SUFFICIENT. 
 
 HAVE already alluded to saner forms of punish- 
 ment for a boy: for instance, thorough masti- 
 cation of plain food, early rising, abundant and 
 apparently excessive exercise and occupation, and 
 the use of cold water. I pointed out that such 
 things were better than sedentar}- impositions, be- 
 cause they served also as self- punishments, and 
 tended to fitness. Professor Bain says, in reference 
 to criminals : — " It might seem that the application 
 of what is pain fully salubrious would exactly hit the 
 mark; as the cold bath, the well-ventilated and but 
 moderately-heated cell, cleanliness, measured food, 
 steady industry, and regularity of life. But," he 
 goes on to say, " if his system does adapt itself, that 
 is if they end in reforming his constitution and 
 habits, they are no longer punishment." Is that a 
 valid objection ? In the eyes of some it may be. 
 But anyhow the boy looking back at these punish- 
 ments would not regard them as sheer vengeance on 
 the part of the manager. On the other hand, I 
 have maintained that a certain amount of orthodox 
 punishments and the fear of them may be invaluable 
 as makeshifts in the absence of better means. For 
 instance, fear may be instilled by a sight of certain 
 diseases, and so the boy may be kept from mistakes 
 till the time when he gets higher motives, finer 
 
374 m* MENTAL HELPS. 
 
 instincts. Then he will need to fear no longer. It 
 is only as a makeshift that fear is excusable. 
 
 The same will apply to the fear which a Canadian 
 medical man would instil into boys by telling them 
 how a certain asylum was filled mainly through such 
 mistakes. The fear of harm rather than the desire 
 for the best things is the motive appealed to in the 
 famous declaration to which the name of most of the 
 leading doctors round Philadelphia — Weir Mitchell, 
 William Keen, etc. — were appended : — 
 
 "In view of the widespread suffering, physical disease, deplorable 
 hereditary results, and moral deterioration inseparable from un- 
 chaste living, the undersigned, members of the medical profession 
 of Philadelphia and vicinity, unite in declaring it as our opinion 
 that chastity — a pure, continent life, for both sexes — is consonant 
 with the best conditions of physical, mental, and moral health." 
 
 And Dr. Forbes Winslow preached in the same 
 key : — 
 
 "The more a man yields to self-abuse, the weaker he becomes, 
 and the more difficult the battle against it grows. In time it is 
 utterly impossible for the victim to stop it without help. A man 
 who is addicted to this habit gradually becomes utterly helpless^ 
 and the brain gives way ; the wretched victim is deluded, and his 
 reason goes. As one who has visited our large asylums, I may say 
 that a very large number of the patients are there entirely through 
 self-abuse or drunkenness." 
 
 Others again have taught their children a lesson 
 by cutting a notch in a young tree and showing how 
 soon the tree begins to fade away, because the sap 
 has flowed out. 
 
 Now such lessons are not to be dispensed with^ 
 Jesus Christ himself frequently used them — these 
 terrorisms to breed abhorrence of unhealthy habits — 
 side by side with the positive teaching that all are in 
 
FEAR NOT SUFFICIENT. 375 
 
 reality the children of God, fountains flowing from a 
 perfect Source, and that all should act with that 
 knowledge. 
 
 One of the greatest mistakes, however, of such 
 terrorising is that ignorant fanatics threaten imme- 
 diately fatal results. They say to boys : " If you 
 make a mistake, you will suffer this and that destruc- 
 tion inevitably and at once." This is absolutely 
 unwarranted by facts. 
 
 Besides this, a tactless lesson intended to frighten 
 the boy may merely make him perversely curious. 
 Tell a boy not to smoke a cigarette and you may deter 
 him, or, on the other hand, you may, as it were, 
 challenge him. There is a certain attraction about 
 a forbidden object as real to some people as the 
 attraction of a commanded object — indeed (see Pro- 
 fessor Dill's remarks in a subsequent chapter) far 
 more real. 
 
 Always, then, whenever it is thought best to 
 threaten, there must be discriminating tact and 
 unexaggerating fairness. 
 
 To map out the final and full results of alcohol- 
 drinking or whatever it be against which we wish to 
 warn people, is fair and scientific ; to exaggerate 
 these results is unfair and unscientific and most fatal. 
 Indeed, it is wrong to do such evil that good may 
 come. By lurid pictures of eternal hell-fire hereafter 
 or on earth, we may drive a certain number of silly 
 people along like sheep ; but we shall lose the respect 
 of the intelligent. 
 
 Punishment is justifiable only if it leads to genuUte 
 
^y6 III. MENTAL HELPS. 
 
 self-respect. There are some who, when the}' have 
 offended, are not satisfied, do not respect themselves, 
 until they have suffered. Besides this, in the case of 
 alcohol, for instance, it may be impossible to prove to 
 a boy that he has suffered ; the results do not show 
 themselves at once. It may be necessar)- to antici- 
 pate the results by some kind of corporal punishment 
 — to take the place of nature and show the boy what 
 his mistake is really earning for him. This is the 
 case where nature does not connect cause and effect 
 readily and obviously. 
 
 It will apply to over-eating also. A boy over-eats 
 and is guilty of a crime against his body. He may 
 not, however, feel sufficiently uncomfortable: it may 
 be necessary to supplement his discomfort b}' a more 
 " sensible " penalty. Then we shall register in his 
 memory a fairer idea of the results of that mistake. 
 We shall make that mistake associated with unpleasant- 
 ness, as it would be if the boy could trace its full 
 results for himself. 
 
 But, at the best, punishment is, once again, a 
 makeshift : fear is a makeshift. Far stronger and far 
 better is the expulsive and the preventive power of a 
 new attraction. It is vital that as early as possible 
 we should link together in a boy's mind good 
 actions and pleasant memories. When temptation 
 comes, the boy should recall, half or quite uncon- 
 sciously, the fact that some other course of action 
 was quite pleasant, and, from every point of view, 
 unobjectionable — and that the mistake would not be 
 unobjectionable, but would hurt him in this and the 
 
FEAR NOT SUFFICIENT. y]^ 
 
 other way. Then he will instinctively turn to the 
 better action and not make the mistake. 
 
 As an example of such training, Professor Gates of 
 Washington claims to have cured cases of dipso- 
 mania by positive training — by registering memories 
 of good things which were also attractive. He 
 says he took a woman drinker, and day after day 
 at regular times cultivated her taste by pleasant 
 foods, and so linked together in her mind the 
 memory of useful actions and pleasant actions ; he 
 kept her for a long while without alcohol and by 
 degrees established new habits, new brain-stuff. The 
 dommant memory in her mind at length was not 
 the fear of alcohol but the love of things that tasted 
 nice. In other words, he let the old connections of 
 ideas die out by starvation, he formed and fed the 
 new connection between good acts and pleasure. He 
 describes the process in technical language, as fol- 
 lows : — 
 
 " The process used, at this institution, to cure a criminal propen- 
 sity may be instanced as a further proof that the fundamental law 
 of cure is a psychologic one. The first step in curing a criminal 
 consists in discovering by psychologic analysis the number of wrong 
 sensation-memories and wrong image-memories and other wrong 
 intellectual and emotive memories ; and then by a process of brain- 
 building to put into the same parts of the brain, where the wrong 
 memories are. another series of good memory-structures consisting 
 of normal and scientifically acquired intellectual and emotive 
 memories relating to the same objects and acts as those from which 
 the wrong memories were acquired. This develops a large and 
 dominant number of normal cells in the very areas where the evilly 
 functioning cells were, and then these new structures are kept func- 
 tionally active oftener each day than the evil ones can have a 
 chance to be active, and the result is that the new structures not 
 
37^ HI. MENTAL HELPS, 
 
 merely become dominant anatomically and dynamically but also 
 psychologically. The child's disposition is re-made — the child is 
 psychologically re-born. It has acquired new likes, and the wrong 
 which it previously liked it now neither likes nor dislikes. A crimi- 
 nal propensity is a dominancy of evil memory-structures, and as 
 soon as a larger number of morally-functioning structures are put 
 in the same part of the brain there arises a new dominancy, and 
 if this new dominancy is kept active it will take the blood away 
 from the old structures and cause them to atrophy." 
 
 As an instance of this planting and watering of 
 brain-structures (cells and fibres), he says: — 
 
 " I found that in the seeing-areas of the cortex of an animal which 
 had been confined for one year in a darkened room, there was 
 no further appreciable development of brain-cells than was to be 
 found in an animal of the same species at the moment of birth ; and 
 that Mn an animal of the same species, which for the first year 
 of his life had been trained in the extraordinary use of the seeing- 
 functions, there was a far greater number of brain-cells than were 
 to Ite found in an untrained animal of the same age and species that 
 had not been deprived of light, and these brain-cells were larger 
 and more complex. By this special process of mind-training, which 
 it is the purpose of a special volume to describe, I succeeded, not 
 merely in giving that animal more brain-cells in that part of its 
 brain than any individual of that species had ever before had, but I 
 also gave it more mind, in that particular direction, than any mem- 
 ber of that species had ever before possessed. Similar trainings with 
 other functions corroborated these conclusions, and the experiments 
 t6ach what is the functional localization, in the brain, of any mental 
 faculty, and demonstrate that each conscious mental experience 
 creates in some part of the brain a definite chemical change and 
 structural embodiment of that experience, the refunctioning of that 
 structure being essential to the remembering of that experience. 
 This led to the beginning of an art of brain-building for the purpose 
 of embodying more mind." 
 
 Personally, I think it equally important for unedu- 
 cated people, in whose minds are already registered 
 connections between mistakes and pleasures (as 
 between alcohol-drinking and pleasant tastes and 
 
FEAR NOT SUFFICIKNT. 379 
 
 pleasant immediate sensations), to emphasise again 
 and again connections between mistakes and dis- 
 advantages (as between alcohol -drinking and ex- 
 pense, and obesity, unfitness, etc.). This is to go 
 on, side by side with the plans of Gates and others, 
 until the preference for good is dominant and con- 
 vincing. I have described the process of mistake- 
 destroying, side by side with character-building, in 
 a special Course of Lessons (on Moral Memory- 
 Training). 
 
 A vital requisite is not to crush originality. As 
 Guyau says, "The moral ideal set before the children 
 in most families is, not to be too noisy, not to put 
 the fingers in the nose or mouth, not to help them- 
 selves with their hands at table, not to walk in 
 puddles when it rains, and so on. To be ' good M 
 For many parents the 'good ' child is a little puppet 
 that must not move unless the strings be pulled.'* 
 
 Merely to say ** Don't do so and so," without ever 
 explaining why, without ever trying to get at real 
 causes, without ever suggesting alternative outlets of 
 energies, without ever reminding of better ideals — 
 and then to threaten punishment — and then to 
 punish in case of disobedience — this method may 
 seem to produce a " well-disciplined " boy or girl. 
 But it does not train for independent self-activity. 
 
380 III. MENTAL HELPS. 
 
 H 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 GOOD INTENTIONS NOT SUFFICIENT. 
 
 ELL is paved with good intentions" — not 
 always with those of the person himself, 
 very often with those of his managers. Let us take 
 a few proofs. 
 
 First there is the so-called hospitality, in our 
 earlier life as well as our later life. It is with a 
 good intention that the Australian bushman who- 
 has come from his station to the town offers drinks 
 to his friends all the morning and afternoon and 
 evening and night and other times. The motive is 
 good. The result is vile. So, when ignorant ladies 
 ask boys out to tea, they stuff them with what clogs 
 and stimulates but scarcely nourishes at all. 
 
 Then there are the pamperings and mollycoddlings 
 by parents, when Spartan simplicities would be far 
 better for the bo}s ; for, when the boys have to face 
 the realities of life, they miss their cotton wool 
 covering sadly. 
 
 I remember a striking case in France. A little 
 girl, five years old, staying with her mother at an 
 hotel, had been upset by over-eating. For two or 
 three days she had taken very little food, by the 
 doctor's orders. Her first meal, at the tabic dilute^ 
 consisted of soup, lobster, veal, pork, pastry, fruit,, 
 washed down by beer and claret ! An onlooker 
 remarked, " She is a good mother ; she feeds her 
 child " ! ! ! The intentions of the mother were excel^ 
 
GOOD INTENTIONS NOT SUFFICIENT. j8l 
 
 lent, but were paving the child's way to a physical 
 hell. It is so in America as well. 
 
 So it is when parents refuse to punish or even 
 reprove their children. The children make mis- 
 takes ; they are cruel ; they are rude ; they lose their 
 tempers. They are not trained to see any bad result 
 from these mistakes : hence they go on making 
 them ; the foundations of their character are rotten. 
 
 Much of the theoretical education of modern times 
 spoils boys when it should reprove and correct them. 
 Self-activity is its cr}- — a peace-cr}-, rather than the 
 war-cry of self-control. If this self- activity be 
 allowed ever)vvhere, it may lead to a shockingly 
 undisciplined youth and manhood. 
 
 Perhaps, however, such freedom is in many cases 
 better than the habit of keeping boys in ignorance, 
 lest bad ideas should be '*put into their minds." Now 
 to keep a boy in ignorance about all matters of sex 
 really means that bad ideas will surely be put into 
 his mind by some foul stable-bo\' or man. The 
 boy's first ideas, instead of being pure and based on 
 real and clean truth, are vile and based on unreal 
 and dirty lies or "humorous" stories. 
 
 In none of these cases can we deny that the motive 
 is good. What we do deny is that there is any 
 intelligence, perspective, or prospective. 
 
 And even as to the motive. If people do not love 
 their children enough to be intelligent on their 
 behalf, is it real love at all ? Is it not a horrible 
 caricature of the genuine thing ? Mr. Ennis Rich- 
 mond says : — 
 
382 III. MENTAL HELPS. 
 
 " There is no stronger instinct to be found than the mother's 
 instinct for shielding her child. A mother would fain interpose her 
 body between her child, the fruit of that body, and everything 
 which could. touch him to his hurt. I believe that this is, in the 
 main, the reason why mothers as a rule do not want their children 
 to ' know things.' As to the paternal instinct which tends in the 
 same direction, we must remember that every boy is going to be a 
 man, and that every man has once been a boy ; and that there are 
 in every man's life tracts of ground which he would rather not re- 
 traverse ; having rolled down the mud pretty firmly once, he would 
 prefer to leave it alone. . . . Instinct says to the mother ' Keep 
 your child from all harm.* We question, ' But how ? ' Here, if we 
 allow instinct to answer again, it says, ' By putting yourself between 
 it and all that can hurt it.' But it is there that reason should have 
 answered and not instinct, and reason would say : ' By teaching 
 your child where harm lies, what harm is, and what harm leads to, 
 and by these means showing him where and how to avoid it.' . . 
 Looked at in one light it is cowardice, sheer cowardice ; the 
 cowardice not only of the man who will not pain himself, though 
 the pain means help to another, but the cowardice of the man who, 
 having fought his own way through the slough, who, having 
 arrived mud-stained and weary on some eminence where he may 
 now seek rest, will not, dare not, turn to eye the foulness from 
 which he has escaped." 
 
 The intentions may be admirable. But the results 
 are — well, once more, those who see and know them 
 say, with admirable intentions, that the results are 
 better left unsaid and ignored. 
 
 Half the reform is already accomplished, in many 
 cases, if we credit the responsible people with the 
 desire to do good. We blame less the desire 
 itself than the blindness of the desire, its want of 
 knowledge. The spoilt child is spoilt not because 
 its parent did not love it, but because its parent did 
 not love it intelligently and perspectively and prospec- 
 tively. For that is true love. If the parent had said 
 
POWER CH THK MIND OVER THE BODY. 383 
 
 to the child that was bad tempered or sensual, " You 
 have the power to check yourself and to expend your 
 energy in some other way," that child might have 
 grown up a useful man and a happy man too, 
 especially if the parent had set a good personal 
 example. 
 
 That is another region where part of the difficulty 
 lies. It is generally the case that the elder, with the 
 most excellent intentions, so he or she thinks, is 
 really an abominably bad model for any boy or girl. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 POWER OF THE MIND OVER THE BODY. 
 
 * What are you thinking of ? ' means ' What are the 
 architects of your character doing ?^ 
 
 — Kittredge^ 
 
 For <f the soule the bodie forme doth take ; 
 For sonic is forme, and doth the bodie make, 
 
 — Spenser. 
 
 ALREADY we have shown the power of sur- 
 roundings and the body over the mind. For 
 instance, we all know how the mind is affected by 
 fresh air, cold water, bright light, certain society, 
 certain exercise, including exercises in breathing. 
 We have also pointed out the importance of indirect 
 self-control. Knowing how the mind and the body 
 are affected by such things, a person consciously 
 chooses them, then submits to their influence. He 
 does not always use sheer determination and say '' I 
 determine to be healthy," but he chooses, perhaps,. 
 
384 III. MENTAL HELPS. 
 
 fresh air and breathing-exercises — that is to say, 
 surroundings and bodily conditions — and then sub- 
 mits to their influence. This appHes also to diet. 
 He finds it hard to control his temper, to keep up to 
 the mark for work and exercise. He does not rely 
 on sheer will-force ; he chooses a certain diet and 
 lets that act on him ; he finds himself physically and 
 mentally fitter. 
 
 And probably the mind is always at work in the 
 above cases. In the first case it was not actively 
 at work in the way of choosing or deciding ; it was 
 rather the permissive or passive will that did not 
 resist the fresh air. In the second case there was 
 the deciding will, then the permissive or passive 
 will. 
 
 In another sense the mind is powerful. As Pro- 
 fessor Gates says, '' the cells out of which an ani- 
 mal is built are mind-organisms, and the duties of 
 each cell are duties that require mind for their per- 
 formance. A cell cannot perform its functions in the 
 animal economy except in so far as it is capable of 
 adapting acts to ends. To change the mental char- 
 acteristics of a cell is to alter its psychologic mean- 
 ing in the animal economy." Professor Virchow 
 and Dr. Alexander Hill are two others out of the 
 many writers who maintain this view. 
 
 Here, however, I shall choose more striking 
 examples of that rule, "As a man thinketh in his 
 heart, so is [or becometh] he." 
 
 These words are generally interpreted narrowly, as 
 referring to sheer will-power. " Thinking " does in- 
 
POWER OF THE MIND OVER THE BODY. 385 
 
 elude sheer will-power, as when a man resolves " I 
 shall not do this'*; but thinkinp^ also includes intelli- 
 gence and tactics, as when a man fails time after 
 time, and then at last succeeds because he finds 
 some easy way round — or over. 
 
 Will-power depends mainly on desire, and the 
 strongest desire at the moment must decide the ac- 
 tion. Desire in its turn depends on memories. The 
 pleasantest or the least unpleasant memories decide 
 whether the person desires this or that. It is the 
 dominant memories that determine action. For ex- 
 ample, a man feels upset, and it occurs to him to 
 smoke a cigarette. Will he decide to smoke it 
 or not ? Half unconsciously or quite unconsciously 
 there pass through his mind pros and cons : he will 
 like the effect, but the after-effect will be bad. Which 
 is the dominant memory ? So with alcohol. The 
 pleasant memories struggle against the unpleasant 
 memories. Whichever memories are dominant, those 
 memories — other things being equal — will win the 
 day. 
 
 Now what we have to realise is that the battle 
 is not always won at the moment ; it is often won 
 hours, days, years, beforehand. Let a person in 
 these two cases have trained his memory again and 
 again to realise the unpleasant effects, and he will 
 eventually decide against the cigarette or the whis- 
 key. He thinks that he is free to choose or refuse ; 
 as a matter of fact, he is almost entirely the tool 
 of memories within his mind. They, in their turn, 
 depend partly on past choices, partly on past impres- 
 sions. 
 
386 III. MENTAL HELPS. 
 
 But there are at least two ways in which the 
 man can overcome his habits : he may decide to give 
 them up — if he has a strong will, that will be suf- 
 ficient ; or he may again and again repeat the 
 unpleasant memories, again and again repeat and 
 realise the advantages of giving the habits up, and in 
 course of time the habits will give themselves up. 
 
 This use of the will and of the memories through 
 intelligent training will have obvious effects on the 
 body, and hence on the mind again. If smoking and 
 alcohol are bad for the person's body, then the mind, 
 by giving up the habits, will have benefited the 
 body. 
 
 We see here how the will and the intelligence ma}- 
 help to decide the likes and dislikes of the body, the 
 mastering emotions which lead to the action that 
 builds or dismantles the body. 
 
 The effects of the emotions upon the mind are 
 most striking. Professor Elmer Gates claims that 
 he has collected the excreta (breath, perspiration, 
 etc.) of people under the influence of fear, sorrow, 
 anger, and so on. To these excreta he has applied a 
 re-agent, and the result has been, he says, a difference 
 of colour. Each emotion has its own colour. When 
 the re-agent is rhodopsin, he maintains that the 
 colour is just the colour by which the emotion is 
 generally represented : grey sorrow, green jealousy, 
 red anger. 
 
 Dr. Holcombe says: — "When one has grasped the 
 idea that by creative laws mind is dominant in all 
 things over the body, the minutest changes of which 
 
POWER OF THK MIND OVER THE BODY. 387 
 
 are in reality organic manifestations or showing forth 
 of mental conditions, many things, before incompre- 
 hensible, become clear. From the standpoint of this 
 truth we see how emotions (which are produced by 
 thought) determine the most rapid changes in the 
 secretions of the body ; how fright turns the hair 
 grey ; how anger poisons the mother's milk ; how 
 great mental excitement or the slow torture of 
 mental anxiety write their baneful effects upon the 
 tissues of the brain ; how epidemics are spread by 
 the contagion of fear, the thing feared in the mind 
 being reproduced in the physical system." 
 
 About these emotions I quote a few interesting 
 extracts from a magazine devoted to practical 
 psychology : — 
 
 " With happiness, the countenance glows, the entire body seems 
 to expand, the action of the heart quickens, the appetite improves, 
 every vital function is invigorated. 
 
 "Opposed to the vitalizing emotions we have the devitalizing 
 emotions, such as fear, anxiety, disappointment, discouragement, 
 grief, anger, jealousy, envy, malice, and hatred. 
 
 •' The depressing effect upon the soul of this class of emotions is 
 well known, and whatever depresses the soul saps vital energy. 
 
 " Anxiety, popularly called worry, is peculiarly devitalizing in its 
 effects. Not only does it break down brain-cells, and deprive the 
 body of vigour, but acute anxiety often acts like a purgative. This 
 is an experience familiar to young mothers. 
 
 '• The effect of anger upon the body is well known. Some one 
 has said that only the strongest man can afford to get angry, so 
 greatly does it deplete the vitality. Everyone has experienced the 
 weakness consecjuent upon a fit of rage. In what is known as the 
 red rage there is a partial paralysis of the minute blood-vessels, 
 while in the white rage there is temporary suspension of the heart's 
 action." 
 
 Dr. lienjamin Ward Richardson says that " such disturbances 
 
 AA 
 
388 
 
 III. MENTAL HELPS. 
 
 cannot often be produced without the occurrence of permanent 
 organic evils of the vital organs, especially of the heart and brain." 
 And Herbert Spencer remarks that "each strong emotion affects 
 the action of the heart, and with it we have the accompanying gush 
 of nervous fluid, spreading along the vasomotor nerves, which 
 
 changes the state of the arteries throughout the entire body 
 
 It also disturbs the intellectual balance ; nervous fluid is drafted 
 off." 
 
 It is generally held that the emotions affect the 
 
 body (heart, lungs, sto- 
 mach, bowels, attitude, 
 expression, etc.) partly 
 through the sympathe- 
 tic nervous system, 
 which, till quite recent 
 years, physiologists al- 
 most ignored. Even now 
 the text-books scarcely 
 tell us anything practi- 
 cal about it. It is illus- 
 trated in Fig. 204. 
 
 But how can we regu- 
 late the emotions ? 
 
 " Suggestion" is one 
 of the most familiar 
 examples. A doctor, 
 skilled in the art, tells 
 the patient to become 
 passive. Then the pa- 
 tient will carr)' out what 
 the doctor suggests or 
 commands. The patient 
 is depressed. He be- 
 
 BadZt &i bing& 
 
 --Dla^uragm. 
 
 Solar pleacua, 
 SconachliLiyer. 
 
 Colon. 
 
 -■HypogAatric 
 
 Fig. 204. 
 The Sympathetic Nervous System. 
 It is partly through this that emo- 
 tions affect the heart and circula- 
 tion, the breathing, digestion, and 
 excretion. This System is also 
 connected with the spinal System 
 by a network of nerves and ganglia. 
 The Solar Plexus is one of the most 
 important parts of the body. 
 
POWER OF THE MIND OVER THE BODY. 389 
 
 comes passive to the doctor, who tells him that he 
 is happy, and will be happy when he wakes up. The 
 patient wakes up happy. 
 
 What the doctor has done for the patient, the 
 patient can soon learn to do for himself. He can 
 suggest to himself, while his body remains relaxed 
 and leisurely and passive, that he is happy, well, and 
 so on. The best time for this probably is the time 
 just before sleep. That is the time at which one 
 suggests to one's self that one will wake at a certain 
 hour the next morning ; that is the time for getting 
 rid of unfavourable emotions and habits by means of 
 Self-suggestion or assertion or whatever form we 
 use : it may be (see Chapter XLI.) imagination that 
 we prefer, the picturing and " sensing " of ourselves 
 — or of someone else — as healthy or happy. 
 
 The effects of this Self-suggestion or imagination, 
 this realisation of a better state of things, in pro- 
 ducing or " evolving " that better state of things, will 
 be suggested in the special chapter. Everyone 
 knows the effects of suggestion by another, as when 
 a doctor says, *' This will do you good." Everyone 
 knows how, when he reads a well-written novel, the 
 mere imagination of the hero's heroism or the vil- 
 lain's villainy affects his whole body. Everyone 
 knows how the imagination of lemon or other fruits 
 or foods makes his mouth water ; how the imagi- 
 nation of a cause for worry makes his mind un- 
 happy and his body unhealthy. It is Self-suggestion 
 that we wish to emphasise, because it is a power 
 ■within the person, not dependent on certain con- 
 ditions outside him. 
 
390 in. MENTAL HELPS. 
 
 But too often this grand art has been badly 
 described by ignorant fanatics. They make it to be 
 a matter of sheer will ; they neglect the use of 
 intelligent tactics. It is a matter of intelligent 
 tactics to choose certain times for attacking a bad 
 habit, certain times for establishing a good habit — 
 for instance, times of waiting, which in this age of 
 *' hurry " are frequent enough ! It is a matter of 
 intelligent tactics to choose such ways and helps 
 as relaxing and leisurely breathing. Then there is 
 research : for instance, a study of the reasons why 
 alcohol may be unsatisfactory for you. Then there 
 is experimentation, which must be intelligent, adapted 
 to your special case ; though here there is need of 
 considerable will as well. Then there is observation, 
 which is a matter of intelligence rather than sheer 
 will. 
 
 But, whatever mental way we use, whether we use 
 sheer will or indirect self-control by Self-suggestion, 
 etc., or whether we simply are intelligent, ready to 
 experiment and observe, and so on, by the mind we 
 may entirely change the body, and make it fitter and 
 fitter. 
 
 On the other hand, by the mind, by the opposite 
 decisions, or by toleration of bad ways, or by neglect 
 of these practices, we may entirely change the body, 
 and make it less and less fit. It is especially the 
 permissive will, the will which does not decide 7tot to 
 do a thing, that is responsible here. 
 
 Another use of the mind to alter the body is 
 neglected by most writers; we may call it the co-^ 
 
POWER OF THE MIND OVER THE BODY. 39I 
 
 operative will and intelligence. Individuals feel that 
 they cannot stand alone. They form a society, 
 perhaps only of two people ; they have discussions ; 
 they practise Self-suggestion ; they work together. 
 Where one would fail, two or more succeed. It is 
 probable that two wills working in the same direction 
 at the same time are more powerful than these two 
 separate wills working independently : that is to say, 
 in addition to each individual will there arises a new 
 power, a joint will — ignored by the mathematicians 
 who set sums about A and B doing a piece of work 
 together in so many days. A does a piece of work 
 in three days; B does that piece of work in two 
 days ; but let A and B work together, and the stock 
 answers give no idea as to what the result will be. 
 The probability is that A and B, merely by co- 
 operating, will add a new power to the individual 
 power of each, even if that power be only division of 
 labour and specialisation. We do not hesitate to 
 say that two or three boys, starting a co-operative 
 society for general fitness, would get better and 
 quicker results than if each worked separately. 
 Only the ultimate aim must be freedom from such 
 aids ; the co-operation must only be a means towards 
 an end ; some day each must become independent of 
 the others. And each must '* suggest " the all-round 
 fitness of the others. 
 
 In order that the mind may have power over the 
 body, there must be motives. One motive is self- 
 improvement — perhaps a desire to beat the past 
 and present self as if he were your opponent in a 
 
392 III. MENTAL HELPS. 
 
 game. A good plan is a stocktaking from time 
 to time. You think of your different ambitions — 
 you cannot have too many of them — and then at 
 intervals, not too frequently, you see how much 
 nearer you are getting to your goal of better appear- 
 ance, more money in hand, greater energy, more 
 power to help others sensibh', and so on ; you remind 
 yourself that the goal is worth winning ; you correct 
 yourself by degrees and strengthen }our weak 
 points : that makes the practice interesting. 
 
 For my own part I find that the most valuable 
 power of my mind over my body is that I can remind 
 myself of all possible motives for a given action ; 
 then the action follows almost of necessity ; I have 
 made it irresistibly attractive. Otherwise the wrong 
 memories might have been dominant ; I might have 
 imagined that some mistake or other was pleasanter. 
 I have devised a special Moral Memory Course of 
 training which a good many have found useful 
 already. 
 
 It calls attention to the importance of this plan of 
 recalling the real — convincing, conquering, com- 
 pelling — motives that influence the individual. It 
 also insists that he shall choose and use valuable 
 times for practice. 
 
 He must realise the slowness of the process. He 
 is now planting seeds when he practises; he is 
 planting them where weeds flourished before. Weeds 
 seem to flourish of their own accord, whereas seeds 
 need conscious planting and tending. He needs 
 patience to wait for full results. How is he to get 
 
POWER OF THE MIND OVER THE BODY. 393 
 
 this patience ? There are many ways. He can use 
 all kinds of makeshift helps. He can say to himself, 
 *' I will not be such a fool as to do that. I'll tide 
 over the hard time by such-and-such a habit." 
 
 Among the best of habits is what Elmer Gates 
 has called " dirigation." Known as it was to the 
 Hindus, who, for instance, found that their food had 
 more taste when they concentrated their attention 
 on their tongue or the tip of their nose, western 
 people have neglected the art till recent years. The 
 great Dr. John Hunter said, " I am confident that 
 I can fix my attention to any part until I have a sen- 
 sation in that part," which means that he had less 
 sensation in some other part. Thus sea-sick people, 
 as has often been pointed out, have had a sensation 
 of nausea in their stomachs ; then they have lost that 
 sensation by turning their attention to work ; the 
 sensation has passed elsewhere : for instance, some 
 have been cured by the thought that the boat was 
 sinking. They began to bale out the water and lost 
 the nausea. We all know how people can believe 
 they are diseased by fixing an unhealthy attention 
 upon some part. According as we centre our 
 attention upon one thing or another, says a high 
 authority, we largely determine our mental happi- 
 ness, and hence our bodily health. The reason is 
 not simply imagination. Dr. Tuke says, " Thought, 
 strongly directed to any part, tends to increase its 
 vascularity and consequently its sensibility." We 
 add that while it lasts it tends to decrease the vascu- 
 larity and the sensibility of other parts. Professor 
 
394 III- MENTAL HELPS. 
 
 Elmer Gates tells us that by fixing his attention on 
 his hand he can bring more blood to that hand and 
 and raise the temperature of it, without (being 
 conscious of) any muscular movement. 
 
 Dr. W. G. Anderson, of the Yale University 
 Gymnasium, has improved on Professor Mosso's 
 Balance-bed. Anderson's bed rests on knife-blades. 
 A man lies on it, as in Fig. 205, and thinks out a 
 
 ^-' 
 
 tonnnnmminiininin^ 
 
 \y BALAMCEPED - ,. jj ) 
 
 Fig. 205, 
 Merely by thinking of an exercise, one can send more 
 blood to the parts which one imagines himself to be using. 
 Here the experimenter, on Dr. W. G. Anderson's Balance- 
 bed, is working out a problem : more blood is sent to his 
 brain. 
 
 problem : this sends more blood to his head, and the 
 balance inclines that way. Then he imagines 
 himself to be dancing, but he does not move at all : 
 this sends more blood to his legs and feet, and the 
 balance inclines that way. The following is a 
 description from an American paper : — 
 
 "The student being placed upon his back upon this couch, the 
 effect of his thought upon his center of gravity may be accurately 
 measured. The mental effort necessary in producing an original 
 composition in writing shifts the center of gravity in some cases to 
 the extent of two and a half inches. Dr. Anderson has also made 
 
POWER OF THE MINI) OVER THE BODY. 395 
 
 studious experiments in the development of the muscles. By a 
 careful system of weighing, he has demonstrated that an exercise in 
 which the student takes little or no interest has a small value in 
 developing the muscles, as but little blood is carried to the parts 
 being exercised. But if the student is interested in his work and 
 consciously directs his ' thoughts ' to the parts, then there is an 
 increased flow of the blood and a corresponding increase made in 
 the weight of the muscular fibre. 
 
 " Another important fact developed by this experimenting with 
 the ' muscle-bed ' was that the student, without moving, but merely 
 by directing his thoughts to his lower extremities, could cause a 
 flow of blood to them whicli would shift his center of gravity. Now, 
 it seems that it would require about as much mental effort to send 
 the blood coursing into the feet as it would to compose an original 
 sentence or solve a problem in algebra, and that, consequently, one 
 result would counterbalance the other and the body would remain 
 in equilibrium. But actual demonstration proves the contrary. 
 Another interesting fact that I have noticed, but for which I cannot 
 just now produce the authority, is that of a man who by an effort of 
 his will, could, while standing on a pair of scales, cause a difference 
 of some pounds in his weight." 
 
 Exercise itself, of course, has similar effects. By 
 exercise we can alter the circulation of the blood 
 and take away sensation from any one part. This 
 power is simply invaluable, for many reasons. 
 
 In all these cases there is need of will, but of less 
 will in proportion to the intelligence. Intelligence, 
 that is to say, can be used to relieve the will, as we 
 have suggested already, and shall point out again in 
 Chapter XXXVI. 
 
 But, so far as practical purposes are concerned, 
 we may take it for granted that attention constantly 
 repeated is a power strong enough to destroy any 
 habit and create any other; and the more we are 
 interested in the thing, the easier we shall find it to 
 
39^ in. MENTAL HELPS. 
 
 concentrate our attention on that thing. The next 
 chapter will be devoted to concentration. 
 
 The importance of this knowledge of the power 
 of mind over body cannot be over-rated. Only it is 
 necessary to realise what is meant by mind, and 
 how long a time may elapse before mind appears as 
 body. I think it will make the process clearer if I 
 exaggerate and say that the conscious mind, the 
 choosing mind, has as its main task to alter the 
 body by altering, first of all, the under-mind. A 
 bold writer on Psychology has described the process 
 thus, emphasising the responsibility of man the con- 
 scious chooser, but under-estimating the influence of 
 man the permitter. 
 
 " Every organism has a conscious and a sub- 
 conscious mind. The conscious mind is employed 
 in gaining new experience. As the new is gained 
 it gradually descends into the sub-mind, the habit 
 mind, and there functions as instinct, desire. 
 
 " Bat nothing ever descends into the sub-mind, the 
 habit mind, until it has been first completely demonstrated 
 and accepted by the conscious mind. 
 
 "■ Through all past ages the individual has ac- 
 quired knowledge by this process. The wisdom of 
 these ages of experience is stored in the sub-mind. 
 
 " This sub-mind is the human body. Every atom 
 of the body, and organization of atoms, every organ> 
 is the storehouse of its own peculiar kind of know- 
 ledge, all gained and tried and accepted in past time 
 by the conscious mind, the reasoning mind. 
 
 ** Every thought which passes the mind's eye takes 
 
POWER OF THK MINI) OVER THE BODY. 397 
 
 its place in the temperamental structure. The way 
 to change the habits of thoughts is to form new 
 habits. New habits are formed b\' constant effort of 
 the objective, every-day, surface mind. 
 
 " As a mode of thought becomes habitual, it sinks 
 gradually into the sub-mind, where it acts uncon- 
 sciously (to us) ; or sub-conscioush*. 
 
 "It is said that ninety-five per cent, of our 
 thinking is done in this sub-self, in the habit mind^ 
 And all this thinking has been set up there by the 
 conscious five per cent, of our thought in past time. 
 
 "The objective five per cent, thought — the crea- 
 tive and directive thought — is done by the use of 
 the upper brain. The sub-thinking is done in other 
 parts of the bodw Every organ and ganglion and 
 cell of the body thinks. And it thinks just as it has 
 been taught by its teacher, that mighty five per cent, 
 objective, every-day mind — the one which is taking 
 in the ideas here written. 
 
 " The whole body will continue to think and feel 
 just as it is taught to think and feel. If any change 
 is made in the bod\ , it is the result of a changed 
 objective mind. Whatever shows forth in the bod\' 
 was sent there by the objective mind. Every con- 
 scious thought is iiiakiu*^ bodily conditions,'" 
 
 But it may be making them — so far as they appeal 
 to our senses — very slowly; and I think that this 
 should always be made clear — this interval between 
 the action and the appearance of the result. Every 
 time you improve your mind — say by imagining and 
 " sensing " fitness, happiness, kindness — remember 
 
39^ III. MENTAL HELPS. 
 
 that your order to your under-mind, the order to 
 make better all-round results appear, will be carried 
 out either now or soon or later. Much will depend 
 on your faith, which means your power to realise and 
 "" sense " the better state, to hold calmly to that, and 
 — to act accordingly. If you want a comparison, see 
 3^ourself sometimes posting to your bookseller a 
 stamped envelope containing an order for a book, 
 and stamps to cover the price and the price of 
 postage, and your address. The book will reach you 
 sooner or later. You have paid the price. Part of 
 the price which will ensure that your own order or 
 suggestion to your own under-mind will be carried 
 out is attention and realisation. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 CONXENTRATIONS. 
 
 WE hear a great deal of loose talk about the 
 virtue of concentration. A millionaire is put 
 before us as our pattern, because he has concentrated 
 his attention. On what has he concentrated it ? On 
 money-getting by all means fair or foul, especially 
 foul ; for the foul are quicker. He has sacrificed his 
 own honour and health, and has sacrificed many 
 lives and happinesses on the way; he has become 
 a despicable bnite. He ought not to have been 
 praised as if his had been concentration of the right 
 kind. He has concentrated, it is true, on one thing 
 and on one thing only ; but that, sought for its own 
 
CONCKNTRATIONS. 399 
 
 sake, was a wrong thing. So of workers with their 
 brains. They also may lose their health, one of the 
 blessings best worth preserving. Many learned pro- 
 fessors have concentrated on their work and have 
 lost all sense of proportion. So have many ignorant 
 saints and ascetics, who thought they had attended 
 to their spirit, but have lost both health and intelli- 
 gence. So, on the other hand, weight-lifting athletes 
 may have injured not onh" their brains, but also the 
 fitness of their vital organs, and even their athletic 
 success as far as concerns litheness, promptitude and 
 adaptability. 
 
 We have to get a new idea of concentration before 
 we can safely recommend it to boys. As it is, they 
 are too often told to focus their whole mind con- 
 tinuously on some one thing — usually a thing not 
 worth the energy of the whole mind continuously. 
 
 The first requisite is to have the right object, an 
 object demanding concentration as its inalienable 
 birth-right ; a huge biceps is not this sort of object. 
 It might be a makeshift means towards an end^ 
 namely self-respect. 
 
 Secondly, there is need to change quickly if we 
 see a better object, or if our first object tends to 
 destroy all-round fitness. It is particularly impor- 
 tant for the young not to have to concentrate on the 
 same view of the same object for long stretches of 
 time continuously. For this, in mental as in physical 
 exercise, may be a vast tax on the energies, as 
 Mosso has pro\ed. \Vork done by a fagged body 
 or mind is the most expensive and exhausting work 
 
400 111. MKNTAL HELPS. 
 
 of all, especially when so much extra energy is 
 needed for the growing mind and body. The length 
 of the concentration should be increased by degrees. 
 
 And it is necessary to keep part of the mind open, 
 somewhat as the Lawn Tennis player keeps his eye 
 •on the ball, it is true, but has in the background 
 of his sight a picture of the whole court and his 
 opponent. Merely to keep the eye on the ball and 
 to lose the memory of the court and its boundaries 
 would be fatal. So it is on the Cricket-field. 
 
 With regard to this double concentration, this eye 
 •on the ball and mind's eye on the surroundings (field, 
 ^tc), an American writes : — 
 
 "The ability to do two or three things at once is the result of 
 having made so good a habit of doing each thing separately that it 
 -c^yi now be done witli very little lonscious attention. 
 
 " The correct attitude to assume is this :- -' I am quiet and confi- 
 dent, and ready to give to this work ixbundant attention, so as to do 
 it accurately, rapidly, and with ease. My interest is in it. At the 
 same time I h^ve plenty more attention with which to catch impres- 
 sions of whatever else will be interesting or useful to tne.' Begin 
 your work after deliberately and resolutely stating this to yourself 
 and assuming the corresponding mental attitude — the attitude of 
 easy power. Then whenever you catch yourself lapsing, stop a 
 moment, straighten up, take a slow, full breath through the nostrils, 
 and resume your mental attitude of power. Many a time has a stray 
 impression, picked up by a bit of stray attention, proved afterwards 
 of great value. The law of attraction works here, as in more 
 p)onderable things — your attention catches what fits somewhere in 
 your mind and life. Welcome it ; and above all things keep sweet 
 cnii steady. . . Truly, in a train and elsewhere, something that 
 is of vastly more importance to you than the ability to 'bury yourself 
 in the newspaper ' (a really expressive phrase is that) is the power 
 to turn readily, as attention is called from the printed article or back 
 to it again. The power of ioise is the greatest power of all. To 
 turn reculily with the attention, and then to return readily to the 
 
CONCENTRATIONS. 4OI 
 
 original subject, is the cap sheaf of accomplishment and real power. 
 The mind should be as delicately poised as is the eye. I^ook straight 
 ahead of you a moment, and note how easily and pleasurably the 
 eye is attnuted ivom one moving thing to another, and yet another, 
 and is with equal pleasure withdrawn again." 
 
 It is important to see the object in proportion 
 before and after the concentration. When one who 
 poses as an " expert " in Physical Culture tells 
 people to fix their eye and their mind regularly upon 
 their biceps and other muscles, his advice may not 
 be so bad, but he ought to tell them also to see 
 the biceps in proportion, and to see how it is only 
 one means — and that often an unsatisfactory one — 
 towards an end; to see it in its proper perspective, 
 as just a tiny help towards self-control and self-ex- 
 pression. Moreover, when once the movement has 
 become easy and sub-conscious, it may be a positive 
 mistake to attend to it any longer with heart and 
 soul. 
 
 With such provisos, concentration is a splendid 
 art, one worth any amount of care in early years. It 
 is the natural gift of children, but with them it flits 
 rapidly from one object to another. When we grow 
 older, we ought to lengthen our period of endurance. 
 As we can take exercise and can work at the same 
 thing for longer spells, so we should increase the 
 duration and constancy of our concentration. 
 
 Its power has been illustrated by hundreds of 
 writers. The open flood, they say, has little force. 
 Narrow it down to a single channel, and it becomes 
 a gigantic influence. The sun's rays, spread out, 
 seem to possess little heat. Focus them with a 
 
402 III. MENTAL HELPS. 
 
 magnifying glass, and you have a fire. The late 
 Dean Farrar said he believed that, if a person con- 
 centrated all his energies upon some one object, 
 he would assuredly achieve that object. Indeed, 
 some have asserted that attention is all the human 
 power there is. Let the mind attend, and it must 
 achieve. 
 
 We do not go so far as this. Sheer will without 
 intelligence may fail. Yet, as an example of a 
 practice of simple concentration without much in- 
 telligence, let us consider an American writer, 
 Ingalese, who has written a very striking book on 
 the history and power of mind. He supposes that 
 you really want a hundred dollars. You picture 
 in your mind's eye a hundred dollar bill. You know 
 that the infinite Power has an infinite supply. You 
 know that it is yours already. What you have to do 
 is to realise this. You picture that dollar note as 
 already yours. You repeat the imagination again 
 and again vividly, but not excitedly, and, he says, 
 you find that this hundred dollar bill becomes yours. 
 Somehow it reaches you by natural means. 
 
 But suppose you need self-control. How can you 
 concentrate on that ? Will it not rather bring before 
 your mind the memory of mistakes ? In this par- 
 ticular case you probably have to fix your attention 
 not so much on self-control as on something else 
 that is interesting. Not a bad plan is the one of 
 Elmer Gates, to practise at odd moments fixing your 
 attention on your hand. Study your hand and its 
 formation. Fix your attention on it for five minutes, 
 
CONCENTRATIONS. 4O3 
 
 somewhat as you would keep your eye on the ball at 
 golf, but for much longer. According to Dr. Mauds- 
 ley's dictum, if you are able to control your mind 
 thus, you will be able to control your muscles, and 
 vice versa. 
 
 This involves withdrawing your attention from 
 other parts of you, and perhaps deadening — or at 
 least relaxing — those parts. 
 
 Anyhow your body should be relaxed and not 
 tense, restful and not fidget}'. 
 
 For real and true concentration is a thing physi- 
 cally as well as mentally economical and effective. 
 Its most convincing sign is not frowning and grip- 
 ping, though that may be a help for the uninitiated, 
 but quietness and repose, so that the mind, as it 
 were, may work unhampered, through more free and 
 and open and pliant channels. 
 
 Begin under easy conditions with all possible 
 physical helps (in solitude, in comfortable positions, 
 etc.), but aim at having eventually the power of 
 concentration wherever you are. One of the Hindu 
 Yogis has a striking little phrase, which I have 
 quoted elsewhere. He says that at first you must 
 be very careful about your food, till you have trained 
 your mind to concentration ; then, after a time, you 
 will be able to take any food without losing your 
 power. So you may need dead silence at first while 
 yoii are cultivating your concentration. Some day 
 you should be able to concentrate in the noisiest 
 crowd, unaffected by it. 
 
 You must concentrate not only over the thing 
 
 BB 
 
404 HI. MENTAL HELPS. 
 
 itself, as An^lo- Saxons do over play, and as Ameri- 
 cans do over money-making, but also over the 
 preparation and practice for it. There are two sorts 
 of concentration. One is that which we use during 
 the struggle. Another is that which we use in 
 preparing for victory and preventing any struggle 
 at all and making the contest a certainty before- 
 hand. 
 
 Do not begin with too hard a task. As ever>' 
 psychologist agrees, it is vital to have no failures to 
 register at the start. A story is told of a certain 
 Hindu teacher who advised his pupil to concentrate 
 on something which did not interest the pupil. The 
 pupil came back and said he had tried but failed; 
 he was always thinking of his cow. '' Very well," 
 said the teacher, " Then begin by concentrating on 
 the eyes or one of the eyes of your cow ; then con- 
 centrate on the whole cow; then on some other 
 object." The pupil started afresh, and, from this 
 easy beginning, proceeded to a wonderful mastery 
 by increasing the difficulty gradually. Only let the 
 first thing be harmless, and, if possible, useful. 
 
 For self-control and self-expression you will need 
 not only the power of concentration, but the power 
 of diverting the attention rapidly, and then concen- 
 trating it on something else. 
 
 Do not always choose pleasant and attractive 
 subjects, especially when you begin to get power. 
 They are well enough at the outset, but, as Professor 
 James says, make a point of doing every day some- 
 thing because you do not want to do it. That is 
 
CONCENTRATIONS. 405 
 
 like money in an insurance office : it will stand you 
 in good stead in the day of trial. For, depend upon 
 it, the minutes will come when you will have to avoid 
 doing what seems pleasant at the time, and choose 
 what seems unpleasant if not painful. Prepare for 
 that trial by a few forced concentrations every day. 
 
 Professor Halleck's advice is good, but it is not 
 so appropriate for boys as for elderly people. He 
 says: — 
 
 " The man who can hold uninteresting ideas before his mind until 
 they gather interest, is the man who is going to succeed. Charles 
 Dickens said that the reason of his success consisted in throwing his 
 entire attention into whatever he happened to be doing, no matter 
 how quickly that might be succeeded by something else. The only 
 way to cultivate attention is by a continuous effort of will. If the 
 attention wanders from any subject for ninety-nine consecutive 
 times, make an effort to concentrate the mental powers each time. 
 
 •' But if lack of attention springs from weariness, rest." , 
 
 He might have added that it is important, in order 
 to secure concentration, to find and to remind oneself 
 of the interest of the subject, its advantages in helping 
 us to realise our ambitions — athletic success, intel- 
 lectual success, and so on. 
 
 One of many ways will be to set aside, as Mr. 
 Arthur Lovell suggests, a certain time each day for 
 learning poetry. Make up your mind that, not so 
 much at a certain hour, but at a certain opportunity 
 — say when \ou are walking somewhere in the morn- 
 ing or waiting somewhere else at mid-day — you will 
 learn and realise in your imagination and through 
 your senses one stanza of poetry — a stanza of Gray's 
 Elegy. An example is given in Chapter XLI. 
 
 But at first, let me repeat, choose what interests 
 
406 III. MENTAL HELPS. 
 
 you, and attend to it without tension or over-atten- 
 tion. There must be interest at the start if we are 
 to have regularity and a series of early victories to 
 encourage later perseverance. 
 
 A good example of the right way to begin is 
 Professor Gates' treatment of a dipsomaniac patient. 
 Every day, at the same hour, he trained the patient 
 to appreciate and enjoy pleasant tastes, to attend to 
 these; then, when the thirst comes, the patient has 
 less desire for alcohol, more desire for the (compara- 
 tively harmless) pleasant tastes. If he were to start 
 with dull foods, they would offer little or no counter- 
 attraction. 
 
 The following quotations from Elizabeth Towne 
 are worth reading. Like all her writings, these pas- 
 sages are outspoken and suggestive : — 
 
 "In proportion as you are interested in a thing, in that propor- 
 tion will it cling to your memory. If all your attention is turned 
 toward a thing, it is instantaneously photographed on the memory. 
 Interest is soul-light for memory-photographing. The difference in 
 time required to impress the picture on memory depends upon the 
 amount of interest flashed upon it. 
 
 " The great trouble with people is diffused interest — interest spread 
 over a great area, instead of collected and turned at will, like a 
 search-light, upon one thing at a time. When you do anything your 
 thought is diffusing over a dozen things. Stop short, collect your 
 thought and turn it all on this one thing you do. Stand still a 
 moment, take a slow, full breath, and say to yourself, ' I am doing 
 this one thing now, with all my mind and soul and interest." Then 
 (h it with all your mind on it. Yon will remember it. 
 
 " Keep at this practice, no matter what you want to do or learn. 
 Make a husittess of doing one thing at a time with your whole soul. 
 
 " Concentration is for me to let what I AM into what /do. There 
 is no straining about it, no tension of mind or body, no hurry, no 
 worry, no fear. It is for me just to be still and let what I AM do- 
 
CONCENTRATIONS. 407 
 
 one thing NOW. . . . You can readily see that there is not an 
 hour of the day when I cannot practise concentration, when I 
 cannot let the I AM into what I do ; if only I WILL. . . . 
 
 *' But I liave hit upon a time and way to practise concentration — 
 a time and way no human being can have excuse for not improving. 
 The times he uses, anyhow ; the action is common to the race. 
 And, alas, the manner is pretty common also. I refer to the act ol 
 eating. I have discovered that, with the exception of the leisured 
 400, where banqueting is made a fine art, the American man (and 
 his wife is a close second) puts mighty little of what I AM into what 
 I do?X table. Perfection is only accomplished when I let what I 
 AM into each ONE THING as ii is to bf done — when I make a 
 * business' of it. Every one thing done as I AM, makes it easier to 
 do the next thing. Therefore let us become conscious of our table 
 acts now. to the end that we make them beautiful and habitual and 
 increase our capacity for adding grace and beauty in all our acts. 
 'Work without art is brutality.' Let us concentrate our attention 
 upKjn making an art of the eating habit. If you will do this, and do 
 it faithfully, until you have acquired the art of eating, in place of 
 the old slovenly or hurried habits we learned as savages perhaps ; if 
 you will put yourself into your eating, it will revolutionise for you 
 your entire world of doing. You may get up from the table and 
 hurry and worry as you please until the next meal ; but if you will 
 just faithfully practise when you are at meals, you will find yourself 
 gradually coming to work more quietly, intelligently, cheerfully, 
 gracefully between meals. And — if you have indigestion you will 
 lose it. It is due to physical and mental hurry, worry and flurry. 
 Don't 'chew thirty times.' Chew as long as you can lonsciously 
 enjoy that particular mouthful." 
 
408 III. MENTAL HELPS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV. 
 A boy's interests and attractions. 
 
 THE reason for every mistake ever made may be 
 that something was more compelHng, generally 
 more interesting and attractive, than the alternative. 
 
 Think of the alternatives that boys refuse. Why 
 do they refuse them ? Because these were unattrac- 
 tive to the particular boy. Daily he may be told to 
 become holy. If he knew what holy was, he would 
 wish to become it ; but the word, the idea, has not 
 interested and attracted him. If he had been told 
 to become sportsmanlike and manly, if he had been 
 told that such-and-such a thing was the game to 
 play, if he had been told to show pluck, to maintain 
 his honour, to be loyal, he would not have been 
 attracted towards the opposite choice. Perhaps he 
 has been told to take care of his soul ; but what does 
 his soul mean to him? Expressed in an Anglo-Saxon 
 boy's language, precisely the same appeal would have 
 been irresistible. If he had been told that the soul 
 involved the all-round fitness, including a feeling of 
 satisfaction and a successful body and mind in many 
 spheres, he would have been moved rightl}-, irre- 
 sistibly. 
 
 So, again, he may have been reminded of the bad 
 effects of a certain action upon the cells of the bod}', 
 or even upon his character, whereas their effects upon 
 his muscles and his nerve, especiall\ in athletics, 
 would have been a prevailing and dominant motive 
 with him. 
 
INTERESTS AND ATTRACTIONS. 409 
 
 r^or my own part I was never in the least fasci- 
 nated by pictures or ideas of heaven with white- 
 robed singing angels. I had no particular desire to 
 sing hymns or cast down my golden crown around a 
 glassy sea. What realh' did move me was a terrible 
 fear of perpetual burning and torment in hell ; that 
 kept me from many mistakes. It got hold of my 
 interest. Only I should have been far better in- 
 fluenced by a positive attraction. 
 
 What would have interested and attracted me as 
 a boy ? What motive would have led me to better 
 actions? First of all, of course, there was the re- 
 spect of others; I wished to keep that; I should have 
 been sorr}- that anybody should have despised me. 
 
 Then there was success in athletics and a desire to 
 make a good show, a shrinking from any reputation 
 for cowardice, and so on. 
 
 Then there was hero-worship. That led to many 
 imitations. It was decidedly a powerful incentive. 
 
 Then there was success in work, and the desire to 
 win prizes and scholarships. 
 
 Then there was the liking for pleasant tastes and 
 food in general. 
 
 Then there was the attraction of pocket-money 
 and what it would buy. 
 
 I suppose that all these and several other motives 
 appeal to most boys, whereas most of the motives 
 put forward in boys' books do not appeal to most 
 boys (I judge the motives by their fruits) and cer- 
 tainly did not appeal to me at all. 
 
 The appeal to the motives must begin early. On 
 
410 III. MENTAL HELPS. 
 
 to these motives must be switched the best actions 
 for boys, the best actions and the best abstinence 
 from actions. The motives must become a real 
 refuge in time of trouble — the motives and the 
 actions switched on to them. For instance, take 
 athletic exercises, exercises to raise the standard at 
 Cricket (see Chapter XXV.). The boy feels uncom- 
 fortable. He wishes to control himself. Let him at 
 once remind himself of these motives : he wants 
 others to respect him ; he wants to succeed in 
 athletics, especially Cricket ; he wants to imitate 
 some hero, say Hay ward or Fry or Hirst ; and he 
 wants also to succeed in his work ; and so on. He 
 has connected with these motives the practice of 
 certain Cricket-exercises. He goes in for them with 
 heart and soul, knowing how they may help him 
 in his ambition. So he controls himself at the time, 
 and expresses himself too. Whenever he feels un- 
 comfortable, he repeats the action, or the vivid 
 imagination, and is glad of it afterwards. He gains 
 in self-respect. With the exercises he associates a 
 sensation of having done the right thing; he remem- 
 bers that he was pleased with himself the day after. 
 Perhaps nothing else would have moved him to right 
 action. 
 
 After a time he establishes the instinct of self- 
 control and self-expression. It is no longer necessary 
 for him consciously to rush to violent movements, 
 for so often has he been able to control himself, with 
 satisfactor}' results, that now the temptation has lost 
 its power, the reason being that it is not associated 
 
INTERESTS AND ATTRACTIONS. 4II 
 
 any longer with what interests and attracts him ; 
 something else is associated with that. We might 
 say, indeed, that he has established new connections 
 and connective fibres of real affection^ between a feel- 
 ing of superabundant energy and a healthy outlet for 
 it. He is now not only safe, but also satisfied with 
 himself. Yet he does not rest on his oars ; he is en- 
 couraged to make further conquests. 
 
 The earlier we establish these connections, the 
 better. There is on the one hand a duty, on the 
 other hand a mistake. Both the duty and the 
 mistake have an attractive and a repulsive side. As 
 soon as possible we must realise the attractive side of 
 the duty and the repulsive side of the mistake. For 
 to my mind nothing is more certain than that our 
 strongest instinct is for less pain, less discomfort, more 
 comfort, more pleasure, and that this instinct will 
 find its outlet somehow inevitably, even if for years 
 we crush it with heavy weights of so-called religion 
 and discipline. The desire for satisfaction is a vital 
 and immortal seed, an ivy that will grow even if it 
 has to force its way through stone. Now if we 
 present to ourselves or others the painful or dull side 
 of duty, we are not providing an outlet for our 
 strongest instinct. Some day it will seek another 
 outlet. It may find some other duty. But the 
 chances are that it will find a mistaken action, and 
 bind the person to that action by that mighty chain 
 of interest and attraction which should have been 
 Avelded long ago between the person and duty. 
 
412 III. MENTAL HELPS. 
 
 I 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVI. 
 
 INTELLIGENCE TO RELIEVE THE WILL. 
 
 HAVE spoken of this principle once or twice 
 already. But it is so much neglected by 
 managers of boys that it demands constant repeti- 
 tion. That sheer will is sufficient is a grand fallacy. 
 Suppose that a boy uses all the will-power he can, 
 and then fails again and again, he loses his self- 
 respect, and may lose his health — or even his life* 
 Imagine it to be a war. Is it sufficient for one 
 general merely to will that he shall win, without 
 taking any trouble about training and tactics and 
 provisions ? It may be sheer foolhardiness. 
 
 War is a valuable teacher. Undesirable in itself 
 for many reasons, it yet is a storehouse of lessons, if 
 only we can extract the good and discard the bad. 
 Mass your forces on a weak point ; hammer away at 
 that point again and again ; be sure to have re- 
 inforcements ready; keep up your communications 
 with your main force. Here are two or three 
 lessons out of a round dozen that must occur to 
 every reader. But merely to will victory, that is not 
 nearly enough. So it is with moral struggles — for 
 instance, against bad temper. 
 
 We need intelligence as well as will. We need 
 intelligence to choose times and places for practice, 
 various ways of practice and helps to general fitness. 
 We need intelligence to choose our own motives 
 and ways, and remind ourselves of them (perhaps 
 
INTICLLU'.HNCK PLUS WILL. 4I3: 
 
 by some memory-system like my own). We need 
 especially intelligence to choose what suits the 
 individual. 
 
 To show the power of intelligence, not long ago 
 I told a boy two or three ways which he might find 
 helpful if ever he wanted self-control. He said that^ 
 in spite of all his efforts of will, he had constantly 
 failed, but that these two or three simple things 
 made all the difference to him. It was not a matter 
 of will-power on his part ; it was hardly a matter 
 even of original intelligence on his part : it was a 
 matter of simple information. But there is no doubt 
 of the result. At the present moment he has a will- 
 power and a self-respect apparently several times as 
 strong as it used to be. One might imagine that, by 
 the use of tactics like this, he would have weakened 
 his will-power. As a matter of fact, so healthy is 
 he, that he apparently has strengthened it. He has 
 no effort and strain now in performing and sticking 
 to tasks which before were practically impossible. 
 
 As an instance of tactics, study the lives of leading 
 men. Benjamin Franklin had a plan for overcoming 
 various faults and gaining various virtues. He made 
 out a list beforehand, and set himself to acquire a 
 separate virtue each week : temperance one week ; 
 good temper another ; and so on. He kept a record, 
 by black marks, etc. After he had mastered one 
 good quality, he adhered to that, and added another. 
 He regarded it as a sort of game to win. His 
 method is despised by man\- who do not need that 
 particular way. On the other hand, there may be 
 
414 III* MENTAL HELPS. 
 
 many who do badly want that particular way, or at 
 least some sort of design. There are hundreds of 
 ways ; you need intelligence to choose your own. 
 
 Another example. Though I do not profess to be 
 a writer, still there was a time when essay after essay 
 of mine was found fault with by every teacher who 
 read it. It was not that I did not try hard or wish 
 to improve ; it was that I had no method. Then I 
 proceeded to divide essay-writing into different parts 
 and to practise each part by itself, just as I practised 
 each part of a Lawn Tennis stroke by itself dozens 
 of times. First I practised the collection of ideas ; 
 then the selection of some and rejection of others ; 
 then the proportioning of them ; then the arrange- 
 ment and connections ; then the expression, and 
 each part of the expression in turn — clearness, com- 
 parisons, contrasts, and so on. By degrees I have 
 come to write an essay in two processes, sometimes 
 even in one. It is not by sheer practice : it is by 
 methodical practice. Sheer practice with hundreds 
 of essays brought me scarcely any improvement at all. 
 
 Of course there was some will-power here, but 
 very little was needed, because I felt the reasonable- 
 ness of the plan, and because I also noticed a gradu- 
 ally increasing improvement and power. 
 
 Another lesson that this did teach me was that 
 the will should be exerted as much during the prac- 
 tice as during the crisis. If you are going to rely 
 entirely on your will, then use your will not only 
 when the difficulty begins, but long beforehand. Use 
 your will before any difficulty arises. Will not only 
 
INTELLIGENXE PLUS WILL. 415 
 
 to win, but also to adopt and adapt all fair means of 
 winning. 
 
 For I should be the last to say, Never use your 
 will at all. Socrates or Plato — we cannot tell which, 
 perhaps both of them — believed that all mistakes 
 were due to ignorance only ; that if people knew 
 what was right, they would do it. In one sense this 
 is so. If people knew what was right, if people 
 knew what was for the all-round fitness of them- 
 selves and others, if the\- knew, and knew with the 
 immediate surface of their minds, as it were, as well 
 as deep down in their vitals, if they realised and 
 imagined and " sensed," that is to say, all the advan- 
 tages of right conduct, then they would act rightly. 
 But such knowledge is almost or quite impossible for 
 us to-day. We cannot yet realise all the advantages 
 of right action. Our best plan is to realise as many 
 as possible, and then to use our will-power to decide 
 on the action. 
 
 At the two extremes, as I have said, there are two- 
 types. The first person despises all helps. He says 
 simply " I will do this, I will not do that." Through 
 thick and thin, especially thick, he clings tenaciously 
 to his purpose. He bears down all opposition. He 
 treats all difficulties thus. He simply sticks to his 
 line of action and carries it through. The other 
 may try this plan and find it a miserable failure^ 
 Again and again he falls. Then he finds that the 
 direct way of attacking the fortress is not the only 
 way. He searches and experiments, and finds an 
 easy little path round. That brings him into the 
 
4l6 III. MENTAL HKLPS. 
 
 fortress without any particular struggle. Within 
 the fortress he meets the other man, the will-man. 
 They have arrived at the same result by two different 
 roads. Which is the stronger character ? Which is 
 the better character ? Which is the more useful in 
 the world ? We cannot say. Let the former man 
 come across too powerful an object, and he will fall ; 
 he has no tactics to resort to ; tactics are an un- 
 known force to him. Let the second come across a 
 difficulty where he cannot find tactics and where 
 only dogged pertinacity will avail, and he in his turn 
 will fall ; dogged pertinacity is not in his nature. 
 Each type is good for certain purposes ; neither type 
 is perfect. Each should take a hint from the 
 methods of the other, and be prepared either to use 
 tactics or to use dogged pertinacity, according as his 
 most enlightened conscience decides. 
 
 As a good instance of enlightened will-power ap- 
 plied to a national problem, the drink problem, I 
 quote this advice from one of Mr. Olston's writings. 
 The advice may not commend itself to all, but at 
 least it suggests a way of using determination and 
 tactics co-operatively, in a kind of division of labour, 
 and it suggests a waj- which can be adapted to the 
 cure of many other bad habits besides alcoholism : — 
 
 " A difficulty arises when 1 come to give the method of self-treat- 
 ment to the person who is a very heavy daily user of morphine, 
 cocaine, or liquor [alcohol] . Such a person may have gone so far 
 that most of the functions of the botly, brain-action included, are 
 so dependent upon the stimulant that great bodily and mental lassi- 
 tude will inevitably follow a radical cut off from it. 
 
 " If you are such a heavy user, it may be wisest to lay out a course 
 about as follows. An important thing is not to compromise at all 
 
INTELLIGENCE PLUS WILL. 417 
 
 and never to score a failure. If your physical condition demands 
 it, you can lay out a course which will give the benefit and encourage- 
 ment of progress, and still not have the derogatory effect of com- 
 promise. Determine beforehand that for the ne.xt four days your 
 consumption will be only one-half what it has been. As you take 
 the stuff, don't allow yourself to "take it to your heart" as you 
 have been wont to do, but take it with regret, placing upon it the 
 stigma of an enemy. By auto-suggestions school yourself to hate it. 
 At the end of the days set apart, lay off four days in which the con- 
 sumption is to be cut in two again. The amount will be only one- 
 fourth of the usual ration. Take these doses with increasing 
 denunciation. With power and activity repeat the auto-suggestion 
 that '/ dont need this drug.' '1 don't want it.' Don't stop to 
 examine results. See that each day has brought a victory and no 
 failures. Watch your own enthusiasm. Keep it alive by a sense 
 of present and past progress and victory. Keep your eyes fixed 
 upon your liberty, the prize for which you are striving. At the end 
 of those days of probation, destroy the last vestige of the curse. 
 Now comes the time when you must keep the flame of your desire 
 for freedom burning with fervent heat. It is to be fed with an 
 incessant flow of auto-suggestion. Keep your mind alive and alert. 
 Fill it so full of the statements to self that there will be no room for 
 the former longings. ' ' 
 
 On the same principle people have used half- 
 bottles instead of whole bottles, small glasses instead 
 of large, have added water to their alcohol, and so 
 on. The great advantage of such ways is made 
 clearer when we read what all psychologists agree — 
 namely, that it is essential to register all our early 
 fights as victories, so long as these victories do not 
 make us careless. If by will-power per se you can 
 achieve these early victories in a continuous series, 
 then you may not need tactics. For my own part, 
 I need tactics constantly. And they make me feel 
 the game of life as more enjoyable — which, after all, 
 is not a grievous sin. 
 
 ^ or THE 
 
 VNIYER81TY 
 
 or ,^ 
 
4l8 III. MENTAL HELPS. 
 
 I 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVII. 
 
 BETTER METHODS OF TEACHING BOYS. 
 
 HAVE already pointed out how vital it is that 
 in the earliest years duty and pleasure should be 
 combined ; that what is good for the individual and 
 the race should be made pleasant; that, conversely, 
 when pleasure is sought, it should be sought along 
 channels that are good for the individual and the 
 race. If we trained our children thus, then they 
 would have a bias to right action of their own free 
 will and by preference. 
 
 At present most of our methods of teaching boys 
 are — like the military system of drill — methods not 
 quite so bad for men, but not very good for them 
 either ; such as they are, they are transferred almost 
 unchanged to boys, somewhat as we transfer to boys 
 the cricket-bats and balls and long pitches of men, in 
 spite of the condemnations of such authorities as 
 W. G. Grace and every other thinking expert. 
 
 In two departments, conspicuously, a way of teach- 
 ing less inappropriate for men has been transferred 
 almost unchanged for the use of boys. I allude to 
 the Classics and " religion." Long hours at a time, 
 learning of abstract before concrete, of rule before 
 instance, of many complex parts and processes all 
 at once — these and numerous other faults mar the 
 orthodox way of teaching the Classics, in spite of the 
 fact that this teaching is excellent drill in the per- 
 formance of dull and apparently unprofitable tasks. 
 
BETTER METHODS Or TEACHING. 419 
 
 As I show in the Appendix, I do not complain of the 
 drill. I complain rather of the extent of it, the 
 length of it, the dulness of it. 
 
 Drill of mind as of body is good for the attention. 
 Everj'one will admit that there must be some drill, 
 there must be some repetition, some drudgery-; there 
 must be some things taught of which the boy does 
 not yet know the full reasons. 
 
 And I think that fear, or at any rate disgust, and 
 desire for reward, must still be retained among the 
 motives for most Anglo-Saxon boys. 
 
 But too many principles of education we violate 
 persistently. With all the drill, and the use of such 
 motives, there is no excuse on earth why there 
 should not be more interest for boys. There is 
 no excuse on earth why the boy should not be told 
 wherefore he is taught this thing or that thing in 
 this or that way, so long as the teachers themselves 
 can give reasons. At present they cannot. 
 
 But what they can do is to start their teaching 
 with that which is attractive and familiar to the boy, 
 and especially with sense-impressions. Every scien- 
 tist knows that our knowledge eventually goes back 
 to sense-impressions, and perhaps always to move- 
 ments. The circle is an abstract idea. The idea 
 goes back eventually to a rotatory movement of the 
 eye-ball. Every idea is put into the mind directly 
 or indirectly in connection with muscular move- 
 ments, and every idea also tends to express itself in 
 muscular movement also. 
 
 But how are we to get the starting-point ? What 
 
 cc 
 
420 III. MENTAL HELPS. 
 
 does attract a boy ? What does appeal to his 
 senses ? What is connected with movement ? 
 Obviously, besides nature -study and nature -prac- 
 tice (see Chapter XXVIII.), play. We can nearly 
 always begin teaching the principles (at least the 
 best principles) of life — loyalty, co-operation, divi- 
 sion of labour, skill, pluck, honour, and so on — by a 
 lesson drawn from games by the teacher, or, better 
 still, by the boys. 
 
 Here is another advantage. In teaching there 
 must be some self-activity, As it is, the boy repro- 
 duces someone else's ideas, only a quarter realised by 
 himself. He is not allowed to be original. Some 
 originality must be included. I remember how at 
 school my own originality was almost invariably 
 condemned, not necessarily because it produced a 
 wrong result, but because it produced a result not 
 set forth in the '* text-book." 
 
 Then there must be shorter hours of work, es- 
 pecially of sitting work. It would be easy to break 
 up these hours by intervals for exercise or for a talk 
 about health or something else. As Dr. George 
 Wilson says, in reference to the movement in favour 
 of the eight-hours' day for working-people, "an eight- 
 hours' day, some tell us, will greatly improve the 
 quality of work done. Perhaps it will ; but you will 
 improve it as much by change of work and by recre- 
 ation. There is no reason why you should not work 
 twelve hours a day — a great many of us do it — but 
 you must not work for twelve hours at the same 
 work. It is monotony that kills. Monotony of 
 
BETTER METHODS OF TEACHING. 42 1 
 
 work is a monomania among the muscles, and 
 monomanias are ver^^ exhausting. What you want 
 to do is to provide for your nerves and muscles the 
 greatest possible contrasts. Here is a printer, stupid 
 and tired by the eternal clank, clank of these in- 
 fernal machines. Don't stop his work an hour 
 earlier at night. But quite often, say once an hour, 
 send him away from his machine to practise some- 
 thing else in quiet for a few minutes. Here is a 
 cotton-spinner, whose eyes and hands are jumping 
 from sheer monotony instead of working smoothly as 
 they ought. Don't shorten his hours ; lengthen 
 them, so that he can earn enough in five days in the 
 week and reserve two for recreation. But if you are 
 going to spin for ten or eleven hours a day, you must 
 provide change for your nerves and muscles, and for 
 your ears and eyes. Leave your spinning every hour 
 and engage for ten minutes in some light occupation. 
 And so for every worker, whether a mind-worker or a 
 hand-worker, what is wanted is plenty of change, 
 and the right kind of change. 
 
 We do not wish to produce a set of slip-shod bo}'s 
 who are highly objectionable owing to their pre- 
 cocity and cheek and perpetual desire for change. 
 We do not wish to produce a set of typical Yankee 
 boys. But we do wish to see a little more of the 
 American boy's interest in work, a little more of 
 his courage to be original, and a little more of his 
 teacher's welcome for an idea that is the boy's own, 
 not a mere phonograph-record. 
 
 So long as we have a certain amount of drill, there 
 
422 III. MENTAL HELPS. 
 
 need be no no fear of this. I suggested in another 
 chapter the drill in many alphabets ; for instance^ 
 there is the drill in the Latin sentence, there is the 
 study of a few sentences, thoroughly mastered — a 
 method by which the late Archbishop Benson 
 achieved most satisfactory results at Wellington 
 College. At other times a lily or some flower might be 
 made the basis of extraordinarily valuable teaching, 
 the flower being studied from many points of view 
 and many principles being drawn from it and then 
 applied to other ideas. The lessons here are too- 
 obvious to be mentioned here. There is the lesson 
 of contrast together with great activity. There is 
 the lesson of repose, of purity, of gracefulness, and 
 so on. 
 
 The way is not to force these abstract notions on 
 the boys, but first to let them think for themselves; 
 then and not till then is it safe to introduce them to 
 a text-book of words. When I taught at Cambridge^ 
 I found that the best plan was to get my pupils to 
 jot down their answers to a question before I began 
 my lecture. This impressed upon them much more 
 the points which they had worked out for them- 
 selves, and made the new points fewer and easier to 
 remember. 
 
 I am quite sure also that my plan of inviting 
 questions was a good one. I cannot remember any 
 case of what school-masters would call impertinence 
 and disorganisation ; nor do such cases occur \evy 
 often in America, where there is generally a perfect 
 freedom to ask questions. The value of the free 
 
BETTER METHODS OF TEACHING. 423 
 
 question is that it may discover genius in this or that 
 boy and lead him to more self-respect and interest in 
 his work, and will certainly discover weakness in the 
 teacher and lead him to self-improvement and sym- 
 pathy with the boys. There is need of tact lest the 
 teacher should lose his prestige. But he will never 
 lose his prestige if he makes the boys understand 
 that he and they are trying to find out the best 
 things together. 
 
 Another principle which we almost utterly neglect 
 in England is sub-teaching. Jesus Christ did a 
 great deal of his teaching, not directly, but through 
 his selected teachers. He taught them ideas; they 
 then were to make these ideas intelligible to the 
 people. On the other hand, he gave them a correct 
 model when he did teach the people. Masters 
 have no idea how it would relieve them and develop 
 knowledge, self-control, and self-expression in the 
 bigger boys, if they entrusted to them the task of 
 teaching certain things to smaller boys. One big 
 boy could be responsible for a certain number of 
 smaller boys. Already this works admirably in cer- 
 tain spheres, being known as the prefect system. It 
 should be extended to work, so that the bigger boys 
 may overcome their shyness in expressing themselves 
 and also may get clearer notions through self-expres- 
 sion^ and the smaller boys may be encouraged to ask 
 questions. 
 
 Our present classes are far too big. I do not 
 suggest that they should be made smaller all at 
 once; I simply suggest that there should be smaller 
 classes as well. 
 
424 III. MENTAL HELPS. 
 
 A serious objection to most improvements is the 
 after-life, in which, owing to custom, the boy — now 
 grown up into a man — will have to submit to a great 
 deal of drudger}', will have to do many things of 
 which he cannot see the advantage, probably because 
 no advantage exists. As an assistant-master at a 
 school, as a doctor, as a clergyman, as a soldier, in- 
 deed in almost ever\' profession, a great part of his 
 work will be obedience to custom — apparently silly 
 custom. It is vital that he should acquire the habit 
 of attention to dull work, if he is to live an orthodox 
 life in England. He cannot very well live even in 
 society without finding that lesson a help. If he is 
 allowed always to refuse to do a thing unless he sees 
 that it is quite the best thing to do, he will be per- 
 petually kicking against the pricks. 
 
 On the other hand, one of the chief causes of the 
 unpleasantness of work, one of the chief things 
 which makes people older than their years, is that, 
 as I have expressed it elsewhere, the}' are oval people 
 trying to fit themselves into oblong holes and so cut- 
 ting off the beautiful curves of their character. They 
 must be told the dignity of any work which helps 
 the race. 
 
 As it is, too often they are sent away from schools 
 and colleges as arrant snobs. If one of the ten re- 
 spectable professions does not happen to suit their 
 tendencies, then what are they to do ? The}' do not 
 know how to work at other subjects ; to teach physi- 
 cal culture they are ashamed. Either they loaf or 
 they take up an irksome business. Now we ought 
 
BETTER METHODS OF TEACHING. 425 
 
 to teach them at once that the servants in the house- 
 hold, the hands in the factory, if they are working 
 well, are working for the nation and the race, and 
 that if a boy has a passion for brick-laying or boot- 
 cleaning, and can do that with his heart and soul and 
 exquisitely, then it is no disgrace whatsoever for 
 him to become a brick-la\er or a boot-cleaner. 
 
 Much rests with the parents as well as with the 
 teachers. But whatever methods these two classes 
 may adopt, they must include the method of making 
 the boy respect and honour useful work as work, so 
 long as he does it at all. It matters far less what we 
 teach the boys than Jiow we teach them, and part of 
 the best way is to make every sort of labour a privi- 
 lege as well as a responsibility. What we have to 
 teach a boy is not simply obedience to commands 
 from the outside, commands which often find no 
 sanction inside, in the heart or in the intellect ; we 
 have to teach a boy also to do as well as possible 
 any^ work, not which he may be commanded to do, 
 but which he may command himself to do in later 
 years. By means of whichever subjects we select for 
 him, we must teach him principles, so that, when a 
 new subject comes along, he is ready to tackle it. 
 At present he is utterly unready. 
 
 I remember a striking phrase of the headmaster of 
 Clayesmore School, at Pangbourne. He said, ** We 
 refuse to specialise with young boys. We will not 
 let them simply learn mechanics or whatever it is. 
 Their early education must be all-round. Our boys 
 cannot compete at once with boys of the same age 
 
426 III. MENTAL HELPS. 
 
 at Public Schools in the Public School subjects like 
 Greek and Latin. On the other hand, we have 
 taught our boys what many Public Schools have not 
 taught them ; we have taught them to tackle any 
 subject, whether Greek, or Latin, or mechanics, or 
 history, or whatever profession they may take up, 
 in a sensible, manly, and successful way. For the 
 first year perhaps our boy will be behind the Public 
 School boy in Greek and Latin; we have not taught 
 him Greek and Latin especially. We have taught 
 him some foundations, and we have taught him how- 
 to build solidly yet quickly on these foundations." 
 
 Yet the subjects for boys are of great importance 
 as well as the methods, especially so long as our 
 orthodox methods continue so inadequate. I shall 
 deal with the question of better subjects for boys in 
 the following chapter. But before proceeding to it, 
 there must be added a few words in reference to 
 extra items, and a summary. 
 
 At present there is too much negative teaching, 
 too much of the ** Thou shalt not." In the chapter 
 on Comparisons, I have given an example of a good 
 way of correcting mistakes in grammar. Merely to 
 say " This is wrong," is not enough. It is far better 
 to point out which parts are right in themselves and 
 under what conditions these parts might have been 
 faultless. It is not enough to say "Don't." Pro- 
 fessor Walter Scott Dill has some very striking words 
 about the '' Don't "-method : — 
 
 " There is an oft-told tale of a mother who, upon leaving her 
 children, warned them that, whatever they did. they should not put 
 beans in their noses. When the mother returned, she was much 
 
BETTER METHODS OF TEACHING. 427 
 
 surprised to find all their noses full of beans. They never would 
 have thought of such a thing had the mother not suggested it. The 
 thought of * beans in the nose ' haunted them, and the thought led 
 to its appropriate action. 
 
 "We do things that we don't want to, simply because the thought 
 of it has been suggested to us, and we feel compelled to carry it out. 
 As one stands on a tower at a great height, or near to a rapidly 
 moving train, the thought comes to one of how awful it would be to 
 fall from the building or to get under the wheels of the moving 
 train. The thought is suggested by the awfulness of the situation. 
 Many people find that under these circumstances they have an 
 almost irresistible impulse to spring from the tower or under the 
 wheels of the train. The idea ' falling from this great height ' or 
 ' getting under the wheels of the train ' possesses them for the 
 time, and by suggestion calls forth the action thought of. 
 
 "The suggested action may be of a criminal nature, and yet 
 it seems that under certain circumstances it is irresistible. We 
 have all noticed that, if any crime is widely discussed in the papers, 
 there is likely to be a whole harvest of similar crimes." 
 
 Then, again, we demand too much at once from 
 most boys. The art of dividing a whole into parts, 
 and then of mastering each part in turn, has already 
 "been alluded to. But the attitude of the genius, who 
 knows his subject as a whole, is too often against 
 this easy path to improvement and self-respect. Too 
 often the genius condemns such ways, merely be- 
 cause he himself does not need them. It is thus 
 that Lord Avebury condemns the system to which 
 we have already alluded : — 
 
 " Franklin, to whom we are indebted for much good advice, 
 adopted a plan which I cannot recommend. After a clear and con- 
 cise Summary of the virtues, he says, ' My intention being to 
 acquire the habitude of all these. I judged it would be well not to 
 ■distract my attention by attempting the whole at once, but to fix it 
 on one of them at a time ; and when I should be master of that, 
 then to proceed to "another, and so on, till I should have gone 
 through the thirteen.' (Temperance, Silence. Order, Resolution, 
 
428 III. MENTAL HELPS. 
 
 Frugality, Industry, Sincerity, Justice, Moderation, Cleanliness, 
 Tranquillity, Chastity, and Humility). It seems difficult to imagine 
 that he can really have acted on this theory." 
 
 As to the conditions of teaching, surely, at least up 
 to a certain age, and beyond a certain age, there should 
 be far more co-education of the sexes. The monastic 
 life of most boys'-schools teaches them little of the 
 interdependence of males and females. The plan 
 works admirably at Bedales School in England, and 
 Dr. W. T. Harris has testified to its good effects in 
 America, where at Chicago, for example, nearly half 
 of the students at the University are women. Miss 
 Alice Ravenshill sums up Dr. Harris' circular as 
 follows : — " Co-education of the sexes is preferred 
 because it is natural, following the ordinary structure 
 of the family and society ; customary y being in har- 
 mony with the habits and sentiments of everyday 
 life, and of the laws of the state ; impartial, affording 
 one sex the same opportunity for culture that the 
 other enjoys ; econdmical, using the school funds to 
 the best advantage ; convenient, both for superinten- 
 dent and teachers, in assigning, grading, teaching, 
 and discipline ; beneficial to minds, morals, habits,, 
 and development of pupils." 
 
 In conclusion, then, the ideal way is not to isolate 
 boys from girls or young men from women, and 
 then to cram with facts as facts, and rules as rules ; 
 but to supply material well-adapted to the needs of 
 boys (including tactful teaching about relations with 
 the other sex and the working classes), to show boys 
 how to absorb and use the best part of the materials, 
 to incite boys to absorb and use these and other 
 
BETTKK METHODS Ol- TEACHING. 429 
 
 materials of their own free will, even if the teacher 
 were away for a time : and therefore to associate 
 such absorbing and using with real pleasure, and to 
 make it lead to real and inspiriting self-respect. 
 
 Instead of crushing a boy's original attempts, and 
 telling him that directly he begins to be unlike the 
 (supposed) stock-boy, he is wrong, we should rather 
 give him sane ambitions of a healthy and not a sel- 
 fish kind: while we insist on some drill and discipline,, 
 some performance of comparatively dull duty, we 
 need not crush his genius and self-respect. Self- 
 respect and responsibility for helping others is one of 
 the main aims of education. How far better it 
 would be if the boy less often was called or called 
 himself a hopeless brute, a degraded slave of passion 
 or laziness, a stupid fool, and so on, and more often 
 believed Emerson's ennobling promise : — 
 
 " There is at this moment for you an utterance 
 brave and grand as that of the colossal chisel of 
 Phidias, or trowel of the Egyptians, or the pen of 
 Moses or Dante, but different from all these. Not pos- 
 sibly will the soul, all rich, all eloquent, with thou- 
 sand-cloven tongue, deign to repeat itself ; but if you 
 can hear what these patriarchs say, surely you can reply 
 to them in the same pitch of voice ; for the ear and the 
 tongue are two organs of one nature." 
 
430 III. MENTAL HELPS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVIII. 
 
 BETTER SUBJECTS FOR BOYS. 
 
 I HAVE insisted (in Chapter XXXVII.) that boys 
 need some drill in dull things, so that they may 
 have their attention under control ; but as a rule 
 there must be an interesting starting-point, and 
 interest must be attached to or extracted from the 
 subjects as well as the drill. 
 
 We are faced by the question : What subjects 
 should we continue to teach ; what subjects should 
 we add; and, in order not to overburden the hours of 
 work, what subjects should we give up ? It must be 
 understood that in this chapter, as throughout the 
 book, I merely offer a personal opinion for what it is 
 worth ; only it is based on a somewhat wide personal 
 experience. 
 
 First of all, then, what subjects shall we continue 
 to teach ? There are some who say, " Give up 
 almost all the subjects that boys learn now; " but for 
 my own part I do not regret having learnt these 
 subjects. Others probably do regret them. My own 
 experience accords with what Professor Halleck says 
 in his book on Psychology : " Nothing schools the 
 will and renders it ready for effort in this complex 
 world better than accustoming it to face disagreeable 
 things." Professor James, as we have said, advises 
 all people to do something occasionally for no other 
 reason than that they would rather not do it, if it is 
 nothing more than giving up a seat in a street car. 
 
BETTER SUBJECTS. 4JI 
 
 He likens such eftbrt to the insurance that a man 
 pays on his house. He has something on which he 
 can fall back in time of trouble. The only way to> 
 secure such a will is to practise doing disagreeable 
 things, as the man did who hated the dr)' facts of 
 physical economy- but read John Stuart Mill because 
 he disliked it. He was playing the schoolmaster 
 with himself. But if I had my boyhood to begin 
 again I should not include all the subjects over 
 which I toiled. I should include much of the toil, 
 but should apply it partly to other subjects as well, 
 subjects which lend themselves equally to drill and 
 discipline. 
 
 First there is handwriting : I never regret having 
 been taught to write legibl}' by my first school- 
 master, Mr. F. W. Goldsmith. It has stood me 
 in good stead again and again. But I wish I had 
 learnt to write left-handed also. Then there is 
 correct spelling : it might have been taught more 
 sensibly. For instance, take the word dog. To 
 begin by three sounds d, o, g, sounding like dee, oh, 
 gee, and then to tell the bo\' that the three sounds 
 together are to be pronounced dog, is utterly un- 
 scientific. The child should be taught the sounds of 
 words like dog, together with the sight of the dog, 
 then the sight of the whole word dog ; afterwards 
 the word could be divided into individual letters. 
 
 English composition is another subject I should 
 include. It involves grammar. I think the teaching 
 should always be at first through easy instances, not 
 rules, and the early essays should be on familar 
 
432 III. MENTAL HELPS. 
 
 subjects, SO that the boy does not have to divide his 
 attention between collecting ideas and arranging 
 them and expressing them — altogether different pro- 
 cesses. 
 
 Then there is " repetition." I have stored in my 
 phonographic memory thousands of lines of poetr}-. 
 They are valuable ; but it would have been better if 
 I had first realised the ideas. For instance, before 
 learning the words of Gray's Elegy, or, at least, soon 
 after learning them, I should have seen and heard 
 and " sensed " the details of that first line : ** The 
 curfew tolls the knell of parting day " ; I should 
 have heard the curfew tolling and seen the day 
 ^' parting," and I think I should also have been 
 asked to express the ideas in my own words. One 
 of the most successful of modern teachers has a plan 
 which fascinates alike the boys and the spectators. 
 He takes a play of Shakespeare ; the boys divide the 
 parts among themselves, and then act without re- 
 hearsing, each boy expressing in his own words 
 throughout what he thinks his character would say. 
 
 At any rate there should be reading out loud, 
 after a few lessons in voice-production. The boy 
 who was taught to read distinctly, to take in his 
 breath through his nostrils even when he had his 
 mouth open, and perhaps to use a few simple ges- 
 tures naturally, would be better fitted for after-life, 
 whatever his after-life might be. 
 
 Part of the reading, and one of the subjects of 
 work, should be histor}-. Hut in early times it should 
 be mainly biography, not mere names of kings and 
 
BETTER SUBJECTS. 435 
 
 places and battles and laws and dates. Plutarch's 
 Lives, the biographies of Franklin, Washington, and 
 others, and such a book as *' Earnest Men " may be 
 cited as examples. In so far as histqry itself is 
 taught, the boy should connect cause and effect. 
 Not only should he realise the actual pictures — the 
 headmaster of Clayesmore school has the most com- 
 plete set of historical pictures I have seen — but he 
 should learn a little of the philisophy; that what 
 seems to be the cause or the effect is often not the 
 full cause or effect, but only the most immediate. 
 Principles should be extracted. Instead of learning 
 that in such and such years Rome conquered such 
 and such towns or peoples, then treated them in such 
 and such ways, it would be far better to omit much 
 of the shell and husk, and to extract and masticate 
 the kernels — which are (i) that the Romans had 
 certain qualities of successful progress (see "A His- 
 tory of Rome," published by Grant Richards) ; and 
 (2) that they made their own and assimilated what 
 they had won before they proceeded to fresh strug- 
 gles, using each fresh gain as a basis and help for 
 further gains, and getting allies on their side when- 
 ever they could. Such lessons make Roman Histori- 
 an advice for daily life, not a mass of burnt cinders 
 and other debris. 
 
 Divinity was my bugbear at school. My average 
 examination-marks were, I believe, about 20 out of 
 100 when I was lucky. There was nothing in it to 
 interest me. The grand ideas which might have 
 been taught were passed over. Scarcely a single 
 
434 "I- MENTAL HELPS. 
 
 instance can I recall when a lesson for life was 
 drawn from the Bible. There were plenty of good 
 actions that we had to learn, but the questions about 
 them were, almost always of the type, ''Who blew 
 what how many times round the walls of where ? " — 
 where the actions were done, when they were done, 
 by whom they were done, not what was meant, what 
 principles were involved. 
 
 English and other literature must be included, 
 only, like the poetry, the ideas should be realised, 
 extracts should be learnt, and the notions para- 
 phrased by the boy in his own language. The gems 
 of the literature of other languages should be studied, 
 in good translations first : parts of the " Light of 
 Asia," the "Song Celestial," and other translations 
 by Edwin Arnold might be cited as examples. Here 
 are two quotations from the Bhagavadgita. They 
 show a high Eastern ideal : — 
 
 " A Brahman's virtues, Prince, 
 Born of his nature, are serenity, 
 Self -mastery, religion, purity, 
 I'atience, uprightness, learning, and to know 
 The truth of things which be. A Kshatriya's pride, 
 Born of his nature, lives in valour, fire. 
 Constancy, skilfulness, spirit in fight. 
 And open-handedness and noble mien, 
 As of a lord of men. A Vaishya's task. 
 Born with his nature, is to till the ground. 
 Tend cattle, venture trade. A Sudra's state, 
 Suiting his nature, is to minister. 
 Better his own work is, though done with fault. 
 Than doing other's work, ev'n excellently." 
 
 " Fearlessness, singleness of soul, the will 
 Always to strive for wisdom ; opened hand 
 And governed appetites ; and piety, 
 
BETTER SUBJECTS. 435 
 
 And love of lonely study ; humbleness, 
 Uprightness, heed to injure nought which lives, 
 Truthfulness, slowness unto wrath, a mind 
 That lightly letteth go what others prize ; 
 And equanimity, and charity 
 Which spieth no man's faults ; and tenderness 
 Towards all that suffer ; a contented heart 
 Fluttered by no desires ; a bearing mild, 
 Modest, and grave, with manhood nobly mixed, 
 With patience, fortitude, and purity. 
 An unrevengeful spirit." 
 
 Throughout there should be leisureHness to help 
 realisation. The rush of ordinarv' poetry-learning 
 and recitation is infamous. 
 
 But the teaching should not be all of English. 
 There should be a little French and German taught 
 sensibly. For now is the time when the organs of 
 speech are plastic, and imitation is easy. The sen- 
 tences should be spoken first correctly as sentences, 
 afterwards divided up into words and written, and 
 followed by exercises. There should be some in- 
 instruction in philology, a comparison between 
 foreign words and English. That would teach us 
 a good deal of history and would begin the learning 
 of a science which might be a useful hobby in later 
 years. 
 
 Geography is another indispensable subject. Pro- 
 bably the study should begin with the geography of 
 the neighbourhood ; anyhow it should be illustrated 
 as far as possible from models and pictures. It 
 should not be, as my geography was, chiefly a mass 
 of outlines of foreign countries, and names of towns, 
 mountains, capes, rivers, etc. These things are of 
 remarkably little use to anyone. Most of them have 
 
 DT) 
 
436 III. MENTAL HELPS. 
 
 been a burden in my memory. I remember one 
 case where I asked some lady-pupils to do a map 
 of Greece. They copied their maps carefully from 
 atlases. A few days afterwards I asked them to 
 draw a map of Greece from memory^; not one of 
 them had the slightest idea how to do it. And that 
 is typical of the way in which we do not learn the 
 essence of our work when we are supposed to be 
 " educated." 
 
 Mathematics, again, can be taught at first through 
 concrete instances, as Froebel taught it. He taught 
 not only numbers, but also shapes, dimensions, etc., 
 by means of his toys. Thanks to them, the children 
 were interested and instructed through the senses. 
 Their mathematics had a solid foundation. Still 
 there is much to be said in favour of multiplication- 
 tables and so on, as dri'll. They and the discipline 
 will be useful in after life. 
 
 Few would admit any such blessing from the 
 learning of Latin declensions and conjugations. 
 Many modern teachers would do away with the 
 teaching of Greek at any rate, and perhaps of Latin. 
 They have been guilty of loose thinking. They have 
 condemned these subjects as taught at present. They 
 have refused to calculate how valuable these subjects 
 might be if they were taught on scientific lines. 
 Already they are valuable for drill and for a better 
 knowledge of the English, if not of the Latin, 
 language. If they were taught as I suggest in the 
 appendix, namely, first as properly pronounced sen- 
 tences, they would help to overcome a boy's shyness 
 
BETTER SUBJECTS. 437 
 
 in speaking a tongue not his own, and at the same 
 time they would have the advantage of being taught 
 by men who know the subject and are just the men 
 that we wish to have as teachers of boys. This 
 seems a fair compromise. 
 
 Once more, let me repeat, I am giving personal ex- 
 periences for what they are worth, under the second 
 heading also, namely : What subjects shall we add to 
 those which are generally in vogue at present ? It is 
 because it has been valuable in my own case that I 
 should suggest index-making. Every business-man 
 knows its value in business. But at a school I am 
 quite sure it would teach the boy to get the gist out 
 of a book or lecture, to collect the main ideas, then 
 to arrange and classify these ideas, then to keep 
 them in an easily accessible form. There is no 
 space to enlarge on the many good qualities that 
 index-making involves, but for me it has been a most 
 excellent training in method. The making of the 
 index to my book on Roman History, for instance, 
 was quite a little education in itself. 
 
 This is a case where not only is the subject 
 valuable at the time and afterwards, but the way and 
 method of dealing with that subject is valuable also. 
 
 This is seldom the case with our orthodox sub- 
 jects. Too often thought ceases as thought and is 
 not turned at once into action. Here is a rule laid 
 down by one of the highest authorities : " The 
 easiest way to ruin the will is to suffer emotions to 
 evaporate without leading to action. We habituate 
 ourselves to emotions and desires without acting on 
 
438 III. MENTAL HELPS. 
 
 them. Some power is needed to rouse the emotion, 
 but it had far better not be roused if it does not 
 end in action." Now in a subject like index-making 
 there is action immediately following thought. 
 
 In this subject, too, I found that there was drill 
 necessar)^ in order to perfect each part of the process 
 by itself. 
 
 Among the best subjects of all I would add the 
 study of games and athletics. I cannot here enlarge 
 again on the merits of this subject either, but it 
 forms a fine topic for essays and debates, since the 
 boy should know the matter down to the ground and 
 can pay attention now to the arrangement and the 
 manner or style. These topics can be made the start- 
 ing-points for the teaching of art, history, and the 
 various physical, intellectual, social, economical, and 
 moral virtues, and even for the methods of learning. 
 
 Then again there are certain unathletic hobbies, 
 such as we have cited in Chapter XXVIII. : 
 drawing, painting, modelling, Sloyd work, and 
 carpentering. The\- teach man}- lessons through 
 the senses and muscular movements. They teach 
 accuracy and thoroughness ; they give a boy some- 
 thing by which to judge whether his work was good 
 or not. They, like index-making, and games and 
 athletics, encourage him to turn his thought at 
 once into action. Sir James Crichton Hrowne writes 
 most emphatically on this subject. He says *. 
 
 " Every man, no matter what his rank or fortune, 
 would be mentally improved by learning a handi- 
 craft, and ever)' woman should be taught to use her 
 
BETTER SUBJECTS. 439 
 
 fingers deftly in technical work of some kind. The 
 most learned Jews have always followed trades ; and 
 Spinoza was not only a philosopher but a maker of 
 spectacles." 
 
 Cooking and food-values are indispensable in the 
 school curriculum, not only in view of future emer- 
 gencies, and for a more successful method of dealing 
 with servants, but also, as I have shown elsewhere, 
 for training the various senses, including the sense 
 of discrimination. 
 
 Subjects like these can be so easily learnt from 
 actual instances. Let a boy be taught, first, not the 
 proteid-values ; first let him go through his day's 
 food and see which kind of food is rich in this or 
 that element. By degrees he will learn what is 
 likely to build his body, repair it, clean it, and so 
 on ; and what is utterly unlikely to do so, but is 
 more likely to burden it. We have a great deal of 
 legislation about " drink "; most of it would be un- 
 necessar}' if we started all our children with a sound 
 knowledge of cooking, food-values, etc., telling them 
 what it is really worth while to eat and drink, and 
 what it is not. 
 
 Many other practical facts about the body and 
 mind should be included. One or two are suggested 
 in Chapter XVIII. 
 
 Not a little about the body can be taught through 
 natural history. Here once more the beginning 
 should be an actual instance — a flower which the 
 child sees, and, better still, a flower which he himself 
 grows, or an animal which he sees or to which he 
 
440 I"- MENTAL HELPS. 
 
 attends. This gives the child a knowledge of life 
 and nature, and a sense of responsibility. A large 
 number of the lessons in the New Testament were 
 begun by an allusion to natural history. Why ? 
 Because the instances appeal to the senses and were 
 attractive. They arrested the attention and easily 
 made the memory. 
 
 Music is another subject, not the dull scale-and- 
 five-finger-exercise-playing which is still a nightmare 
 to me, but lessons in how to read music, and how 
 to write it on the "tonic sol fa" system, and also 
 reasonable exercises. The best are those of a much- 
 advertised system which will make the movements 
 of piano-playing easier and will do away with most 
 of the drudger}' of practice. 
 
 Wherever it is possible, not only should thought 
 become action ver\' soon, but action should be judged 
 by its effects. Contrast with this such a subject as 
 history. WJiat was the cause of this event ? The 
 boy thinks that such and such a thing was, the 
 master or the text -book thinks otherwise. There is 
 no sound criterion. The boy may be right. But in 
 carpentering there is no question. That lid does 
 not fit, that line is not straight. Whenever there is 
 an inaccuracy, it shows itself in a convincing and 
 incontrovertible manner at once. That is the kind 
 of teaching which inevitably appeals to a boy and 
 makes him skilful, not as a machine, but as a self- 
 correcting and hence a self-respecting individual. 
 
 If these subjects and others were adopted in the 
 school course, it would be necessary for other sub- 
 
BETTER SUBJECTS. 44! 
 
 jects to be given up, especially if, as I know to 
 be right, we shortened the hours of so-called in- 
 tellectual work. As to what should be given up, 
 perhaps it would be best if I quoted the useless 
 information that I remember. Such a rhyme as 
 '* Thirt}' days hath September " I do not regret 
 having learnt by rote. I do not regret having learnt 
 so much poetry by rote, even Latin poetr}-. 
 
 What I do regret is the numbers which I have 
 learnt as numbers. The numbers of people slain in 
 this or that battle (a trivial battle, too), the date of 
 that battle, the date of another peace, and so on. 
 I cannot forget these things : it is hopeless to try to 
 do so ; but I cannot imagine what useful purpose 
 they ever have served or could serve in after life. It 
 is always so much easier and safer to go to a book 
 of reference ! 
 
 Then there are hosts of names of queer animals in 
 Aristophanes and other writers, lists of queer foods, 
 and such names as Tartan, Rabsaris, and Rabshakeh, 
 from the Old Testament. I lost marks if I did not 
 learn these words at school. They were perfectly 
 useless, the}- always will be. These were the things 
 that the master asked. And he asked about the 
 exact dimensions and furniture of the temple. I 
 remember, too, the learned discussion as to whether 
 it >yas an alinug or an algum tree. My mind is 
 stocked with heaps of such utter rubbish. 
 
 Then there are the hosts of exceptions. A few of 
 the commonest have been of use, but most of them, 
 in Greek and Latin especially, have been worse than 
 
442 III. MENTAL HELPS. 
 
 useless. Even the rules of Latin grammar have 
 been comparatively valueless, since they always pre- 
 ceded examples. But as to the exceptions, and the 
 lists of genders, etc., I say without hesitation that 
 the majority of them I have never applied at all, 
 though I studied the classics on and off for about 
 twenty-five years. 
 
 And then there are the details about plans of 
 battles, outlines of countries, missionary- journeys, 
 and many of the other husks and shells of informa- 
 tion in divinity and history' and geography — no 
 pictures "to store in the mind's picture-gallery, no 
 principles to apply in life. I think of all the French 
 and German and other words that I know ; so far as 
 I am aware, I shall never use them at all, in spite of 
 the vast energy which I expended in learning them. 
 
 Indeed, most of the school parrot- work is simply 
 unpardonable unless the subject learnt in the parrot 
 way be useful. Most subjects learnt in the parrot 
 way are useless. They are certainly unpardonably 
 dull. 
 
 Exactly the same drill to which I submitted in 
 learning the English equivalents to the Greek names 
 for birds, might have been applied to the subjects 
 which I suggest. Then, in addition to the drill, 
 there would have been a training of the senses to 
 form useful memories and imaginations hereafter, 
 and to be pleasurable as well as profitable hereafter. 
 The pity of it was that so much of the drill was given 
 to things not only useless but also unproductive. 
 One reason why boys are wanting in self-control 
 
BETTER SUBJECTS. 443 
 
 is that they have not interesting and useful things 
 to which to turn their attention. Who in time of 
 temptation would ever think of Jtiotsa, dominus, or 
 Tartan, Rabsaris, and Rabshakeh ? Hundreds of 
 hours I have spent over what was called divinity. 
 Now, looking backwards, I can scarcely recall any 
 divinity teaching of my school-days which has been 
 the least use to me for purposes of self-control. 
 Never have I wanted to think of these divinity- 
 lessons again. They were positively repulsive. 
 
 And all the time scarcely a word of teaching about 
 health and the simplest means towards it. In my 
 days there was not even the lesson in Anatomy and 
 Physiology, barren as the lesson would probably 
 have been. The idea of telling a boy about his 
 sexual responsibilities, about his puberty and his 
 dawning manhood, seemed utterly out of the ques- 
 tion. No one ever told me a word on the subject, 
 so far as I can remember. Indeed, I scarcely think 
 that Dr. Stanley Hall's condemnation is too strong, 
 though to-day things are much improved. He 
 says : — 
 
 *'The great result of it all is this: that the 
 modern school seems to be a force tending to phy- 
 sical degeneracy. It is very hard for a child to sit 
 four or five or six hours a day during eight or ten 
 months, in a rather imperfect air, in a rather un- 
 physiological seat, with the only strain thrown upon 
 the little muscles that wag the tongue. Nature has 
 made it hard for a healthy child to sit still. ... I 
 don't know what you say ; I for one believe it would 
 
444 HI. MENTAL HELPS. 
 
 be a thousand times better that the children should 
 grow up in ignorance of all that our schools teach^ 
 valuable as it is, than for the race to continue in 
 
 its peril of physical degeneracy For myself, I 
 
 say, what shall it profit a child if it gain the whole 
 world of knowledge and lose its own health ? or 
 what shall a child give in exchange for its health ? " 
 
 I 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIX. 
 
 THE PLAY SPIRIT. 
 
 HAVE suggested well-organised games and 
 athletics as a clean and manly subject in which 
 boys were interested, a field rich in lessons and in 
 starting-points for lessons : for instance, on political 
 changes from kingship through aristocracy to pluto- 
 cracy and democrac}', on art, on geograph}-, and 
 many other topics. And I know what man\' readers 
 will have said : '' Boys think too much about games 
 already, instead of thinking about serious work." 
 I wish here, at the risk of repetition, to be extra 
 outspoken and to give these people a piece of my 
 mind, even if they think me rude. 
 
 Have you ever asked, my good sir or madam, 
 why it is that some boys think too much about 
 games already instead of thinking about " work " ? It 
 is because games are more attractive. Have you 
 ever reflected why some boys think too much of 
 unwholesome things ? Hecause these unwholesome 
 things are more attractive. Do you imagine for a 
 
THE PLAY SPIRIT. 445 
 
 moment that your right plan is to make games less 
 attractive ? Cease to shirk your responsibility. Cease 
 to be lazy and slovenly. Do not make games less 
 attractive : make work more attractive. At present 
 most of it is hideously dull. Make it at least toler- 
 ably interesting. You bolster it up with punishments 
 and rewards. I tell \ou that without these external 
 incentives scarcel\- a bo\' would voluntarily choose 
 to learn the subjects you teach, at least in the way 
 you teach them ; but remove punishments and re- 
 wards from play, and still the boy would play. 
 
 You say that boys think too much about games 
 already. Now what precisely do you mean, if you 
 mean anything ? Is it that boys think too much of 
 the actual details of play, how many runs, how 
 man>' goals, and so on ? Well I do not urge that 
 they should think so much about this aspect of play. 
 I urge that they should think much less about it. 
 I urge that you should turn their attention to the 
 part of play which is worth much thought. Do not 
 bring forward any nonsense about the mistake of 
 calling a boy's attention to a thing. In your lazi- 
 ness, in )'Our desire to escape the trouble of teaching, 
 you say a boy must get the lessons of play merely 
 by playing; he must not be told what the lessons 
 are. When I was \oung I lived in a house that had 
 one of the must lovely gardens in London, a garden 
 of thirteen acres, a garden with beautiful plants and 
 trees, beautiful lawns and fields, beautiful ponds and 
 an island, beautiful flowers and fruits, beautiful 
 everything. There I lived and played, but scarcely 
 
44^ ■ III. MENTAL HELPS. 
 
 a single lesson did I learn from the beauties of 
 nature. There were the flowers : for me they had 
 no voice. I believe that just a few hours of teaching 
 about flowers would have made these flowers speak 
 to me gently yet irresistibly about the very qualities 
 that I lacked. For years and years I was among 
 them, but did not know them. Cease once for all 
 your absurd talk, your pretence, that people will 
 learn lessons of their own accord if you only put the 
 object before them. Put a bone or organ of an 
 animal before a student of anatomy and physiology, 
 and do you tell me that he will learn the lessons 
 which his whole after-life will need ? No, look at 
 the typical students of anatomy and physiology ; the 
 object has been put before them ; it is not taught 
 them; they have lived with it, but have not known 
 it. We must not only put the objects before the 
 children, but also show them by instances how to 
 get useful lessons from these objects. 
 
 Applying this to games, I say that the child must 
 not merely be encouraged to play games; the child 
 must also be told how useful and noble the games 
 are. The cook must not only be told how to cook ; 
 she must also be told how splendid an art cooking 
 is. This tends to self-respect. Look at cooks all 
 round you. There they have been engaged on the 
 greatest and finest of human work, and they have 
 not realised it ; they have thought they were doing 
 something ''infra dig'' ! They may have cooked well; 
 but the pride in their work has not been taught 
 them. The inspiring lessons of it have escaped 
 their notice. 
 
THK PLAY SPIRIT. 447 
 
 Games and athletics ma\' be made simply invalu- 
 able as subjects of teaching. Part of our aim in 
 dealing with boys is to fit them for grappling with 
 any subject that they may take up afterwards. 
 Suppose they learn Latin, they learn it not only for 
 the sake of knowing Latin, and hence of knowing 
 English better, and so on, but also for the sake of 
 method, of being able now to do any good thing 
 thoroughly. So, in games and athletics, the ways of 
 learning them (as the Americans show us) may be 
 wonderfully scientific and up to date. Take the 
 American practice and play of football. There is 
 preparation long beforehand, mastery of the tech- 
 nique, master}' of the various co-operative "plays," 
 anticipation of this or that attack, assiduous repeti- 
 tion with concentrated attention long, long before 
 the critical event. It is the most magnificent study 
 in method. If a boy were taught an alphabet of 
 games and athletics, and if the method were ex- 
 plained to him, he would have a method which he 
 could no\N use in mastering any subject or any 
 quality in life. The strength of this as a beginning 
 would be that assuredly it attracts the boy; it 
 appeals to his senses, to his muscular senses too, 
 without sacrifice of discipline and order. 
 
 Would it not make his games too serious ? That 
 is another fallacy of the slipshod thinkers. It would 
 make his practice serious while he was mastering the 
 mechanisms of play ; but when he had mastered 
 them, he would express himself far more freely and 
 pleasantly in the play itself. My own experience 
 
44^ in. MENTAL HELPS. 
 
 has been that the more seriousness, or rather the 
 more science, I put into my drill before play, the 
 more abandon and enjoyment and profit I put into 
 my play itself. The more business-like the prepara- 
 tion, the less business-like I find the play itself. 
 That is just an individual impression. 
 
 But it is chiefly because of the spirit of play that 
 we wish play to be studied by boys. It can become 
 so valuable, nay, so irresistible an influence through- 
 out his life, if it be properly used. I have many 
 kind letters from those who have read my books 
 and articles and have practised Self-suggestion. The 
 writers say that some Self-suggestions had no ap- 
 parent effect upon them. " I want to be good, I will 
 be good," and so on, seemed not to get to their 
 heart at all. But the suggestion " I'll play the game 
 and be sportsmanlike " moved them as no other 
 words did, for it appealed evidently to memories 
 (most interesting and attractive memories) of their 
 own sportsmanlike conduct in the field. The words 
 carried them back to some of the best actions of 
 their lives. Whereas the word *' good " meant little 
 to them, the word " sportsmanlike " meant almost 
 ever>'thing. 
 
 I must refer to a special book for fuller justifi- 
 cation of what I call the play-spirit. I am sure that 
 it is the spirit which will move most Anglo-Saxons 
 to right action. We learn largely through com- 
 parisons. Language is a storehouse of faded com- 
 parisons. And one of our most effective comparisons 
 is — playing the game ; at least I feel it is likely to 
 
THE PLAY SPIRIT. 449 
 
 be so. But the final test is, What does the phrase 
 mean to you ? Use it as a Self-suggestion, word it in 
 your own way, and then judge it by its effects on 
 your all-round life. 
 
 Looking about you, you cannot fail to see dis- 
 honesty, gloom and worry, cowardice, stupidity and 
 clumsiness, and the old English way of " getting 
 along somehow." You cannot fail to see reliance 
 on sheer obstinate will and straining force, and con- 
 sequent failure where the will happens to be weak 
 through want of proper training. 
 
 Now look at the best forms of play. Put excep- 
 tions on one side, and consider the ideal, which often 
 appears as the actual too. Remember that man is 
 a " social " animal, as well as an individual money- 
 grubber. Think how he behaves when he plays the 
 game. Contrast him with the man in the street, or 
 in the office, or even in the church. 
 
 He plays fairly and courteously. He plays cheer- 
 fully. He plays pluckily. He plays skilfully. He 
 studies tactics, and uses those which succeed best, 
 so long as they are fair. He practises sensibly until 
 he has formed good habits. He practises long before 
 the crisis. He practises repeatedly and with con- 
 centration. 
 
 Now thai is the spirit and the mode of action 
 which we all need in daily life, in the street, in the 
 office, in the church, in society, in solitude. 
 
 But, once again, do not take anyone's recom- 
 mendation for gospel. Tr}' to apply this spirit 
 fairly, study it in the best forms of games and 
 
450 III. MENTAL HELPS. 
 
 athletics and in the practice for them. Apply it 
 in your own case unobjectionably, and judge it by 
 the concrete results all-round. This will give you 
 the only true judgment. 
 
 For it is not so much for the play itself that I 
 urge the study and pursuit of games, but rather as a 
 basis for comparisons. *' Playing the game " is a 
 phrase which appeals to us through our senses and 
 muscular movements, through our experiences of a 
 cheerful kind. The phrase conveys the right idea, 
 and is also attractive enough to move us. 
 
 But, let me repeat, for all the early years of my 
 life I never realised that play had this spirit. I 
 played without learning the lesson from play. I 
 believe that had I read or been told in early times 
 what I now know about play and have tried to 
 put down in a little book,* I should have had quite 
 the minimum of painful struggles and of still more 
 painful failures. 
 
 My object now is to study games and athletics still 
 further, not with a view to remembering who made 
 the highest score or got most wickets or jumped 
 highest or what not, but in order to extract all 
 the good lessons I can with regard to all spheres 
 of life, intellectual as well as physical and moral, 
 and then transfer these lessons to all other spheres. 
 
 Looking at three of the qualities which games and 
 athletics may teach and develop — the fairness, the 
 cheerfulness and pluck, and the skill — contrast the 
 ordinary ways which we see around us. 
 
 I. Consider modern business, more especially in 
 • " I^t's Play the Game," published by Guilbert Pitman. 
 
THE PLAY SPIRIT. 45 1 
 
 America. There is remarkably little fairness about 
 it. The American methods seem to be spreading 
 almost daily. To meet a straight business-man is a 
 red letter day to me. Curiously enough, I have 
 managed to appeal to three otherwise thoroughly 
 dishonest business-men b)- urging them to play the 
 game and be sportsmanlike ; one was an American, 
 one a German, one an English Jew. Every other 
 appeal had failed; this appeal succeeded at once. 
 A friend of mine succeeded in appealing to his 
 servants by a similar plea. He urged them to play 
 the game ; they were being well paid and being 
 looked after ; it was unsportsmanlike of them to take 
 advantage of this. 
 
 2. To do things cheerfully and pluckily — this is 
 another teaching of games. The cheerfulness is as 
 essential as the pluck, and that is saying a good deal. 
 One of the most practical writers on Psychology says 
 that a habit of deliberation in cases of violent emo- 
 tion is a difficult one to form. When one feels 
 strongly, the motor-idea is often followed imme- 
 diately by motor-action. A fit of anger has escaped 
 us before we were aware. Now a person liable to fits 
 of anger usually deals with his difficulty neither 
 cheerfully nor pluckily. Games can teach him to 
 regard his difficulties and his failures both cheerfully 
 and pluckily. After his defeat, if he is a sportsman, 
 he begins again and makes better preparation. After 
 my defeats at racquets or tennis of course there is a 
 feeling of loss. Then comes a feeling that the 
 difficulty is worth overcoming, and I set myself to 
 
 EE 
 
452 III. MENTAL HELPS. 
 
 overcome it. In moral matters and in intellectual 
 matters we need this play-spirit which is so common 
 in sport. It is in sport that we can acquire it ; it is 
 in moral and intellectual and commercial and other 
 matters also that we must apply it. 
 
 3. There is scarcely a limit to skill in good play. 
 Almost ever}\vhere else in life we are crushed ; the 
 really skilful thing is condemned as unorthodox. Try 
 a neat way of doing something in your business, or in 
 your teaching at school, and probably your manager 
 will dispense with your services. Tr}- a neat way of 
 doing a thing — so long as it is fair — in play, and you 
 are judged chiefly by the results. Jessop's " six out 
 of the ground" is unorthodox. It is admired because, 
 while it is fair, it is also clever. So with the 
 Americans. They invent or methodise a new way of 
 jumping; they squirm over the line. In almost any 
 department of English life such a new departure 
 would be forbidden because it is a new departure ! 
 In games there is a far fairer criterion : — Is our new 
 plan fair and does it succeed ? If so, then we are 
 praised for adopting it. 
 
 It is games that teach us most easily the right 
 way of regarding obstacles — namely, as opportunities 
 for skill. Many seem to regard them as faults in 
 nature's design. Directly you consider man as a 
 thinking animal, they cease to be faults; they be- 
 come opportunities for better character-building and 
 better body-building. Why is there any bunker at 
 Golf? What is the point of it ? Is it a fault of 
 Golf? Or is it a merit of Golf, since it can compel 
 
THE PLAY SPIHIT. 453 
 
 the player to greater skill, perhaps to a better mind ? 
 This is the right way of regarding obstacles. In 
 ordinary life the orthodox plan is to grumble at 
 them and worry about them, not to face them in a 
 sportsmanlike spirit, as if to say, Thank you for the 
 privilege. 
 
 F^rom games we should learn an in\aluable lesson. 
 Ascetic preachers and others have given us a wrong 
 idea of temptation, as a thing to be dreaded. It 
 is a mistake to dread anything. Either, they say, 
 one must rush away from the temptation, or else one 
 must batter it down as if it were a cruel animal. It 
 is no such thing. We can treat most temptations as 
 •courteously as we treat difficult balls at Cricket. 
 We can either avoid facing a bowler who is too diffi- 
 •cult, or else we can learn how to play him ; but, 
 if we try to play his bowling, we must regard it as 
 a privilege ; we must thank the bowler for the 
 honour he has done us in thinking us worthy of that 
 ball, and we must do our best to play that ball ! 
 The attitude of Sir Nigel Loring in Conan Doyle's 
 *' White Company " should be our attitude with all 
 temptations, except the ver}- hardest. Sir Nigel 
 went out of his way to have a fight with various 
 opponents, not from a feeling of hatred — he was 
 as far from hatred as from fear ; he was always 
 polite ; he always thanked the opponent for giving 
 him an excellent chance of adding to his laurels and 
 his skill. 
 
 But with all this value which I see in games if we 
 regard them fairly, it is important, once more, to 
 
454 "I- MENTAL HELPS. 
 
 view them in proportion. It is not enough to keep 
 up the play-spirit during play : we must use that 
 play-spirit out of playtime. I know one man who in 
 play is scrupulously honourable, in work scrupulously 
 dishonourable; there is no meanness to which he 
 does not condescend. That is because he does not 
 transfer the play-spirit from his play to his work ; he 
 keeps the play-spirit for play; he should make it 
 become an integral part of his daily life. 
 
 Indeed, instead of that vile motto *' Work while 
 you work, play while you play," I would say to 
 ever)' boy, play while you play, with heart and souL 
 Keep your eye on the ball or on your opponent. 
 Practise beforehand and between whiles. Master the 
 alphabet of play as early as you can, unless you 
 are a born genius and have it already as yours ; and, 
 later on, correct yourself from time to time. If 
 your play is important, your practice for it and your 
 self-correction are important also. Then, instead of 
 *' Grind while you work," transfer your play-spirit to 
 your work. Be fair. Be cheerful. Be skilful. If 
 that is the meaning of the play-spirit, then play 
 while you work. Don't think of the play — the score 
 at Cricket, the tr>' at Football, and so on — except 
 by way of an interval of rest. Don't think of the 
 details of play, but think of and use the play-spirit. 
 
 Besides this, use athletic success as a motive^ 
 Perhaps it is your strongest motive now; it is cer- 
 tainly one of my strongest motives. I try to use the 
 others as well, but still I find success in athletics at 
 times far the most powerful. And many masters 
 
THE PLAY SPIRIT. 455 
 
 have found this so with boys. Remember that for 
 continued all-round athletic success people need 
 ever}' good quality, physical, mental, and moral, 
 that can be named. 
 
 And use athletic success as a valuable imagina- 
 tion. Imagine yourself successful as a batsman, 
 bowler, and fielder at Cricket, as a three-quarters 
 at Rugby, as a right wing at Association, as a high 
 jumper, a hurdler, a gymnast — whatever attracts 
 you ; but start at once, and go on with something 
 beyond the imagination ; turn the inspiring thought 
 into useful action. At once do something, even if 
 it is only a piece of dull brain-work, or of manual 
 work (say left-handed writing), which will develop 
 the qualities without which you cannot succeed. For 
 a successful innings at Cricket you, unless you are 
 a born player, need repeated practice of dull move- 
 ments ; you need patience ; } ou need many other 
 excellences. These you can get from the work 
 which comes next in your daily life. Enter into that 
 work heart and soul, in the play-spirit, and that 
 work will give you the excellences. 
 
 But at intervals set the play in proportion and 
 perspective. Physically it is not everything. Pre- 
 pare for it by exercises. Supplement it by exercises 
 and other means. 
 
456 III. MENTAL HELPS. 
 
 CHAPTER XL. 
 
 HERO-WORSHIP, FRIENDSHIP, CO-OPERATION. 
 
 THE young take no more important step than when they 
 frame an ideal which they will ever strive to attain. The 
 first step consists in studying the lives of illustrious men, to 
 ascertain what constitutes a noble and glorious life, to see how 
 obstacles are surmounted, how eminence is gained. The next step 
 is to select the most worthy attributes and to embody them in an 
 ideal which is peculiarly fitted to the constructor. Each one may 
 thus construct for himself a life chart as an ideal. Something is to 
 be learnt from the life of every great man. Thus an ideal may 
 embody the energy of a Napoleon ; the integrity and patriotism of a 
 Washington ; the iron will of a Cromwell ; the sympathy with 
 humanity of a Howard, a Clarkson, or of a greater One ; the 
 ambition of a Newton or a Franklin to discover new laws ; the 
 inventive genius of a Watt, a Morse, or an Edison ; the determina- 
 tion of a blind Milton to leave behind something worthy of himself, 
 which posterity would not willingly let die. The youth who has not 
 had his imagination fired by great deeds will not amount to much. 
 Each must fashion for himself an ideal which he is determined to 
 attain. Emerson's e.xpression, ' Hitch your wagon to a star,' meant 
 simply this. 
 
 But ... as soon as knowledge is acquired, it should be used in 
 as many different combinations as possible." 
 
 So writes that practical psychologist, Professor 
 Halleck. But it is not only in these spheres of 
 (chiefly intellectual) activity that men are great. 
 Greatness is to be found in all spheres, especially 
 in physical health and self-control. 
 
 Athletes, who are usually the heroes of boys at 
 school and elsewhere, have a responsibility that they 
 seldom realise. A word of advice from them goes a 
 very long wa\- ; example goes still further. 
 
 From the boy's point of view, I should say. Be 
 
HERO-WORSHIP, FRIENDSHIP, CO-OPERATION. 457 
 
 with the best type of athlete as much as you can. 
 Take every advantage of \our respect for him. 
 When you cannot be with him, then imagine your- 
 self with him, so that his imaginar\' presence will 
 keep you up to the mark. 
 
 It is not every hero that has every virtue ! In all 
 our study of history- and geography we seldom know 
 how to extract the right lessons and discard the 
 alien features. One of the best plans is to regard 
 each hero as representing a certain virtue, and to 
 take him as a type for that virtue, not as a type for 
 ever\thing. Gladstone was a type for many virtues. 
 The mistake we make in hero-worship, as I said 
 before, is to treat the hero as displaying all the 
 virtues. We ought rather to regard him as illustrat- 
 ing perhaps only one. As Halleck says, to most 
 persons William the Conqueror, Edward the First, 
 Oliver Cromwell, are little more than names. Our 
 idea should be a living and moving reality. It 
 should embody the energy of a Napoleon, the 
 integrity and patriotism of a Washington, the iron 
 will of a Cromwell, and so on. And it should 
 embody them at first not as abstract virtues, but as 
 concrete actions. To this list offered b}' Halleck we 
 can add athletic heroes who illustrate other qualities, 
 physical and mental ; the patience and master}- of 
 technique of C. B. Fry, the promptitude of Jessop, 
 the poise of G. O. Smith, the strength of Sandow, 
 the general physical excellence of Hackenschmidt — 
 these and many other examples can be added ; they 
 appeal to most boys far more than do the great men 
 
458 III. MENTAL HELPS. 
 
 whom Halleck mentions. The boys can so easily 
 " sense " the virtues. 
 
 Hero-worship includes for the boy heroine-wor- 
 ship. The woman who is much older than the boy 
 has a vast power with the boy, though she seldom' 
 realises it. 
 
 The friendship of the hero is as valuable as his 
 actual example. I recall two striking instances of 
 masters who work out with boys the lessons they 
 have taught in their excellent books. One of them 
 is Mr. A. C. Benson, who wrote ** The School- 
 master": the other is Canon Edward Lyttelton, 
 who wrote " Training of the Young in the Laws of 
 Sex." Each of these great men makes a point of 
 telling the boy that he wishes to help him rather 
 than to punish him ; that the struggle, whatever it 
 may be — say against temper — is to be won b}- the 
 boy and his older and stronger friend working to- 
 gether. Some masters seem to sink the master 
 altogether in the friend, and, out of school-hours, the 
 boy forgets that the master is anything else but a 
 friend ; he realises only that the master is wiser and 
 stronger. So at several other schools. " Come and 
 tell me when you are in trouble at any time " — that 
 is what a friend of mind says to all his boys — " I can 
 forgive yoiw. making mistakes, but I cannot forgive 
 your not telling me about them and not getting me 
 to help you." At another school the master always 
 impresses upon the boys not that they are little 
 brutes, but that they are fine and manly within. 
 His object is to give them inspiring self-respect. 
 
HERO-WORSHIP, FRIENDSHIP, CO-OPERATION. 459 
 
 He tries to convince the boys that they may sacrifice 
 their own respect for a time, but nothing will make 
 them lose his friendship. If they refuse his help, he 
 says, it will be their fault, not his;, he will never 
 refuse his help. 
 
 "The root of the matter," Mr. A. C. Benson says, "is to let a 
 boy understand from the very first that friendship is intended and 
 oflered ; and it is not enough to be vaguely friendly ; it is better to 
 tell a new boy when he comes that you desire that he will not 
 merely look upon you as a master, but will really believe that you 
 are his friend. This is to most new boys, coming timidly to a new 
 place, peopled by vague ogres, an immense relief ; and it is interest- 
 ing to compare the change in the glance of a new boy from the time 
 when he enters your study in the charge of a parent, and gazes 
 with wonder and dismay at the man who is to rule his life for 
 several years, with the glance of shy friendliness with which he 
 meets you when you have indicated plainly that friendship is to be 
 the basis of your relations." 
 
 Another advantage of a friend's help over solitary 
 struggles is pointed out by Bacon, ^hen he says, 
 in one of his essays : — " The calling of a man*s 
 self to a strict account is a medicine sometimes 
 too piercing and corrosive ; reading good books of 
 morality is a little flat and dead. . . . But the best 
 receipt (best to work, and best to take) is the ad- 
 monition of a friend." 
 
 The friend need not always be present in the 
 flesh. The realisation of a friend as present is an 
 equally effective method, if we have cultivated our 
 imagination (Chapter XLI.) Henr}- Drummond was 
 quoting a personal experience when he wrote : — 
 "Ten minutes spent in Christ's society ever\' day, 
 ay, two minutes, if it be face to face, and heart to 
 heart, will make the whole life different." 
 
460 III. MENTAL HELPS. 
 
 The friendship between boys may be singularly 
 eflfective, though co-operation need not always take 
 the outward form of friendship. A co-operative; 
 society of two , or three may have advantages over 
 a larger gathering. We could illustrate the good 
 effects of co-operation by literature. Perhaps this 
 book of mine will be an example. It may help 
 some; certainly it will help me, and hence others^ 
 if it brings out useful criticisms and suggestions- 
 We want all the help we can get. Suggestion 
 and criticism should always be regarded as one 
 of the most valuable forms of co-operation. Too 
 often it is resented as if it were intended as sheer 
 cruelty. 
 
 Mrs. Besant hits the mark when she maintains 
 that " All our troubles arise from thinking of our- 
 selves as separate units, and then revolving on our 
 own mental axis, thinking only of our separate 
 interests, our separate aims, our separate joys and 
 sorrows " — and our separate opinions. 
 
 Discussion is an instance of co-operation. People 
 who keep ideas to themselves and hate to have them, 
 corrected, lose half their influence. 
 
 Another kind of co-operation is when a boy or a 
 man teaches the various parts of himself to contri- 
 bute together towards his main aims. Instead of 
 fighting with his will alone, he calls in the help of 
 his interest, his emotions, his muscles, his surround- 
 ings, everj'thing; he trains every part of him. It 
 is the glon- of man that he is a delegating animaU 
 with a power of accumulating habits. He can 
 
HERO-WORSHIP, FRIENDSHIP, CO-OPERATION. 461 
 
 delegate to different parts of him the work which, 
 without the self- work inj^' of those parts, he has not 
 time to do for himself. The bo\ should regard his 
 nerves and muscles as fellow-helpers. Suppose he 
 wants to play Fives well. Instead of simply playing, 
 let him sometimes train his servants to co-operate 
 with him. Let him train his feet to move rapidly 
 from the alert into the sideways position. Let him 
 train each hand to make a straight and smart stroke. 
 Then, in time of need, much of the work will be 
 done by these limbs, without care on his part ; his 
 mind will be free to attend to other matters. Let a 
 boy turn good habits into instincts. 
 
 But a more obvious use of co-operation is when 
 boys work together for self-control and safe self- 
 expression. There are two methods. Bo)s ma\' do 
 different things. After a candid talk, one may 
 arrange to help the other to control his temper in 
 exchange for some help to overcome some other 
 fault. Or various boys may all do the same thing, 
 working for self-control and self-expression at the 
 same time. In Germany I noticed that those who, 
 by themselves, would not give up their beer, in com- 
 pany willingly gave up their beer because others were 
 doing the same. So it is with boys. Let a boy 
 know that other boys are controlling themselves, and 
 he is more likely to control himself. The pity of it 
 is that boys are so secretive about such matters. 
 That is the teaching of their parents and masters. A 
 little candour, a little organisation, and free and self- 
 active and therefore most effective societies might be 
 
462 III. MENTAL HELPS. 
 
 formed which, quite unobtrusively, would revolution- 
 ise the ways of boys. 
 
 This co-operation is, as I have pointed out, part 
 of the strength of church prayer, as we understand 
 the term generally, as distinct from free and out- 
 sp)oken expression of one's most obvious wants. 
 We know how soldiers marching in step across a 
 bridge may actually break that bridge through their 
 co-operative rhythm. We are not, therefore, as many 
 reformers are, in favour of doing away with church 
 services at school. What we do urge is that, in 
 addition to them, there should be societies organised 
 by the boys themselves. 
 
 But the praying itself certainly needs to be put 
 before the boy in a new light ; then the church- 
 services will be far more valuable. At present most 
 boys have an altogether mistaken idea as to what 
 true prayer is. 
 
 CHAPTER XLI. 
 
 PRAYER, SELF-SUGGESTION, IMAGINATION. 
 
 IF I wished to arrange the materials of this chapter more 
 "methodically," as I did when I first wrote it, I should use 
 some such outline as the following, which I now offer in case 
 it may appeal to certain readers more forcibly than the less formal 
 order that I have preferred : — 
 
 We need the right ideals and ideas. None are to be against the 
 all-round fitness of oneself or anyone else. 
 
 We need to realise the right ideals through our senses — through 
 as many sense-avenues as possible. 
 
 We need, therefore, repetitions together with realisations. 
 
PRAYER, SELF-SUGGESTION, IMAGINATION. 46^^. 
 
 Our ways (our wordings, etc.) may change from time to time. 
 We do not need consistency in our expressions. 
 
 Our motives may change also, especially by becoming higher and 
 wider. 
 
 But at first we need motives and desires that really move us as 
 individuals. Otherwise we shall not have the will and Uisureliuess 
 to repeat with realisation. And we need to remind ourselves of our 
 own motives. 
 
 Among the motives will be a knowledge of the reasons why good 
 prayers, Self-suggestions, and imaginations are worth practising 
 leisurely and attentively. We must be convinced that realisation 
 of an idea — whether disease or health — tends to create the actual 
 and material thing itself ; that the body is perpetually changing ; 
 that every thought changes the body ; that some thoughts are 
 under our immediate direction ; that for these thoughts at least we 
 are responsible. 
 
 We need to turn the right ideas into action as soon as possible — 
 into some action in the right direction, even if it only be a bit of 
 carpentering or gardening or washing. 
 
 We need successes at first in an unbroken series, not for the .sake 
 of a slack resting upon laurels, but for the sake of inspiring self- 
 respect. 
 
 Therefore we need not too hard tasks at first. 
 
 And we need individuality in our choice of tasks and ways and 
 motives. 
 
 As an example, this task and way and motive may suit you — or it 
 may not. If you incline to worry, say to yourself, " I'll drop that ; 
 it's ugly, cowardly, wasteful of energy, hurtful to others." Go- 
 through the action of dropping it. Then express the opposite — 
 cheerfulness. Picture all undesirable things as leaving you while 
 you breathe out ; or picture yourself as drawing dirty threads out 
 of your mind's fabric, and putting clean and strong threads in 
 their place. Remind yourself how cheerfulness will give you more 
 fitness to work well and play well and look well and feel well. 
 During every day, whenever you get a good thing, a cheerful 
 thing, realise it, live it, become and be it, as it were. If you want 
 authority, read these words written by a doctor of over 73 years of 
 age. Then determine that you will play the game and be as sports- 
 manlike as he was : — 
 
464 HI. MENTAL HELPS. 
 
 " Let such patients (worriers) every morning, when they get out 
 of bed, assert in the most positive manner that they will not once 
 during the day harbor a disagreeable thought, but the very instant 
 it arises they will drive it from the mind, as they would a viper 
 from their beds, and be very sure it will go. Well do I remember 
 the day and the hour when I made this, to me, great discovery. I 
 had suffered for a month the most intense mental pain because my 
 business did not go according to my pleasure. I found fault with 
 my wife and children, and nothing suited me. Things were be- 
 coming most uncomfortable for all of us. I got up one morning as 
 usual and e.vpected to have a bad day, when all at once an impulse 
 seized me, and, straightening myself up to my full height, I said to 
 myself emphatically, * By the Eternal, these miserable feelings 
 have got to go ; — not once to-day will I tolerate one of them in my 
 mind for an instant.' I kept my word, and have done so till now, 
 and find it is easy enough to hold them at bay." 
 
 Last, but not least, suggest and realise a similar power for every 
 • one else, beginning, if you like, with those for whom you do already 
 wish the very best things that life can give them. 
 
 This more formal arrangement may clear the way for the less 
 formal talk which I now oft'er for what it is worth — that is to say, 
 as a meal from which each reader can choose whatever attracts 
 him. Only please read it leisurely. I do not want to convince 
 you : I want you to convince yourself, or else not to be convinced 
 at all. 
 
 The word prayer suggests to most people as its 
 first notion a conscious request for something, and a 
 request in words. With the words there may come 
 genuine desire, or there may not. It is popularly 
 supposed to be just as much prayer whether one 
 genuinely desires what he asks for or not. There 
 must be words, he thinks, and, so long as he uses 
 words, he prays. Now words are like boxes holding 
 ideas : as a rule they are of comparatively little use, 
 so far as we can see, and they may be a burden, 
 
PKAVHR, SELF-SUGGESTION; IMAGINATION. 465 
 
 ■except in so far as they are easily unlocked, or rather 
 in so far as they unlock themselves, and then per- 
 haps disappear as boxes and remain as our own 
 contents or ideas. Most of the words with which 
 boys pray are as boxes, holding ideas indeed, but 
 never opened. When the words are gone, gone also 
 are the contents, the ideas. 
 
 Let us look at the New Testament for a moment 
 to see what the true nature of prayer is. 
 
 At first it should be according to the will of God, 
 Avhich is perhaps a meaningless phrase to many 
 boys. Certainly there should be nothing in the 
 prayer that would go against the all-round fitness of 
 anyone. There should be no selfish end, unless it is 
 altruistic as well. A boy may ask for something for 
 himself if it will also help others. He may ask 
 for his own purity, poise, power, health, happiness. 
 These things are, in a sense, selfish, yet all are 
 altruistic. That, then, is the first essential of prayer. 
 
 Under such conditions he must do more than 
 merely ask as he might ask someone to lend him 
 a knife. If the thing is of the above nature, if it 
 is for the all-round fitness of the self and of all 
 others, then we must not simply ask for it in the 
 usual way. The Greek word in early times meant 
 not merely to entreat, but also to assert — even to 
 boast. When some one asserted that he was the 
 greatest of the Greeks, the simple word cT-xo/xat was 
 used. Too few of us practise this assertion, this 
 •claim of what is our right and duty as children of 
 God. 
 
466 III. MENTAL HELPS. 
 
 Differently expressed, this means that we ought 
 to pray with faith, as in a perfect father. But we 
 hardly understand what faith is. It has been defined 
 in many epigrammatic fashions. At present I cannot 
 think of a clearer description of it than that it is a 
 persistent imagination and realisation of what is better 
 than the present appearances — and an expression and 
 action in harmony with that realisation. 
 
 Such, then, is part of the nature of prayer : that 
 it should be for something which is for the good of 
 the self and all others, for their all-round good ; that 
 it should be not a timid entreaty, but a confident 
 claim, a realisation of the thing again and again as 
 already present in actuality, if not yet in appearance. 
 
 Let me here make a proviso. I realise that the 
 highest form of pra\er is prayer without words, a 
 sheer attitude of mind and body which needs no 
 such figures of expression as words, the attitude 
 which takes the fulfilment for granted, which knows 
 how all good things already exist for those who 
 claim them, and that the appearance of them in 
 reality is a matter of time and showing forth, not 
 a matter of uncertainty and doubt. But, ideal 
 though this form of prayer is, this quiet, almost 
 unconscious realisation and conviction, it is not for 
 most boys yet. I must give hints for them as they 
 generally arc to-da}-, not as a few of them might 
 have been under other conditions. 
 
 Most boys need physical preparation for prayer. 
 In my own experience, a simpler diet, a more 
 leisurely and rhythmical yet thorough way of breath- 
 
PRAYER, SELF-SUGGESTION, IMAGINATION. 467 
 
 ing, a greater repose and relaxation of the muscles, 
 as distinct from anxious gripping, have helped prayer 
 enormously. In my early years I tended to be too 
 anxious on the one hand ; I had no faith in God ; 
 and to be too hurried on the other hand. I wanted 
 to get through a great deal of prayer ; I would not 
 stop to realise any idea thoroughly ; I lacked leisure- 
 liness together with thoroughness. 
 
 There is vital need of study and understanding 
 of that for which we pray. I shall deal with this 
 directly under the heading of imagination. We need, 
 especially, to study and understand the sense of the 
 Greek words rather than any English version. ** Our 
 Father which art in Heaven, Hallowed be Thy 
 Name," is not the original, but only a translation, 
 which every high authority agrees does not represent 
 the ideas of the Greek (or the Aramaic of which the 
 Greek may have been a translation). Take the word 
 " name." What is the name of God ? The name 
 of God is God. What is the oi/o/xa of God ? The 
 ovojxa of God is not God, but perfection, infinite 
 wisdom, infinite kindness, infinite power, infinite 
 purity, infinite poise, infinite happiness. That first 
 phrase in the Greek is a prayer not that God's name 
 may be hallowed, but that God's nature may be 
 regarded by us, may be realised by us, as perfect and 
 faultless. When we study and understand the mean- 
 ing of the Greek words, then we can pray with much 
 more genuineness and effectiveness; for, unless we 
 believe that God is perfect and faultless, how on 
 earth can we genuinely and fearlessly submit to 
 
 FF 
 
468 III. MENTAL HELPS. 
 
 God's Avill ? Till we believe in God's perfection and 
 faultlessness, we rather prefer, whatever we may say 
 in surface-words, to trust ourselves ! 
 
 A study of the meanings of prayers, a candid 
 study, will lead us to be far more genuine. We shall 
 not only express prayers in our own words when we 
 are alone — that is a great step : we shall also more 
 often express our own best desires, rather than what 
 some one else tells us we desire. Suppose that a per- 
 son has injured you. You are bidden to pray to the 
 effect that you forgive that person. Well, that may 
 be hypocrisy. But suppose that you take the same 
 fundamental idea, and express your own genuine 
 desire in your own genuine words, suppose that you 
 think of this person who has injured you, and you 
 say, " I want him to be healthy." That can come 
 right from your heart, because, if he were healthy, he 
 would not have injured you, and he would make up 
 for the injury which he has inflicted. In a word, 
 while he himself would be in a better condition, 
 so would you. This is not against other prayers : it 
 is simply the interesting and genuine starting-point 
 which will lead to the higher prayers afterwards. 
 Then, again, if *' Our Father " is not yet a genuine 
 thought of your own, you can begin with ** My 
 Father " or " My inmost Source." Perhaps the 
 word •' Father " may not convey to you all that 
 the idea of God conveyed to Jesus Christ. On those 
 occasions give up the word. Try some word which 
 does give the impression of perfect kindness, perfect 
 wisdom, perfect f)ower, and so forth. 
 
PRAYER, SELF-SUGGESTION, IMAGINATION. 469 
 
 Do not imagine that you must be consistent. 
 Read Emerson on the subject of self-reliance. He 
 says, " A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little 
 minds.*' Why should I be the slave of my shadow 
 of yesterday ? In prayer I have no consistency 
 whatsoever. Scarcely any two days bring me the 
 same words : there is one wording to-day, another 
 to-morrow. Here is my wording, for instance, of the 
 Lord's Prayer — that is to say, of the Greek version — 
 to-day. Years ago it was different. Years hence it 
 will be different again. (Emerson in that same essay 
 has many very striking phrases to justify this altera- 
 tion of words and expressions for the sake of genuine 
 and heart-felt realisation) : — 
 
 Our Fountain-self in our own heaven, You are perfect. 
 
 You are perfectly pure and poised, prompt and powerful, prudent 
 and wise, well-provided and successful, healthy and happy, helpful 
 and mistake-destroying. 
 
 Our Fountain-self in our own heaven, Your ways are always 
 best for us ; You are here and now our sole and absolute com- 
 mander ; as the sun and the moon above us do only what pleases 
 You, so do we in the world. 
 
 To-day and to-night You are giving us just what our real life 
 wants. 
 
 When we cancel the mistakes of others, then you cancel ours. 
 
 You are carrying us not into a doubtful struggle : You are keep- 
 ing us away from anything undesirable. 
 
 Be sure to word your prayer or self-suggestion in 
 your own wa}'. Your object must be to realise what 
 you suggest. If you want to suggest that you are 
 going to keep your temper, then express this in the 
 way which appeals to you, no matter if it is slang. 
 
 What appeals to you at one time may not appeal 
 to you at another. Change the expression if that 
 
470 III. MENTAL HELPS. 
 
 helps. There is little virtue in repeating words 
 merely because you have often used them already ! 
 
 Nor need you go through the whole of your 
 formula : you can use special parts of it : for in- 
 stance, in time of special stress, simply the words, 
 " Our perfect Self in our own heaven, You are quite 
 pure and poised, Your ways are best for us. You are 
 our sole and absolute commander, we do only what 
 pleases You, our perfect Self in our own heaven.**" 
 Instead of " Our " and " we " you can say " So-and- 
 so (mentioning Jesus Christ and some other self- 
 controlled one) and I." 
 
 This self-suggestion is not meant to go against 
 orthodox prayer : it is meant to help any one to 
 realise what an\' good prayer means. I find that I 
 can now say the words of the Lord's Prayer in the 
 1611 translation and realise the above sense of the 
 words, so far as I understand that sense from the 
 Greek. At one time the words meant hardly any- 
 thing to me. I never believed then that the state of 
 health and fitness, purity and poise (the kingdom 
 of heaven) was already within me. 
 
 Remember that the practice is unobtrusive and 
 harmless, and not morbid, especially if it include 
 suggestions for others ; that it is not selfish ; that it 
 is training for the senses and memories, training in 
 realisation, in contrast to the slipshod ways of 
 modern reading, thinking, speaking, eating. It is a 
 help available everywhere and everywhen, for all 
 emergencies. 
 
 Judge it by its all-round results. Do not neglect 
 
PRAYER, SEXF-SUGGESTION, IMAGINATION. 47I 
 
 other helps, but try this above all, because, if it is 
 effective, it is a power within you, not dependent on 
 circumstances or people. It is for freedom, whereas 
 certain narrow practices — including to some extent, 
 I think, a narrow range of diet — are not. 
 
 There must be adaptation. You must be prepared 
 to use a better prayer, at least in private, when you 
 find a better prayer, and at any rate to test a new 
 one and see whether it is better in its all-round 
 effects. 
 
 You must use skill in praying. It is too ridiculous 
 to imagine that prayer is not a field for skill. It is a 
 field for infinite skill. We prepare for war whether 
 there will be an actual war or not ; no amount of 
 skill is considered superflous. We should similarly 
 prepare for the war of life, which will certainly go on 
 always. We should reckon every ingeniousness in 
 place, if only it may help us to win victories. For 
 instance, perhaps you are tempted in a certain way. 
 What you ought to do is to realise that the source 
 within you is always perfect. Above I gave a list of 
 some of the branches of perfection. As I said. Do not 
 trouble to go through that full list always. Choose 
 those parts which apply to your special temptations. 
 You can say that the source within you is perfectly 
 pure, perfectly self-controlling, perfectly poised, and 
 you can omit all the other qualities. Or, if you 
 feel more inclined, pray to that source. Express 
 the ideas in the way which will help you most at 
 the time. 
 
 Another essential hint is to draw inferences. 
 
472 III. MENTAL HELPS. 
 
 *' When we cancel (or have cancelled) the mistakes 
 of others, then You cancel ours." That is a pro- 
 portion — sum. Apply the proportion — sum to other 
 causes. When we have given others what is best for 
 their true life, then You give us what is best. Or, 
 again, work it out conversely. Remember not only 
 to forgive others ; remember also to forgive yourself, 
 so long as afterwards you do not bring yourself into 
 a strong temptation. 
 
 And plan out tactics and helpful conditions at 
 the start. As Halleck says, "Allow as few ideas as 
 possible of other things to absorb the attention while 
 you are laying the foundations of a habit. The 
 companions of Ulysses were wise to stop their ears 
 with wax, so as not to hear the songs of the sirens^ 
 Ulysses, once out of hearing, was a man again, but, 
 while he heard, was over-mastered b}' his desire to 
 go to the sirens. Those who have run the gauntlet 
 of strong temptation do not laugh at their power. 
 It takes more effort to will to turn away from some 
 ideas than to face them, and the real coward is 
 sometimes he who remains on the battle-field. 
 Ever)' time there is a chance, repeat the action 
 which is to be made habitual. The beginning of 
 the formation of a habit is a very- critical time. No 
 exception must be allowed until the habit has gained 
 considerable headway. It has been well said that, 
 when a ball of cord which one has wound up is 
 allowed to fall, more is unwound than many separate 
 windings can replace. So it is with habits. A single 
 omission cannot be remedied in a dav or a week. 
 
PRAYER, SELF-SUGGESTION, IMAGINATION. 473 
 
 Habits will finally become organic memor)'. A p)er- 
 son can then, without conscious effort, act unerringly 
 in the direction indicated by such a habit. To do a 
 thing improperly will then cause a struggle, because 
 it will be hard to break the fixed habit of doing 
 things right." In these words Halleck deals with 
 the text, *' Lead us not into temptation " or " Carry 
 us not into a doubtful struggle." Get at the right 
 meaning of these phrases : do not be content with a 
 mere surface repetition of words. 
 
 " Has it ever occurred to you, for instance, when 
 you say the Lord's Prayer that, unless you have 
 obliterated from your heart all remembrance of per- 
 sonal wrong, you are asking for punishment rather 
 than forgiveness ? You are not only praying to be 
 forgiven in the exact measure that you have forgiven 
 others, but you are actually praying to be punished 
 exactly as you have caused pain to others. Jesus 
 framed that prayer upon an intimate knowledge of 
 the Eternal Law, and he knew that there could 
 be no possibility of forgiveness of sin until sin was 
 given up. * Thy sins be forgiven thee'. 'Sin no 
 more'. The two commands are inseparable." 
 
 If you study the New Testament words about 
 prayer, and draw inferences, you will find that these 
 rules will emerge. You are to aim at independence 
 of conditions. You are to aim at the state when 
 it will not matter to you that you are in certain 
 surroundings. What would be temptations to you 
 as a beginner, cease to be temptations to you as 
 an expert in prayer. Indeed the time shall come 
 
474 I"- MENTAL HELPS. 
 
 when you cannot carry yourself back in imagination 
 to the past state in which so-and-so was a temptation 
 at all. That is the aim. That is real " forgiveness," 
 real destruction of attractive memories drawing to- 
 wards mistakes. Meanwhile, however, you must be 
 careful. It is the habit-forming period that needs 
 care. When the habit is formed, care is unneces- 
 sary. 
 
 Shut out alien things at first, then. You need 
 not go into your room and shut the door. It may be 
 enough simply to shut the doors of your mind, to 
 shut out the opposing sensations, to shut out the 
 various disturbing sights, sounds, touches, positions, 
 expressions, and other muscular hindrances. 
 
 Then realise. That is the very essence of prayer. 
 Repeat a good thing. Approach it from different 
 points of view. Imagine and " sense " it as an 
 actual reality. Do not hurry. Be leisurely. 
 
 Then follow the prayer by some action which 
 comes logically from the prayer. You pray, perhaps, 
 for self-control. Realise what self-control is. Realise 
 the man successfully reining in his horses, success- 
 fully keeping his temper, smiling and replying kindly. 
 Realise it. Then, not content with that, at once 
 practise some self-control. Determine to do some- 
 thing that you do not want very much to do. 
 Determine to keep still for a minute. Determine to 
 read a page. Determine to learn a stanza of poetry-. 
 Show your mastery. Do not be content with mere 
 words, or even with realisation. You have started, 
 by that realisation, a motor force within you. Work 
 out that motor force at once. 
 
PRAYER, SELF-SUGGESTION, IMAGINATION. 475 
 
 The power of imagination you must know if you 
 are to play effectively. Think for a moment of a 
 person who takes a sharp razor, cuts a lemon with 
 it, and then licks the sharp edge of the razor. That 
 brings the saliva to your mouth. The imagination, 
 you see, has produced a physical effect. Collect a 
 number of instances of this. For instance, imagine 
 yourself the hero of the novel. You feel disgusted 
 at the villain. Your body is being changed through 
 your imagination. If you feel inclined to knock the 
 villain down, in imagination you go through some of 
 the physical action of knocking him down. 
 
 Now this great power of imagination you can use 
 to divert your attention. Control your attention, 
 and you control your mind and your body. No one 
 has ever yet lapsed from self-control against his best 
 ideals, except by losing control of his attention. By 
 imagination you can divert your attention to what is 
 attractive — for instance, to your success in athletics 
 or work — or you can even divert it to the opposite. 
 Suppose there is in your mind the idea of anger, 
 prompting you to show anger ; then let that word 
 ^' anger" suggest an opposite, *' un-help," if we may 
 invent a new word. The connection is easy. Anger 
 suggests un-help; un-help suggests help and kind- 
 ness. By this little plan you have diverted your 
 attention to help and kindness. Now get a picture 
 of help and kindness, and, once more, follow the 
 thought by some action; do some helpful and kind 
 thing ; send out some kind thought, such as " I want 
 So-and-so to be healthy." 
 
476 III. MENTAL HELPS. 
 
 You cannot imagine and realise unless you have 
 or have trained powerful senses, and especialh' the 
 sense of sight. As an example of that, look again 
 at the little illustration of the two natives of Central 
 Africa. Probably it makes you smile or even laugh. 
 Now that is the effect of a picture. As an exercise, 
 look at that picture till you see those people in your 
 mind's eye. Go on practising again and again till 
 you can recall those two faces at will. You have 
 turned what was the reality outside you — that is to 
 say, in this book, on that page — into an imagination 
 inside you. You have hung up that photograph in 
 the picture-gallery of your mind. Now you are one 
 step nearer to imagining and realising happiness. 
 Those two natives are certainly happy. Without a 
 number of such pictures, and the muscular sense of 
 happiness which follows as you look at those pic- 
 tures, you cannot thoroughly imagine happiness. 
 
 Another instance. Take the first stanza of Gray's 
 Elegy. 
 
 The curfew tolls the knell of parting day, 
 The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea, 
 The ploughman homeward plods his weary way, 
 And leaves the world to darkness and to me. 
 
 Now fades the glimmering landscape on the sight, 
 And all the air a solemn stillness holds, 
 Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight. 
 And drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds. 
 
 Or read and realise Norman Gale's " Apology " : — 
 
 Chide not if here you haply find 
 The rough romance of country love ; 
 I sing as well the brook and wind, 
 The green below, the blue above. 
 
PRAYER, SELF-SUGGESTION, IMAGINATION. 477 
 
 Here shall yoii read of spreading cress. 
 The \elvet of the sparrow's neck ; 
 Sometimes shall glance the glowing tress, 
 And Laura's snow without a speck ; 
 
 The crab that sets the mouth awry. 
 The chestnut with its domes of pink ; 
 The splendid palace of the sky, 
 The pool where drowsy cattle drink ; 
 
 The cherry whence the blackbird bold 
 Steals ruby mouthfuls at his ease ; 
 The glory of laburnum gold, 
 The valiant piping of the breeze. 
 
 Now train all your senses. Hear the sounds 
 suggested ; see the sights suggested ; smell the 
 evening air over the lea ; " sense " yourself moving as 
 the ploughman moves (that will help you to work at 
 this leisurely) ; "sense " yourself touching the things, 
 so that you may imagine their texture ; feel the 
 weight of the ploughman's boots on your feet ; taste 
 the ploughman's dinner, if you like, when he gets to 
 his cottage. Throughout the scene be leisurely and 
 realise. Here you have not merely lines of sounding 
 words : you also have memories of sensations ; you 
 are able to recall them at \\\\\ ; you are a better 
 master of your imaginations and your attention than 
 before, and therefore a better master of your body. 
 
 Thousands of words meet your eyes everywhere. 
 Take those words or sentences, and turn them into 
 pictures. When you get a phrase, ask " Who does 
 what ? *' Here is one. " A habit of deliberation in 
 cases of violent emotion is a difficult one to form.'" 
 
47^ m- MENTAL HELPS. 
 
 Who does what ? Jones is inclined to lose his tem- 
 per ; or, to get a picture, Jones is inclined to hit 
 Smith. He does not easily stop himself, so as to 
 think whether he shall hit Smith or not hit him. 
 You have turned an abstract phrase into a concrete 
 one : you have seen a picture. 
 
 Again, take an orange ; put it in front of you ; look 
 at it ; shut your eyes ; try to recall it — its size, 
 colour, shading, shape, smell, taste, touch, weight, 
 etc. — in your memory. Open your eyes ; pick up 
 the orange; correct your impression. Repeat this 
 till you actually have an orange in your mind. 
 
 Drawing, modelling, etc., are of course invaluable 
 for the training of the senses, but you will have seen 
 already that, whatever you do, there must be repe- 
 tition, there must be self-correction, there must be 
 leisureliness, there must be concentration. Use your 
 sight, hearing, taste, smell, touch, muscular sense of 
 distance, texture, temperature, weight. Use even 
 the muscular sense, the muscular act, as you utter 
 words ; realise the sounds of words. 
 
 Then, and not till then, it will be safe to use 
 words themselves. Directly they cease to be really 
 things for you, directly the words as a rule cease to 
 give you fully imagined and ''sensed" and realised 
 ideas, then back quickly to the sight, to pictures, 
 back quickly to the hearing, taste, touch, etc. ; but 
 especially to the sense of sight. 
 
 A few suggestions will serve to emphasise the 
 essential importance of this training of the imagin- 
 ation and realisation, and hence of the senses. 
 
PRAYER, SELF-SUGGESTION, IMAGINATION. 479 
 
 "Is imagination worth all this trouble?" Mr. A. Burrell asks; 
 " Is it of any use to encourage the ciiilcl to re-tell his lessons, to tell 
 stories, to use his own gesture, his own intonation ; to be fearless in 
 his narrative, natural in his methods ? Is it of any use to supply 
 him with a common-place book, in which to write down the verses 
 he learns, the names of the books he admires ; is repetition of his 
 work as valuable as our Jesuit schoolmasters would suggest ? Is 
 direct encouragement to practise hobbies an educating item in his 
 life at all ? And are the results of all this, seen in the stories he 
 weaves, the intelligence he evinces, the many-sided interest in his 
 life as he grows up — are the results worth attaining ? Why, ladies 
 and gentlemen, they are everything ; and you may give the name of 
 education to everything else^ but this is the thing itself. . The 
 
 boys, because they think and imagine in youth, can turn their 
 abilities in any quarter and can realise themselves as men. 
 
 "If the imagination, whether it be reproductive or inventive, be 
 trained, the child is trained instead of being taught." 
 
 "None of us yet know," Ruskin said, "for none of us have yet 
 been taught in early youth what fairy palaces we may build of 
 beautiful thought — proof against all adversity. Bright fancies, 
 satisfied memories, noble histories, faithful sayings, treasure-houses 
 of precious and restful thoughts ; which care cannot disturb, nor 
 pain make gloomy, nor povert)- take away from us — houses built 
 without hands, for our souls to live in." 
 
 We must remember this point also : — 
 
 "The reality we have not always with us, nor can we always go 
 to it or bring it to us; our best friends, our best scenery, even our 
 best exercise, we cannot always command. Hence the more urgent 
 need to command the living and perhaps the moving imagination of 
 such things — that imagination which is to the reality more than the 
 echo is to the cry, since it is not only the original impression sensed 
 once again, but an effect which can be reproduced from a single 
 original again and again, and need not grow weaker with the re- 
 petition." 
 
 And do not take and always use, as if they were 
 the sole sacred things, the words of others. First 
 *' sense " the picture ; then express it in your own 
 words. Last of all, perhaps, yea will find that the 
 
480 III. MENTAL HELPS. 
 
 words of others will bring up before you the idea; 
 but at first they almost certainly will not do so. 
 
 There are various ways of wording prayers, imag- 
 inations, or self-suggestions, or whatever we like to 
 call them. Use whichever you like. You can pro- 
 gress from "I want to be heathy" to "I will be 
 healthy," "I am really healthy," "I show forth 
 health." After each sentence let there be a still- 
 ness; let the echo of the sentence, as it were, be 
 your time for realisation. 
 
 As examples of self-suggestion, you can say, "I 
 want to be (or I am) healthy within " ; "I will do it 
 now with all my might"; "I'll play the game and be 
 sportsmanlike." 
 
 If that is not vivid, add ''as I was on such-and- 
 such an occasion," or "I'll play the game and be 
 sportsmanlike just as So-and-so is. This is the 
 opportunity of my life ; it is the chance that I 
 want." 
 
 Do not always say words. Sometimes write down 
 the sentences. When Napoleon wished to remember 
 a name, he heard it, he spoke it, he wrote it, then 
 threw away the paper. 
 
 Once more, word your ideas in your own way. I 
 have given above an example of the Lord's Prayer 
 worded in my own way, as I find it most helpful at 
 present. 
 
 I find it helpful, also, to precede this prayer by 
 a few reflections about its meaning. Scarcely any 
 
PRAYER, SELF-SUGGESTION, IMAGINATION. 481 
 
 book on English literature has impressed me so 
 much as one in which the commentary and explan- 
 ation of a passage, from de Quincey, etc., preceded 
 the passage itself. It interested me in that passage, 
 and I was then ready to read it with full under- 
 standing. So here, before I quote Walt Whitman's 
 great poem, "To You," it may be worth while for 
 the reader to know that the poem can be equally 
 well addressed by him as a suggestion or assertion 
 for himself, for one other, or for most others. 
 
 TO YOU. 
 Whoever you are, I fear you are walking the walk of dreams, 
 I fear these supposed realities are to melt from under your feet and 
 
 hands, 
 Even now your features, joys, speech, house, trade, manners, 
 
 troubles, follies, costume, crimes, dissipate away from you, 
 Your true soul and body appear before me. 
 They stand forth out of affairs, out of commerce, shops, work, 
 
 farms, clothes, the house, buying, selling, eating, drinking, 
 
 suffering, dying. 
 
 Whoever you are, now I place my hand upon you, that you be my 
 
 poem, 
 I whisper with my lips close to your ear, 
 I have loved many women and men, but I love none better than 
 
 yoQ. 
 
 I have been dilatory and dumb, 
 
 1 should have made my way straight to you long ago, 
 
 I should have blabb'd nothing but you, I should have chanted 
 
 nothing but you. 
 I will leave all and come and make the hymns of you, 
 None has understood you, but I understand you. 
 None has done justice to you, you have not done justice to yourself. 
 None but has found you imperfect, I only find no imperfection in 
 
 you, 
 
482 III. MENTAL HELPS. 
 
 None but would subordinate you, I only am he who will never 
 
 consent to subordinate you, 
 I only am he who places over you no master, owner, better, God, 
 
 beyond what waits intrinsically in yourself. 
 
 Painters have painted their swarming groups and the centre-figure 
 of all, 
 
 From the head of the centre-figure spreading a nimbus of gold- 
 coloured light. 
 
 But I paint myriads of heads, but paint no head without its nimbus 
 of gold-coloured light. 
 
 From my hand from the brain of every man and woman it streams, 
 eflfulgently flowing for ever. 
 
 I could sing such grandeurs and glories about you ! 
 
 You have not known what you are, you have slumber'd upon your- 
 self all your life. 
 Your eyelids have been the same as closed most of the time. 
 What you have done returns already in mockeries, 
 (Your thrift, knowledge, prayers, if they do not return in mockeries, 
 what is their return ?) 
 
 The mockeries are not you, 
 
 Underneath them and within them I see you lurk, 
 
 1 pursue you where none else has pursued you, 
 
 Silence, the desk, the flippant expression, the night, the accustomed 
 routine, if these conceal you from others or from yourself, they 
 do not conceal you from me. 
 
 The shaved face, the unsteady eye, the impure complexion, if these 
 balk others they do not balk me, 
 
 The pert apparel, the deform 'd attitude, drunkenness, greed, pre- 
 mature deatii, all these I part aside. 
 
 There is no endowment in man or woman that is not tallied in you, 
 There is no virtue, no beauty in man or woman, but as good as in 
 
 you. 
 No pluck, no endurance in others, but as good as in you. 
 No pleasure waiting for others, but an equal pleasure waits for you. 
 
 As for me, I give nothing to anyone except I give the like carefully 
 
 to you, 
 I sing the songs of the glory of none, not God, sooner than I sing 
 
 the songs of the glory of you. 
 
PRAYER, SELF-SUGGESTION, IMAGINATION. 483 
 
 Whoever you are ! 
 
 Whoever you are ! claim your own at any hazard ! 
 
 These shows of the East and West are tame compared to you, 
 
 These immense meadows, these interminable rivers, you are immense 
 and interminable as they. 
 
 These furies, elements, storms, motions of Nature, throes of appa- 
 rent dissolution, you are he or she who is master or mistress 
 over them. 
 
 Master or mistress in your own right over Nature, elements, pain, 
 passion, dissolution. 
 
 The hopples fall from your ankles, you find an unfailing sufficiency, 
 
 Old or young, male or female, rude, low, rejected by the rest, what- 
 ever you are promulgates itself. 
 
 Through birth, life, death, burial, the means are provided, nothing 
 is scanted, 
 
 Through angers, losses, ambition, ignorance, ennui, what you are 
 picks its way. 
 
 Or some of the following quotations may help you 
 more. Remember, by the way, that, as Thomas 
 Fuller says, ** It is best knocking in the nail over- 
 night and clinching it the next morning," if you 
 wish to give any self-suggestion or assertion or affir- 
 mation a fair trial. 
 
 " There is ideal health, success, happiness .... within me and 
 around me. With my body and mind I desire it. With my body 
 and mind I claim it, I realise it. With my body and mind I receive 
 it and express it. By my mind I connect the All-Life with my 
 body. The ideal is within me ; it is my only true Self, here and 
 now. I act from it as my basis. 
 
 '•'The Self is Peace (Purity); that Self am I. The Self is 
 Strength, that Self am I.' I^t him think how, in his innermost 
 nature, he is one with the Supreme Father ; how in that nature 
 he is undying, unchanging, fearless, free, serene, [pure], strong.' 
 (Mrs. Besaut.) 
 
 " Turn your thought as much as you can on health, strength, 
 and vigour, and on healthy, strong, vigorous, material things, such 
 as moving clouds, fresh breezes, the cascade, the ocean surge ; on 
 
 GG 
 
484 III. MENTAL HELPS. 
 
 woodland scenes and growing healthy trees ; on birds full of life 
 and motion ; for in doing so you turn on yourself a real current of 
 this healthy life-giving thought, wliich is suggested and brought 
 you by the thought of such vigorous, strong, material objects. 
 
 "What we see or feel of these is not all of these. It is only a 
 part, or their physical expression. Behind them, and unfelt of 
 physical sense, is another life, an element, a mystery, a spirit which 
 impels, moves, and grows them. 
 
 ' ' Our minds have the marvellous capacity of drawing to them- 
 selves this life and power. Once so drawn, it remains for eternity. 
 When you see a living tree, think or ask for the life of that tree and 
 you will get it. When you see a flower, ask for its beauty. When 
 you see the ocean, ask for its force. When you see anything alive 
 that is healthful, symmetrical, and well-proportioned, ask for that 
 health, symmetry, and proportion. God or the Supreme Power 
 enters into all these. They are parts of that Power, which moves 
 and acts in countless waves. It is in every shade of light and color 
 cast on sea and sky. When you set your mind for a second on any 
 one of these myriads of God's physical expressions you are com- 
 muning with God, drawing nearer and nearer to that Power, 
 making it more and more a part of yourself, and bringing to you 
 of the peculiar quality or power, or beauty, or health, or vigour 
 expressed in that physical thing. 
 
 " While the physical senses are active by day, they can, if so 
 directed, draw on these things. No business need be so absorbmg 
 but that a second can be so employed. That second draws some 
 force to y ou . " ( Prentice Mnlford. ) 
 
 '♦ I am the fresh taste of the water; I 
 
 The silver of the moon, the gold o' the sun. 
 
 The word of worship in the Veds, the thrill 
 
 That pas.seth in the ether, and the strength 
 
 Of man's shed seed. I am the good sweet smell 
 
 Of the moistened earth, I am the fire's red light. 
 
 The vital air moving in all which moves, 
 
 The holiness of hallowed souls, the rest 
 
 Undying, whence hath sprung whatever is ; 
 
 The wisdom of the wise, the intellect 
 
 Of the informed, the greatness of the great, 
 
 The splendour of the splendid." 
 
 ( The BhagavadgttA.) 
 
PRAYER, SELF-SUGGESTION, IMAGINATION. 485 
 
 Such words — if realised — will help to give us or 
 make clearer to us our ideal. Then, in spite of all, 
 we must hold to our ideal. As Dr. Nathan Oppen- 
 heim insists : — 
 
 " It must not for a single moment be allowed to slip away from 
 us. Then I say we shall find increasing use for each little applica- 
 tion of it, we shall Jind it affecting our work, our play, our loves ^ our 
 ambition. It will spread out till not an impulse of our lives is 
 allowed to wander in a random path, until all our energies are 
 directed and held down to the ultimate purpose as a strong clear- 
 sighted driver holds a swift horse to his course. 
 
 "After all is said, this is what we mean by an ideal. Commonly 
 the phrase is understood as meaning some impractical and intangi- 
 ble 'counsel of perfection,' at which one may look as a traveller 
 gazes at a beautiful rainbow that is far away, never to be reached, 
 likely at any moment to fade away. That is the conception of the 
 man who is not in earnest. The truly purposeful man has a diffe- 
 rent manner of proceeding. He realises that this thing is good and 
 that bad. that the goo<l thing may be hard to get. but is all the 
 more profitable from the difficulty of attainment. He wants it and 
 wants it badly, he wants it all the time, he wants it so much that he 
 will sacrifice ease and comfort and the quiet peace of his body, if 
 only he can obtain it. Not a day passes without some thought 
 being given to it, without some effort being made to attain it. .\nd 
 before very long his work begins to come true, little by little the 
 f)ower that he longed for falls upon him like a freshening breeze. 
 Even without his full recognition, he has been drawing near to his 
 ideal, his suggested condition. Then he sees as never before that 
 anything, within human limits, is possible for the man who wants 
 it hard enough." 
 
 Get your ambitions, then — some success — success 
 in play — in appearance if you like — in work, as an 
 engineer, speaker, what not ? Picture it vividly — 
 act it. Then say " Self-control and sensible self- 
 expression will help me to make this picture a real 
 fact. Self-control is worth while for every reason. 
 I am not such a fool as to sacrifice this fine success 
 
486 III. MENTAL HELPS. 
 
 for the sake of a meanness that I would not dare 
 
 in the presence of ." You will see at once that 
 
 you must have cultivated your imagination so as to 
 be able to call up the success and the friend, not 
 as mere words, or even as a filmy drawing in your 
 mind, but as a coloured and detailed and living 
 original. 
 
 CHAPTER XLII. 
 
 PRIVACY AND PUBLICITY. 
 
 BOTH privacy and publicity are good occasions 
 for prayer and self-suggestion. In privacy you 
 can be more leisurely and realise more genuinely,, 
 whereas in public you are more inclined to be regu- 
 lar; you are co-operating with a number of other 
 thinkers. Both privacy and publicity, again, are 
 useful for self-control, but in different ways. The 
 ideal is to be self-controlled both in private and in 
 public. Some kinds of self-control one should learn 
 in private, and then transfer to open life ; others vice 
 versa. The familiar words in Emerson's famous 
 Essay are worth repeating : 
 
 " It is easy in the world," he says, ** to live after 
 the world's opinion, in solitude to live after our own, 
 but the great man is he who in the midst of the 
 crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence 
 of solitude." 
 
 We might add also that the great man is he who- 
 in solitude keeps the purity which he would show in 
 
PRIVACY AND PUBLICITY. 487 
 
 publicity. A Hindu philosopher has expressed the 
 idea equally well. He says : " The ideal man is he 
 who in the midst of the greatest silence finds the 
 intensest activity, and in the midst of the intensest 
 activity finds the silence of the desert. He has learnt 
 the secret of restraint ; he has controlled himself; he 
 goes through the streets of a big city with all their 
 traffic, and his mind is as calm as if he were in a 
 cave where not a sound could reach him, and he is 
 working intensely all the time." 
 
 Privacy is the best chance for some of the simple 
 practices we have suggested. It is in privacy that I 
 have learnt part of the alphabet of athletics offered 
 in a previous chapter. It is in privacy that one uses 
 the various water-treatments, and so on. 
 
 It is in publicity, on the other hand, that one 
 learns a great deal of pluck and patience. Someone 
 told me he believed that many boys would not stand 
 up to fast bowling unless other boys were looking 
 on ; that they were really afraid to show their fear ; 
 they feared disgrace more than danger. And every 
 one knows the general effect of bright light, quite 
 apart from the presence of people. One authority 
 advises us, when we cannot get bright light, to ima- 
 gine the presence of certain people. I quote here 
 from "Avenues to Health," where Lilian Whiting's 
 words are cited : — 
 
 " If it were realised that the entire physical world 
 was open to the view of the entire ethereal world ; 
 that is to say, if it were believed that they whom 
 we call the dead saw clearly — far more clearly than 
 
488 III. MENTAL HELPS. 
 
 we here — the acts of persons in this world ; and not 
 only the acts, but the motive, the thought, the inten- 
 tion; if it were recognised that communication existed 
 between the two conditions of life — this life and the 
 one ' more abundant " — what a potent influence is at 
 once established to decrease the evil and increase 
 the good. Still more," she goes on to say, " if the 
 barriers grew so faint that those in the Seen realise 
 and recognise the nobler significance and the loftier 
 standards of that truer life, how all the ambitions 
 and aspirations of this part of life are purified and 
 ennobled and exalted." 
 
 The boy must know that there is nothing outside 
 him — even publicity — which he cannot put and keep 
 inside him, thanks to realisation and imagination. 
 If he has friends whose presence helps him, he can 
 secure their presence as a possession, thanks to his 
 memory and imagination. But most of us must 
 start with realities which we can actually " sense." 
 
 *' Publicity has been the safeguard. It has been 
 said that there was never a man so good that he was 
 not better for close watching. There was never a 
 man so bad but he would have refrained from bad- 
 ness had he known that the eyes of some friend were 
 fixed upon him. This truth is so important that the 
 city of Glasgow, alarmed at the crimes in a certain 
 tenement district, put electric lights very close to- 
 gether in all the alleys and dark stairways, so that 
 ever\' wrong-doer might stand in the light of obser- 
 vation ; and we are told that the record of crime in 
 Glasgow was immediately lessened." As Abraham 
 
PRIVACY AND PUBLICITY. 489 
 
 Cowley said, '* if the mind be possessed with any lust 
 or passions, a man had better be in a fair than in a 
 wood alone." 
 
 " But it is not always a matter of how many people 
 are near. The city ma\' be the most dangerous 
 solitude for the country boy or young man. In his 
 country home he was safe-guarded by his acquaint- 
 anceship. Everybody knew him, the light was 
 turned on his life, and this in itself is a restrain- 
 ing power. But no\N he is alone in the darkness 
 of non-acquaintanceship. Perhaps temptation does 
 not come to him immediately, but there is a vague 
 thrill in his thoughts that it is right at hand if he 
 wants to hnd it. When business is finished for the 
 day, the leisure evening comes. The churches are 
 closed, but the drink-places and pool-rooms and low- 
 resorts are open. The critical period in a young 
 man's day is the period between supper and bed- 
 time. What he does then is an index of character. 
 There is one church in our city to every 4,000 in 
 population ; there is one saloon to every 400." So 
 wrote an American. I may add that in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Leicester Square the Churches are 
 closed in the evening ; further North, Regent's Park 
 is closed ; the Music-Hails and Public-Houses are 
 wide open, attractively lighted, cheering to the eye 
 and perhaps also the ear. What wonder, then, that 
 whereas the Psalmist said " Heaviness may endure 
 for a night, but joy cometh in the morning," the 
 clerk too often says ** Work and heaviness may 
 endure for a day, but pleasure cometh in the even- 
 
490 in. MENTAL HELPS. 
 
 ing"? What sufficiently attractive interest is there 
 for his jaded mind and unexercised energies ? "In 
 naming the perils of the city," says Mr. Hoffman 
 Martin, " I should put among the first the loss of 
 the sense of individuality. In a crowded street this 
 lonely young man feels himself a mere drop in a 
 river, or a leaf drifting in the forest." 
 
 On the other hand, in apparent solitude there may 
 be the veriest publicity and companionship. As I 
 wrote elsewhere, '' let anyone constantly imagine 
 himself to be living in a vast room, lighted by a light 
 brighter than electric light, a room with no corners, 
 but filled with all the great and pure people of the 
 near and distant past, and with all his former 
 acquaintances, and then let him try to estimate the 
 power of this imagination for self-control and positive 
 purity. By * imagination ' I do not mean to imply 
 * unreality,' I merely allude to the picture-forming 
 faculty, whether that picture be actual or ideal." 
 
 The question will always be. What helps to form 
 the strong habit ? Is it privacy or publicity ? As an 
 example, take the question of bedrooms. Should 
 boys (who of course must have separate beds) have 
 separate bedrooms or cubicles, or should there be a 
 certain number together, under the care of a prefect, 
 in each bedroom. Authorities are divided. It de- 
 pends to a great extent on the master and his 
 influence over the boys; also on the class of boys. 
 But either system would be partly a failure unless it 
 enabled boys to be safe and sure if ever they had to 
 live with the opposite system. It is only as a pre- 
 
PRIVACY AND PUBLICITY. 49I 
 
 paration for self-control and satisfactory self-expres- 
 sion anywhere and anywhen that either privacy or 
 publicity can justify itself as the best general plan in 
 any sphere of life. In actual daily life they must 
 of necessitv alternate. 
 
PART IV 
 
 CONCLUDING CHAPTERS. 
 
 Chapter. 
 
 Fairc. 
 
 XLIII. — Si vis pacem, victoriam para 
 
 495 
 
 XLI v.— Who have the Power ? 
 
 499 
 
 XLV.— A Mother's Views 
 
 508 
 
 XLVL— Limitations and Objections 
 
 519 
 
 XLVII. — General Conclusions 
 
 528 
 
 XLVIIL— A Letter to a Hoy 
 
 535 
 
SI VIS PACEM, VICTORIAM PAKA. 495 
 
 CHAPTER XLIII. 
 
 SI VIS PACEM, VICTORIAM PARA, 
 
 THE old proverb said: If you want to have 
 peace, prepare for war. A far better proverb 
 seems to me : If you want to have peace, prepare for 
 victory. 
 
 The Russians prepared for war, the Japanese pre- 
 pared rather for victory. They concentrated their 
 minds as a nation on national success in case of war. 
 Nearly all the means which they employed — simple 
 diet, water, light, exercises, play, good nature, mode- 
 ration, etc. — also tended to general all-round fitness. 
 There was no idea that " Perhaps the Russians will 
 not fight." Russia might fight or might not. Japan 
 must win, and therefore must be ready to fight. An 
 article in the Daily Mail of Feb. 9, 1904, described 
 the state of affairs in the following words : — 
 
 " Japan has made all as certain as can be in this 
 uncertain world. There is not a likely or possible 
 accident for which the Japanese sailor is not pre- 
 pared. He is as familiar with the magic words,^ 
 * Clear for action,' as he is with the deck on which 
 he is accustomed to pass a great part of his life. He 
 has heard the order at least once a week since Japan 
 had a navy and he belonged to it. And good reason 
 he has to be ready in getting to work. Nowadays 
 the naval battle will last a ver\' short time, and the 
 slightest impediment to the working of guns or ship 
 might prove fatal. 
 
496 IV. CONCLUDING CHAPTERS. 
 
 ''There are many things on board a battleship 
 that, absolutely necessary for the health and comfort 
 of her crew in peace time, would be inconvenient in 
 the culminating hour of her existence. Therefore at 
 the order ' Clear for action ! ' not only must every 
 ounce of destructive and defensive energy on board 
 be in working order, but they must get rid of or 
 render harmless now dangerous impedimenta." 
 
 Now, in the case of our own lives, war is absolutely 
 certain ; but most of us want peace. Some prefer 
 hard struggles, yet even these people would be none 
 the worse if they prepared for victorj\ In ever)- 
 body's life a quantity of important battles, physical, 
 intellectual, and moral, have to be fought. It is 
 these battles that we must prepare as early as pos- 
 sible to win. And we win not so much during the 
 battles as long beforehand. 
 
 Timeliness — training when apparently there is no 
 need to train — that should be our way. As it is, we 
 bungle along hoping to get through somehow if once 
 the war is started. 
 
 It would be far better to perfect our mechanisms 
 as the Japanese did, by frequent drill. Able to rely 
 on their mechanisms, they performed feats which 
 seem like brilliant genius. These feats would have 
 been impossible without the perfect mechanisms. 
 Such mechanism was not accjuired during the cam- 
 paign ; it was habitual and easy long before then. 
 It was acquired by constant discipline at various 
 times. 
 
 Various times at which we can drill ourselves are 
 
SI VIS PACEM, VICTORIAM PARA. 497 
 
 directly we wake in the early morning, just before 
 and after work and meals, and just before sleep. 
 Some of the drills will be physical, some mental. 
 Among the best of the mental will be self-suggestion. 
 
 It is the " here and there " and the " now and 
 then " that win the victory ; and especially the here 
 and now. Just those little thoughts by the way side, 
 as Emerson calls them ; but thoughts consciously 
 and constantly repeated. There must be this inces- 
 sant repetition well before the crisis. 
 
 It has often struck me, in playing a match, how 
 the things that I have learnt most recently seem to 
 drop off. I thought that I had acquired a certain 
 stroke, but in time of stress I found that it had not 
 soaked in, as it were, much deeper than the surface. 
 It takes a long while to make a good habit ineradi- 
 cable. It needs an enormous amount of patience. 
 
 The person who tries to teach himself, particularly 
 if he begins after a certain age, is likely to despair 
 and to give up the struggle. It is important that 
 at first he should register many victories and no 
 failures. It does not matter how small the victories 
 are, so long as they are an unbroken succession to 
 give self-respect and self-confidence, to encourage 
 progress and pluck. I know one man who on this 
 principle went through a certain puzzle, which he 
 could work out easily, before he played any impor- 
 tant match. He did it with a certain sense of 
 humour. All the same he found it useful. It got 
 him into what we may call the habit of victor}-. 
 
 Another help to patience is to realise the issues 
 
49^ IV. CONCLUDING CHAPTERS. 
 
 at stake ; to realise how much depends upon the 
 coming victoty. Go through the map of life (in 
 Chapter X.), and see how the victor}- will help you 
 all-round. You will then be inclined to take any 
 amount of pains in preparing as for a ridiculously 
 easy victory, when there seems little or no prospect 
 even of a fight. 
 
 Fortunately hete the ways are, as with the Japa- 
 nese, not only for victory in ^ny particular struggle, 
 but also for positive and general fitness. 
 
 Some animals set us a pattern. Mr. Arthur 
 Mangin says : — 
 
 ** The individual who has not yet seen the advan- 
 tages of being read}' in season and out of season will 
 do well to investigate the matter. He will be sur^ 
 prised at the state of constant preparedness in which 
 even creatures far inferior to himself are to be found. 
 The actinie throw out their feelers and expand them- 
 selves when a continuance of fine weather is to be 
 expected, but withdraw and contract themselves, 
 even in a room, when a change is impending. The 
 mussels, before the approach of a storm, spin several 
 new threads to secure their hold on the rocks ; and 
 leeches rise to the surface of the water before rain. 
 Spiders enlarge their web during fine weather, but 
 spin only short threads, work seldom, or hide them- 
 selves in corners during rain. Before rain, bees re- 
 main either in their hives or in the neighbourhood of 
 them ; and ants convey deep into the hills the pupae 
 which they exjx)se to the sun in fine weather. If 
 the atmosphere be lowering in the morning, pigeons 
 
WHO HAVE THE POWER ? 499 
 
 feed rapidly, and return to their cots, and the hare 
 hides itself; but the mole comes to the surface of the 
 f^round, and the squirrel seeks its nest and shuts its 
 entrance." 
 
 Athletes also are not above practice on the track, 
 with the Punch-ball, etc. If a member of an 
 American College or University team refused to 
 train with the spool and in the cage and so on, for 
 Baseball, or with the dummy for tackling at Foot- 
 ball, he would be regarded as unloyal. Why have 
 we not a similar standard for life ? Surely not to 
 train for self-control is unloyal to all the groups to 
 which one belongs. And one belongs to all groups. 
 
 CHAPTER XLIV. 
 
 WHO HAVE THE POWER ? 
 
 IN answer to the question : Who have the power ? 
 I should say that there is no one who has not 
 the power, but that people differ in the degree of 
 their influence. 
 
 The earliest influence is that of the mother ; and, 
 considering this, I have asked a mother to give me 
 her views, which I have included in Chapter XLV. 
 The mothers teaching should be to a great extent 
 positive and through comparisons, especially in reply 
 to questions by the child. I remember my own first 
 introduction to this subject, at school. I remember 
 how many years passed before I began to realise the 
 right point of view. 
 
 HH 
 
500 IV. CONCLUDIN'G CHAPTERS. 
 
 The mother's pre-natal influence also is immense. 
 The child is formed and fed from her. If all her 
 thoughts influence her blood, and hence her whole 
 body, as they undoubtedly do, then she is living 
 the lives of two people at once. As to her food, 
 Mr. Albert Broadbent says : " It is now abundantly 
 proved that wise selection and adjustment of food 
 will greatly lessen the discomforts of pregnancy, and 
 also reduce the pains and dangers of childbirth to a 
 minimum. [It must be remembered that discomfort 
 and pain are emotions that tend to poison the body 
 chemically and pull it down and break it up physio- 
 logically]. This is accomplished by a free use of 
 salad foods, also fruit, [fine wholemeal] bread, milk 
 [or milk-products], and quite fresh eggs [always in 
 case such things agree]. Such a diet makes the 
 mother's body healthier, and the head and limbs of 
 the unborn child smaller and more supple, so that it 
 is born easily and quickly." 
 
 Then there comes the food, which is usually under 
 the mother's management. It is time for most 
 mothers to give up the idea that, because they 
 " love " their children, therefore they naturally know 
 the best food for their " loved " ones. The propor- 
 tion of children that are born healthy is enormous ; 
 so is the proportion of children that die as children, 
 thanks to wrong or deficient or excessive food. 
 " Physiologists and medical men," says Mr. Broad- 
 bent, " are generally agreed that flesh food is not 
 good for young children, but, if withheld, its place 
 should be taken by milk, etc. . . It is a great 
 
WHO HAVE THE POWER ? 5OI 
 
 mistake to feed little ones who are constantly 
 hungry', with soups and such sloppy foods flavoured 
 with meat, as it fills them without supplying 
 nourishment." 
 
 The errors that most mothers make are too 
 numerous to be even cited here. What I wish to 
 emphasise is that they have the power while the 
 child is a child, and that they ought to be educated 
 — long before they become mothers — as to the proper 
 food and training for children, and for themselves. 
 They ought to be warned how their own mistakes 
 may seriously injure their own children some day. 
 The eminent nerve-specialists, Professors Proust and 
 Ballet, have some clear words on the subject : — 
 
 ' ' Life in society . . . exposes those who lead it to multiple 
 sources of fatigue. None are more busy, it is said, than those who 
 do nothing. . . . Those who go out much, and especially 
 women, have their whole day taken up by the duties that conven- 
 tion and the vain care of their reputation impose on them : visits, 
 dinners, balls, evening parties make their life one of continual con- 
 straint, and of obligations without respite. ... If one reflects 
 on the conditions of life in society, as it is led among us, on the 
 excitements of all sorts that it occasions, on the physical fatigues 
 that it brings on, and that almost inevitably result from the habit 
 of too long and too copious meals in rooms that are often over- 
 heated, on late hours, and on insufficiency of sleep, at least of sleep 
 at the proper times, one will not be astonished. . . . Such a 
 wholly artificial and fictitious existence almost necessarily brings in 
 its train a sort of moral over-pressure, due to paltry efforts made to 
 realise the whims of vanity, or the vexations of self-esteem that the 
 incomplete satisfaction of those whims occasions. Nothing is so 
 enervating, nothing so fitted to unbalance and weaken the nervous 
 system, as to be wholly taken up with the pursuit of pleasure and 
 the satisfaction of the least elevated and least noble desires. ' ' 
 
 An American writer insists on the mother's duties, 
 in equally forcible language : — 
 
502 IV. CONCLUDING CHAPTERS. 
 
 " Is it a hard thing to require of the mother that 
 she shall devote herself so closely to her child ? Let 
 her remember that motherhood is her business now 1 
 She has had her school-life, she has had society, she 
 has had literature, she has had wifehood — now she is 
 a mother, pledged by the sacredness and the infinite 
 import of this new calling to self-abnegation, to the 
 highest good of the child to whom she stands as 
 creator and providence ! And, besides, how short 
 is the time of this close devotion of the mother I 
 Only a few years, and so quickly flown, and the 
 self-dependent life of the child begins, and then the 
 mother may go back to her queenship in society, all 
 the more a queen ; or she may take up her books,, 
 or her pen, enlarged and enriched in nature by the 
 deep experiences of motherhood." 
 
 The place of the mother is sometimes taken by 
 the nurse or nursemaid, and soon by the governess. 
 The mother should say a word to them on such 
 matters, so that there shall be no opposition. The 
 mother must be careful to choose servants who have 
 the right point of view. She must remember how 
 much hangs on the early impressions of children. 
 
 Perhaps the father's work may begin somewhat 
 later than the mother's. Whereas the mother would 
 emphasise the beautiful and pure side of the matter, 
 the responsibility and the privilege, the father, while 
 not neglecting that side, may later on say a word 
 or two about the mistakes. A suggestion has been 
 made as to the notching of a tree, in order to show 
 how fatal are the losses of sap. In this case the 
 
WHO HAVE THE POWER ? 5O3 
 
 father works on the Hnes I suggested. He teaches 
 at first by means of comparisons. That is how the 
 mother should generally teach also. 
 
 In fact, as a makeshift solution of the problem : 
 When shall we teach the child ? I should say teach 
 it truth, including direct truth, immediately it begins 
 to ask questions. Teach it further truth of your 
 own accord by means of comparisons. But in no 
 case, if you can help it, check the child's curiosity, 
 driving that curiosity back into the child's self. If 
 30U do this, one day the child will turn its curiosity 
 towards a wrong source of information. 
 
 The work of teachers is similar to the work of 
 parents. I have said a word or two about methods, 
 in'Chapter XXXVII., and about subjects for lessons, 
 in Chapter XXXVIII. The teacher will, above all, 
 need to be tactful. I remember one case at Cam- 
 bridge. A ver}' popular proctor was walking behind 
 a man who was inclined to do what he would have 
 better left undone. The proctor did not proceed to 
 abuse him, but simply remarked to one of his " bull- 
 dogs " : *' If I were that man, I don't think I should 
 be such a fool as to go about in such company." He 
 said nothing directly to the man, but his words were 
 perfectly successful. The man realised that he would 
 have been a fool, and stopped himself. 
 
 The fact was that he had sympathy with the man. 
 Teachers must have sympathy with boys. Their 
 best opportunity is in games, by means of which 
 they can learn the characters of different boys. If 
 they find this hard, then at any rate they can read 
 
504 IV. CONCLUDING CHAPTERS. 
 
 living books about boys, such as " The Golden Age,'* 
 "Vice Versa," Stalky'and Co.," *'The Human Boy." 
 
 They are bound to find that individuahty is ex- 
 tremely hard to take into account. A way which 
 will suit one boy will harm another. But much of 
 the difficulty will disappear if there is co-operation 
 between mother, father, and teacher. I know many 
 teachers who habitually make parents co-operate 
 with them. 
 
 They also, as in the cases pointed out in Chap- 
 ter VI., get their prefects, the big boys in the school, 
 to help them in the work. Choosing by preference 
 the leading athletes, they make these responsible for 
 the smaller boys. 
 
 Among teachers we may include writers of books 
 and articles, and preachers of sermons, and even 
 ordinary- speakers and talkers. These have more 
 power than they remember. 
 
 Doctors hold an important position. The subject 
 of self-control many of them unfortunately regard 
 not as part of the very heart and the web and woof 
 of the boy's life, but as the fringe of a subject, and 
 not a clean fringe either, but a fringe draggled in 
 and soiled by mud. It is essential that they who 
 have the power should put the boys on the clean 
 and right track of thought and conduct. No one 
 else can do for the boys what the doctor can. In 
 my ow n experience, no class of people could have 
 done less for boys in this respect than the doctors.* 
 How much have they done, as a class ? 
 
 • Tliere have been some very striking individual exceptions, 
 especially in recent years. 
 
WHO HAVE THE POWER ? 505 
 
 Besides the above, there are the sisters — and other 
 girls. They should be educated properly themselves, 
 and, as far as possible, should be co-educated with 
 the boys. The plan has its drawbacks, and at a 
 certain age the girl with her hair hanging down 
 behind her, the kind of girl who is seen on the 
 parade of a seaside- town, is not a healthy com- 
 panion for a boy. The girl, too, has her awkward 
 age. Hut before then, and again soon after then, 
 the more free intercourse there is between boys and 
 girls, so long as there is tact on the part of the 
 teachers, the better it will be for both sexes and 
 for the nation. 
 
 All these people — parents, servants, teachers, 
 preachers, doctors, and relations — have vast influ- 
 ence if they will use it. They should be able be- 
 tween them to draw out the rotten threads and 
 thoughts from the boy's mind and to put clean and 
 strong threads in their place. But it would be 
 better if the clean and strong threads were put in 
 first — threads that no amount of strain would after- 
 wards be able to break. We may regard the boy's 
 mind as a rope, remembering that in the ver\' centre 
 of the rope are the threads which are formed early 
 in life. Let the rope be rotten at the centre, and 
 the rot will spread outwards, so that, even though 
 the later threads be good, they will not be nearly so 
 effective as good inmost threads would have been. 
 It is the earliest teaching that counts most. 
 
 Boys, however, must do much of the work for 
 themselves, by reading and by putting into practice 
 
506 IV. CONCLUDING CHAPTERS. 
 
 the ideas that appeal to them most, and by sticking 
 to their practice, their self-training, like men — only 
 much more sensibly ! They must be prepared for a 
 certain amount of chaff, less to-day probably than 
 ever before. But if they are fairly athletic, and 
 especially if they can box, they need not be afraid 
 of that ! 
 
 And self-suggestion is a help which the}' can use 
 without fear of chaff. No one need guess it ; though 
 they can speak about it to any boy whom they see 
 in difficulties. A small boy will listen to and adopt 
 from a big boy what he will not not listen to and 
 adopt from a master, or even from a parent. 
 
 The boy should suggest to himself again and again 
 at odd times, but without posing as a prig, and 
 indeed without letting others guess what he is doing, 
 that within him he is pure and poised. He must 
 understand that the purity and poise will show 
 themselves if he provides good conditions. He must 
 see to as good conditions as he can get — cleanness, 
 right positions of the body, sensible exercise, leisurely 
 eating, leisurely breathing, and so on, till the purity 
 and poise have become pleasant instincts. 
 
 Not the least important part of his self-teaching 
 will be the help that he gives to others, partly by 
 silent self-suggestions about them (these cannot pos- 
 sibly harm anyone), partly by a tactful hint here and 
 there. My own experience of teaching is that I 
 learnt far the most when I was trying to teach 
 someone else. 
 
 The boy must remind himself of his responsibilities 
 
WHO HAVH THE POVVKK ? 507 
 
 as well of his powers within. He must see that self- 
 control is a good game to win, and, even if he fails, 
 he must not lose heart : he must make up his mind 
 to play the game and practise more sensibly than 
 ever before. 
 
 Too much do we encourage bo\s to despise them- 
 selves. Boys need some such tonic as Emerson 
 gives them in his essay on Self- Reliance. Of course 
 it may make a boy here and there obnoxious and 
 a prig; but that will be the exception. In most 
 cases it will improve the boy if he does not feel 
 himself to be a parrot whose ideal is to repeat 
 the exact words of his teacher or text-book. He 
 should be encouraged : he should be told that a 
 great deal rests in his hands, a great deal which is 
 of importance to the family, the school, the nation, 
 posterity. *'As much depends upon his private act 
 to-day as upon the act of any great man " — any 
 politician or general to-day or in the past. In a few 
 3'ears' time he will be a young man, and he may 
 as well know now how vast a proportion of the well- 
 being of a people depends upon its young men. 
 
 Daniel Hoffman Martin, in "■ How men are Made," 
 has an excellent chapter on them. He says : — 
 
 " The destiny of our nation for weal or woe is in the hands of its 
 young men. It is astonishing to see the vast numbers of young men 
 who are already holding positions of great responsibility ; but this is 
 nothing new." Though he e.xaggerates the importance of young 
 men, for example, as contrasted with mothers, yet he brings out a 
 long array of instances — I take them in the order in which he gives 
 them : Saul, David, Solomon, Alexander the Great, Julius Caisar, 
 Charlemagne, Charles XII. of Sweden, Saul, Stephen, John the 
 Baptist, Jesus, the apostles, Calvin, Luther, Pascal, Napoleon, 
 
508 IV. CON'CLUDING CHAPTERS. 
 
 George Washington, Lafayette, Alexander Hamilton, Edmund 
 Burke. Isaac Newton, Lord Bacon, Watt, Byron, Shelley, Keats, 
 Burns, Raphael, Mozart. Then he goes on to say: "Stand on 
 any of the great arteries of our travel in our (American) cities, 
 and notice the tide of young men. Go into any shop, or store, 
 or factory, or office." Then he quotes statistics about the sol- 
 diers and sailors in the war against Spain, 95 per cent, of the 
 volunteers being under twenty-five years of age ; about the 
 public officials ; about leaders of thought in Congress ; about 
 judges; about book-and-paper-publishing and other businesses [he 
 instances Scribner's, whose managers ranged from 25, 26 and 27 to 
 35 ; one might compare, in England, Mr. C. Arthur Pearson and 
 the Harmsworth Brothers] ; about commercial travellers. It was 
 Goethe who said that the destiny of a nation depends on the 
 opinion of the young men who are under twenty-five years of age. 
 Of a truth, maxima debetiir pueris reverentia. 
 
 CHAPTER XLV. 
 
 A mother's views. 
 
 IN recent years many ladies have written on the 
 subject of the teaching of children about the 
 laws of sex. I q-uote here several passages from 
 various books, and I add a few suggestions ver>" 
 kindly sent me by one who has not yet written a 
 book on the subject. 
 
 Mrs. Mary Wood Allen begins by saying that " the 
 child is an animated interrogation-point, and it is 
 not ignoble curiosity, but a commendable desire for 
 knowledge, that leads him constantly to ask, Why ? 
 Whence? Whither? Nature is to him an open book 
 which he delights in, and which he has a God-given 
 
A MOTHER S VIEWS. 509 
 
 right to read : and if he cannot spell out the hard 
 words without help, his parents [and other managers] 
 are divinely ordained to be his teachers." 
 
 Then she gives an instance of how a mother might 
 answer a child's perfectly innocent question : — 
 
 'Mamma, how big was I when I was made? " asked a little boy. 
 It would have been easy in reply to have indicated the size of the 
 new-born child, but this mother was too wise and far-seeing ; she 
 saw in this tjuestion her opportunity. Taking the child upon her 
 knee, she said : — 
 
 "When you were made, my dear, you were but a tiny speck, not 
 so big as the point of a needle. You could not have been seen 
 except with a microscope." 
 
 " Why, mamma, if I was as small as that I should think I would 
 have been lost." 
 
 " So you would, dear child, if the kind Heavenly Father had not 
 taken especial care of you. He knew how precious little babies 
 are, and so he has made a little room in the mother's body, where 
 they can be kept from all harm until they are big enough to live 
 their own separate lives." 
 
 •• And did I live in such a little room in you? " 
 
 "Yes, dear." 
 
 "' Hut how did I eat and breathe? " 
 
 "I ate and breathed for you." 
 
 •' Did you know I was there ? " 
 
 "Yes. Sometimes your little hand or foot would knock on the 
 wall of the room, and I would feel it and would say, ' my darling 
 speaks to me and says. ' Mother. I am here: ' and then I would say, 
 'Good morning, little one, mother loves you'; and then I would 
 try to think how you would look when I should see you." 
 
 " How long was I there, mamma ? " 
 
 •• Three-quarters of a year, and you grew and grew every day, 
 and because I wanted you to be happy. I tried to be happy all the' 
 time, and I was careful to eat good food so that you might be 
 strong, and I tried to be gentle, kind, persevering, in fact, every- 
 thing that I wanted you to be, for I knew that everj'thing I did 
 would help to make you what you were to be." 
 
 " But mamma, how did what you ate feed me ? " 
 
5IO IV. CONCLUDING CHAPTERS. 
 
 " My food was made into blood, and the blood was carried to 
 you and nourished you." 
 
 " But how ? " 
 
 " Did you ever see mamma make a dumpling ? " 
 
 "Yes. You took the dough and put the apple in and gathered 
 the dough all up in one place and pinched it together," 
 
 " Yes, and you are much like a dumpling. Your skin is folded 
 around you like the dough around the apple and is gathered to- 
 gether in one place on the front of the body, We call it the navel. 
 Before you were born the skin at this point was continued in a long 
 cord which was connected with mamma, and through it the blood 
 was carried to you. When the time came for you to go out into 
 the world to live apart from me, the door of your little room opened 
 with much pain and suffering to me, and then you came into the 
 world, or were born, as we say. Then the cord, or tube, that 
 connected you to me was cut, and, healing up, formed the navel or 
 place where the skin of the whole body is gathered together. When 
 you drew your first breath into your lungs, you cried, and then I 
 knew you were alive, and I laughed, and said, * Is it a boy or girl? * 
 After you were washed and dressed they brought you to me and 
 laid you on my arm and for the first time I saw the face of the little 
 baby I had loved so long. And now you can understand why you 
 are so dear to me." 
 
 " O, mamma, now I know why I love you best of all the world,'' 
 exclaimed the child, with warm embraces and with loving tears in 
 his eyes. Was that not better than to have told him an untruth or 
 even a half-truth, or to have left him to learn concerning himself 
 from impure, thoughtless, or lying lips of some chance comrade or 
 acquaintance ? 
 
 " I am often asked, *When young should a child be told these 
 things ? ' I reply ' When he begins to ask (questions.' This time 
 will differ in different children. I have in my possession a letter 
 from a mother saying that her four-year-old son had often asked 
 . her ' Where does the baby come from ? ' and she had postponed 
 the reply. One morning he climbed into her bed and repeated his 
 <iuery. They were alone. She felt that his curiosity would lead 
 him to ask the question of those who would give him an immediate, 
 but probably an impure answer, and so she told him the truth. ' I 
 trembled,' she writes, 'as I did it, but I believe God led me, for 
 
A mother's views. 511 
 
 when 1 concluded he kissed me over and over again, saying,. 
 * Mamma, 1 love you so much, and this is our secret, isn't it ? ' 
 
 " This statement of the child indicates that he will as gladly keep 
 the story a sweet secret with mother as he would keep it an evil 
 secret with someone else. 
 
 " A fear sometimes arises that evil thoughts will be awakened in 
 the child's mind by this telling of the truth. Hut this will depend 
 altogether on the way in which it is told. There is never the same 
 danger from the relation of the facts by the pure-minded father or 
 mother as from the evil companion. I have yet to learn of one 
 instance where, if the facts were judiciously given, the result was to 
 be deplored." 
 
 Then she goes on to speak of the vulgar profana- 
 tion of the word ** love " : — 
 
 " Must love be ever treated with profaneness, as a mere illusion ; 
 or with shame, as a mere weakness ; or with levity, as a mere acci- 
 dent ? Whereas it is a great mystery and a great necessity, lying 
 at the foundation of human existence, morality, and happiness^ 
 mysterious, universal, inevitable as death." 
 
 Elsewhere she \\ rites as follows : — 
 
 '• . . . . That is what Dr. Brice meant when he said that 
 mother's good care of her health had overcome in us children to a 
 great extent the tendency to consumption which is in her family. 
 Nearly all my cousins on her side died with it. but when she was a 
 little girl her father made her live out of doors all the time and she 
 grew strong, and we none of us seem to have any tendency to 
 consumption. 
 
 " You see then the value of caring for yourself in youth, not only 
 for your own sake but for that of your children. Your mother did 
 not know that she would ever have children to be benefited by her 
 out-door life. But one day she met a young man who pleased her. 
 and as they grew to know each other better they came to love each 
 other so that they wished to leave home and friends and make their 
 own home and live their united lives separate and apart from all 
 the rest of the world. So they were married, as we say. Marriage 
 is the closest and most sacred human relation. In this relation the 
 seed of the man unites with the germ or ovum of the woman and 
 a new life is begun. When your parents knew that such a little 
 
512 IV. CONCLUDING CHAPTERS. 
 
 life had begun in their liome they felt a great and holy joy, and 
 desired that every good might surround it in its development. 
 You were the first to come into your father's home. After your life 
 had begun you were still so small as not to be visible to the naked 
 eye, and would have been lost had you come into the world. But 
 a home had been prepared for you in your mother's body, where 
 day by day you grew and grfew. The food which she ate nourished 
 you as well as herself. The air which she breathed was life to you 
 as well as to her. 
 
 " You have seen the father-bird bringing food to the mother-bird 
 as she sits upon her eggs and waits for the birdlings to come forth, 
 and you have thought it a pretty sight to watch his tender care of 
 her. Even so your father watched over your mother and you. He 
 provided everything as pleasant as possible, he removed every care 
 from her path so that she might be happy and so make you happy. 
 His love for her took on a new and strange tenderness it had not 
 known before. And she, holding you warm and close in the 
 embrace of her body, thought of you and loved you. She wondered 
 how you would look ; she dreamed of you ; she fancied she could 
 feel the touch of your fluttering fingers ; she made your little ward- 
 robe and with each stitch wove in some tender thought of the baby 
 whom she had never seen. Then one day she cried out with great 
 anguish of body but joy of heart, ' O, my baby is coming.' Then 
 through long hours she suffered, going down almost to the gates of 
 death that you might have life. But she never murmured ; in 
 spite of all her pain and anguish of body her very soul was full of 
 rejoicing that soon she would hold you in her arms. When all 
 those hours of peril and anxiety were past and you were laid in 
 your mother's arms, your father came and bent over you both with 
 a measureless love, and looking into your little face they knew what 
 the Scripture meant when it said, ' And they twain shall be one 
 flesh,' for were not you a living fulfilment of that saying ? You 
 were a part of each united in a living being who belonged to them 
 both. Then for the first time could they realise, even dimly, the 
 yearning tender love of their heavenly Father who had granted 
 them to know by experience his feelings towards his children. " 
 
 In few facts does prudery manifest itself more 
 ridiculously than in this — that, whereas children are 
 told to worship God as their Father- Spirit, they are 
 
A MOTHER S VIEWS. 513 
 
 not told a word as to how a Father begets children. 
 If they did reason by analogy, they would probably 
 guess that God first found them somewhere or had 
 them brought by a doctor ; how should they suspect 
 what after all is the very foundation of true religion 
 and the very foundation of the self-respect and pride 
 which cannot be unworthy or mean — that children 
 are not in the first instance discovered in a father's 
 house and provided by him with food and clothing, 
 but are formed of the very essence of his blood and 
 life, of that most precious part of him for which the 
 whole commonwealth of the body contributes all the 
 best that it has. I do not believe ordinary' children 
 can feel that they were borne of God and were — and 
 are directly they realise it — not only God's children 
 but in their inmost nature God's spiritual blood and 
 life, until they know something of their own physical 
 source. What other " point of contact in teaching " 
 have we with children ? For my own part, I can- 
 didly say that every time I called God Father, till 
 a few years ago, I had absolutely no sense of what 
 the word implied. Yet nothing would have given me 
 so closely a realisation of unity with God, so great a 
 safeguard against that idea of separateness from God 
 which is at the root of all sin and misery; and, I may 
 add, nothing would have given me such confidence in 
 my physical father and mother, such willingness to 
 go to them for advice — a willingness which if not 
 born and fostered early is likely never to be born at 
 all — a willingness that many parents pray for but do 
 not take the simplest means to obtain. 
 
514 I^'- CONCLUDING CHAPTERS. 
 
 The first objection to such teaching is that it may 
 put unhealthy ideas into the children's heads, arous- 
 ing the wrong kind of curiosity. But, if the mother 
 or some clean person puts the ideas there first, then 
 at least the child is given the best chance of a pure 
 and right and inspiring view of these things. The 
 first education in them from other sources is not 
 likely to be clean. I grant the difficulties. First of 
 all the mother must know the subject, and must feel 
 the purity of that about which she is speaking. She 
 must be convinced, or must convince herself. Then 
 she must have and use tact and discretion. Her best 
 opportunity is when the child asks a question ; but 
 she may have to anticipate some questions. The 
 very essence of her success is that the child should 
 have confidence in her, and come to her at once in 
 any difficulty ; for the two heads are sure to be 
 better than one. 
 
 This confidence she could get by sharing some 
 of the child's exercises, such, for instance, as I 
 have offered in Chapter XXV. And then she should 
 play a great deal with the child, sympathise with 
 the child's play, not be impatient at hearing the 
 details of the score in that apparently trivial match 
 at Cricket. She should sympathise with the boy's 
 work, and show similar patience when he tells how 
 many marks he got in history for the week. If the 
 mother has a child at all, then that child has the 
 first claim upon her, upon her time, her interestv 
 her ingenuity. F'or the sake of that child she must 
 be not only fit, but also intelligent and tactful. 
 
r Of THt X 
 
 1 UNIVERSITY I 
 
 V « OF .J 
 
 A mother's views. 515 
 
 And she will find that, in order to be fit and in- 
 telligent and tactful, she scarcely needs to go beyond 
 practising those things which will help her whole 
 life equally, so that, while she is helping her child, 
 she will also be furthering her own most selfish 
 happiness. 
 
 Here are some examples of the things about which 
 no one could possibly instruct a child nearly so well 
 as his parents. I feel that ever}'one will agree with 
 the writer here. The following words seem to me 
 to give the right point of view for a mother — as 
 distinct from a parent — to consider. ^^How a child's 
 mind is opened to the mystery of birth and creation 
 and the division of power in these matters must be of 
 supreme importance. I don't claim to have solved 
 the problem, but I have thought about it — and the 
 thing I hold on to and must hold on to is tnith. 
 Hole-and-cornerness — ' Hsshh,' 'Don't talk about 
 that,' ' We never mention those things ' — cannot be 
 a sound line in teaching. Somebody will mention 
 them, sometime ; and refined muslin mothers have 
 no right to burk them : fathers haven't either, but a 
 mother is most with a young child, so it lies most 
 with her. 
 
 " Whatever question he asks me, I think a minute 
 (is it that I pray to my cleverest and highest self to 
 give me good words and good help and a clear 
 unfaltering glance ?) and tell him the truth as far as I 
 know it. He takes in what he is ready for; possibly 
 his * subluminous consciousness ' registers a bit more 
 which he will soon or sometime be ready for — at any 
 
 II 
 
5l6 IV. CONCLUDING CHAPTERS. 
 
 rate I have planted no lie ; there is no false growth 
 seeded down to be uprooted later. 
 
 '* One must first deal with oneself so as to get the 
 point of view that nothing in Nature can be shock- 
 ing. A farm and Nature-study of the practical 
 rather than the precious Kindergarten kind helps 
 here. 
 
 '* I don't say that it is the one plan with a girl, 
 but I know it must be a good one with a boy : it 
 is a simple choice — myself, who know some little, 
 purely ? or this groom or the farm-lad, who knows 
 much impurely; or a fellow schoolboy, later, who 
 has overheard that joke on the hearthrug ? 
 
 '' He knows all about creatures being built up 
 inside their mothers; I work from the hen's egg 
 base. It is not indecent of a hen to 'have' an egg — 
 but it is quite shocking in a cow to * lay ' a calf ! He 
 does not know the mystery of procreation — but this 
 is simply because he has not asked. The minute he 
 does — he shall hear it. I shall not bother with 
 flowers (oh, by the way, he has heard about pollen, 
 etc. — and it did not much impress him — no doubt 
 he did not understand) ; I shall no doubt go straight 
 to the animal method. 
 
 *' One has to remember that nearly all grown-up 
 people, of our generation and still more of the last, 
 being brought up wrong, had a mountain of inde- 
 cency to climb over before they saw a right point of 
 view, before they topped the ridge. As an instance, 
 brought up in the countr}- I could not stand even a 
 reference to the cat being about to have kittens ; the 
 
A mother's vii:ws. 517 
 
 smallest approach in anybody's conversation to any- 
 thing like this element in life — and I left the room. 
 . . . Why need I ever have been wrong about it? 
 
 " When the boy reaches the point of learning 
 about procreation, the moment has surely arrived to 
 implant in him that respect for his own powers-to-be 
 which will carry him on, helped by his interest in 
 that fine development of his body and his health 
 which is fostered by games, till about fifteen to 
 seventeen (according to the boy) when the true 
 significance of attraction and the love-motive ma)' 
 be put before him. 
 
 '' Another point : I notice a tendency in many to 
 differentiate, as I think arbitrarily, between the 
 various organs of the body, no doubt between the 
 functions. This is a wrong line to take. You would 
 hold the chest sort of ' higher ' than the groin, 
 let us say, and the function of the brain ' higher ' 
 than the function of the stomach. This seems to 
 work out plausibly when they are dealing with the 
 trunk. But when do they begin again in the scale ? 
 The flanks and thighs that hold up the whole of it 
 or carry it about — how do they rank ? the legs and 
 feet, how they ? Do these people put them many 
 marks below the hands and arms because they are 
 less clever and do less harm? This seems to me all 
 wrong — and dangerous. 
 
 "There is such a pitiful tendency to mauvaise haute 
 in a man's view of himself; this wants replacing by 
 the finest kind of pride, and scrupulousness must 
 surely follow. 
 
5l8 IV. CONCLUDING CHAPTERS. 
 
 *' People have such nasty ideas about niceness. 
 
 " Personally, I think that humour is a terrible 
 agent, employed as one knows it to be, in drawings, 
 in anecdotes, in rhymes, etc. Could it ever be ex- 
 plained that some things are not funny, that some 
 others have no business to be ; that there are worse 
 jokes than jokes about the Bible? It is a strange 
 fact that an indecent rhyme or couplet, once heard,. 
 never fades out of one's mind. The men who stand 
 upon the billiard-room hearthrug after dinner and 
 repeat these things to clear-minded boys and wait 
 for a senile sort of giggle, do want kicking pretty 
 badly. 
 
 " And the responsibilities of parents and nurses 
 and guardians and nurser}'-governesses and every- 
 body who has to do with children ! What a boy 
 knows is so horribly dependent on what they know ; 
 most of them know nearly everything all wrong, or 
 elect to tell the wrong part of a thing, even when 
 they know the right part. 
 
 " I am convinced an immense amount of evil 
 begins in the nurser}- ; I have carefully studied the 
 views of all my friends' nurses and my own nurse's 
 views and what she had to say and do in previous 
 places." 
 
 Then the training of girls is equally important. 
 Here is a description of a certain class of girls, as 
 they too often are, at that time when they might be 
 most helpful to boys : — 
 
 '* It seems all right when they are young — say up to ten; but the 
 most horrible co<iue try comes out in girls — town-bred, shop-window- 
 fed girls — after that age, when they begin to have fringes and waists 
 
LIMITATIONS AND OBJECTIONS. 519 
 
 and busts and to want their miserable school-books carried for 
 them. Really, I'd shoot half of the ones I see about in seaside 
 places and towns and parades, with their tiresome hair half up and 
 half down, and tlieir transparent lace. 
 
 "From eighteen. esj-)ecially in the country and where there are 
 games, or at art-schools and extension lectures and such-like larks 
 — I would let them mix freely. But the previous period of too- 
 much calf and figure and valentines — I feel as if I could shut girls 
 up or drown them off their favourite pier, just below the bandstand, 
 and not ever a life-buoy should come near them, much less the real 
 article. 
 
 "At colleges I am confident the sexes should mix; girls, for the 
 most part, are splendidly neutral then, and intellect and ' views ' 
 and goo<l influence are rampant — and wholesome. .\lso, they all 
 believe in Platonics, then ; and boys can be got to * take this on,' 
 being themselves seriously disposed or else averse from womankind 
 and given to games or books or sport." 
 
 Of course there will be problems — some of them 
 extremely difficult, as we acknowledge in the follow- 
 ing chapter, but, if the mother is really fit, the 
 problems will all, or nearly all, disappear ; she will 
 probably find that the solution of them comes of its 
 own accord, so long as her health is sound. 
 
 CHAPTER XLVI. 
 
 LIMITATIONS AND OBJECTIONS. 
 
 IN previous chapters several objections were freely 
 . admitted. Here others will be added. 
 In the first place, in spite of the varied helps 
 suggested in this book, even now I may not have 
 prescribed for some individuals. But at least I 
 have not put forward any prescription as an infal- 
 lible panacea. At least I have been candid. The fatal 
 
520 IV. CONXLUDING CHAPTERS. 
 
 crime of fanatic crankiness is that it imposes one 
 way on all alike and admits no possible objections 
 or failures. A certain way suits one person; it does 
 not suit others, even when they have faith in the 
 exponent. When that way, in spite of the gorgeous 
 promises, proves a failure, then they tend to lose con- 
 fidence in all ways. Here I am as candid as possible, 
 offering many ways as worth a fair trial, no more. 
 So, when I was asked to give some exercises for the 
 readers of Pearson's Weekly, I gave samples for 
 what they were worth after fair trial. Some readers 
 thought them " grand " ; others objected to them 
 because there was not enough strain and stress. 
 Similarly, with diet, I have hundreds of letters 
 telling of the success of my diet, and I have some 
 letters telling of its failures. I see no harm in recom- 
 mending my ways, so long as I give them a fair 
 advertisement, and admit that they are not faultless, 
 but have failed sometimes. 
 
 The mention of diet calls to my mind a very 
 serious objection to the purest diet of all. The 
 objection is not that the diet is less nourishing than 
 the mixed diet (including flesh-foods) : the objection 
 rather is that anyone accustomed to the "ideal" con- 
 ditions — whether of diet or of air or of surroundings, 
 and we may even include abundant regular exercise 
 — will be likely to fall directly he meets impure con- 
 ditions for the first time — stimulating and irritating 
 food and drink, foul air, and so on. For instance, 
 suppose he goes into the Army as a private. There 
 is the diet which he is compelled to eat : fortunately 
 
LIMITATIONS AND OBJECTIONS. 52 1; 
 
 now-a-days he is not compelled to drink alcohol. 
 Vscy likely the air of a room will be foul. Perhaps 
 the exercise will be a strain. There will be many 
 temptations, for the average Tommy is not an 
 ascetic. Or, if the boy becomes a city-clerk, he 
 will perhaps get no regular exercise at all, but, 
 again, wrong food, bad air, many temptations. How 
 will he stand them if he has not been used to them ? 
 Or, to take another little case, just an item, suppose 
 a boy had been accustomed to a cool pillow for 
 sleeping, how would he sleep when he found a hot 
 pillow of feathers instead of the cool one ? Is it 
 good for him to have had the very best conditions 
 always? Have they strengthened him? 
 
 The answer is that there will be some discomfort, 
 but that the correct instinct formed under the pure 
 conditions should save the boy : thus if, up to a cer- 
 tain age, he has never smoked, then he may tr}- to 
 smoke, but the disagreeable effect should keep him 
 from trying it again. If the pure conditions have 
 not given the correct instinct as a strong posses- 
 sion, then, to that extent, they are a failure. 
 
 There is another objection to the ** ideal " condi- 
 tions, and especially to the purest diet : this is, that 
 it may take away a boy's energy. Having been used 
 to blood-pressure, urging him on to activity, he finds 
 scarcely any blood-pressure at all now, especially if 
 his foods be wrongly chosen. Indeed there are cases 
 where a man has almost ceased to be a man through 
 a diet too utterly tame. On the other hand, a well- 
 chosen diet, gradually lessening the extreme blood- 
 
522 IV. CONCLUDING CHAPTERS. 
 
 pressure to a minimum, seems to suit most people 
 who have tried it fairly. I have many letters from 
 married men who say that their physical and other 
 powers are at least equal to what they were before, 
 but are now at length imdcr amtrol. 
 
 Another objection is that the immediate effects of 
 the purer ways may be unpleasant. So long as \Ne 
 admit this when we recommend the purer ways, and 
 so long as the experimenter knows that these im- 
 mediate effects are only natural, because of his past 
 mistakes, then there is little objection to them. The 
 true objection is to the unfair crank who tells us that 
 this or that way will succeed in all cases at once 
 without unpleasantness. In most cases the promise 
 is utterly false. Once again, imagine the body to be 
 a cistern clogged with refuse. You wish to flush 
 that system by a stream of pure water. You cannot 
 get at it directly to empty it out. That stream of 
 water, after it has left the cistern, will be foul and 
 unpleasant. But let it run for a few days, and by 
 degrees it \\'\\\ have removed the refuse, so that 
 now the cistern should keep clean constantl}-. Or 
 imagine yourself setting about the task of cleaning 
 Canton in China. Layer upon layer of the veriest 
 filth is to been seen in the streets, yet the people are 
 comparatively healthy and have been for years. 
 Picture Canton as it might be in a hundred years, 
 with clean streets and houses and people, and those 
 people would be far healthier ; they would scarcely 
 be recognisable as inhabitants of Canton. But the 
 process of cleaning the city would probably result in 
 
LIMITATIONS AND OBJECTIONS. 523 
 
 a large number of diseases and death while you were 
 stirring up those layers of filth. 
 
 There is another objection, and this is that the 
 person will become faddy, self-conscious, introspec- 
 tive. Yes, perhaps he will. But the other risk, the 
 risk of destruction and death if there is no care, 
 if there is no teaching, is greater. It is hope- 
 less to pretend that people know what is best for 
 themselves; that people extract lessons for them- 
 selves and then apply them. The genius does ; the 
 average person does not ; he must be taught. Take 
 my own case. I played games; I had flowers and 
 fruits in the splendid garden round me; I had essays 
 to write ; and so on. Neither the games nor the 
 plants nor the English composition taught me their 
 lessons. It was only after I had lived a quarter of 
 a centur}' that I learnt the lessons by conscious care. 
 
 Besides this, there is little danger of faddy, self- 
 conscious intuitiveness if the aim be all-round fitness 
 and if the attention be not concentrated on some 
 disease, on the avoidance of some one type of mis- 
 take. The methods which I suggest in this book, 
 such as leisurely eating and full and rhythmical 
 breathing through the nostrils, are methods not for 
 morbid self-introspection, but for all-round fitness 
 and self-control and self-expression. 
 
 This is an answer to the objection that it is a 
 mistake to fix a boy's attention on so undesirable a 
 topic. I have carefully avoided fixing his attention 
 here. There was no need. Nearly all the advice 1 
 have given can be treated as advice not merel)' for 
 
524 ' IV. CONCLUDING CHAPTERS. 
 
 this particular purpose, but also for athletic success, 
 intellectual success, and even economical success. 
 If the boy sets his heart upon improving at cricket, 
 getting a scholarship, saving pocket-money, he will 
 find these ways just as useful as he wiH if he sets his 
 heart on pleasant self-control. 
 
 And we must remember that, even if we do " put 
 some ideas into the boy's head," we are likely to pu£ 
 them in in a less objectionable way than the stable- 
 boy, or the school-joker who first introduced me 
 to this side of life. I never heard a word about it, 
 except " Hush ! " until I had it introduced to me by 
 way of foul stories and fouler sights. 
 
 All the time we must keep in view such an ideal 
 as Farrar suggested, when he wrote : — 
 
 •* That man approaches most nearly to such perfection as is 
 attainable in human life whose body has been kept in vigorous 
 health by temperance, soberness, and chastity ; whose mind is a 
 rich storehouse of the wisdom learned both from experience and 
 from the noblest thoughts which his fellow-men have uttered ; 
 whose imagination is a picture gallery of all things pure and beau- 
 tiful ; whose conscience is at peace with itself, with God, and with 
 all the world, and in whose l)ody and spirit the Divine Spirit finds 
 a fitting temple wherein to dwell." 
 
 But we must not demand that all these perfec- 
 tions shall appeal to every boy, to the extent of 
 inciting him to patiently unswerving self-control. 
 Mr. A. C. Benson sounds a useful note of warning to 
 the schoolmaster : *' Let him remember," he says, 
 '' what he would himself have thought of such 
 offences as a boy, and let him try to indicate a 
 motive which, if it is higher than the average view 
 taken by the boy, should at least not be out of his 
 
LIMllATK^NS AND OHJIXTIONS. 525 
 
 horizon. . . . The thing to be desired is that 
 the arrow should hit the target and not fly over 
 it. . . . If the boy does not wish to comply for 
 the better reason, it will be necessar\' to fall back 
 up>on the other." This may seem a concession, but 
 it is assuredly oite that Jesus Christ allowed. 
 
 Then, again, '* it must needs be that stumblings 
 come." Puerile nature will be puerile nature. We 
 must not brand the boy as a hopelessly wicked and 
 profligate desperado, but must rather teach him as I 
 was taught — though only very late in life. " The 
 proper tone of mind for life and work seems to me to 
 be a quick putting behind one of all failures, slights, 
 and mishaps ; a daily and hourly generation of pluck 
 and determination to go on and make it all much 
 better than it has been up to now or is. A cunning 
 watchfulness over ever}- leakage of energy, and 
 prompt damning of the hole. A carefully main- 
 tained poise between the present and eternity ; or, 
 the now of immediate necessities and pressing claims 
 and the future of ultimate helpfulness and solid value. 
 One is always labouring at these two little heaps ; 
 the now heap (by reason of one's steps to the then, 
 one being necessarily taken over it) is always getting 
 flattened out so that a nice level track is left be- 
 hind." 
 
 It is especially at the start of the reform that we 
 must keep up our heart, and know what we may 
 have to expect before we can win the game. A 
 friend kindly lets me quote this valuable piece of 
 personal experience from a letter of his, the wording 
 
526 IV. CONCLUDING CHAPTERS. 
 
 of which I have slightly altered. '* I had to give up 
 my sound sleep for a whole month, during which I 
 retained and (so I suppose) reabsorbed the seed by 
 dint of the use of cold water at the bottom of the 
 spine (as you told me), and vigorous exercise — especi- 
 ally the kicking that (?) Edward Lyttelton suggests 
 — or interesting work — it will seem strange to you 
 that my subject was Trigonometr}' ! It kept me 
 busy — that was all I wanted. When I slept, which 
 was for less than two hours a night on the average, I 
 slept like a clod of earth, and yet alert and ready to 
 wake at the very slightest sense of danger (which 
 was generally in the early morning hours). I used 
 your advice and suggested to myself that I should 
 thus wake, just as one self-suggests to wake at five 
 o'clock. My daily work — I carefully chose the time 
 of year when it was lightest and least important — 
 was not easy to get through ; I felt over-full. I 
 suppose my greatest help was the muscular relaxing ; 
 had I clenched my muscles (as I used to do during 
 my generally unsuccessful prayers) I think the result 
 would have been different. As it was, there seemed 
 to be ver>' little contention. I suppose 30U will know 
 what I felt when I tell you that the fight seemed to 
 be going on not against a power outside me, as it 
 used to, but quite a small battlefield in my brain. It 
 was a matter not of resisting, but of lifting thoughts. 
 Was it fanciful that, if I could make that battlefield 
 the top part of my forehead, I was safe ? That was 
 where I kept my attention, while I breathed chiefly 
 with the top of my chest. This is a long, " faddy " 
 
LIMITATIONS AND OBJECTIONS. 527 
 
 story, but I know you want to hear. I'm all right now 
 — quite light and vigorous. I need less sleep than I 
 used to. F'or safety I keep up the self-suggestion to 
 wake if ever there is danger. So far as I know I 
 haven't had any loss for many weeks now . . . Why 
 don't you publish your advice ? Coming from you 
 it would be so different from the usual advice by 
 heaven only knows who . . . Bj- the way, I don't 
 at all agree with your diet scheme. I refused and 
 still refuse to alter my diet. If I'd gone on to better 
 foods, as I daresay they are, how could I have known 
 that I should be safe if ever I went back to the 
 ordinary meals ? As it is, you see, supposing this 
 fine state keeps on — and I see no reason why it 
 shouldn't — I shall be sure of myself anyhow. Then 
 I can easily change the diet if yours really is better.'* 
 
 Present customs and conventions and conveniences 
 are apparent limitations to self-control. But these 
 we must regard as we would regard hazards at golf — 
 we must treat them with respect but without fear; 
 they must compel us to win a game in which we are- 
 handicapped severely, rather than a mere *' walk- 
 over " against an opponent who is no match for us. 
 Without inviting him to knock us down, we should 
 learn by any fall, and take good care that we do not 
 fall in a similar way next time. 
 
 In a word, ever\- limitation is so much the more 
 for our credit and self-respect and strength and 
 inspiration when we have won in spite of it. Every 
 obstacle is a privilege. 
 
5^8 IV. CONCLUDING CHAPTERS. 
 
 CHAPTER XLVII. 
 
 GENERAL CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 THE easiest way for managers of boys and for 
 boys themselves is to prevent mistakes by 
 early training, by the early mastery of many alpha- 
 bets, such as those suggested in Chapter VII. and in 
 the whole book itself. The boy will be unlikely to 
 make mistakes if he has learnt a little simple know- 
 ledge, re-inforced by practice, of cleanness and 
 excretion, eating (how to eat, what to eat, and what 
 not to eat) and drinking, breathing, repose, positions 
 and expressions, exercises (especialh^ trunk-exercises), 
 play and hobbies, self-suggestion, co-operation, can- 
 dour — all for the development of inspiriting self- 
 respect, and in order to abolish the silly notion that 
 some parts are improper. 
 
 " One can only learn to think rightly of any subject 
 by learning to think highly of it." This is a great 
 .principle of success. Thus, instead of blushing, or 
 saying or thinking " Hush," when we hear or speak 
 of sex, we can rather take Grant Allen's view. " To 
 the fact of sex," he says, " we owe our love of colour, 
 of graceful forms, of melodious sound, of rhythmical 
 motion, the evolution of music, of poetry, of romance, 
 of painting, of sculpture, of decorative art, of dra- 
 matic entertainment. From it springs the love of 
 beauty, around it all beautiful arts circulate as their 
 centre. Its subtle aroma pervades all literature, and 
 to it we owe the heart and all that is best within us." 
 
GENERAL CONCLUSIONS. 529 
 
 It is easiest to start aright. Hut it is not difficiili 
 to remedy a bad state of body and mind, and a ten- 
 dency to the mistakes, by similar means. To them 
 may be added, without much obtrusiveness, the use 
 of cold water at the base of the spine, the raised 
 breathing (with abdomen in), the violent exercise to 
 expend excessive energy, the seeking of publicity 
 when that helps, and, in general, the seeking of good 
 conditions, or the imagination of good conditions 
 under which the mistake would be impossible, such 
 as the society of certain people. 
 
 But, in both these cases — in the case of prevention 
 and in the case of cure — there must be preparation 
 long before any time of trouble. We must not be 
 too proud to train and to seek favourable conditions 
 till we are strong enough. " Damn whatsoever thou 
 doubtest." Lead not thyself into temptation. 
 
 And there must be patience while the alphabets 
 are being mastered. The patience will be easy 
 enough if a boy masters one letter — such as leisurely 
 eating — and then uses that as a basis for self-im- 
 provement, reminding himself of that conquest, and 
 saying to himself, "As I won that, I will also win 
 this." 
 
 So with his expressions. Let him be very careful 
 what impressions he receives now ; let him avoid 
 the bad. But if he has received the bad, unawares 
 or through wilful mis-choice, let him see that he 
 divert it into satisfactory expression, and not nurse 
 it and fuss about it in morbid despair and self-dis- 
 respect. Let him remember that impression leads 
 
530 IV. CONCLUDING CHAPTERS. 
 
 to expression, and that he can easih' direct that 
 expression (for instance, to exercises Hke those of 
 Chapter XXV.), if he takes it in time; let him re- 
 member, on the other hand, that repression leads to 
 expression some day, and that he cannot so easih' 
 direct thai expression. It is more like the pent-in 
 volcano. 
 
 Yet all the time he must be convinced that the 
 mistake is a mistake, and, with will and tactics, not 
 inevitable. It may be well to quote two high autho- 
 rities who hold this view : namely, Sir James Paget, 
 and Professor Clifford AUbutt. It is possible and it 
 is right to prevent the temptation long beforehand, 
 rather than, as it were, to invite its full stress by 
 being passive. Without fussiness, one can think of 
 the "eternal verities" within us (Chapter XLI.), or 
 of some idea interesting to us, perhaps the imagina- 
 tion of success at some game. Or w^e can play, or 
 work, or work for the sake of success at play, or use 
 some other temporary help (cold water, etc.). Any- 
 how, Sir James Paget says : — 
 
 ** Some of your patients may expect you to pre- 
 scribe fornication (this would apply to other mis- 
 takes as well). I would as soon prescribe theft or 
 lying or anything else which God has forbidden. If 
 a man will practise uncleanness he must do so of his 
 own choice and on his own responsibility. Of all 
 my patients who have talked to me about fornica- 
 tion, I have never heard one say that he was better 
 or happier for it, and several have said they were 
 
GENERAL CONCIA'SIONS. 53 1 
 
 Dr. Clifford Allbutt said, in answer to questions 
 addressed to him : 
 
 I.s7 question — ''Is the physical gratification of sex- 
 ual desire necessary to health in man or woman?" 
 Answer — " I think certainly not. . . . The mere 
 enjoyment of such intercourse at intervals without 
 such higher satisfaction " {i.e., the satisfaction de- 
 rived from wife and home and children) " would I 
 think do more harm than good, physically, as well 
 as morally, by lowering self-control, and keeping the 
 higher emotions still unsatisfied." 
 
 2nd question — '' Does injur}- to health ensue from 
 suddenly giving up such gratification?" Answer — 
 '* Certainly not, unless perhaps the abstainer still 
 allows his imagination to run riot in the same 
 direction." 
 
 In answer to another question, " Would the bring- 
 ing up of boys in a more moral atmosphere diminish 
 physical passion for sexual indulgence?" he said, 
 " Unquestionably. This is one of the most pressing 
 difficulties of the age." 
 
 A boy must keep his ambitions, his very own 
 ambitions, constantly before him, all and every one ; 
 for he will need them all. If it helps him at all, let 
 him take the map of life in Chapter X., as suggest- 
 ing some of the ambitions which he would do well 
 to have and to hold. 
 
 Let him realise that the aim is not merely to 
 avoid one mistake, but to avoid all mistakes — greed- 
 iness, slipshod hastiness, loss of temper, physical 
 dirtiness ; to avoid all these, and to get positive 
 
 JJ 
 
532 IV. CONCLUDING CHAPTERS. 
 
 poise of body and mind. Then he will have per- 
 spective, will see how im{x>rtant some things are, 
 how trivial others are, except as means to ends. 
 He will look forward, and prepare for the future ; 
 he will be calm and not waste energy ; he will be 
 able to adapt himself promptly to new needs. 
 
 However great care he takes at the start, and he 
 and his managers can scarcely take too much, his 
 ideal must be to be safe anywhere and anywhen, not 
 merely in one set of conditions only. He may, as 
 in the game of Touchwood, return to touch wood 
 every now and then, but, if he is always touching 
 wood, never venturing from tree to tree, he is no 
 sportsman, no boy ; he will be no man. This 
 eventual freedom must not tempt him to take too 
 great risks ; he must show every sort of fore- 
 thought without fear-thought, till he is thoroughly 
 strong, with clean instincts. 
 
 The idea of a Hindu Yogi will show, in an extreme 
 way, that attention to these details mentioned in this 
 book — and they are only a few selected out of many 
 — must not mean slavery to these fads always. He 
 says: At first that the Yogi who wishes for self-con- 
 trol and freedom and spirituality, must walk in a 
 very narrow way, eating just enough of this or that 
 clean food, and avoiding all other food : seeking 
 places where there is silence and solitude, where 
 nothing will disturb. At this stage of his training, 
 a mouthful or two of the wrong food may upset 
 him ; a slight sound may upset him. Hut this is 
 only while he is preparing himself. There must 
 
GENERAL CONCLUSIONS. 533 
 
 come a day when no food will hurt him ; there 
 must come a day when a cannon fired off close to 
 him will not disturb him. But to bef^in his training 
 by eating all sorts of food in excess, and by standing 
 with his ear close to a cannon when it was being 
 fired off, would be sheer madness. 
 
 Or we may compare a Cricket-stroke. A boy tries 
 to play, and he plays crooked, runs a great risk of 
 being bowled, and puts ver}' little power into the 
 stroke. Almost the whole of his mechanism is 
 wrong. Now let him attend to that mechanism, 
 to the straight lunge of the left foot, as the fencer 
 and boxer do, to the work with the shoulder, and so 
 on. Let him practise for a few minutes day after 
 day, until he has got the right habits instead of 
 the wrong. Then, and not till then, he can go 
 and face an\' bowling with a good chance of suc- 
 cess. He has no need for any such " fads " as 
 bedroom-practice when once he has acquired the 
 alphabet of play by constant repetition. Directly 
 he has become a normal cricketer, he can express 
 himself freely and pleasantly and successfully. 
 
 Nor should he practise morbidly, but in confidence 
 that he will be able to express himself freely and 
 satisfactorily some day. 
 
 And, even if he has made mistakes, still let him 
 have confidence, because, once again, there are so 
 many causes of mistakes, especially in these days of 
 city-life and worr}' ; because there are many corre- 
 sponding helps against mistakes; because most of 
 these helps are for general fitness and unobtrusive ; 
 
534 IV. CONCLUDING CHAPTERS. 
 
 because few of these helps are known ; because fewer 
 still are practised : and yet the number of mistakes 
 is comparative!}- small. With more knowledge, the 
 number of mistakes will become far smaller, till 
 eventually, let us realise, such mistakes will have 
 disappeared. Then we shall be living on a higher 
 plane. Let a boy be sure that this plane is within 
 his reach, if only he will be patient in climbing the 
 ladder and not attempt too hard tasks at first, not 
 expect to have the strength of a full-grown man,, 
 while he is still a child. 
 
 And if he has formed bad habits, now, this mo- 
 ment, he must quietly and leisurely know that he is 
 henceforth going to play the game, and be sports- 
 manslike, and loyal to his fellow-men and women. 
 You must never say die, but, on the other hand, must 
 not, as it were, rush untrained into a three mile run 
 after a too heavy meal. You must " understand the 
 reason, and all the reasons, why the habit is injurious. 
 Study the subject until there is no lingering doubt in 
 your mind. Avoid the places, the persons, and the 
 thoughts that lead to the temptation. Frequent 
 the places, associate with the persons, indulge in the 
 thoughts, that lead away from the temptation. Keep 
 busy ; idleness is the strength of had habits. Do not 
 give up the struggle when you have broken your 
 resolution once, twicCy a thousand times. That only 
 shows how much need there is for you to strive. 
 When you have broken your resohition, just think 
 the matter over, and endeavour to understand why 
 it was you failed, so that you may be on your guard 
 
A LETTER TO A BOY. 535 
 
 against a recurrence of the same circumstances. Do 
 not think that it is an easy thing that you have 
 undertaken. It is folly to expect to break off a bad 
 habit in a day, which may have been gathering for 
 long years." 
 
 CHAPTER XLVIII. 
 
 A LETTER TO A BOY. 
 
 lo, St. Paul's Road, Cambridge, 
 
 1904. 
 Dear Jones, 
 
 You want to know what you are to do. Well, the 
 first rule is to think sensibly ; remember that a great 
 many important things depend on you and your 
 health ; realise and know that every part of you is to 
 be respected and to be treated by you at least as 
 carefully as you would treat a favourite cricket-bat, 
 a favourite flower, a favourite dog, your little sister, 
 your mother herself. 
 
 I should advise you to get some good ambitions. 
 You need need not tell anyone about them — I never 
 told anyone about mine. I wanted to become a 
 great cricketer — to bat like Jessop (but with Fry's 
 average), to bowl and field splendidly. I have not 
 become a great cricketer! But the ambition was 
 good for me. I also wanted to play racquets and 
 tennis decently. So I imagined myself playing them 
 magnificently ! Fives is one of the healthiest games 
 to imagine. 
 
53^ IV. CONCLUDING CHAPTERS. 
 
 Not only that, but, in order to play them decently , 
 I thought about my strokes and my tactics and my 
 general training. And I practised and practised the 
 movements of the strokes in my bedroom. Few, if 
 any, people knew that I had the ambitions; but I 
 had them, and I held to them. And I have them 
 and hold to them, and practise, still. It may be 
 silly to keep that cricket ambition. But I like it^ 
 and it helps me, and, until I write this, probably no 
 one has guessed ! 
 
 So get your ambitions — perhaps they will not be 
 athletic at all. You want to get a scholarship. 
 Imagine yourself succeeding, and then, remembering 
 how fine it would feel, practise in order to succeed. 
 
 Only tr}' rather to beat your past and present self 
 and its standard than to beat Smith. Practise and 
 play not in order to win but in order to play better. 
 The Greek phrase for " better than ever " was, liter- 
 ally, " himself better than himself." 
 
 And observe good players. 
 
 You probably have some hero or heroes — or per- 
 haps a heroine. When you are in difficulties, picture 
 them as realh' with vou, hear them telling you to 
 stick to it, to phi}- the game like a man, to practise,, 
 to keep up your patience and pluck, to behave just 
 as you would if they were in the room. No one need 
 guess. Even if people did guess, you must make 
 up your mind to stand some chaff. I get plenty of 
 chaff because I never eat flesh-foods. But so long 
 as I'm fit I don't mind. I often score by being the 
 first to start laughing. 
 
L 
 
 
 Fig. 206. 
 ( Photoirraph hy Mason). 
 
 Face p. 537. 
 
A LETTKK TO A BOY. 537 
 
 Be sure that such helps as these are well worth 
 while if they can make you too proud to behave like 
 a silly little fool ! 
 
 And often and often remind yourself — quite un- 
 obtrusively, of course — that you have the power to 
 better yourself all-round : your work, your play, your 
 appearance — everything. Remind yourself that your 
 fight against your bad habits is a good game to win, 
 and that your friends — including your heroes and 
 heroine — would be unspeakably pleased to know you 
 have won that game. 
 
 It will need courage, perseverance, a lot of cheer- 
 fulness, still more cleverness (think how clever 
 Hackenschmidt really is). But what*s the use of a 
 game if it doesn't need all this ? 
 
 This little illustration shows you what I spoke of 
 just now, myself practising long before a match — 
 months before it. I practise the strokes (as in this 
 photograph) ; I practise starting in different direc- 
 tions — foot-drill, breathing to help me to last and 
 keep my head, and so on. And I pay attention to 
 diet. 
 
 When I get beaten, of course I don't like it ! But, 
 as soon as I can, I begin to think it out again, and 
 sometimes to ask people what I did wrong. Then I 
 say to myself that next time I shall win — or at any 
 rate play better — and I peg away steadily, and 
 privately. 
 
 Now though I think that games themselves are 
 quite as much worth doing well as anything is, yet it 
 isn't really the games that do me most good. It is 
 
538 IV. CONCLUDING CHAPTERS. 
 
 the spirit they are giving ine, and especially the 
 spirit of more self-respect, less self-disrespect. In 
 spite of defeats, I know that I have improved m\'self 
 and shall improve mjself. I believe that any other 
 duffer could. The ways that I have found useful in 
 learning games, I have found useful in learning 
 essay-writing, history, philology, French, everything 
 — including general and special self-control. 
 
 The result of it is that though, as a boy, I felt sure 
 I was going to a burning hell for ever, and though I 
 would always despise m}self as a beast, now I feel 
 healthy. It isn't that I have done wonders ; it is 
 that I have used sensible helps and have tried to 
 regard self-control as a game well worth winning 
 and therefore well worth training and preparing for. 
 
 Now the sort of exercises I offer you in this book 
 will, I hope, be a good outlet for your energy when 
 you seem over-energetic (it's no disgrace to. be 
 over-energetic), and a good hobby for odd or idle 
 moments. 
 
 But by themselves the}- are not enough to give you 
 self-control. You must not be selfish. You must, 
 when you get a good chance, help some one else. 
 You can drop a word or two, without being an 
 obnoxious prig. You can ask So-and-so whether 
 it isn't silly and infra di^, to make such mistakes as 
 vou know he's making. 
 
 Remember that, as a rule, the boy who can play 
 games well, and ** play the game," and defend him- 
 self and others with pluck and skill and without 
 pugnacity, is not thought a prig. So attend to your 
 
A LETTKK TO A HOY. 539 
 
 physical fitness. Do those exercises, in moderation. 
 Add others which seem good. 
 
 It would not be a bad plan to form a Fitness-club. 
 Any boy who isn't fit and doesn't want to be fit need 
 not join — in fact, he must not join, for he is not 
 reallv a boy at all, is he ? 
 
 But you must be equally keen about your work. 
 Do that in the same spirit. You may not see why it 
 is any use to learn all those lists. But it's a game 
 that you have to pla\, and you may as well play 
 it with as much skill and pluck and patience and 
 honesty as any other game. I often hear people 
 abuse the Latin (irammars and Divinity lessons. 
 I've been through years of them. I began before I 
 was seven. And I've also read and learnt lots of 
 really interesting and useful things. And I've seen 
 boys who have been taught, apparently, only what 
 was interesting and useful. Well, take my word for 
 it, they aren't the happiest or the finest men to-day. 
 There is something lacking about most of them. 
 Precisely what it is I cannot tell you. But someho\N 
 I suspect that what they need is a few doses of rather 
 dull drill, such as Divinity and History and most 
 other lessons gave me. Candidly, I don't remember 
 what I learnt, except about St. John being im- 
 prisoned in the Castle of Machaerus, and alguni 
 trees being really almug trees, and Tartan Rabsaris 
 and Rabshakeh, and St. Paul's missionary journeys, 
 and other sounds ; but I do remember how I learnt 
 them, and the dull drill now seems far from value- 
 less. 
 
540 IV. CONCLUDING CHAPTERS. 
 
 It was difficult, yes. But every difficulty is an 
 opportunity and a privilege. And that's what I 
 want you to see. It's the " hard game to win '* 
 that is your chance of becoming a man. You may 
 fail. But stick to it. Say to yourself that you will 
 remedy your weaknesses, as I said to myself that 
 I would remedy my ugly style at Tennis. You have 
 the power, and, directly you realise how splendid 
 a time you will have when you have won self- 
 control, you will decide to win it. 
 
 But do not try too hard a match at first. Practise 
 and train under easy conditions long before there 
 is likely to be any match at all. Perhaps the ver\' 
 best time is the time when most people practise and 
 train least — ^just after a match. That is the time fiot 
 to go out of practice and training. 
 
 The great sin is to despair — or even to worry 
 anxiously. Your duty is to realise or imagine your- 
 self as succeeding, to rep)eat the picture, and then 
 ver\' soon, leisurely }'et energetically, to do whatever 
 will bring about the result. 
 
 Suppose you have a bad temper. Do not despair. 
 Do not curse yourself. It's at any rate a sign that 
 you are lively, not a sleepy potato. Now imagine 
 yourself* in a good temper, rep>eat the picture, and 
 do whatever will make it a reality. For instance, 
 breathe quietly through the nostrils, untie your 
 hands, unknit your forehead, look at something in 
 the distance, think of some harmless thing that will 
 make you smile. 
 
 Your greatest help will be the New Testament, if 
 
 • Or some one else, if that is easier to you. 
 
A LETTEK To A BOY. 54I 
 
 \ t:)ii find out what the meaning' was, and then express- 
 that meaning in your own words so that you under- 
 stand it. In one of the Chapters (XL I.) I give some 
 instances of my own wording : that wording of the 
 Lord's Prayer has taken me, I suppose, ten weeks of 
 hard work at the Greek, at commentaries and dic- 
 tionaries and grammars, at the New Testament itself 
 (so that I might find out what Jesus Christ said from 
 what Jesus Christ did). I expect it will take me at 
 least a week of ever\' year to study that single pra\er 
 further. My version is only improving. I do not 
 offer it instead of the accepted translation ; but onl} 
 because it ma}' help you to see what the Greek 
 words may have meant. 
 
 And now good-bye and ( I was going to say) good 
 luck. But I can wish )ou something better than 
 that. I can wish you good pluck. I need not wish 
 \ou opportunities, good garhes to win. You'll have 
 plenty of them. They are what you and I have the 
 right to expect. They are free gifts of God in abun- 
 dance to all. Never be an atheist. The atheist is so 
 unobservant. He has not noticed that, whatever 
 else the human being lacks, at least he never lacks 
 what by itself proves to me that the Power of the 
 universe is Divine : he never lacks the most magni- 
 ficent possessions, opportunities. 
 
 And you, an Anglo-Saxon, have inherited the right 
 way of dealing with any opportunity : indeed, the 
 right way of dealing with life. For life is oppor- 
 tunity. You have inherited the spirit of playing 
 the game — fairly, pluckily. cheerfully, skilfully, and 
 
54-2 IV. CONCLUDING CHAPTERS. 
 
 with practice beforehand. That spirit, which you 
 learn in sport, apply also in work and in everything 
 that vou do. And I can safeh^ say that, if you do 
 make any mistakes throuf^h cherishing that spirit, 
 they will not be mistakes which will lead you to the 
 undesirable state of self-disrespect. Sensible self- 
 control and practice in it, sensible self-knowledge 
 and self-correction leading to self-resf>ect, sensible 
 self-expression — this is what I want myself, and 
 what I should like you to want. Only I think you 
 will understand it better if I call it '' Playing the 
 
 Game." 
 
 Yours very sincerely, 
 
 Eustace Miles. 
 
^ 
 
 mm 
 
 APPENDICES. 
 
A THEORY or BLOOD PRESSURE. 545 
 
 APPENDIX I. 
 
 A THEORY ABOUT EXCESSIVE BLOOD-PRESSURE 
 
 (With a contribution from a qualified medical 
 practitioner) . 
 
 DR. Alexander Haig's great work on " Uric 
 Acid in Causation of Disease " is an extreme 
 statement of an important principle. Lately Dr. 
 Haig has epitomised that work, but most of his 
 language is, unfortunately, far too technical for a 
 boy's reading. One or two quotations, however, will 
 show the importance of his theories from the boy's 
 point of view. Whether he is right as to the causes 
 I do not pretend to decide. According to him there 
 seems to be just one cause, namely, " uric acid." 
 But about the symptoms there can be no doubt 
 whatsoever. He shows how there is something 
 that causes discomfort, which in a mild form we 
 may call dis-ease, and in a severe form disease. 
 The fine pipes or capillaries of the human system, 
 through which the blood should circulate freely, are 
 clogged ; perhaps they themselves may be unelastic 
 and half perished. This throws extra work upon the 
 heart, which makes every effort to clean the pipes bv 
 a constant stream ; but the clogging renders the work 
 of the heart very severe. 
 
 Now the feeling of discomfort may be relieved in 
 many ways: by certain drugs, especially alkaline 
 drugs, which may clear out the acidit\ ; by blood- 
 letting ; by certain mistakes ; as well as by water- 
 treatments, exercise, and so on. 
 
546 APPENDIX I. 
 
 In this Appendix we shall say little about reme- 
 dies, or even, at present, about preventives. These we 
 have tried to give in the book itself. Rather we 
 wish to find whence comes this discomfort, especially 
 when it is due to blood-pressure. And we need not 
 so much ask. Why do people make mistakes? as, 
 Whence do they get the condition which tempts 
 them to make mistakes, whether these mistakes be 
 of one kind or another, whether the individual flies 
 for relief to alcohol or tea or coffee or certain drugs, 
 or to some other palliative ? 
 
 Here are some quotations from the Fifth Edition 
 of his " Uric Acid " (Churchill and Co.), pp. 285-286, 
 144, etc. I have ventured to make a few trifling 
 alterations in the wording, which is still, unfortu- 
 nately, unnecessarily technical and obscure. The 
 words in square brackets are my own. 
 
 "Mental depression is a concomitant symptom of the uric acid 
 headache, and I soon found that by influencing the uric acid I 
 could produce or remove it along with the other symptoms. 
 
 "The condition which accompanies the uric acid headache, form- 
 ing a sort of halo round it, is one of dulness and inability for effort, 
 either mental or bodily, with forgetfulness of names of persons and 
 things. It is closely related on the one hand to sleepiness, and on 
 the other to a disposition to take the worst possible view of self and 
 all that concerns it. [We might add restlessness and fidgetiness as 
 another sympton.] In this condition, self-reliance is absolutely 
 gone, extreme modesty is common or even habitual, a feather- 
 weight will crush one to the dust, and even the greatest good for- 
 tune will fail to cheer. 
 
 " One who is rousetl from such a state will shou irritability and 
 tcmf)er quite out of prop>ortion to the requirements of the case, so- 
 that those around the sufferer are soon able to diagnose the con- 
 dition for themselves. 
 
 " It seems to me that mental depression is occasioned by a 
 
A THEORY or HLOOD-PRESSURE. 547 
 
 slighter graile of the same condition that produces the uric acid 
 headache : that is to say. by a less intense collaemia, or by collaemia 
 together with debility or with weakness of the heart which prevents, 
 the great rise of blood-pressure that occasions the headache : while 
 I now rarely or never have enough uric acid to produce a bad head- 
 ache, 1 still occasionally have enough to produce some irritability 
 and mental depression : though this also is slight compared to what 
 it used to be. 
 
 "On the other hand, clear the blood of uric acid by the use 
 of any of the drugs, etc., which cause it to be retained, and, as the 
 blood-pressure is reduced and the pulse-rate quickened and the 
 urine increased, the mental condition alters as if by magic, ideas 
 flash through the brain, everything is remembered, nothing is for- 
 gotten, exercise of mind and body is a pleasure, the struggle for 
 existence a glory, nothing is too good to happen, the impossible 
 is within reach, and misfortunes slide like water off a duck's back. 
 This is well-being. To such an extent are we the creatures of the 
 circulation in our brain. 
 
 "The cause of misery is central (the circulation in the brain), 
 but the mind seizes first on one subject and then on another about 
 which to worry itself [or shows other unpleasant tendencies]. This 
 young man, described in " Punch," though in exceptionally for- 
 tunate circumstances, could find no more serious causes of worry 
 than first whether his dog loved him enough, then whether he loved 
 his dog enough. But no doubt he extracted as much misery from 
 these as another man with a similar condition of brain-circulation 
 would extract from apparently more serious troubles. The fact 
 that the cause is central, not external, is abundantly proved by the 
 mind wandering to cause after cause as each in turn is shown to be 
 a mere shadow. Is life worth living? That depends on uric acid." 
 
 Dr. Haig mentions how his theory is corroborated by I'rofessor 
 I^ange of Copenhagen. Dr. G. Hoffman, and others. 
 
 On p. 144 and foil, he treats especially of the desire for relief. 
 He says : 
 
 ♦' It seems to me to be a fact of some interest that the desire [for 
 the mistake] appears to increase with high and rising blood-pres- 
 sure, and to be slight or in complete abeyance with low or falling 
 blood-pressure ; and, as the act itself tends to produce low and 
 falling blood -pressure, it tends to remove the desire for a repetition 
 of the act. 
 
 KK 
 
54^ APPENDIX I. 
 
 " Further I think that, as the act produces low and falHng blood- 
 pressure, it will of necessity relieve conditions which are due to 
 high and rising blood-pressure, such for instance as mental depres- 
 sion and bad temper [and fidgetiness] ; and, unless my observation 
 deceives me, we have here a connection between conditions of high 
 blood-pressure together with mental depression and bad temper 
 [and fidgetiness] and the mistakes ; for the act will relieve these 
 conditions and will tend to be practised for this purpose. 
 
 " I think, therefore, that we should do well to bear this in mind 
 in such cases, and that, where they are obviously associated with 
 high blood-pressure, we would do better to assist nature in lowering 
 this pressure, than in attempting to fight against her [only] with 
 such feeble w^eapons as mental and moral suasion ; that, in a word, 
 we should treat the morbid conditions present in the circulation, 
 and leave morality to right itself when a satisfactory cerebral circu- 
 lation has been restored by the use of suitable diet or drugs. 
 
 " These effects of the act on the blood-pressure account, no 
 doubt, for the calm and good temper which follows the act, and 
 also probably for the terrible storm of passions which may follow 
 in either sex if the desire is not obtained and consequently the 
 blood-pressure is not relieved, and these in turn may account for 
 not a few of the murders and suicides of every-day life which are 
 often so obviously connected with sexual relations. 
 
 " Here again my remarks about the mistake will apply, for the 
 poor wretch under the dominion of collaemia and high blood-pres- 
 sure is in no [?] way accountable for his or her acts, and is, as the 
 jury truly put it, temporarily insane ; and it is useless to appeal to 
 the mens insana which is the result, while leaving untreated the 
 corpus insanum which is [one of] the cause[s]." 
 
 Sir W. F. Wade is quoted by Dr. Haig as saying " that vene- 
 section gives similar relief; but that after each repetition the 
 symptoms return more quickly and are more severe. It is not 
 difficult," Dr. Haig continues, "to see why a venesection should 
 give relief ; for every similar loss of bhxxl is followed by a rise of 
 temperature, probably because the venesection will make the blood 
 less alkaline, less able to hold uric acid in solution : it will clear the 
 blood of uric acid." 
 
 Dr. Haig himself compares the effect of opium with the eflfect of 
 the mistake. He says : — 
 
 " I have been much interested to see that the connection between 
 
A THEORY OF BLOOD-PRESSURE. 549 
 
 sexual appetite and blood-pressure or (what is the same thing) the 
 mental condition which blood -pressure produces, has been noticed 
 by the opium-eater ; in whom these variations of blood-pressure 
 are seen to perfection, and in whom also they are due, as elsewhere, 
 to the amount of uric acid present in the blood, so that they can be 
 completely controlled by the salicylates and other means of con- 
 trolling the uric acid. Thus in L'Encephale, 1887, p. 306, we are 
 told by an opium hahitni- that during the stage of opium well-being, 
 in which the capillaries are free and the blood-pressure low, there 
 is no such desire ; whereas later on, in the stage of rebound, of 
 misery with high blood pressure and craving for a fresh dose of the 
 drug, the desire is great, and the mistake brings calm with it. 
 Some have asserted that it is oblivion men seek for when they take 
 opium, cocaine, etc. 1 believe this to be a great error. Give me 
 an eternity of oblivion, and I would exchange it for one hour with 
 my brain-circulation free from uric acid ; and opium or cocaine 
 ■will free it for me, though, as I shall show later on, there are other 
 and better ways of obtaining this freedom." 
 
 On p. 152 Dr. Haig says : — 
 
 "It must never be forgotten that the depressing effect which 
 uric acid produces tends to increase itself, so that once the ball 
 is set rolling it will roll down the hill. When uric acid is in excess 
 in the blood, then the circulation in all the organs and tissues of 
 the body is slower; hence we get, among other results, a slower and 
 less complete interchange of materials between the blood and the 
 tissues : that is, a general slackening of metabolism, which in turn 
 means a smaller formation of urea and of the acids and acid salts 
 that usually keep pace with urea. When the urine is less acid, the 
 blood is more alkaline and holds more and more uric acid in solu- 
 tion ; thus we have more and more collaemia, and depression of 
 mind and body and metabolism." 
 
 (i.) Dr. Haig gives a table of the amount of 
 "*' uric acid " in various foods and drinks. He says it 
 makes no difference whether we put this '' uric acid " 
 into our system in the form of meat or other foods, 
 or whether we make it by fatigue, etc., within our- 
 selves. 
 
 (2.) A second source, he says, is too much Proteid, 
 
550 APPENDIX I. 
 
 too much body- building material, more than the 
 system requires. All the excess, he says, which 
 cannot be stored up in the body, turns to " uric 
 acid " eventually. This ** uric acid," he says, is 
 practically the sole cause of human evils. And 
 one gathers from his works that individuals differ 
 scarcely at all as to the effects which different kinds 
 of " uric acid " have upon them. Dr. Haig says, 
 in effect. Put in so much " uric acid," no matter 
 whether it be as meat or peas or tea, and it will 
 have the same effect on blood-pressure. 
 
 Instead of giving Dr. Haig's Table, I give Dr. 
 Walker Hall's. The latter recognises, as we shall 
 see, difference between different *' Purins," so he 
 calls them, and between the powers of different 
 individuals to hold them with impunity, or to re- 
 move them with ease. See further the Diagram in 
 a previous Chapter : — 
 
 (i.) In Flesh-Foods. 
 (Rough estimate of grains per lb., chiefly from Dr.. 
 
 Walker Hall.) 
 Fish — 
 
 Cod 4.1 
 
 Plaice - - - - 5.6 
 
 Salmon - - - - 8.1 
 Meat — 
 
 Mutton - - 6.7 to 8.1 
 
 Pork and Ham 8.0 to 8.5 
 
 Beef 7.9 (ribs), 9.1 (sirloin), 14.4 
 
 (steak), 19.3 (liver). 
 
 Rabbit - - - - 6.3 
 
a theory of blood-pressure. 55 1 
 
 Birds — 
 
 Turkey - - - - 8.8 
 
 Chicken - - - - g.i 
 
 (2.) In other Foods. 
 
 Eggs, Milk, Cheese, Butter, Bread — 
 
 Some say these contain little or none. Eggs are the 
 
 most doubtful. Probably fresh eggs contain none, 
 
 less fresh eggs a little. 
 Oatmeal - - - - 3-4 Tea (dry Ceylon) - 175 
 Peameal - - - - 2.5 Coffee (dry) - - 70 
 Haricot Beans - - 4.2 Cocoa (dry) - - 59 
 
 Potatoes - - - - 0.1 
 
 Onions o.i Lager Beer - - i.o 
 
 Asparagus - - - - 1.5 Pale Ale ... 1.3 
 
 Porter .... 1.3 
 
 (3.) As a third cause you must remember that, 
 suppose you have so many extra grains of " uric 
 acid " in you, then it makes little difference whether 
 you get rid of ten grains and add another ten grains 
 by food, or whether you take some acid, as with 
 alcohol, which prevents you from getting rid of the 
 first ten grains at all ; so that, not as a creator, but 
 as a preserver of *' uric acid " in the system, we must 
 mention not only the " uric acid " foods and the 
 excess of Proteid, but also those things, especialh* 
 acids, which tend to keep the " uric acid " in the 
 system. 
 
 Dr. Walker Hall prefers to call the material 
 Purins. He has added a good deal to Dr. Haig's 
 information. With regard to eggs, it may be that 
 fresh eggs have no purins, whereas unfresh eggs 
 
552 APPENDIX I. 
 
 have more and more ; apparently the " animal " 
 inside the egg is using up the Proteid, etc., and 
 giving out waste-products instead. 
 
 Dr. Walker Hall also allows for personal differ- 
 ences. He will not admit that a given amount of 
 Purin-containing food will always produce the same 
 effect in different people. You, he would say to one 
 patient, have a power to get rid of or counteract the 
 Purins in meat, or indeed any Purins. You, he 
 would say to another, should avoid red meat : take, 
 by preference, chicken or fish. Another he would 
 advise to be extremely careful and to take not even 
 the pulse-foods (peas, beans and lentils), but to con- 
 fine himself to Purin-free articles of diet. 
 
 His table may be a rough guide to many : it may 
 be worth a great deal, only eventually it must be 
 judged by its results. 
 
 The Purin-crystals are supposed to be somewhat of 
 the appearance in Fig. 207, which of course represents 
 them highly magnified. They are 
 found in the tissues of gouty and 
 otherwise diseased persons. 
 
 A qualified medical man, of ex- 
 ceptionally wide experience, who 
 has himself tried the Purin-free 
 diet and benefited enormously 
 by it, and who has numerous 
 patients following his advice and 
 'G- 207. ^jg^ benefiting by it, has kindly 
 
 written me the following notes about blood-pres- 
 sure in so far as it is caused by foods. 
 
A THEORY OF nLOOD-PRESSURE. 553 
 
 In case there should be any misunderstanding, he 
 has not written these notes with reference to any- 
 particular mistake. Like myself, he treats the matter 
 from another point of view ; he tries to get at causes 
 not only of this mistake, but also of gout, rheuma- 
 tism, neuralgia, gouty headache, depression, dipso- 
 mania, and so on. 
 
 Take the last, for instance — dipsomania. I had a 
 friend who did not care to drink alcohol except after 
 he had had a meat-meal. Then, though he preferred 
 not to drink and not to smoke before that meal — say 
 for a fortnight — he now rushed to whiskeys and 
 sodas, beer, cigars, novels, and magazines. 
 
 In my own case, when I have taken meat-extracts 
 by mistake during the past eight years, I have found 
 that cramp came on, or else some other form of de- 
 pression, whereas cramp and corns and colds and 
 many other undesirable things, once my familiar 
 visitors, have been unknown to me otherwise during 
 those eight years. No other condition had I 
 changed except my diet. I had given up flesh-foods 
 and had taken other nourishing bases in their place. 
 Indeed, during these eight years, I have had less 
 fresh air, less vigorous exercise, more trying work, 
 than before. 
 
 I have found also that different things aftect me 
 differently, in contrast to Dr. Haig's assertion : for 
 instance, though it may be entirely different with 
 other individuals, I find precisely the same effects 
 from meat, fish, and fowl, when I have tried them. 
 Nor indeed is the effect of eggs very appreciably 
 
554 APPENDIX I. 
 
 different. Oatmeal also I cannot stand in most of 
 its forms ; though the effect of oatmeal is not the 
 same as that of meat. Coffee has a different effect 
 from all these things ; it upsets me. Tea has a diffe- 
 rent effect ; at the time, at least, it does not upset me 
 at all. And, in contrast to Dr. Haig's assertion, in 
 my case much excess of Proteid does not seem to 
 have anything like the effect of a drop or two of 
 meat -juice. 
 
 Of course in recent years I have studied relax- 
 ation, repose, and self-suggestion, but, before I began 
 to study and practise them, I found that the above 
 unpleasant features had already almost disappeared. 
 
 " The blood makes a complete circuit of the vessels once in every 
 twenty-seven pulsations, or, roundly speaking, once in every half- 
 minute, the rate being of course increased by exercise and dimi- 
 nished by inaction. During its circulation it exerts a certain 
 pressure on the walls of the bloo<l- vessels, as can easily be demon- 
 strated by the spurting of a severed artery. Much of our daily 
 comfort and indeed of our health depends on the maintenance of 
 the pressure. 
 
 " There are three elements involved in this process : 
 
 (i) The power or weakness of the heart ; 
 
 (2) The freedom or obstruction of the capillaries ; 
 
 (3) The quantity of the blocxl. 
 
 *' And it can be directly proved that the blood -pressure increases — 
 (i) With increased action of the heart ; 
 
 (2) In plethoric or full-blocxled j^)ersons ; 
 
 (3) After increase in the (luantity of blood, as after a copious 
 meal. 
 
 " And, conversely, that the blood-pressure diminishes — 
 (i) With enfeebled action of the heart; 
 
 (2) In anaemic persons ; 
 
 (3) After bleeding or considerable loss from the blood by sweat- 
 ing, the urine, or severe diarrhcea. 
 
 " Within normal limits the blootl-pressure varies almost from 
 
A THEORY OF BLOOD-PRESSURE. 555 
 
 second to second under the influence of the pulse-beat, the respi- 
 ration, and other incidents of common occurrence. But for each 
 iiuii-i'idual there is a certain standard, xvhich for him is the normal 
 and which stamps him with a certain characteristic feature. So lon^ 
 as this standard is neither too high nor too low, the individual has 
 perfect comfort. But, when it becomes too higli or too low, then 
 more or less severe discomfort is sure to follow. The former type 
 is most easily recognised in the full-blooded or plethoric person 
 who can tolerate only the smallest variations from his normal. For, 
 if it should rise a little, he immediately gets headache, irritability, 
 becomes breathless, perspires, and is generally in a condition sug- 
 gestive of bursting a blood-vessel, whereas, if it fall a little, he at 
 once complains of faintness. weakness, and a general feeling of 
 lowness. 
 
 " The latter type is seen in the anaemic person who is capable of 
 no exertion because he has no reserve-powers. To him life is a 
 serious burden. 
 
 "It is therefore important that eacli individual, for the sake of 
 health and comfort, should keep his blood-pressure within physio- 
 logical limits, and consequently, should become acquainted with the 
 circumstances in life which are liable to raise or lower it. 
 
 " With our present habits of eating and drinking, the danger is 
 always that it should by insensible degrees become too high, espe- 
 cially in youth ; and long before it has reached a stage in which 
 it is dangerous to life, a vast amount of harm may be done to the 
 individual, leaving in his constitution marks not easy to repair. 
 
 " In youth, when the appetite is good and the habits are active, 
 the tendency is to eat and drink too much ; and, as we have seen, 
 the blood -pressure can be raised by one copious meal. A constant 
 succession of these will be certain to cause a high-blood pressure. 
 This, then, is the first cause to be avoided, because, once the habit is 
 started, it must be gone on with ; as, the moment nature in its efforts to 
 £lear out the superabundant material from the circulation, has succeeded, 
 a feeling of * lowness ' takes the place of the sense of repletion and 
 excessive physical fitness, and an ordinary meal is not accepted 7vith 
 comfort : the craving being for the (now usual) e.\tra-ordinar\' meal. 
 In time this is not sufficient, and stimulants of one kind or another 
 are demanded, which are still more illusory in their action and lead 
 to still more dangerous complications. 
 
 "The second cause, which is well recognised by all medical men, 
 
556 APPENDIX I. 
 
 is an excess of Proteid in the food. Now it seems to be clearly 
 made out that, whether this belong to the animal or vegetable king- 
 dom, so long as more is taken than the system can utilise, the excess- 
 becomes converted into waste-material or purin bodies, and is 
 thrown off chiefly by the kidneys. It has been proved by experi- 
 mentation on rabbits, that daily injection of purin bodies causes 
 degeneration of the liver and kidneys and thickens the inner coat 
 of the smaller blood-vessels, thus reducing their calibre. By this 
 means, therefore, the blood-pressure is gradually increased ; be- 
 cause in youth the heart is generally strong, and this acts on an 
 obstructed capillary circulation, so that a degenerated kidney and 
 an excess of blood is bound to raise the blood-pressure. No doubt 
 there is a mechanism in the system which is able to arrange for the 
 accommodation of small quantities of surplus Proteid. But, when 
 excess of Proteid is ingested daily, the results are as above 
 described. 
 
 "The third c&Mse is the consumption of flesh-food. Fish, flesh,, 
 and fowl of all kinds contain, in addition to their nutrient Proteid, 
 a varying proportion of purin bodies — xanthins, hypoxanthins, etc. 
 — which are absolutely non-nutrient and indeed are the waste- 
 products formed during the life of the animal. In due course they 
 would have been excreted by the kidney. In the method described 
 in the preceding paragraph, these after a time raise the blood- 
 pressure and lead to all sorts of diseases fairly well known to the 
 public. Every medical man — even the most rabid flesh-eater — 
 is willing to admit that in Bright's disease the only hope of pro- 
 longing the life or curing the patient is to cut him off" all flesh-fcxjds 
 at once and for all time. Now long before the actual classical signs 
 of Bright's disease appear, a stage is easily recognised which is 
 simply due to high blood -pressure ; and, if the disease be taken in 
 this early stage, it is easily cured or rather prevented, by abstin- 
 ence from animal food. But the high blood-pressure due to meat- 
 eating does not always wreak its vengeance on the kidney, although 
 that organ is nearly always affected. It may affect the liver or any 
 other organ of the bo<ly ; and hence a multitude of diseases may 
 arise — all due to this cause. 
 
 " Fourthly, beer and stout contain purins. And no doubt this 
 explains their effect in causing gout and high blood-pressure. But 
 any kind of alcoholic drink ultimately produces degenerative 
 changes of a kind which lead to high blood -pressure. 
 
A THICOKV OF HLOOD-PRESSUKi:. 55/ 
 
 " Fi/thfv. tea. coffee, and cocoa contain active principles called 
 theine, cafteine. and theobromine, which are closely allied to the 
 purin Ixxlies and are apt to accumulate in the system and cause 
 the troubles already descril:)ed. since they tend to raise the blood- 
 pressure. These fluids, bein^ drunk warm, are distinct stimulants, 
 to the heart-action, and are believed to diminish tissue-waste; 
 although experiments have always demonstrated the contrary 
 effect. In any case they are decided stimulants to the nervous, 
 system, relieve fatigue, and enable more work to be done without 
 the necessity of taking fcKKl. They ought to rank as — and indeed 
 they really are— drugs, wliich should only be used when for some 
 specific reason their effects are desired to be produced. Their 
 regular consumption is simply a habit which, as will now be 
 understood, is not free from danger and should l)e carefully 
 guarded against. 
 
 " Sixthly, it is right to mention that one or two vegetable foixls. 
 — notably peas, beans, lentils, and oatmeal — contain fairly large 
 (juantities of purin bodies. 
 
 " It will thus be noticed that practically all the foods which con- 
 tain large quantities of Proteid contain also purin bodies— the only 
 notable exceptions being cheese and other Proteids (Mr. Miles uses- 
 one) derived from milk. Therefore, if these vegetables he usetl 
 at all, it should only be very sparingly ; although it should be 
 mentioned that, if peas and beans be consumed in their//rjr// form, 
 the same objection does not obtain. 
 
 "The only article of daily consumption apt to bring about a 
 lowering of the blood-pressure is tobacco ; and this it does by 
 paralysing the respiratory centre of the heart. It is for this reason 
 that the use of alcohol and tobacco are constantly associated — the 
 former raising and the latter lowering the blood-pressure. Thus 
 the bad effect produced by the one is, as it were, counteracted by 
 a worse effect pr(Kluce<l by the other. 
 
 "After such a serious indictment of what after all is the com- 
 monly accepted food of this country, it will come rather as a 
 surprise to find one single healthy individual in the community. 
 And yet. if a man but uses his powers of observation, it will 
 quickly become apparent that practically no one is in perfect 
 health. There can be little iloubt that we are more or less suffering 
 from food-poisoning, and that much more serious results would 
 ensue were it not for the fact that each one is endowed with a 
 
558 APPENDIX I. 
 
 mysterious power of throwing off such food-poisons more or less 
 easily, some with but little and others with very great difficulty. 
 
 "It is quite possible to measure this particular power in each 
 individual. 
 
 "But when it is known that the Ijest of health and strength can 
 be obtained without any of the risky foods, it is surely much better 
 to fight shy of them altogether." 
 
 Speaking of meat in particular, a writer in the 
 Lancet says : — 
 
 *' ' Meat ' — using the term in its popular sense — is 
 highly stimulating, and supplies proportionately more 
 exciting than actually nourishing pabulum to the 
 nervous system. The meat-eater lives at high pres- 
 sure, and is, or ought to be, a peculiarly active 
 organism, like a predatory animal, always on the 
 alert, walking rapidly, and consuming large quan- 
 tities of oxygen. In practice we find that the meat- 
 eater does not live up to the level of his food, and as 
 a consequence he can not or does not take in enough 
 oxygen to satisfy the exigencies of his mode of life. 
 Thereupon follow many, if not most, of the ills to 
 which highly-civilised and luxurious meat-eating 
 classes are liable." 
 
 Other disadvantages of flesh-foods have been cited 
 in " Muscle, Brain and Diet." 
 
 Professor Mosso would set, among the causes of 
 blood-pressure, etc., the acids which we produce by 
 work within the human body. I S|>eak subject to 
 correction, but I do not remember that in his clas- 
 sic work he has alluded to food of the wrong kind, 
 apart from food in excess, as a cause of fatigue. Yet 
 there is no doubt that the products of the human 
 
A THKOKV or HLOOD-PKESSURE. 55(> 
 
 body within itself are acid, and among these acids 
 would be uric acid or purins, whichever we like 
 to call them. 
 
 Then Mosso would emphasise carbonic acid, which 
 helps to turn the red blood in the arteries into the 
 blue blood in the veins. Every one knows how we 
 take in more oxygen than we give out ; that we give 
 out more carbonic acid than we take in. 
 
 Others would assign excessive blood-pressure to 
 such causes as indigestion and consequent fermenta- 
 tion and feverishness : and to constipation and con- 
 sequent clogging. 
 
 Others would see other causes. 
 
 To what the doctors above-mentioned have said as 
 to the sources, I must add the effects of emotions. 
 Professor Elmer Gates and others maintain that the 
 unfavourable emotions poison the blood, probably 
 making it over-acid. Among these emotions are 
 anger, worry, fear, sorrow, and impure feelings. 
 
 And to this list I should add yet another cause r 
 it cannot be entireh" separated from the mind, but it 
 is largely physical as well — namely, muscular tension 
 and strain, so closely connected with anger, worry^ 
 and fear ; and shallow and unrhythmical breathing. 
 
 This does not exhaust the causes of excessive 
 blood-pressure, but at least it cites a few of them. 
 
 When a person conscientiously tries to avoid all 
 these sources, he is met with a great difficulty. 
 Where is he to get the purer conditions ? Consider 
 diet alone. Suppose him to disregard everything 
 else except the purins. He tries a purin-free diet,. 
 
560 APPENDIX I. 
 
 hard as it is to secure it outside a bachelor house- 
 hold. He finds a wonderful change, of a very un- 
 pleasant kind perhaps. Some people feel no unplea- 
 santness, but most do. The fact of it is that they 
 miss the excessive blood-pressure. It used to give 
 them a feeling of energy ; now they are slack, yet 
 restless. Whether they feel lazy and immovable, or 
 whether they feel fidgety and unrestful, anyhow they 
 feel the reverse of self-controlled. The immediate 
 result of the change may be extremely unpleasant in 
 every way. Is there no remedy ? 
 
 A remedy seems to me to be a gradual and tactful 
 advance to a purer regime. If any one took the best 
 of the recipes which I have offered in '^ Some of my 
 Recipes " {Routlcdge), he would probably find these 
 a good transition-stage. At the moment of writing 
 I have given these meals to 150 people, most of them 
 eaters of the mixed foods. All except about five have 
 been delighted with the tastes and satisfied with the 
 effects, though none of these meals contained any 
 flesh, fish, or fowl, or flesh extract. 
 
 Another hint is to attend to individuality. There 
 are many cranks who say, wholemeal bread and 
 apples — this is the sole diet for human beings ! But 
 suppose these things do not suit. What then ? 
 Well, individuality must be respected, and other 
 things must be chosen. I believe that there is no 
 diet which suits everybody ; hitherto, at any rate, I 
 have been unable to find it. Certainly I know of not 
 a single diet which suits everjbody in its immediate 
 eff"ects. 
 
A THEORY OF BLOOD-PRESSURE. 561 
 
 The same medical authority who wrote the above 
 notes has also added (see Chap. XVI.) a valuable word 
 about irritants. Irritants, such as pepper, mustard, 
 and most of the heating sauces, may have their use 
 in giving pleasant feelings and helping the flow of 
 saliva and gastric juice and so quickening the di- 
 gestion : but it is as well to realise what the later 
 effects are. 
 
 Notice, as well, certain other things about which 
 the same may be said : namely, that they may have 
 their immediate good effects and so may be worth 
 while now and then, but that their final effects may 
 be to increase the blood-pressure and so produce 
 dis-ease. First and foremost among these things is 
 alcohol. I have a great number of letters mention- 
 ing its effects. The most convincing are those when 
 the sole change which the person made in his way of 
 living was to give up alcohol. If he gave up a num- 
 ber of other things as well, it was hard to say that 
 the state of self-control was due to no alcohol. 
 
 Then there is tobacco, the immediate effects of 
 Avhich may not be against self-control at all. 
 
 The same applies to many of the drugs and tonics: 
 it is not their immediate effects that we condemn so 
 much as their final effects, when they have settled in 
 the system and are passing round with the blood- 
 supply, and clogging that supply, or else settling in 
 the tissues or organs and working their mischief 
 there, creating in the morbid patient undesirable 
 desires. 
 
 What if the theories of the above writers and of 
 
562 APPENDIX I. 
 
 myself are correct ? What advice do I ^ive ? Let 
 me end, as I began, with a personal experience. 
 
 In the first place, some may be unaffected by these 
 external and physical *' doggers," if we may call 
 them so. Some may control their body by means of 
 their mind, and especially by means of self-sugges- 
 tion. I know more than one person who claims to 
 be able to do this, so that, he says, his conditions of 
 food, air, exercise, etc., are almost a matter of in- 
 difference to him. 
 
 Others may find it better to avoid some things 
 which I can take with apparent impunity, instead of 
 avoiding those things which I avoid. They might 
 find some of these latter — such as porridge — produce 
 little or no discomfort in their case, or they might 
 have to add to m\' list. 
 
 It must be remembered, by the way, that often for 
 days or weeks together I take little exercise, and do 
 much sedentary \Nork of the severest kind almost 
 throughout the day continuously ; that certainly I 
 was once very ill with hard arteries, high blood- 
 pressure, being full-blooded and the reverse of self- 
 controlled, restless yet depressed, constipated, a bad 
 sleeper, and so forth.* 
 
 I still prefer to avoid the following things, without 
 laying down any law for others ; though most people's 
 experiences, on the whole, seem to agree with mine. 
 
 I. All flesh-foods, including fish and fowl and 
 meat-extracts ; oatmeal (except one kind) ; and nearly 
 every kind of sUgar. 
 
 • See " Muscle, Brain, and Diet " (Sonnenschein). 
 
A THEORY OF BLOOD-PRESSURE. 563 
 
 2. Much ginger, pepper and mustard, curry, and 
 strong sauces. 
 
 3. Much alcohol. This is the result of long and 
 careful experiment. In fact, after years of careful 
 registration of effects all-round, I am inclined to 
 think that, except for a few immediate objects, when 
 it seems best to work at very high pressure, alcohol 
 does not suit me at all. 
 
 4. Fast eating, unless my state of mind be excep- 
 tionally cheerful. 
 
 5. Certain exercises (especially of strain, riding, 
 etc.). 
 
 6. Frowning and tension of eye, tension of spine, 
 and gripping of hands, as when I tend to worry or 
 anger. 
 
 7. Over-fatigue of body or mind, especially after 
 exciting exercise or work. 
 
 8. Anxiety, anger, and indeed thoughts sent out 
 against any one. 
 
 9. Of course, foul or suggestive talk and litera- 
 ture and sights. 
 
 10. Warm baths, especially at night, unless fol- 
 lowed by cold sponging (at the base of the spine, 
 etc.). 
 
 11. Hot clothing at night, except over the feet. 
 All these things affect me far less than they did 
 
 before. Their results usually are general discomfort. 
 Perhaps their results may sometimes be disinclina- 
 tion to work. For my own part I do not separate 
 the different kinds of discomfort ; I want to get at 
 what causes all or most of them. Let me avoid 
 
 LL 
 
564 APPENDIX I. 
 
 these causes, and it seems to me that I thereby 
 avoid this or that or any mistake. 
 
 And, to be candid, I feel I might be already im- 
 muned from the bad influence of all these conditions, 
 except the wrong emotions of worry, anger, etc., if I 
 used gigantic will-power, and could endure and per- 
 severe in the sustained effort. 
 
 But at present this is my own preference accord- 
 ing to my conscience. I prefer to establish better 
 instincts by the easy mastery of many alphabets. I 
 want to get instincts which will give me more plea- 
 sure ; I want to get habits to which I shall resort by 
 preference, because they attract me more ; I want 
 other memories to cease to attract me and die, as 
 the wrong kind of woman, stripped of her paint 
 and finery and distorting corsets and shoes, or as a 
 skeleton stripped of its flesh, loses all its charms, 
 which were seen to be merely charms of the surface 
 and outside the surface. 
 
 So, in Racquets, I do not want to play severe 
 championship matches too often. Occasionally such 
 matches are good in order to test my improvement 
 and expose my weaknesses : but it is by quiet and 
 unobtrusive exercises and practices, that cost me 
 little effort and do not annoy other people at all, 
 that I hope to win if I am to win at all. 
 
A DEFENCE OF LATIN — RIGHTLY TAUGHT. 565 
 
 APPENDIX II. 
 
 A DEFENCE OF LATIN — RIGHTLY TAUGHT. 
 
 THERE is a tendency for American and other 
 boys not to be taught Latin. When they are 
 allowed to choose their own subjects, they seldom 
 choose this. And — is it partly cause and effect ? — 
 American boys are in some respects singularly un- 
 disciplined. True, they are open and express them- 
 selves freely ; but most of them seem utterly unfitted 
 for doing things in which they are not keenly in- 
 terested : they hate drudgery as drudger}'. 
 
 Now our boys in England are in a different posi- 
 tion. In after life they must, or they think they 
 must, do a great deal of which the}- will not see the 
 reason (it would not be easy for them to see the 
 reason of it, since no apparent reason exists). They 
 may be called to lines of action which are hope- 
 lessly and shockingly unscientific. They may be 
 called to be the slaves of orthodox custom. Now 
 the worst possible training for this career is free 
 self-activity during youth. Among the best possible 
 ^trainings for it is dull phvsical drill and dull Classical 
 drill. 
 
 The boy who learns Latin learns to concentrate 
 his attention on a matter w,hich does not seem con- 
 nected with the economy of life, and certainly is not 
 connected with pleasure. He learns to be more 
 accurate and thorough, or less inaccurate and slip- 
 shod. True, his motive may not be the highest : 
 
566 APPENDIX II. 
 
 he may learn Latin in order to get marks or other 
 reward or to escape punishment; but that may also 
 be the motive for many of his actions in later life. 
 Why will he cling to his office so faithfully ? In 
 order to provide for himself and his children ; to get 
 not so much a barren prize as those luxuries which 
 he believes to be the bare necessities of life ; to 
 escape not so much punishment as poverty and 
 starvation, or what he considers social degradation. 
 
 Now we must distinguish here the merits which 
 Latin has when it has been "learnt," and the merits 
 which it has as a subject while it is being learnt, 
 especially while it is being learnt rightly. 
 
 Both when it has been learnt and while it is being 
 learnt it is a training in clearness and directness of 
 speech. The Romans said what they meant, and 
 they said it straight out, though Cicero and a few 
 other writers show occasional exceptions. In modern 
 times this is not the rule (among politicians it is cer- 
 tainly not the rule). The Romans of the Classical 
 period scarcely ever used language for the purpose 
 of veiling their thoughts. 
 
 The merits of Latin when it has been properly 
 learnt are familiar to every one. It brings the know- 
 ledge of simple yet great works in history, literature, 
 oratory, philosophy, art, and so on. " Look unto 
 the rock whence ye are hewn." Latin is one of the 
 rocks whence our language has been hewn and built, 
 and indeed many of our customs are survivals from 
 Roman times. By reading about the Romans we 
 learn not only to appreciate certain qualities of the 
 
A DEFENCE OF LATIN — RIGHTLY TAUGHT. 567 
 
 ancients, but also to appreciate certain advantages of 
 the moderns ; we learn to bless our own times, be- 
 cause we are no longer slaves, as most of the ancient 
 people were. We are free as never before. 
 
 Hut many of these lessons can be equally well 
 obtained through translations, as Emerson found. I 
 have read most of the Classics in the originals, and 
 I must say I have learnt far more about Classical 
 times from a hundredth part of that amount of read- 
 ing of translations. 
 
 As to the merits of the process of learning Latin 
 rightly, perhaps a sample will help to make some of 
 them clearer. Suppose a boy begins by hearing and 
 speaking this sentence as a sentence, not as a series 
 of isolated words : — 
 
 Tay deh-oom low — (as in loud)-dah-mooce. 
 
 He will familiarise himself with the sound of this 
 before he divides it into words, though he will know 
 at the start that it means " We praise thee as God," 
 or, keeping to the order of the Latin words, " Thee 
 as-God praise-we." Having mastered the sounds of 
 this sentence, he can now proceed to regard it as 
 made up of three words : — 
 
 Thee (Te) as-God (Deum) praise-we (laudamus). 
 
 He will see how the Latins expressed by three 
 \\ ords what we express by ftve. 
 
 So long as the boy listens and speaks Latin in 
 sentences (or thoughts) y before he reads and writes 
 it as words, so long as he learns it at first as children 
 learn French, if they are left to learn it in their own 
 way, he will gain many advantages. 
 
5^8 APPENDIX II. 
 
 In the first place he will know his own language 
 better; he will understand the language of prayer, 
 which is largely based on Latin, and also the lan- 
 guage of science, philosophy, and so forth. 
 
 Besides, he will be studying a subject of which 
 many text-books already exist and are in use. After 
 a little ground-work like this, he will be ready for 
 work with grammars and text-books and authors 
 themselves. 
 
 Teachers of Latin exist in large numbers. They 
 are among the finest men in England and the world; 
 but the subjects that they know are few. Latin is 
 one of these subjects. It is a great advantage to 
 have a subject which these men can teach, so that, 
 during the teaching, they may impart some of their 
 character to the boys. For the most valuable part 
 of their teaching is their personal influence, not the 
 subjects, which — probably — they fail to teach. 
 
 What they need really is to change their methods 
 at the start. This would not be a great hardship to 
 them. 
 
 A few suggestions may help them with regard to 
 different branches of Classical learning ; they are 
 based on my own experience as a coach and lecturer 
 at Cambridge, and as a self-teacher. Unfortunately 
 I taught myself these things too late ; I never really 
 appreciated the Classics till after my Tripos was over. 
 
 I. Unseen Translations into English : — A boy 
 should find out the meanings of difficult words partly 
 by the light of the context. He should gather 
 together all the data from what he can make out 
 
A DEFENCE OF LATIN — RIGHTLY TAUGHT. 569 
 
 easily, and by that guess the meaninjj; of what he 
 cannot make out so easily, somewhat as he would 
 do with a rider in Euclid. He knows some things 
 for certain. He has to make every possible use of 
 these, as the only tools ready provided for him. 
 
 2. Prose Translations :— The step from an elabo- 
 rate and abstract English sentence to a good Latin 
 sentence is a long one. The distance may be bridged, 
 the river may be stepped over, by means of a stone 
 half-way. Take a sentence like the following : — 
 **An irreconcilable antipathy between virtue and vice 
 prevented the co-operation of these two men." Who 
 did [or did not do] what ? Try to form a living pic- 
 ture of the two men. '* The one was so good, the 
 other so vile, that the two could not work together." 
 
 Latin Verses: — Here there may be a similar pro- 
 cess. Perhaps the English j^ives only enough to fill 
 half a line. A whole line is required. How can the 
 boy expand and paraphrase that English ? Instead 
 of trying to turn it at once into Latin, let him deal 
 with it first as English. If he wishes to expand 
 " The stream is bright," let him expand the English 
 word stream into ** the waters of the stream," '* the 
 stream and its waters," and so on. 
 
 Philology : — The derivations of words will be in- 
 teresting to a boy. He should be told the connection 
 between Latin and English : how English borrowed 
 from Latin either directly or through French. The 
 principles involved should be illustrated, and espe- 
 cially the scientific principles. In fact, philology 
 should be treated as a storehouse of scientific prin- 
 
570 APPENDIX II. 
 
 ciples — constant change of form and meaning, dif- 
 ferentiation, co-operation in large groups (sentences), 
 death, degeneration, and so forth. 
 
 History : — Here the starting-point might be Bio- 
 graphy and English History, but, better still, at any 
 rate with regard to government, the organisation of 
 games. Let the boy compare and contrast the ad- 
 vantages of rule by a single captain or by a com- 
 mittee or by the team in a general council or by a 
 mixture of these governments. Let him learn some- 
 thing of political economy by studying co-operation- 
 and division of labour and specialisation in a game 
 like Cricket or Football. And all the time let his- 
 tory be made a way of teaching cause and effect. 
 How slowly the effect appears after the cause ! How 
 apt one is to put down as a cause what is really 
 only the match that lights the fire, and to forget 
 what helped to lay the fire ready for the match. 
 
 As another example of how Latin might be taught 
 differently, for my own part I should begin now with 
 a study of ** Vulgar" Latin, pronouncing it (as well 
 as I could) in the ancient way. Such Latin would 
 be much easier to learn, owing to one's intimate 
 knowledge of English. It is not unlike the Latin 
 of the Prayer Book. From this Latin one could 
 easily pass back to Classical Latin and forward to 
 the Latin of the Romance Languages, which came 
 from Vulgar, not from Classical, Latin. 
 
 So it is with the New Testament Greek. I should 
 start with that, because it is nearer to English, and 
 also because the English of it is a familiar starting- 
 
A DEFENXE OF I.ATIN — KK.HTLY TAUGHT. 57 1 
 
 point. From New Testament Greek, properly pro- 
 nounced, we could easily pass back to Classical 
 Greek, forward to Modern Greek. The principle 
 is to begin with the familiar and simple. 
 
 What of Greek, by the way ? Is it worth learn- 
 ing ? For the sake of New Testament Greek alone 
 — yes. And for the sake of Homer and many other 
 authors as well — yes. I think it is worth learning 
 by almost if not quite every one ; though there is a 
 second course, and that is to read good translations 
 of the Classics in English. 
 
 M}' own personal experience is that I do not regret 
 the thousands of hours of discipline in learning Latin 
 and Greek. First there were the declensions and 
 genders, etc., teeming with exceptions which I have 
 never met in real Latin and Greek. Then there was 
 the translation of Latin and Greek into English, 
 which helped me to write English — once I could 
 hardly write a single sentence grammatically. Later 
 on, but far too late, I learnt to appreciate material — 
 the science and philosophy of Lucretius, the epic 
 poetry and allegor\' of \^ergil, and so on. But, once 
 again, I do not regret the drudgery' ; it has enabled 
 me to do many things which otherwise would have 
 been intolerable. I learnt when quite young to fix 
 my mind on subjects which were certainly dull and 
 apparently useless. While they were useless as far as 
 direct results were concerned, yet they helped me 
 to submit to drudgery ; and that is what the typical 
 modern boy neeHs. Self-activity is all very well, but 
 there come times in life when sheer and monotonous. 
 
 MM 
 
.57-2 APPENDIX II. 
 
 labour are — or are considered — necessary. That is 
 where the boy who has been " grounded " in Latin 
 has the advantage : he has been trained to master 
 something long before he has any idea of any great 
 advantage coming from that mastery. 
 
 rar7 
 
 ^ or THt 
 
 NIVER81TY 
 
 ^tlF0H2Si> 
 
IMPORTANT NOTE. 
 
 No proprietary croods, except books, etc., have 
 been mentioned in the pages of reading matter. \n 
 the following pages will be found no advertisements 
 of goods which I cannot recommend for boys and 
 others. 
 
 For convenience in reference, the advertisements will be 
 found in this order : — 
 
 Grap)e-Nuts (food), Jaeger (clothing), Allinson (food). 
 Saunders (fruit), Marshall (food). Health Course, Plasmon 
 (food), Grape-Nuts (food), Bertram (food and literature stores), 
 Bananine(food), Deimel (clothing), Hovis (food). Moral Memory 
 Training, Manhu (food), London Nut Food (food), Aylesbury 
 Dair>' Co. (milk), Books, etc.. Miles' Cooking Utensils, Bilson 
 (food stores). Wholemeal Co. (food). Keen, Robinson (food and 
 drink). Lectures and Demonstrations, Frame-Food (food), 
 Pelman (memory-training). 
 
Children particularly need food containing the ele- 
 ments that make the soft grey matter in the nerve cells 
 and in brain. 
 
 When brain and nerves are right the life forces 
 select the bone and teeth making parts and the muscle 
 making elements and day by day build up a perfect and 
 powerful structure. 
 
 So people should let the youngsters have GRAPE- 
 NUTS and cream every' day. They like it, and you 
 can be absolutely certain you are feeding them wiselv 
 and scientifically. 
 
 A few weeks will prove it to }ou by the appearance 
 and activity of the child. 
 
 GRAPE-NUTS served cold, direct from the packet, 
 with cream or rich milk, is delicious when a quickly 
 served meal is called for. 
 
FOR SAFETY & COMFORT IN ALL CLIMATES. 
 
 Write for Illustrated Price List and Patterns. Sent Free. 
 FIXED MODERATE PRICES. 
 
 EVERY ARTHiLE OF ATTIRE FOR MEN, WOMEN, AND CHILDREN IN PURE WOOL. 
 
 LONDON : 
 126, Regent St.,W. 30, Sloane Street, 8.W. 
 456. Strand (Char- 115, Victoria St., S.W. 
 ing Cross), W.C. 85 & 86, Cheapside, EX. 
 
Cycle Race, 
 Rattling Pace, 
 ' • Power" for Dinner, 
 
 5old in Packets only 
 at 7d. each by Agents 
 and Dealers generally 
 in all parts of the 
 
 liDr.Allinson's 
 
 POWER" 
 
 Is a Splendid Ready-Cooked Food for Breakfast & other meals 
 FOR ANYONE AND EVERYONE. 
 
 Mankind is eternally searching for the best kind of food. The rational man wants 
 something that will satisfy the cravings of hunger, be tasty, nourish every organ and 
 tissue of the body, and not be too bulky. We have many foods that will fulfil one or two 
 of these conditions, but it is rare to find all combined in one. 
 
 " POWER" is pleasant to the taste, satisfying, very nutritious, is easy of digestion, 
 and does not " lie heavy."* 
 
 "POWER" is Dr. Allinson's " always ready " food for 
 
 producing Energy, Nerve- Force, Brain-Power, Health, 
 
 Strength, and Vitality. 
 
 Sole Manufacturers . . . 
 
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 WILTSHIRE DOWN HONEY. 
 
 FRUITS IN SYRUP and WITHOUT SUGAR 
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 Schools, Restaurants, Health -Resorts and HoteUjBliowed a liberal discount. 
 
 For Terms and Price JAst apply — 
 
 SAMUEL SAUNDERS, Proprietor. 
 
THE PERFECT 
 
 Dainty. 
 
 WHEAT 
 
 Nourishing. 
 
 FOODS. 
 
 " FAROLA IS iinineasurahly superior to arrowroot, corn flour, sago, &c. 
 Witli milk it forms evquisite piul lings, and in the nursery it will prove 
 
 valuable variety which children will take 
 idity . ' • — Liverpool Medico-Chintrgical Journal 
 
 with 
 
 Awarded Gold Medals at the two important 
 International Exhibitions held in 1886 — Edin- 
 burgh and Liverpool — hvo yaws before any 
 imitations were in the market. 
 
 FAROLA is a highly refined preparation of Wheat, 
 which conserves all the nutritive elements and fine flavour 
 naturally belonging to the purest part of the grain. All irri- 
 tating and indigestible matter has been removed by careful 
 treatment, mechanical means only being employed. 
 
 FAROLA will satisfy a robust appetite, but it is specially 
 ~ suited for invalids and children. 
 
 Is similar in constitution and purity to Farola, 
 but is in the form of large granules, and is 
 
 therefore specially suited for making such dishes as Porridge, 
 
 Steamed Pudding, &c. 
 
 Samples will be sent free on application. 
 
 JAMES MARSHALL (Glasgow), Ltd., 
 
 25, EAST CUMBERLAND STREET, GLASGOW. 
 
PDpsical Fitness 
 
 Is m FatDer of 
 
 rPental ana moral Fitness* 
 
 It does not mean vast and hard fibrous muscles. They are 
 
 rather a deformity. 
 It does not mean the sacrifice of good brain-work. 
 It means the power to turn energy pleasantly, instinctively, 
 
 successfully, now into this healthy and useful channel 
 
 and outlet, now into that. 
 It means 
 
 Crrective $eir° expression under €asp Control. 
 
 It does not mean crankiness, morbidness, fussiness, smuggish- 
 ness, priggishness, asceticism. 
 
 It means sensible self-cillture, so that useful work with body 
 or mind or both may now be natural and enjoyable. 
 
 If you will fill in the answers to a question-form which I will 
 send you, I will 
 
 Prepare you a l>ealtl)-Cour$e. 
 
 I must have the (juestions answered, as otherwise 1 could not 
 be sure that a Course was yow Course. 
 
 Write to 
 
 Eustace Miles, M.A., 
 
 10, St. Paul's Road, 
 Cambridge. 
 
Boys 
 
 Di) not need precisely the 
 same diet as grown-up 
 people. Their food must 
 not over-stimulate them, 
 but must both repair waste 
 and build the growing 
 body. 
 
 Boys 
 
 Do not need precisely the 
 same exercise as grown-up 
 people. Their drill should 
 be, for the most part, short 
 and enjoyable. 
 
 Mr. EUSTACE MILES, of 
 ID. St. Paul's Road, Cam- 
 bridge, gives advice which 
 lx)ys can put into pleasant 
 practice during the holidays. 
 For price of Courses write to 
 ID, St. Paul's Kd., Cambridge. 
 
 Plasmon 
 
 Is the nourishing 
 part of Milk, 
 
 sterilised and preserved. It is 
 not a drug ; it does not con- 
 tain any inorganic chemicals. 
 It is, for many, far more diges- 
 tible than whole milk. Do not 
 ever sprinkle the powder over 
 foods ; always turn the 
 powder first into Plasmon 
 Stock. 
 
 For Recif)es see " Some of 
 My Recipes." (Routledge & 
 Sons, I/-.) 
 
 It builds brain, nerve, and 
 muscle, without clogging, and 
 without over-stimulating. 
 
 Thousands feel . . 
 
 FITTER & CLEARER 
 
 in body and mind if they 
 take . . . 
 
 Grape- 
 Nuts 
 
 . . . for . . . 
 
 Breakfast. 
 
 EDINBURGH 
 
 Food 
 Reform. 
 
 Food Specialities & 
 Reform Literature. 
 
 THE DAWN FOODS DEPOT, 
 40, Hanover Street, 
 EDINBURGH. 
 
 Price Lists Post Free. 
 
Ask your Baker for 
 
 Bananine." 
 
 . . The Original and only Fruit Flour and Bread. 
 
 BANANINE " is prepared from the Banana by a special process in 
 Jamaica, the pearl of the West India Islands. 
 
 ' ' Bananine'Bread. 
 
 "BANANINE'' BREAD is the result of practical and scientific experiments carried 
 over a considerable perioH. It possesses all the qualities of a perfect food, combined with 
 pleasant appearance and flavour. As a brain, bone, and muscle former it is unrivalled by 
 any other bread. The nutritive properties of " BANANINE " BREAD are present in the 
 most easily available form for assimilation, and will prove invaluable to those who suffer 
 from dyspepsia, and other forms of digestive disorders. 
 
 ''BANANINE" BREAD is as palatable and digestible when freshly baked as when 
 .several days old, nor does it become dry even after keeping. '' BANANINE " BREAD is 
 not a luxury, but an every day article of food, at a price within reach of all. The use of 
 "BANANINE" BREAD for feeding children will overcome the great physical defects 
 which we hear so much of, and for which so few remedies are offered. 
 
 One pound of '" BANANINE" BREAD contains more nourishment and energy-pro- 
 ducing materi<tl than one pound of the best beefsteak, is more digestible, and less than one- 
 sixth in price. 
 
 " There can be no doubt of the nutritious character of BANANA FLOUR, and 
 the starch in it is peculiarly easy of solution and digestion in the alkaline digestive juices of 
 the body. BAN.\NA FLOUR is readily dissolved, for example, by the saliva. 
 Our analysis of 'BANANINE' gave the following results: Moisture. 14.60 p^*" cent.: 
 mineral nialter. 2.20 per cent.: proteid. .9 22 per cent.; lat. 2.00 percent.; and carbonydrate, 
 61.98 per cent. The flour has the peculiar flavour and odour of fresfi banana fruit. We 
 have received also a sample loaf made with ' BANANINE' FLOUR. The Hour proves to 
 make a very acceptable loaf, uniform in texture and permanently moist, and of a golden 
 colour. Contrary to that which has been stated, B.^NANA FLOUR is much richer 
 in proteid than is wheat flour, and it also contains more fatty matter. Accordingly, its 
 nutritive value is decidedly higher than is that of wheat flour." — The Lancet, Saturday 
 October 17th, 19-3. 
 
 Sold by all the principal Bakers in the United Kingdom. 
 
 r^S' "BANANINE." 
 
 Thl5 excellent flour i5 manufactured by Messrs. JOS. APPLEBY & SONS. Ltd.. 
 16. Brun.swick Street, Liverpool, who will, upon receipt of a postcard, be 
 pisased to furni.<h the name of the nearest balcer from whom regular 
 supplies can be obtained. 
 
 Registered Proprietor- MR. ALFRED JONES, 
 
 THE JAMAICA PRODUCE CO.. 
 
 51, North John Street, LIVERPOOL. 
 
'iltut^ 
 
 "''"iu^ 
 
 From whatever point of view we may consider the question of proper 
 &Mn coverin;;:, he it health, comfort, or cleanliness, the 
 
 DR. DEIMEL UNDERWEAR 
 of white and porous composite linen -mesh is the best there is. 
 
 For all seasons, its wearers do not worry about changeable weather. 
 
 The DR. DEIMEL UNDERWEAR DEPOT, 
 
 83, strand, LONDON, W.C. 
 
 EUSTACE MILES, M.A., 
 
 Uses and Recommends 
 
 0\/ 1 2 " " 
 
The Training of the 
 Mind and Character 
 
 should be carried on side by side with the training of 
 the body. 
 
 As soon as possible we should sensibly build in 
 ourselves brain-cells and fibres that will connect to- 
 gether what is pleasant with what is right, what is 
 comfortable with what is useful, what is useless with 
 what is uncomfortable, what is wrong with what is un- 
 pleasant. 
 
 Then people will naturally and instinctively and 
 preferably do what is right because it is also pleasant. 
 
 Now can this 
 Moral Memory 
 
 be built ? How can good actions and habits be made 
 preferable? How can desirable thinjjfs become gen- 
 uinely desired ? How can undesirable things — 
 undesirable actions and habits — become undesired, 
 hated, impossible ? 
 
 By a special Course of Lessons, with exercises, I 
 feel sure that I can help you in this direction. The 
 First Lesson will be sent on receipt of the Fee (Three 
 Guineas) ; the subsequent Lessons at intervals, on 
 receipt of answers to the exercises set. 
 
 Apply by letter to 
 
 EUSTACE MILES, M.A., 
 
 10, St. Paul's Road, 
 Cambridge. 
 
COOKS 
 
 SrimuTES 
 
 Manhu 
 Flour 
 
 for 
 
 Brown 
 Bread. 
 
 Made from the 
 whole wheat 
 without addition 
 or deduction. 
 
 Mr. Eustace Miles finds that 
 
 . . MANHU . FLOUR . . 
 
 makes a capital bread. 
 
 Growing Boys need Foods that are 
 PURE AND SIMPLE yet 
 SUSTAINING AND NOURISHING. 
 
 Among these Foods are : — 
 Nutvejo (Often used in sandwiches by Mr. Eustace Miles). 
 Nut Butter. Nut Cream Rolls. 
 
 For other Foods and Full I) t tails write for a Price List — 
 
 London Nut Food Co., 
 
 465. BATTERSEA PARK ROAD, S.W. 
 
MILK and CREAM 
 
 Absolutely Free from Preservatives. 
 
 (T ^=^ 
 
 Deliveries to all parts are made 
 Twice and Thrice Daily, as re- 
 quired, and at times to suit the 
 convenience of every Customer. 
 
 THE 
 
 Jipksburp Oairp 
 Co., Ctd. 
 
 CHIEF OFFICE (open Day & Night) : 
 
 31, ST. PETERSBURGH PLACE, 
 BAYSWATER, LONDON, W. 
 
 Telephone No. 533 Paddington. 
 
 Branches : 
 
 Mavfair : 90, Mount Street, G rosve nor Square, \V. 
 ,>^ ( 172, Hrompton Road. 
 
 HPXGRAV.A-^^/ Lowndes Road. S.W. 
 South Kensington : 81, Gloucester Road, S.W. 
 Hampstead: 317, Finchley Road, N.W. 
 NoTTiNc; Hill: 209, Portobello Road, W. 
 FuTNF.Y : 135, Upper Richmond Road, S.W. 
 Haling: 33, Haven Green, W. 
 Cricklkwood : i, Bank Buildings, Edgware Road. 
 N.W. 
 
 ^ J 
 
 HutnanizedMilk, Koumiss, 
 
 Sc, Ac. 
 
 And other Preparations of Milk for INFANTS 
 and INVALIDS. 
 
a-^ - ■ ■ • — ■ — ■ - ■ mj^:^ 
 
 USEFUL BOOKS, Etc., 
 
 To be had from EUSTACE MILES, M.A., 
 
 lo, St. PauFs Road, Cambridge. 
 
 CASSELL'S PHYSICAL EDUCATOR (vvitli about looo 
 
 illustrations), 9/-, Post free 9/6. 
 MUSCLE, BRAIN, AND DIET, 3/6, Post free, 3/10. 
 
 LETS PLAY THE GAME, ALPHABET OF ATHLETICS, 
 SOME OF MY RECIPES, GOOD DIGESTION, 
 I/- each. Post free 1/2. 
 
 THE TEACHING OF JESUS TO-DAY, 2/6, Post free 2/8. 
 
 THE E.M. MEM. -HOLDER AND MEMORY-HELPER: 
 Handsome Box, with Cards and Instructions, 10/6, 
 carriage 9d. extra. 
 
 THE EUSTACE MILES PROTECTING FRYER, and the 
 EUSTACE MILES DOUBLE PAN COOKER- for 
 scientific, economical, palatable, and hygienic cookery, 
 2/6 each, packing and carriage 6d. each extra. 
 
 BREATHING, QUICKNESS, and other volumes, i/- each,. 
 Post free 1/2. 
 
 CJ-^-** — . . • . — . . — *^^ 
 
T. J. BILSON & CO., 
 
 J 
 
 QJ 
 
 88, Gray's Inn Road, 
 London, W.C. 
 
 The Oldest and Best . . . 
 
 HEALTH FOOD STORES 
 
 . . . in the United Kingdom. 
 
 Dried Fruits, Shelled Nuts, Nut Foods, and Special Cereal Foods, 
 as used by Eustace Miles, Esq. 
 
 All foods are of the finest quality. 
 
 Send {d. Stamp for Price List, 
 
 INVALUABLE FOR . . . 
 
 BETTER FLAVOUR. BETTER DIGESTION. 
 GREATER FITNESS. GREATER ECONOMY. 
 
 The Eustace Miles Double-Pan Cooker : 
 
 For Cooking Vegetables and Blancmanges, as well 
 as for Milk and Porridge. 
 
 The Eustace Miles Protected Fryer : 
 
 For Frying Savoury Cutlets, Fritters, etc. 
 Half-a-Crown each ; packing and postage 6d. each extra. 
 The pair, with Book of Recipes and Food- Values, 
 carriage free, 7/-. 
 
 Out of 160 guests, at least 155 have enjoyed the tastes 
 and effects of the meals for which these utensils 
 were employed. 
 
 You can now get these by writing to the inventor : 
 MR. EUSTACE MILES, 
 
 10, St. Paul's Road, Cambridge. 
 
For Body and Brain, 
 For Nerve and Muscle, 
 For Teeth and Bones, 
 For Better Excretion, 
 
 Finest 
 
 Wholemeal & 
 Flour, 
 
 Free from 
 Irritating Particles, 
 
 IS VERY VALUABLE. 
 
 Apply to . . 
 
 THE WHOLEMEAL CO., 
 
 247, Chorley Road, 
 
 Swinton, Lanes. 
 
"o^ -^ 
 
 C. B. FRY'S 
 LATEST TIP TO ATHLETES. 
 
 " I can with complete confidence recommend 
 
 . . BARLEY . WATER . . 
 
 *' made from 
 
 Kobinson's Patent Barley 
 
 '' as a drink very valuable to Athletes during 
 
 " training, and to anyone engaged in severe 
 
 *' physical exertion." 
 
 (Signed) C. B. FRY. 
 
 ^^ { Viite letter 3rd September, 1904.) ^N 
 
 Lectures Given, 
 .Sample Meals Prepared, 
 Recipes Arranged, 
 
 For Schools, Institutions, 
 
 Factories, etc. 
 
 For Fees, which depend partly on the distance from Cambridge 
 or London, apply to 
 
 Eustace Miles, M.A., 
 
 10, St. Paul's Road, Cambridge. 
 
NOURISH A FLOURISH ! 
 
 [n its capacity to enrich the blood, develop 
 bone, teeth, muscle and brain of quite YOUNG 
 INFANTS; and build up the strength of Invalids ; 
 and as a delicious and sustaining breakfast or 
 supper dish for all Adults, especially for Athletics, 
 
 FRAME=FOOD| 
 
 (For Building; up the Frame) ■ 
 
 is unrivalled. Its principal nourishing elements 
 
 are phosphates, albuminoids, and other nutritious 
 
 matter EXTRACTED from wheat bran. 
 
 I6o2. Tin, Is. 
 
 FREE SAMPLE «>/// <>// applicalioii lo- 
 FRAME-FOOI) CO.. Ltd., 5tanden Road, 
 
 50UTHFIELDS. LONDON, S.W. 
 
 BETTER than JAM ! 
 
 "FRAME-FOOD" JELLY is far more nutritious 
 than jam, and quite as NICE to EAT. It contains 
 extracted wheat phosphates, and possesses the same 
 nutritive and digestive properties as Malt Extract, 
 assisting the assimilation of other food. 
 
 Seed and skins contained in most jams annoy by 
 getting into the teeth, and are difficult, if not impos- 
 sible of digestion. " FRAME-FOOD " JELLY con- 
 tains neither seed nor skins. It has a pleasant fruity 
 flavour. The Children's Delight 1 The Invalid's Sus- 
 tenance A Great Food for Athletes. 
 
 In air-tight jars containing about I lb. at 9d. 
 
 5 02. Sample Jar sent free on receipt of 3d. for postage. 
 (Mention this book.) 
 
 FRAME FOOD CO., Ld.,*"'"^;.!;,?.^. London, S.W. 
 
Never Forget 
 
 " The experience of old age is 
 merely the fruits of memory." 
 
 Make up your Mind . . 
 
 . . never to Forget. 
 
 However powerful your brains, they are not much use to 
 you unless you have a memory. If you have not, you might 
 as well cut the top of your head off for all the good all the 
 brains there are will do you. 
 
 Do you ever forget things you ought to remember ? Have 
 you, for instance, ever forgotten to post a letter ? Have you 
 ever mislaid money, or left your keys at home ? Small things, 
 perhaps, but they show " the way the wind blows." Your 
 memory is not as good as it ought to be. 
 
 Mr. Pelman can show you how to strengthen it. Won't 
 you give him the opportunity ? Thousands who were once in 
 your position are thankful that they did so. All success rests 
 on memory. Is your memory strong enous^h to make you 
 successful ? If it is not, remedy the defect to day. 
 
 Write Mr. Pelman for further particulars at once. We 
 say at once, or you may forget to do so, and commit another 
 fatal error as the result of your bad memory. His memory- 
 training system is the only one that meets with the approval 
 of scientists and doctors. It has been translated into six 
 languages — Russian, Italian, French, German, English and 
 Dutch. Write to-day. 
 
 "/ have had an opportunity of examining Mr. Pelman s metfwd, 
 and can confidently recommend it.'' — EUSTACE MILES. 
 
 Address The Secretaiy, 
 
 The Pelman School of Memory Training, 
 
 199, Wenham House, Bloomsbury Street. London, W.C#. 
 
 SOUTH AFRICA : AUSTRALIA : 
 
 90, Lynn Buildings, I)iirb.in. Tf.P.O , Box 40a, Mclooume. 
 
 90i^l^i\cl|i|^ ff>9^^^^'ew York. 
 GERMANY. ; Q«iA#iS?V INDIA. 
 
 {^'"^^RiiTY^ 19 «5 2 5 
 
RETURN CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT 
 
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 Renewals and Recharges may be made 4 days prior to the due date. 
 
 Books may be Renewed by calling 642-3405 
 
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