A way of life : $b An address to Yale students Sunday evening, April 20th, 1913Osler, William, Sir
Philosophy
A way of life : $b An address to Yale students Sunday evening, April 20th, 1913
Osler, William, Sir
Conduct of life; Students -- Conduct of life
of the land, and make it the occasion perhaps of that careful
examination of yourself, that inquisition which Descartes urges every
man to hold once in a lifetime,--not oftener.
Waste of energy, mental distress, nervous worries dog the steps of a
man who is anxious about the future. Shut close, then, the great
fore and aft bulkheads, and prepare to cultivate the habit of a life
of Day-Tight Compartments. Do not be discouraged,--like every other
habit, the acquisition takes time, and the way is one you must find
for yourselves. I can only give general directions and
encouragement, in the hope that while the green years are on your
heads, you may have the courage to persist.
IV
Now, for the day itself! What first? Be your own daysman! and sigh
not with Job for any mysterious intermediary, but prepare to lay your
own firm hand upon the helm. Get into touch with the finite, and
grasp in full enjoyment that sense of capacity in a machine working
smoothly. Join the whole creation of animate things in a deep,
heartfelt joy that you are alive, that you see the sun, that you are
in this glorious earth which nature has made so beautiful, and which
is yours to conquer and to enjoy. Realise, in the words of Browning,
that "There's a world of capability for joy spread round about us,
meant for us, inviting us." What are the morning sensations?--for
they control the day. Some of us are congenitally unhappy during the
early hours; but the young man who feels on awakening that life is a
burden or a bore has been neglecting his machine, driving it too
hard, stoking the engines too much, or not cleaning out the ashes and
clinkers. Or he has been too much with the Lady Nicotine, or fooling
with Bacchus, or, worst of all, with the younger Aphrodite--all
"messengers of strong prevailment in unhardened youth." To have a
sweet outlook on life you must have a clean body. As I look on the
clear-cut, alert, earnest features, and the lithe, active forms of
our college men, I sometimes wonder whether or not Socrates and Plato
would find the race improved. I am sure they would love to look on
such a gathering as this. Make their ideal yours--the fair mind in
the fair body. The one cannot be sweet and clean without the other,
and you must realise, with Rabbi Ben Ezra, the great truth that flesh
and soul are mutually helpful. The morning outlook--which really
makes the day--is largely a question of a clean machine--of physical
morality in the wide sense of the term. "_C'est l'estomac qui fait
les heureux,_" as Voltaire says; no dyspeptic can have a sane outlook
on life; and a man whose bodily functions are impaired has a lowered
moral resistance. To keep the body fit is a help in keeping the mind
pure, and the sensations of the first few hours of the day are the
best test of its normal state. The clean tongue, the clear head, and
the bright eye are birth-rights of each day. Just as the late
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account