Maintaining Health (Formerly Health and Efficiency)Alsaker, Rasmus Larssen
Science
Maintaining Health (Formerly Health and Efficiency)
Alsaker, Rasmus Larssen
Diet; Hygiene
Many of the physical wrecks we meet, who will probably live from a few
months to a few years more, if they continue in the old way, are in the
same boat as Mr. Cornaro was at forty. They have had enough experience
to begin to do good work, to be of some benefit to humanity. Instead of
living and giving the world their best, they die. The world has had to
educate these people, and it is expensive. Instead of living on and
doing their work, they leave us when they ought to begin to repay us for
what we have done for them. They are quitters.
Suppose Andrew Carnegie had died at the time he sold out his steel
business. To most people he would have left an unsavory memory, for
though we should have considered him successful from the business
standpoint, many of us would say that the means were not justified by
the end. However, Mr. Carnegie has spent many years since in furthering
the cause of the spread of knowledge and in working for universal peace.
Perhaps when Carnegie, the man of business, is well nigh forgotten,
Carnegie, the educator, will be held in tender and thankful memory. He
is now influencing the times for good and this influence will go down
the ages.
A man has no right to say that he is weary of life and that he wants to
die. The race has a claim on him. We learn through our mistakes. The
race in general has to pay and suffer for every individual's education.
When a man has acquired a measure of wisdom through experience, we have
a right to claim it as our own.
Many men are wise in their own lines, but they have been so busy
attending to the affairs that brought them success that they have
omitted to learn how to have health. These people owe it to themselves
and to humanity to take enough time to learn how to live so that they
can work in health. The better the health the finer their product.
Health and efficiency go hand in hand.
What is a man to do when he has reached middle age and finds himself
degenerating? A man ought to know how to live at forty, but if he does
not he should immediately learn. It may be true that "a man is a fool or
a physician at forty," yet there is time and if a man lacks wisdom at
forty he should immediately acquire some. Such an individual should get
the best health adviser possible, avoiding any man who would have him
take drugs. What he needs is not medicine, but to learn how to live. I
am confident that the careful reader will find enough knowledge in this
book to give him the key to the situation.
If the sufferer uses narcotics and stimulants, they must be stopped
immediately. Even the least harmful of these, such as beer and light
wine, should be avoided until good health has been won. These beverages
need never be used. If they are taken rarely and in moderation they do
no harm.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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