Nature Cure: Philosophy & Practice Based on the Unity of Disease & CureLindlahr, Henry
Philosophy
Nature Cure: Philosophy & Practice Based on the Unity of Disease & Cure
Lindlahr, Henry
Naturopathy
Much of the work of an army is carried on through different
well-established departments, as the commissariat, the hospital
service, the scouts and pickets, etc. Though the life and the
activities of the army are so well regulated that they seem
automatic, nevertheless much depends upon the commander.
The vital processes of the human organism, digestion, assimilation,
elimination, respiration, the circulation of the blood, etc., are
going on without our volition, whether we be awake or asleep. These
involuntary activities are impelled by the sympathetic nervous
system, while the voluntary functions of the body are controlled
through the motor [voluntary] nervous system. This division,
however, is not a sharp one, and the two departments frequently
overlap one another.
The sympathetic nervous system resembles the commissarial department
of the army, which attends to the material welfare of the soldiers,
while the motor nervous system, with headquarters in the brain,
corresponds to the commander with his executive staff, the nerve
centers in the spinal cord and other parts of the body being the
subordinate officers in the field.
While the physical well-being of the army depends upon the almost
automatic work of its different departments, its mind and soul is
the man commanding it. He determines the spirit, the energy and the
efficiency of the vast organization.
If the commander-in-chief lacks insight, force and determination,
the discipline of the army will be lax and its efficiency greatly
impaired. If he is a craven, without faith in himself and in the
cause he represents, his lack of courage, his doubt and indecision
will communicate themselves to the whole army, resulting in
discouragement and defeat.
The most successful commanders have been those who were possessed of
absolute confidence in themselves and in the efficiency of their
army, who in the face of gravest danger and discouraging situations
pressed on to the predetermined goal with dogged courage and
resolution. Determination and pertinacity of this kind create the
magnetic power which imparts itself to every individual soldier in
the army and makes him a willing subject, even unto death, to the
will of his commander.
When the plague was invading Napoleon's army, that great general
entered the hospitals where the victims of the plague were lying,
took them by the hand and conversed with them. He did this to
overcome the fear in the hearts of his soldiers, and thus to protect
them against the dread disease. He said: "A man whose will can
conquer the world, can conquer the plague."
To my mind, this was one of the greatest deeds of the Corsican. At a
time when "New Thought" was practically unknown, the genius of this
man had grasped its principles and was making them factors in his
apparent success. "Apparent" because, while we admire his genius, we
deplore the ends to which he applied his wonderful powers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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