I had some writing to do, however, in the mean time, which could not
be well or comfortably done in the heat of the day, hence I arose at
daylight and began to write. At that time of the morning nothing to eat
was to be had, which compelled me to start work without it. My subject
was an absorbing one, so that, once under way, I would not be diverted
until I had "written myself out;" or in other words, had exhausted the
consideration of the morning messages which I now designate "Spiritual
Cerebration."
It happened, under these circumstances, that my habit-hunger was not
given a hearing and it was nearly noon before I felt the fatigue or
even the heat of the burning day, for I worked in my pajamas, and had
no time to look at the thermometer, to get an exaggerated suggestion of
heat by which to start my blood chasing itself through my veins.
I not only noticed that my midday breakfast was a deliciously grateful
meal, but that appetite became satisfied far short of the formally
customary abnormal early morning gorge, and, what was more remarkable
yet, I wanted nothing during the rest of the day, and not even until
midnight, except, after vigorous exercise of some sort, I might desire
a little fruit or a bit of bread or cracker; but never a full course
dinner.
I wore a belt at my trousers, as was the custom of the place, and in a
few days decreased the girth of my corpulency one hole in the belt; and
before the summer was over, four holes, with only the most comfortable
feeling accompanying the loss of weight.
When my family returned from Europe, I settled back into the American
and English habit of a meat breakfast, because I did not want to be
"different," and at the same time I half doubted but that my experience
was nothing more than an abnormal one, attributable to the inertia of
summer heat, literary absorption and lack of physical exercise.
Twice, when I have been left alone since then, away from the restraint
of custom, and also in the midst of abundant athletic exercise, I have
again cultivated the same habit of missing breakfast through desire to
do early morning work, with the same splendid results.
The last time referred to is the present. My search for a lost waif
through the framing of an appeal for him, has given me such absorbing
thought that meals have been of no consideration beside it, and in
the midst of it I find Dr. Dewey's book, the books of the English
physicians indorsing him; and have secured results of health, comfort
and strength to myself which I did not know I possessed; to corroborate
my accidental experience. As I said before, this seems a very wide
digression from the psychical to the physical, but it is really no
digression at all, for it is in the service of the brain, and the
brain is the direct agent of communication between the Creator and
our consciousness, assisting us to work together in the Nature-Man
partnership with useful efficiency.
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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