It follows, therefore, that the more we systematize and economize in our brain work, the less the strain on the arteries that supply that organ with its life-blood. Few of us realize what can be done in this direction. A much advertised system, which I need not further particularize, has got hold of some of the right ideas and methods, and its teaching will have a big effect in many directions. It is no new system; like almost all wisdom, it comes from the East. The old Hindu and Persian philosophers knew and practised it thousands of years ago, and got results which we have not approached as yet. The foundation is concentrated attention: we talk about giving attention to a thing, but we most of us do it in a very perfunctory, superficial way. Kipling’s _Kim_, which is full of old, out-of-the-way, unsuspected philosophy, gives us a wonderful picture of concentrated attention in the contest of observation and memory between Kim and the native boy in Lurgan Sahib’s shop. We talk admiringly of a man with “singleness of purpose,” but what is that but concentrated attention? We admire him because he achieves his object, he gets there, while the ordinary man with half-a-dozen half-concentrated purposes wanders down all sorts of side ways and seldom arrives anywhere. In this world of keen competition and of little leisure, waste of brain-power leads inevitably towards disease and failure, while economy leads to health and attainment. Beyond the question of the nature of our mental work lies the thing worked for--the object: the importance of this from the health and disease standpoint is very great. If the object is a worthy one, something of use, something elevating, not only for ourselves but for others, attainment will bring happiness and peace, and so tend towards a healthy condition of brain. If, on the other hand, we strive for an ignoble, selfish object, one that is almost certain to harm others, attainment will be like Dead Sea fruit in our mouths, dry and unsatisfying; there will be in us no sense of joy, and the injury we have done to others will recoil on ourselves, bringing disappointment and sorrow. These are they who walk in slippery places, while the unthinking world, seeing not their end, regards them with envy. By learning to use our minds wisely, intelligently and economically, we shall accomplish far more and with far less expenditure of force; we shall grow in the true philosophical love of a high and simple life. The false aims, the conflicts, the disharmonies of this world will pass us by and leave us at peace. Arterio-sclerosis, then, except in the sad cases of heredity, is very much of our own making; it almost comes under the heading of “an occupation disease”; it is a natural result of non-natural conditions of life. In the words of Isaiah: “Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which satisfieth not?”