The poor child
knows it already in the wrong way. It is certainly better that she
should know her nerves by learning a wholesome, natural use of them.
The mother's remark is common with many men and women when speaking of
themselves,--common with teachers when talking to or of their pupils.
It is of course quite natural that it should be a prevailing idea,
because hitherto the mention of nerves by man or woman has generally
meant perverted nerves, and to dwell on our perversions, except long
enough to shun them, is certainly unwholesome in the extreme.

II.

PERVERSIONS IN THE GUIDANCE OF THE BODY

SO evident are the various, the numberless perversions of our powers in
the misuse of the machine, that it seems almost unnecessary to write of
them. And yet, from another point of view, it is very necessary; for
superabundant as they are, thrusting their evil results upon us every
day in painful ways, still we have eyes and see not, ears and hear not,
and for want of a fuller realization of these most grievous mistakes,
we are in danger of plunging more and more deeply into the snarls to
which they bring us. From nervous prostration to melancholia, or other
forms of insanity, is not so long a step.

It is of course a natural sequence that the decadence of an entire
country must follow the waning powers of the individual citizens.
Although that seems very much to hint, it cannot be too much when we
consider even briefly the results that have already come to us through
this very misuse of our own voluntary powers. The advertisements of
nerve medicines alone speak loudly to one who studies in the least
degree the physical tendencies of the nation. Nothing proves better the
artificial state of man, than the artificial means he uses to try to
adjust himself to Nature's laws,--means which, in most cases, serve to
assist him to keep up a little longer the appearance of natural life.
For any simulation of that which is natural must sooner or later lead
to nothing, or worse than nothing. Even the rest-cures, the most simple
and harmless of the nerve restorers, serve a mistaken end. Patients go
with nerves tired and worn out with misuse,--commonly called over-work.
Through rest, Nature, with the warm, motherly help she is ever ready to
bring us, restores the worn body to a normal state; but its owner has
not learned to work the machine any better,--to drive his horses more
naturally, or with a gentler hand. He knows he mu