might be supposed. In other cases insomnia is chosen for
the chance it gives for phantasy-building. A person denied the right
kind of outlet for his instincts may so enjoy the day-dreaming habit
that he prolongs it into the night, really preferring it to sleep.
Such a state of affairs is not at all incompatible with an intense
conscious desire to sleep and a real fear of insomnia. So strange may
be the motives hidden away within the depths of the most prosaic
individual!

SUMMARY

Nervous insomnia is something which a part of us makes use of and
another part fears. It is a mistake on both sides. Although not in the
least dangerous, the habit can hardly be considered a satisfactory
form of amusement. Nature has provided a better way to spend the
night, a way to which she speedily brings us when we choose to let her
do it.

We do not have to ask for sleep as for a special boon which may be
denied. We simply have to lie down in trust, expecting to be carried
away like a child. If our expectation is not at once realized we can
still trust, as with relaxed mind and body we lie in calm content,
knowing that Nature is, minute by minute, restoring us for another
day.

CHAPTER XIV

_In which we raise our thresholds_

FEELING OUR FEELINGS

FINELY STRUNG VIOLINS

The young girl had been telling me about her symptoms. "You know,
Doctor," she said. "I am a very sensitive person. In fact, I have
always been told that I am like a finely strung violin." There was
pride in every tone of her voice,--pride and satisfaction over
possessing an organization so superior to the common clay of the
average person. It was a typical remark, and showed clearly that this
girl belonged among the nervous folk. For the nervous person is not
only over-sensitive, but he accepts his condition with a secret and
half-conscious pride as a token of superiority.

It seems that there are a good many kinds of sensitiveness. Whether it
is a good or bad possession depends entirely on what kind of things a
person is sensitive to. If he is quick to take in a situation, easily
impressed with the needs of others, open-doored to beauty and to the
appeal of the spiritual, keenly alive to the humorous, even when the
joke is on himself and the situation uncomfortable, then surely he has
a right to be glad of his sensitiveness. But too often the word means
something else. It means feeling, intensely, physical sensations of
which most people are una