f alert to
divert and direct her patient's thought to wholesome interests. Knowing
the possibility of thought substitution, she can open up new channels
of thinking. Knowing the power of the will to assist in health bringing
and health keeping, she can sometimes stimulate long-dormant
determination. Let her beware, however, of making the convalescent too
dependent upon help from without, but prick his pride to gradually
increasing doing for himself. Arouse his reasonable ambition, but let
him realize that life must be taken up again a step at a time; and that
he _can_ do it. If limitations must be accepted, try to inspire the
feeling of pride in accomplishing the utmost possible within a
limitation, and an acceptance of the inevitable without bitterness.

Attending to the unhappy, the painful, the boring without looking beyond
makes life unhappy, painful, and a bore. Not that the nurse should
ignore these realities, but she can accept them whole-souledly herself
as not the final things, as merely the rocks that can be used to stand
upon and get a view of the something better for everybody. When they are
thus used by the wholesome mind, facts, the very barest and meanest of
them, can be made useful as stepping-stones to the happier facts beyond
them.

If the nurse can direct or tactfully lead the patient's attention away
from himself and his illness, she has found a big reinforcement to his
treatment. This question is so vital in the care of patients that it
will be discussed at greater length later on.

ONE THOUGHT CAN BE REPLACED BY ANOTHER

If we control attention we control thought, and with the suggestible
patient this principle depends upon the one just now considered. Hope
and courage-breeding thoughts can replace despairing and fearful ones,
but it will be only when attention is directed through interest or by
will to new material. There is no blank in waking consciousness. The
last thought or feeling or perception, through association of ideas,
brings up a related one, and so on indefinitely. We may start with a
pebble on the road and go on logically, smoothly, until in five minutes
we are thinking of the coronation of King George, with no sense of
anything at all unusual in the succession. It may be a very roundabout
process, from "pebble" through "rough way," "ways that hurt," "dangerous
ways," "brigands," "uncertainties of life." "Uncertain lies the head
that wears a crown," "King George and his crown,"