rts the sufferer toward a radical change from habits which cause
nervous strain to habits which bring nervous strength, then the illness
can be the beginning of better and permanent health. If, however, there
simply is an enforced rest, without any intelligent understanding of
the trouble, the invalid gets "well" only to drag out a miserable
existence or to get very ill again.

Although any nervous suffering is worth while if it is the means of
teaching us how to avoid nervous strain, it certainly is far preferable
to avoid the strain without the extreme pain of a nervous breakdown.

To point out many of these pernicious habits and to suggest a practical
remedy for each and all of them is the aim of this book, and for that
reason common examples in various phases of every-day life are used as
illustrations.

When there is no organic trouble there can be no doubt that _defects of
character, inherited or acquired, are at the root of all nervous
illness._ If this can once be generally recognized and acknowledged,
especially by the sufferers themselves, we are in a fair way toward
eliminating such illness entirely.

The trouble is people suffer from mortification and an unwillingness to
look their bad habits in the face. They have not learned that
humiliation can be wholesome, sound, and healthy, and so they keep
themselves in a mess of a fog because they will not face the shame
necessary to get out of it. They would rather be ill and suffering, and
believe themselves to have strong characters than to look the weakness
of their characters in the face, own up to them like men, and come out
into open fresh air with healthy nerves which will gain in strength as
they live.

Any intelligent man or woman who thinks a bit for himself can see the
stupidity of this mistaken choice at a glance, and seeing it will act
against it and thus do so much toward bringing light to all nervously
prostrated humanity.

We can talk about faith cure, Christian Science, mind cure, hypnotism,
psychotherapeutics, or any other forms of nerve cure which at the very
best can only give the man a gentle shunt toward the middle of the
stream of life. Once assured of the truth, the man must hold himself in
the clean wholesomeness of it by actively working for his own strength
of character _from his own initiative._ There can be no other permanent
cure.

I say that strength of character must grow from our own initiative, and
I should add that it mus