HEALTHY

LIFE

The Independent
Health Magazine.

3 AMEN CORNER LONDON E.C.

VOL. V AUGUST
No. 25. 1913

_There will come a day when physiologists, poets, and
philosophers will all speak the same language and understand one
another._--CLAUDE BERNARD.

AN INDICATION.

The pursuit of health, considered from the negative standpoint, is the
flight from pain.

And pain is the great mystery of life.

James Hinton, himself a well-known physician of his time, attempted to
solve the mystery of pain by showing that it is the accompaniment of
imperfection. That what is now experienced as pain might be exquisite
pleasure given a higher stage of human development.

But this, after all, only shifts the mystery one step farther. Instead
of the mystery of pain we have the mystery of imperfection. Yet to
image perfection is always to image something incapable of growth or
further development.

Take, for example, a perfect circle. So long as it remains unbroken,
flawless, the line (or infinite number of lines) composing it cannot
be continued or extended. But given a break in the line and it may be
continued round and round, up and up (or down and down) into an
infinitely ascending spiral. This possibility of extension depends on
a break, on an imperfection.

It does not follow, of course, that every flaw in human nature is
always the starting-point of new growth, every failure a
stepping-stone to greater knowledge, but the possibility is there. It
is for men to see that they do not neglect their opportunities.--[EDS.]

IMAGINATION IN PLAY.

_Regular readers will recognise in this wonderfully simple and
suggestive article a continuation of the series previously entitled
"Healthy Brains." The author of "The Children All Day Long" is an
intimate disciple of one of the greatest living psychologists, and she
has a message of the first importance to all who realise that true
health depends as much on poise of mind as on physical fitness._--[EDS.]

The fruit of imagination ripens into deeds actually done in the
service of man: its flower brightens the whole of life and makes it
fragrant, from the budding-time of children's play and laughter to the
developed blossoms of the creative imagination