Self building through common-sense methods

Preface

A celebrated preacher once began his sermon with these words: "I am standing before you like a tree. Many of you have come with little hatchets, and when you go out of this church some one among you will say, c I did not quite like that remark about card parties/ Out comes your hatchet and off goes the first limb. Another will say, c That remark was not in good taste.' Again the hatchet, and another branch falls; and so on until nothing but the trunk remains."

Whenever, in my presence, the hatchets of human opinion are raised against a strong, noble oak, I recall those words, and remember that the preacher asked his hearers to bury their hatchets and place themselves in a receptive attitude, that they might be guided aright in the search for truth.

I was made whole in health through these various methods of body building, — physical, mental, and spiritual health alike being devel-

PREFACE

oped, — and in thankfulness of heart I have felt impelled to point the way to those yet in the shadow, and to help in uplifting the wanderers who are straying in the wilderness of physical misapprehension and error. When you have read the message, I pray that you will go with me through the valleys of sensuous allurements and over the storm-beaten mountains of illdirected passion and ambition, and gather and bring safely back into the path which leads to life those mistaken and erring ones who know not " the peace of God, which passeth all understanding."

If we do this with our hearts full of love, we have the promise that we shall see the glorious face of the Master-Shepherd, and be received into the heavenly fold, for He said, " Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."

Contents

CHAPTSK FAOK

I. Physical Perfection 7

IT. Freedom 20

Chapter I

IN these days of advanced ideas we know that a person must possess a perfect physical body before the brain can do its best work. Spiritual unfoldment depends largely upon the ability of the brain to reason correctly. As threefold beings, physical, mental, and spiritual, living in the physical body, we inherit great powers, which we are not manifesting, but which will come into activity when we mentally demand wisdom and attain a more spiritual plane. We have to learn the import of the words of the Master, spoken nineteen hundred years ago, before we can teach those "which have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not."

The best inheritance that a mother can give her child is a " sound mind in a sound body." The brain, stationed in the citadel on the hill, has authority over its officers and men, — the nerves and muscles, — and it must act before a single voluntary muscular movement can be made. In beginning with Physical Culture, we are really taking the first step towards strengthening and increasing the power of the active brain fluids. By exercising the different muscles of the body three times daily we learn mental concentration, which most persons lack to an alarming degree. Physical culture is brain culture, inasmuch as physical inharmony is largely due to the deterioration of the gray matter which we so thoughtlessly abuse and waste.

Many years ago I visited a wonderfully preserved woman who practised and taught Physical Culture. She kept old age at bay, seeming to grow more beautiful with advancing years. At the age of sixty-two she was as lithe and supple as a girl of twenty, with cheeks that rivalled the roses on her table. She showed me a photograph of herself taken before she gave her attention to Physical Culture, and it did not seem possible that the brilliant woman who stood before me could have been the thin, round-shouldered, dulleyed invalid shown in the photograph.

Her terms excluded all but the wealthy, and although my desire to acquire this health-giving power was strong, I felt that I must wait, and hope that the future would bring the teacher.

As if in answer to the thought, Dr. C , of

New York, came to my house in search of board. He was forming a private class in Physical Culture for the instruction of ladies, and this class was to be held in a club-house not more than a block from my home. He agreed to teach me in return for his board. When I began the class work I located at once the weak spot in my body, which some of our best physicians had been unable to do ; and I met numbers of women at the gymnasium who had also been helped. The wife of a wealthy ranchman was cured of a cough in a few weeks ; children with spinal troubles seemed to grow better with each lesson; and I deplored the fact that this opportunity was not open to the poor.

A Russian lady came to Boston not long ago to teach the art of attaining youthful health and vigor. From her face one would judge her to be a woman of thirty-five, while her body seemed to belong to a girl of eighteen; she was really seventy-five years old. Her beauty was a strong argument in favor of her method of Physical Culture for retaining mental and physical powers in their original strength and activity.

It is not within the scope of this work to give in detail any particular course to be followed, but I will point out a few general principles upon which to act. Physical Culture does not mean athletic training; it is a persistent effort to reach physical perfection through our daily activities. The average individual uses certain muscles, neglecting others, and the province of gymnastic exercise is to bring the whole body into harmony by training the disused members.

For instance, the ball-and-socket joints require daily exercise to keep the lime deposits from accumulating. When old people complain of stiff fingers and knees, it means that in the past they have not taken sufficient exercise to prevent these accumulations. Proper exercise, coupled with copious drinking of pure water, will tend to keep this old-age matter washed away. Distilled water is said to be the best beverage for grown people, because of its freedom from calcareous substances.

An artist in Maiden, Massachusetts, told me that for years her neck had been stiff, rendering it almost impossible for her to turn her head from side to side. While at the World's Fair, in Chicago, she visited the art rooms, which were crowded, and, being unable to turn her whole body freely when she wished to look at some particular object she was compelled to attempt to turn her head in spite of the pain the movement caused. To her surprise the stiffness disappeared within two weeks, and the trouble has not returned. The constant exercise of the muscles and tendons of the neck accomplished for her what many physicians, with their blisters, lotions, and tonics, had failed to do. This was certainly a pleasant method of healing.

In all our cities are places where the Swedish movements are used in the treatment of disease. Machinery does the work of masseurs, and all hospitals should be provided with proper facilities for such treatment.

Certain exercises should be taken each day according to our several needs. The force of gravity is constantly pulling the organs downward, and we should raise them by bringing the body into line many times daily. Easy-fitting garments should always be worn.

Walk down Huntington Avenue, Boston, and you will see a large number of institutes devoted to healing by osteopathy. Its adherents claim that nearly all forms of disease are caused by abnormal pressure occasioned by some form of spinal curvature, and the osteopath's method of cure is by treating the portion of the spine governing the affected part of the body. In New England this method is very popular. Many like methods of cure might be cited, among which is one that involves the manipulation and spreading of the toes.

A well-known teacher of the principles of Delsarte, who had been an invalid for many years, was urged by a friend to try osteopathy. Being unable to leave her room, she could not go into a class, but she wrote to one of the best teachers to learn her terms. The answer was, " One hundred dollars a day." Despite the almost prohibitive price she resolved to make the trial, and the result was that after one day's lessons and a few months' application she became well and happy. She could not stay idly at home when so many sick women wanted the help which she could give, and in the name of the one Source of Light she is now teaching most earnestly the highest form of devotional muscular movements of the human body ; that is, concentration upon some helpful thought while taking exercise.

A proper spinal poise is essential at all times. I once heard a lady remark that she dated her spiritual development from the day that she was taught how to hold her body in line. When sitting, keep spine, back of neck, and the shoulders in a perfectly straight line. This will prevent undue pressure from falling on any one part of the spine. In the daily work of a stenographer, typewriter, or sewing-machine operator, an erect position will be found both easy and healthful. The most rapid stenographer I have known, one who has done marvellously heavy work, tells me that her strength was retained by keeping her body in perfect line. When riding in a car do not lean back against the seat, as you thus deplete your strength by throwing the pressure on the lower part of the spine. Once, on my way to give a lesson, a young lady in the same car begged me to lean back and rest. I answered, " No, I cannot afford to give my strength to the electric car; it has enough power without taking mine."

To gain poise of body, stand perfectly straight, lift the arms to a level with the shoulders, and draw in a deep, noiseless breath, at the same time rising on the balls of the feet ; come down, gently exhaling, and bring the arms gradually to the side. Be careful to keep the heels from touching the . floor, and balance yourself upon the balls of your feet. Practise this exercise just before eating.

For the head : turn to right and left ; bend forward, sideways, and backward.

For the shoulders and chest : place hands in a horizontal position at the chest, raise elbows to a level with the shoulders, and stretch back, then fling vigorously to the side outwardly, allowing the arms to stretch to their utmost extent. Bring the hands back to the chest, and repeat the flinging movement. Also, place the hands at the armpits with the elbows drawn closely to the waist, and stretch upward, forward, sideways, and downward. The first movement may be taken with deep breathing.

For the abdomen : holding the chest well up, and hands clasping the waist, bend the trunk forward, sideways, and backward, letting the forward movement counteract the backward, and never allowing the backward movement to be too great a strain.

Take a standing position, and lower the body so that the heels nearly touch the hips. Rise slowly.

For the lungs : inhale deeply, lifting the arms, slowly counting five, keeping the mouth closed. Exhale in like manner. Fill lungs and walk five steps while holding the breath, five steps exhaling, and five steps with the lungs empty. Repeat five times.

Always breathe through the nose. Catarrh and kindred diseases can be avoided if one is careful to breathe through the nostrils even during conversation. The passages in the nose are constructed for the warming and sifting of the air which we draw in, and many scientists contend that one cannot take a contagious disease if this precaution is used. The method of vibrating the muscles is perhaps the quickest form of energizing the body.

In physical exercise of any sort, endeavor to enjoy it. Rejoice that you live in this beautiful world, and are given bodies adapted to the life you must lead. See the advantage of each exercise, for it must be appreciated to be exhilarating.

A constant supply of pure, fresh air is invaluable. Let nothing impure remain in or about your dwelling, and every occupied apartment, especially sleeping rooms, should be ventilated day and night. Be cleanly in your personal habits ; the whole surface of the body should be often bathed in water at about blood heat. Exercise is necessary to the health of the body. It is a law of being that the powers of both body and mind are strengthened by use and weakened by disuse. Rest is essential to both body and mind. Besides the time devoted to sleep, there should be hours of entire relief from all sorts of obligation to do anything, — when you can be still and muse, and seek diversion and recreation. Temperance is a binding law of health. Everything the All-Father- Mother has made is good in design and orderly fulfilment, but good becomes evil by misuse, therefore be temperate in all things.

Lack of health is usually the result of some wilful violation of nature's laws. The renewal of the mind is most important. Physical culture is the primary form of mental culture. Illustrating this truth, an Oriental teacher of psychology said : " Twice a day rest quietly upon your backs, stretched full length, and practise mental gymnastics by throwing the full current of your thoughts upon the outlines of your body ; begin at the soles of your feet — up one side and down the other — until you come to those vital organs, the heart and solar plexus. Think of the latter as radiating perfect spiritual and physical harmony through the entire structure." He also stated that the above method is helpful in case of illness, because a strong positive mental current concentrated upon a weak organ, commanding the unruly member to do its work, will certainly send the blood rushing to the rescue, and thus stimulate the weak organ to a more harmonious action.

Not long ago the daily press was calling attention to the marvellous healing powers exercised by a professional healer who gave public exhibitions in one of the most widely known church edifices in Boston. Being desirous of witnessing the manifestations at first hand, I went early and secured a seat in the front row of chairs directly opposite the platform. The first case will serve for my illustration. A man claiming to be sixty-five years old came haltingly forward. He said that twelve years before he had lost the power to lift or use his right hand and arm, and, of course, he had not been able to do a day's work in all those years. The healer was a man of powerful physique, teeming with animal magnetism. First he gently stroked the helpless arm, then his blows grew heavier and heavier, and when the patient manifested signs of pain, the healer said : " Grit your teeth and bear it, for I'm making this arm do its duty. When you can no longer stand the pain, open your mouth and yell, then I'll work all the harder, for I shall know that we are getting at the weak spot which held your arm a cripple. " In spite of the groans the operator lifted the elbow higher and higher, stretched the arm up and down, and passed the hand in a circle around the patient's head until the old-age deposits were broken away. Before the patient left the platform he lifted his arm and used his hand for the first time in twelve years.

Will to be well, then work to throw off physical inharmony, and you can accomplish for yourself what the healer did for his patient.

A boy in Maiden had the measles. His little sister affirmed that she was not going to take the measles, and she escaped. Later in the school season he caught scarlet fever, but the little girl was firmer than before in her refusal to have fever just because other children were having it. She has escaped all the neighborhood ills, and the grown-up people asked their ministers if it were true that a child's will could ward off disease.

"A sound mind in a sound body" is the highest exponent of the Divine upon earth. The duty you owe your body is of very great importance, second only to the duty you owe your mind. Therefore particular attention should be paid to both, for ability to think and reason depends largely upon the physical condition.

Chapter II

Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow ; they toil not, neither do they spin :

And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith ? — Matt. vi. 28-30.

TO the frivolous slave of fashion the burning question is, " What shall I wear ? " and the same question should receive its meed of attention from the thoughtful ones of earth. The Master, in the words quoted above, gives us a hint as to how important a place our garments should take in our thought. We cannot be as the lilies of the field literally, but so far as we can follow nature's laws, and send out vibrations of harmony and peace, so far should we "take no thought " for raiment. Surely the day is not far distant when the simple garments of earlier days will be worn by all, and the pioneers in the movement of dress reform will have ceased to be targets for the scoffers.

Let us " begin at the top " and consider our head-covering. Some one has remarked that a little woman in a big head-covering unconsciously proclaims that she wishes to increase her personality. The brain is the ruler of the entire body, therefore we must not stifle it with heavy hats or bonnets, but wear light, well-ventilated coverings over that organ. Many thinkers are now teaching that hat and hair pins are very injurious because of their pressure upon certain nerves. At fashionable summer resorts women dispense with hats entirely, going to entertainments and tramping over the country with uncovered heads. The sun is good, and they know the value of light and air. Another thing is noticeable : no one comes to the metaphysical schools decorated with feathers or birds or with anything which has caused pain or loss of life to a fellow-creature, for the law which rules humanitarians is that of love. I always grieve to see a woman with an aigrette on her hat, for then I remember that five little lives went out by slow starvation, and one by violence, to furnish those soft, waving feathers. In Florida two hundred thousand little mothers are slaughtered each year in the nesting season to furnish those much-sought ornaments. These feathers grow in that season, and the mother is shot just after the little ones are hatched.

I once heard the Secretary of the Woman's Suffrage League tell why her life had been given to the Suffrage movement. Among many incidents connected therewith she stated that at one time she went to hear a humanitarian lecture, wearing a bonnet with aigrettes on the side. After hearing of these little mother-birds of Florida, she went to her hotel and removed the offending ornaments, her cheeks flushed with shame at the thought that while working to free her enslaved sisters, she was herself a party to the murder of one of the least of them. Her bonnet was not so fashionable, but her conscience was clearer than when she was decked in stolen plumage.

Taste and individuality may be exercised in the manufacture of a bonnet, but let it show that you are on the side of peace and love for all things. A gentleman who belonged to a Humanitarian Club told me that each member was pledged to offer his seat in the cars to any woman who wore a hat or bonnet free from the plumage of birds.

Again, it has been proven by the best physicians that many of our throat and lung troubles come from overheating this part of the body. When the furs or feathers are removed, a chill comes from the sudden closing of the pores.

Miss C was studying music abroad. She

contracted a throat trouble. While in Paris she consulted an eminent specialist, who asked, immediately after his examination of her throat, if she wore furs. She told him that she was wearing them for the first time in her life. Treating her case with common-sense instead of physic, he ordered her to leave off all her feathers and furs, and to wear a thin net covering over her chest and throat.

Surely the day is not far distant when men will refuse to wear heavy, stiff, closely woven felt hats which cause baldness, and will demand that their head coverings be made of thin, well-ventilated material. Men of the Orient wear silk scarfs wound about their heads, because they have learned from experience that the hair, acting like lightning-rods, gathers electrical vitality from the atmosphere, and conducts it into the system for the use of the brain and nerves. Those who are inclined to question the above statement will please remember that Samson lost his strength when shorn of his hair.

Fashion is indeed a fickle mistress, and at all 23 times a hard one to serve. In India she has even forced the women to burn themselves upon the funeral pyres of their husbands. For a long time we thought it was their religion which impelled them to such a sacrifice, but now we know that it was the goddess Fashion, at whose shrine so many American women bow in reverence.

The bondage of corsets is little less than a slow torture, far less merciful than that which the heathen women endured.

When the great English reform writer, Charles Reade, gave to the world " A Simpleton," he did more to help the women of his country than all the surgery taught or practised by Dr. Tate. Had Parliament acted upon the question as it did when " Hard Cash " called attention to the evils of private insane asylums, it might have passed a law forbidding the manufacture, sale, or importation of corsets. What a pity the Queen does not require English maidens to read the book before leaving boarding-school or being presented at Court ! She would thus do much to aid in the development of women.

Undoubtedly most of the troubles peculiar to women would be avoided, and the now crowded hospitals be turned into schools for body-building, if the overworked surgeons were paid a salary to keep their patients in health, and were obliged to return the same to the patient for any day's illness. This custom prevails in some countries, and we in America will certainly adopt it in time. Then physicians will teach their patients the size and location of the solar or epigastric plexus, and the evil which must follow from pressure upon it. Let me suggest that you borrow from your physician the latest book on the subject of this vital region.

When the day arrives when all garments are hung from the shoulders, Bulwer's " Coming Race " will be a reality. Then nature will have a chance to renew the organs which are now pressed out of their proper positions, and we shall be able to resist the law of gravitation which tends to pull the vital organs down, and to lift them to their proper poise. We often wonder why Mrs. Folly or Miss Fashion died at forty-five instead of eighty ; and the answer is, Because of the tight, heavy clothing which pulled and pressed out of place the vital organs of her body. Consequently, instead of going through nature's change without ache or pain, the halfparalyzed body succumbed when the life current could no longer pass freely up and down.

Can we improve God's idea of the beautiful in 25 the human form ? No. Let us then free ourselves from the worship of the goddess Fashion. Harmony of being will enter the temple not made with hands when the heart — the altar of love — beats in freedom, sending messages of strength to nerves, bones, and muscles. We cannot be spiritually poised with our brain force depleted by half. If perfectly centred physically, mentally, and spiritually, we show no signs of advancing age or sickness or the desire for mere money or position, which endure but for a season.

I cannot refrain from giving a friend's experience with corsets. For years she had been an invalid. At the earnest request of her husband she discarded them, and at once her health improved wonderfully. However, when her friends ordered the gowns which she was to wear as a widow, she was persuaded to return to servitude. They argued that she did not look well without them. She pleaded that her health had vastly improved, and that her husband's wish had been that she should not wear such death-dealing instruments ; but it was five to one, and her arguments proved futile. When she returned home, her body was again incased in steel and bones. She felt that she should pay dearly for yielding to the importunities of her fashionable friends, and, sure enough, a return to invalidism was the result.

A mother sent her strong, healthy daughter to her fashionable relatives, that she might receive instruction and advantages not to be secured in her village home. What was the mother's surprise upon meeting her child again to find her dressed like a fashion plate, — waist seventeen inches, feet incased in high-heeled shoes much too small, and her fair face covered with powder. She no longer walked with the free step of an Indian maiden, and her first thought was one of shame that her mother was not dressed in the height of fashion. Her face was an open book to her mother's tear-stained eyes. Had her home been desolated that her daughter might be made a stylish woman ? She soon discovered that the poor girl was ill, being obliged to remain out of school for two or three days each month. She went to visit a girl friend in another part of the state. This girl had developed heart disease, and a great specialist had ordered that the weight of all her clothing come upon her shoulders — nothing to be worn around the waist. Her gowns were very attractive, and the visiting friend was persuaded to adopt that form of dress, as a constant pain in her left side indicated the same form of heart trouble. She soon grew well, never spending a day in bed, playing tennis, and driving about the country as in her childhood days. At the end of a year she again visited her relatives, and their dismay at her wrappers, as they were pleased to call her dainty empire gowns, cannot be described. They refused to allow her to appear in public until she should have " decent " garments made. In vain she explained that she had been free from pain and illness since laying aside tight garments. The stronger will of her elders triumphed, and she yielded. Soon the old sufferings returned, and she has since passed through hours of agony not to be described. She is to-day a nervous invalid.

I once asked a female physician, " Why do so many women become almost deformed at the age of forty-five or fifty, their abdomens becoming so prominent?" She promptly answered: " Because of a partial paralysis of the abdominal muscles, induced by constant pressure of the whalebone and steel of the corset. The slightest movement of the body brings these unyielding substances to bear upon the abdominal region ; the muscles are impeded in their work, and being relaxed from non-use are no longer able to sustain the weight of the bowels. Consequently, they permit the attraction of gravitation to have its way, and pull the organs earthward. Because of this pressure, the poor, foolish creatures must endure their gross forms. "

No slight attention should be given to footwear. Long ago, so it is said, a certain Pope had a beautiful boy gilded that he might impersonate a golden statue in a grand fete. In a few hours the child died, on account of the closing of the pores. Air, the life-giver, was shut away from his skin. In like manner, people of to-day are injured by the close shoes which they wear. Ask your physician what the results are of keeping the air from any part of the body. He will tell you that too little care is given to this subject. All shoes should be ventilated. Some dealers supply a ventilated shoe to customers desiring such, and it is possible to have the little eyelets made just above the instep by the shoemaker.

Fashion is a potent factor in the matter of shoes as well as corsets, and many deformed feet were the result of the "needle-point" shoes once so fashionable. W^ak-minded persons are often ashamed of the size of their feet, and crowd them into shoes much too small. Apart from the injury to the flesh, corns and bunions are the final result from undue pressure, and the internal injury cannot be estimated. With the circulation impeded, whether it be in the feet or elsewhere, injury to the vital organs is likely to result.