by a
certain amount of _bracing,_ but if the idea of bearing such pain
quietly, easily, naturally, takes a strong hold of the mind, all
bracing will be with a true equilibrium of the muscles, and will have
the required effect without superfluous tension.

One of the most simple instances of bearing pain more easily by
relaxing to it occurs while sitting in the dentist's chair. Most of us
clutch the arms, push with our feet, and hold ourselves off the chair
to the best of our ability. Every nerve is alive with the expectation
of being hurt.

The fatigue which results from an hour or more of this dentist tension
is too well known to need description. Most of the nervous fatigue
suffered from the dentist's work is in consequence of the unnecessary
strain of expecting a hurt and not from any actual pain inflicted. The
result obtained by insisting upon making yourself a dead weight in the
chair, if you succeed only partially, will prove this. It will also be
a preliminary means of getting well rid of the dentist fright,--that
peculiar dread which is so well known to most of us. The effect of
fright is nervous strain, which again contracts the muscles. If we drop
the muscular tension, and so the nervous strain, thus working our way
into the cause by means of the effect, there will be no nerves or
muscles to hold the fright, which then so far as the physique is
concerned cannot exist. _So far as the physique is concerned,--_that is
emphatic; for as we work inward from the effect to the cause we must be
met by the true philosophy inside, to accomplish the whole work. I
might relax my body out of the nervous strain of fright all day; if my
mind insisted upon being frightened it would simply be a process of
freeing my nerves and muscles that they might be made more effectually
tense by an unbalanced, miserably controlled mind. In training to bring
body and mind to a more normal state, the teacher must often begin with
the body only, and use his own mind to gently lead the pupil to clearer
sight. Then when the pupil can strike the equilibrium between mind and
body,--he must be left to acquire the habit for himself.

The same principles by which bearing the work of the dentist is made
easier, are applicable in all pain, and especially helpful when pain is
nervously exaggerated. It would be useless and impossible to follow the
list of various pains which we attempt to bear by means of additional
strain.

Each of us has his own