his less fortunate brother
who can gain a sense of power only by means of some unaccustomed idea?
William James says:

This leads me to say a word about ideas considered as dynamogenic
agents or stimuli for unlocking what would otherwise be unused
reservoirs of individual power.... In general, whether a given
idea shall be a live idea depends more on the person into whose
mind it is injected than on the idea itself. Which is the
suggestive idea for this person and which for that one? Mr.
Fletcher's disciples regenerate themselves by the idea (and the
fact) that they are chewing and re-chewing and super-chewing
their food. Dr. Dewey's pupils regenerate themselves by going
without their breakfast--a fact, but also an ascetic idea. Not
every one can use these ideas with the same success.

Because it is so adaptable and sturdy, the stomach lends itself
readily to these devices for gaining self-expression; but the danger
lies in bringing the process of digestion into conscious attention
which interferes with automatic functioning. Still further, the
disregard of physiological chemistry is likely to deprive the body of
food-stuffs which it requires.

The average person is too sensible to be carried off his feet by the
enthusiasm of the health-crank, but as most of us are likely to pick
up a few false notions, it may be well to be armed with the simple
principles of food chemistry in order to combat the fads which so
easily beset us and to know why we are right when we insist on eating
three regular meals of the mixed and varied diet which has proved
best for the race through so many years of trial and experience.

WHAT WE NEED TO EAT

=The Essence of Dietetics.= To the layman the average discussion of
food principles is, to say the least, confusing. Dealing largely, as
it does, with unfamiliar terms like carbohydrate and hydrocarbon and
calories, it is hard to translate into the terms of the potatoes left
over from dinner and the vegetables we can afford to buy. But the
practical deductions are not at all difficult to understand. Boiled
down to their simplest terms, the essential principles may be stated
in a few sentences. The body must secure from the food that we eat,
tissue for its cells, energy for immediate use or to be stored for
emergency, mineral salts, vitamins, water and a certain bulk from
fruits and vegetables,--this latter to aid in the elimination o