ticularly indebted to Dr. Richard C.
Cabot, who has given me much valuable assistance.

CONTENTS

I. THE UNTROUBLED MIND 1

II. RELIGIO MEDICI 10

III. THOUGHT AND WORK 20

IV. IDLENESS 30

V. RULES OF THE GAME 38

VI. THE NERVOUS TEMPERAMENT 50

VII. SELF-CONTROL 59

VIII. THE LIGHTER TOUCH 65

IX. REGRETS AND FOREBODINGS 73

X. THE VIRTUES 81

XI. THE CURE BY FAITH 88

I

THE UNTROUBLED MIND

Canst thou not minister to a mind diseas'd,
Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow,
Raze out the written troubles of the brain,
And with some sweet oblivious antidote
Cleanse the stuff'd bosom of that perilous stuff
Which weighs upon the heart?
MACBETH.

When a man tells me he never worries, I am inclined to think that he is
either deceiving himself or trying to deceive me. The great roots of
worry are conscience, fear, and regret. Undoubtedly we ought to be
conscientious and we ought to fear and regret evil. But if it is to be
better than an impediment and a harm, our worry must be largely
unconscious, and intuitive. The moment we become conscious of worry we
are undone. Fortunately, or unfortunately, we cannot leave conscience to
its own devices unless our lives are big enough and fine enough to
warrant such a course. The remedy for the mental unrest, which is in
itself an illness, lies not in an enlightened knowledge of the
harmfulness and ineffectiveness of worry, not even in the acquirement of
an unconscious conscience, but in the living of a life so full and good
that worry cannot find place in it. That idea of worry and conscience,
that definition of serenity, simplifies life immensely. To overcome
worry by substituting development and growth need never be dull work. To
know life in its farther reaches, life in its better applications, is
the final remedy--the great undertaking--_it is life_. We must warn
ourselves, not infrequently, that the larger life is to be pursued for
its own glorious self and not for the sake of peace. Peace may come, a
peace so sure that death itself cannot shake it, but we must not expect
all our affairs to run smoothly. As a matter of fact they may run badly
enough; we shall have our ups and downs, we shall sin and