This author-physician's cure for "nerves" vividly recalls the simplicity
of method employed in the complete restoration to health of one of olden
time whose story has come ringing down the ages in the Book of Books.
Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, a mighty man of valor
and honorable in the sight of all men, turned away in a rage when
Elisha, the prophet of the Most High, prescribed for his dread malady a
remedy so simple that it was despised in his eyes. But "his servants
came near and said ... 'If the prophet had bid thee do some great thing,
wouldest thou not have done it?'"
In "How to Eat" the author offers the sufferer from "nerves" a remedy as
simple as that Elisha offered Naaman. He gives him an opportunity to
profit by his well-tested knowledge that overeating and _rapidity_ in
eating are ruinous to health and shorten life.
It is seldom that there emanates from the pen of a doctor a book which,
concerning any physical disorder, minimizes the efforts of the medical
practitioner. While this author-physician gives full credit to the
conscientious physician for the great service he is able to render in
all other spheres of his profession, he wholly denies the necessity for
medical care in cases of nervous breakdown, and discounts liberally the
benefits to be derived from professional advice except in so far as the
doctor is the patient's counselor and dictator as to what and how and
how much he shall eat and drink, and the way he shall employ his time.
Any discourse is valuable which incites a man having a marked tendency
to depressing, morbid ideas, to rid himself of them. Dr. Hinkle helps
the sufferer to gain that confidence and cheer which result from
knowledge of certain immunity from dreaded ills and positive assurance
of recovery by mere regulation of food or employment along the lines of
simple, everyday living.
But that alone is not sufficient. It is made quite clear that no one
thing by itself will insure a cure of "nerves." The cure must come
through common sense exerted along several related avenues of endeavor.
No matter how steadfastly one may adhere to directions as to abstaining
from harmful food and injurious methods of partaking of those foods
which are beneficial, if he spends the larger portion of his time idly
rocking in a convenient arm chair, exerting neither body nor mind nor
will, that which might be gained by proper nutrition is largely
nullified by lack of physical exercise and mental activity.
That this little book may serve as a spur to the bodily self-denial and
self-repression and the intellectual and spiritual uplift which make for
character-building, is the very evident goal of its writer. From
self-analysis and self-cure he has worked out a philosophy--a system or
_art_--by which those afflicted with nervous breakdown may be healed.
And by putting into print the result of his practical experiments in
diet and exercise he has broadened immeasurably the scope of his
helpfulness to all nervebound sufferers by placing within their reach
the simplest of measures by which release is secured from a condition
which wholly incapacitates for active service or even for quiet,
everyday usefulness.
It is because the things Dr. Hinkle advises are so commonplace, and
because the doing of them day after day, year in and year out, is so
monotonous, that people will be tempted to disregard or make light of
their helpfulness. But the commonplace things which make up life are all
important, as Susan Coolidge has so aptly expressed in these lines which
fittingly illustrate the author's thought:
"The commonplace sun in the commonplace sky
Makes up the commonplace day.
The moon and the stars are commonplace things,
And the flower that blooms and the bird that sings;
But dark were the world, and sad our lot
If the flowers failed, and the sun shone not;
And God, who studies each separate soul,
Out of commonplace lives makes his beautiful whole."
It therefore behooves the sufferer from "nerves" and that great host of
others who are in danger of a nervous breakdown if they do not speedily
mend their ways of eating and living, to heed the kindly admonitions
and follow the precepts of this author who practices what he preaches.
By persistently doing commonplace things in the most commonplace way,
keeping ever in mind the great objects to be attained thereby--good
health, good cheer, and increased usefulness throughout a long life--the
reader of this little treatise will find it worth many, many times its
size, weight, and bulk. And heeding the author's admonition, "Go thou
and do likewise," he will not shorten his life or lose it altogether in
fruitless quests for the strength and nerve vigor which constantly elude
him because of lack of self-control and failure to persist in the simple
but efficacious measures of relief here outlined.