"He who pursues a regular course of life need not be apprehensive
of illness, as he who has guarded against the cause need not be
afraid of the effect."
--CORNARO
We have now come to the second step in the cure of "nerves"--eating the
right food in the right way. You must chew all food until it is of the
consistency of cream, and you must also sip all liquids slowly. And now,
as you read these things that I have set down, I want you to remember
this: doing any one thing--and doing that alone--will not cure this
malady. No, it is doing a number of things at the right time. I know
this is true because I have tried it. For a time I chewed my food to a
cream, but that was the only thing I did in an endeavor to get well. I
was doing none of the other things that are absolutely necessary for a
cure. This is one great trouble with all such people. They will
Fletcherize for a time and then say there is nothing to that because it
does not cure them. Well, as I've said, that alone will not, and I want
to dwell at length on this because nobody knows as well as I do, what
harm such a belief does the nervous sufferer.
Trying out Fletcherizing alone, which I say must be done together with
other things if you want to get well and stay well, is like taking the
handle of an axe and going out into the woods to cut down a tree. Now
with Fletcherizing you have a perfectly good handle, but you know very
well that you can't cut a tree down with only an axe handle. But that is
not the fault of the handle. The fault is obviously your own. Now
suppose you get the axe and fit the handle to it. You can then cut the
tree down if you work hard enough at the task. Again, suppose you cut
the tree half way through and quit. Will the axe keep on until the work
is done? You know it will not, and you very well know if you wish to be
cured you must keep on doing your part of the work or dieting will be of
no value whatever to you. Now suppose a man comes along and tells you
that the axe you have is no good and therefore it is no use for you to
keep on trying to use it. That is exactly what some physicians still say
about Fletcherizing.
But you say, "I must cut this tree down. Nobody will do it for me; how
shall I get it down? Can you give me an axe that will cut it down?"
"Oh, no," he replies, "but anyway there's no use fooling with that one."
Then, if you are determined to do the work, you say, "I have to cut the
tree down. You have no other axe to offer me, so I'm going to try the
one I have." And you go ahead and cut down the tree. Then just as you
have finished, the man comes your way again, and in great delight you
call out to him: "Come and see! I cut this tree down with the axe you
said was no good!"