How to Eat | Page 2

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.
M. F. S.
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HOW TO EAT
A CURE FOR NERVES
I. WHERE THE TROUBLE LIES
"What we leave after making a hearty meal does us more good than
what we have eaten."
--CORNARO
It is now over twenty years since I had my first nervous breakdown.
About ten years later I had another, far worse than the first one. The
first lasted six months; the second a little more than two and one half
years. Doubtless if I had not in the strangest way in the world found out
how to cure myself it would have lasted until now, unless death in the
meantime had come to my relief. But right here I want to say that if you
are looking for some new or miraculous treatment for such unfortunate
people you might as well close the book now, for you will be
disappointed. There is a cure for "nerves" but the cure is as old as the
world. The trouble with poor deluded mortals--doctors included--is, we
are constantly looking for a miracle to cure us, but if we look back on
all the real cures that we have ever heard about, we shall find they were

as simple as the sun or the rain. And in the name of common sense let
me ask: what is the difference how we are cured if we are cured and are
happy as a result of it? Isn't that enough? Most certainly it is.
And now, as we journey along through the pages of this book, I want
you to know that these words have been written by one who has
nothing to offer you except human experience. As we proceed you will
notice that every statement is tremendously positive. When a man has
been through this literal hell of "nerves" he knows all about it and what
can be done for it. And so when I tell you the things you must do to get
well and stay well, I want you to understand that I know. There is
absolutely no theory to be found in these pages. If you put your finger
in the fire you burn it. You don't have to take your finger out of the fire,
call in a lot of learned gentlemen and say to them: "Now tell me your
candid opinion about my finger. Is it burned or is it not?"
And I am just as positive about my cure of "nerves" as you could be
that fire burned your finger. That brings me to what I want to say about
the so-called "rest cures" at the sanitariums. It is a well-known fact that
if a case of "nerves" is pronounced cured at a sanitarium the cure is
only temporary. Sooner or later every one of these patients goes down
hill again.
And remember I am talking about people who have nervous
breakdowns THROUGH NO FAULT OF THEIR OWN. I have no time
to spare for the person who has brought on his own trouble. I