THE
UNTROUBLED MIND
BY
HERBERT J. HALL, M.D.
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
The Riverside Press Cambridge
COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY HERBERT J. HALL
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Published May 1915
PREFACE
A very wise physician has said that “every illness has two parts—whatit is, and what the patient thinks about it.” What the patient thinksabout it is often more important and more troublesome than the realdisease. What the patient thinks of life, what life means to him is alsoof great importance and may be the bar that shuts out all real healthand happiness. The following pages are devoted to certain ideals of lifewhich I would like to give to my patients, the long-time patients whohave especially fallen to my lot.
They are not all here, the steps to health and happiness. The reader mayeven be annoyed and baffled by my indirectness and unwillingness to bespecific. That I cannot help—it is a personal peculiarity; I cannot askany one to live by rule, because I do not believe that rules arebinding and final. There must be character behind the rule and then therule is unnecessary.
All that I have written has doubtless been presented before, in betterways, by wiser men, but I believe that each writer may expect to findhis small public, his own particular public who can understand andprofit by his teachings, having partly or wholly failed with the others.For that reason I am encouraged to write upon a subject usually shunnedby medical men, being assured of at least a small company of friendlyreaders.
I am grateful to a number of friends and patients who have read themanuscript of the following chapters. These reviewers have been frankand kind and very helpful. I am particularly indebted to Dr. Richard C.Cabot, who has given me much valuable assistance.
CONTENTS. Skip →
- The Untroubled Mind 1
- Religio Medici 10
- Thought and Work 20
- Idleness 30
- Rules of the Game 38
- The Nervous Temperament 50
- Self-Control 59
- The Lighter Touch 65
- Regrets and Forebodings 73
- The Virtues 81
- The Cure by Faith 88