PREFACE

The feeling that very much of the suffering and weak health which is so apparent in all classes might be prevented if there were an effort made to spread knowledge of the laws of Health, led to the delivery of the following Course of Lectures. That the want of knowledge on the subject, and the necessity for it, was recognised, has been made quite clear by the interest which the lectures excited, and the success which attended the whole scheme.

These lectures were published as they were delivered, but it seemed desirable to present them in a collected form, so that they might be studied by those who wished to do so in reference to their bearing one upon another.

In commending the study of health to every one, old or young, I wish to notice some objections which are urged against it, with what, at first sight, seems to be a show of reason, viz., that to become concerned about Health is apt to foster fanciful anxieties, and to lead to valetudinarianism; and that there is something unworthy, or at least trivial, in caring for the body. But these are objections which cannot stand a scrutiny. We are bound to know and obey the laws of God, not as they concern part of our being, but the whole, and the better we know the laws which govern us, the fewer will be the vague terrors which will assail us. It is only darkness and ignorance that can terrify.

A little reflection also on the relative values of things will teach us when we must be careful of, and when we must ignore, the body. The body is the means by which we work and think, and if the necessary amount of food, rest, air, and exercise are taken, energy is liberated in the form of good work or wise thought. If more than is necessary is taken, if the body is indulged, the happy moment of development never comes, and dull work and dull thought make Jack as dull a boy as would ever “all work and no play.”

Self-denial is the law of development; it is the detaching ourselves, with a pang it may be, but with free will, from the grasp of the lower, and the passing into the guidance of the higher desire. Comfort there must be—comfort for the comfortless—but wise self-restraint for the comfortable.

The oldest record of man’s history tells of a fall in condition from pure greediness of desire. God knows what was lost in those early days, but the last, divinest Teacher of the world struck again the key-note sounded by divine wisdom at Creation, and declared that through self-denial alone we should reach not simply Health, but Immortal Life.

F. E. M. T.
Edinburgh, 11th February 1881.

Health Lectures for the People
First, second, third and fourth series (1885) (pdf)