A Simpler Life

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Dear readers,

Plea For A Simpler Life by George S. Keith was published in 1900.

This book has been digitalized and made available on Archive.org. The scanning process resulted in many strange characters, spelling errors, poor quality pictures, and other problems in the file. I have tried to correct as many errors as I could find, but you may still find other issues occasionally. I hope you'll accept the imperfections but still find value in reading this story.

The title image on this website is taken from http://openclipart.org/detail/8531/simple-fruit-grapes-by-gerald_g.


K. C. Lee
Mobile Story Enthusiast

From Project Gutenberg: This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net.




" I yield it just," said Adam, " and submit.
But is there yet no other way, besides
These painful passages, how we may come
To death, and mix with our connatural dust?"
" There is," said Michael, " if thou well observe
The rule of Not too much, by temperance taught
In what thou eat'st and drink'st, seeking from thence
Due nourishment, not gluttonous delight,
Till many years over thy head return.
So may'st thou live, till, like ripe fruit, thou drop
Into thy mother's lap, or be with ease
Gathered, not harshly plucked, for death mature."

Paradise Lost Book XI.

Preface


In the following pages I have made statements reflecting on the teaching and practice of medicine at the present day, and to these I must adhere. I do not, however, call in question the good faith either of the teachers or of the practitioners. The former teach what they have been taught and believe to be true; the latter naturally follow their teachers. Nor do I call in question the value of much that is taught, and of much that is done by the bedside, and in the laboratory, or by those who ransack all nature's products in air, land, and water to discover means by which human suffering may be alleviated. The value of even a discovered truth may lie for a long time unknown, till some further discovery brings it into notice and use. True seekers after truth always have their reward, though it may be delayed; but somehow in this world things get occasionally into a rut from which extrication is difficult. There is an inertia in the mind as well as in physics, and it may require a strong force to overcome it.

What I have proposed to myself in the following pages is to point out some of the evils that have arisen from opposite lines of thought which have much affected the practice of medicine during this century.

The change from a severe system of treating disease by depletion in all its modes came in with a great social change, especially as regards the upbringing of the young. In my young days this was rather trying. Home discipline, as well as that in the schools, was harsh, even with the upper classes. The boy must do as he was bid without delay and without protest, or it was the worse for him. What are now necessaries were then luxuries. Pleasure for its own sake was at a discount. In Scotland, at least, the extreme doctrines of Calvin held sway, and a severe sway it was. Reaction came at last, and along with other changes came that of the treatment of disease, first by modifying the old methods, and very soon by adopting others at the opposite pole. The change fell in with the spirit of the times, and, I fear, goes with it still. The difficulty of modifying it may therefore be great; and my efforts in that direction may avail little. But I have said what I have long wished to say. If any good follows I shall be rewarded; and if not, I shall at least enjoy an easier mind.

I have been subjected to so much opposition in my daily life and work that more public criticism can touch me but little. My feeling on this is pretty well expressed in a somewhat defiant family motto which may be seen on the entrance hall of Marischal College, Aberdeen: ' Thay haif said: Quhat say thay: Lat thame say.'

G. S. K.
CURRIE, MIDLOTHIAN
July 1895