4. Conclusion
On the subject of the moral effects of high living, especially on the young, I do not enter; it does not come within the scope of this work. But it is notorious that the morals of the country have not improved during the last half-century; and this may be taken along with the Scriptural statement that ' Strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age.' To keep to the physical side of the question, we have also Paul's apt and terse statement: ' They that strive for the mastery are temperate in all things.' A very old friend, well known as the best shot of his day, gave me the credit of his son being the first champion of England. This was from my having got him, at any rate when shooting, to carry out this ' temperance in all things.' Two other volunteer friends, who were fortunate in competitions, also ascribed their success to their having followed my recommendations. This was long ago; but I am told that it is now well known that high living is fatal to good shooting.
In the pleas I have advanced for a simple life so far as food is concerned I have purposely abstained from giving any fixed rules. Much must be left to oneself, or to those in authority. A long experience bears me out in this. A mistake made and felt tells more than any argument. In some cases strict rules must be given by a medical adviser when he knows that a general rule will not be attended to. But, on the whole, they are better omitted, especially in cases of disease, when the state of the patient may vary from hour to hour. What I would mainly urge is that, when any amount of food can be had, the risk of taking too much is much greater than the risk of taking too little. If this were only known and acted on the change would be very great and very salutary. Another simple rule is to eat slowly. This acts beneficially in two ways. It mixes the food better with the saliva, thus promoting digestion; and it satiates the appetite sooner, so that less food is taken.
Less food should be taken or none at all when one is worried or anxious, or when engaged in any severe mental work. There is in these conditions little or no nervous energy to spare for the stomach. I came long ago in the course of reading on three celebrated men who, when engaged in working out some great problem in science or war, took actually no food till the strain was over. They were Sir Isaac Newton, Napoleon, and the Duke of Wellington. The latter was always a careful eater. The late General Crockett, who was with him in the Peninsula, told me that, often when a long menu was presented to him, he would run his finger down it till he came to the pudding, which he would order and dine upon. In a recent American work on Edison, I find that he follows the same rule as the other great men, and sometimes enforces it on his assistants by locking them with himself into a room or workshop till the job (some difficult one) is completed. I had the pleasure once in Edinburgh of dining with the late Sir Erskine May. Our host was an English clergyman pretty far gone in phthisis, whom I had difficulty in getting to reduce the full diet which he had been ordered in the South. Sir Erskine had just finished a long session in the House of Commons, where he was perhaps the busiest man. He seemed to be in the best of health, and he looked more like a healthy English farmer than an over-worked clerk of Parliament. I could not help asking him how he kept his health so well with such an amount of anxious work, and with such long hours. He told me that his rule was, while the House was sitting, to take a chop in the middle of the day, and only a cup of tea at night. He added that Lord Palmerston followed the same plan, though on an occasion he could enjoy a very full dinner. Our host stared, and I had less difficulty with him as to food afterwards; the plain narration had more influence than a thousand arguments.
If, when in good health, we took only the food necessary for our comfort and for our work and no more, instead of working the stomach to the utmost, and helping it when it flags by dainties, as well as by drugs and stimulants, we would have much more pleasure from our meals, and a much longer continuance of strength and health. We would also escape many of the ills that life is said to be heir to; or, should some disease perchance come upon us, if we could eliminate from the old system of cure a large amount of the depletion, and from the new a still larger amount of the feeding and physicking, we would come nearer to nature's mode of preventing and curing diseases; we would find that prevention would be far the larger element of the two, and that the need for the other would be wellnigh extinguished.
But the physician need not as yet have much fear for his craft. The Archbishop of Cambrai put into the mouth of his wise Nestor that the time will surely come when we will be ashamed to be sick, the causes being our own indiscretions and ignorance. That was two hundred years ago, and as yet there is no sign of the prophecy being nearer its fulfilment. Changes for good come very slowly, and with much back falling and opposition. The way to life is narrow, the other way is broad; and few walk in the one, and many in the other. Whatever our beliefs regarding a future life, we might be more careful of the present which we most certainly possess, and more readily adopt the simpler ways which lead to its being both longer and happier; we might seek truth and follow after righteousness for their own sake, and with no thought of reward, and no fear of punishment; and lastly, we might use the increased means which the simpler life would afford us to show a more helpful sympathy with the fallen, who, often from no fault of their own, but from their birth and surroundings, are doomed to a life of degradation, misery, vice, and crime.
I offer no apology for the free use I have made of the personal pronoun in these pages. Had I not done this, I could not have said what I wished to say; and so I will take for my ' finis ' the hopeful motto of my family, of which I have for fifteen years been the oldest member -
'VERITAS VINCIT.'