Again, as the muscles are guided by means of the nerves, a training for the guidance of the muscles means, so far as the physique is concerned, first, a training for the better use of the nervous force.  The nervous system is so wonderful in its present power for good or ill, so wonderful in its possible power either way, and so much more wonderful as we realize what we do not know about it, that it is not surprising that it is looked upon with awe.  Neither is it strange that it seems to many, especially the ignorant, a subject to be shunned.  It is not uncommon for a mother, whose daughter is suffering, and may be on the verge of nervous prostration because of her misused nerves, to say, “I do not want my daughter to know that she has nerves.”  The poor child knows it already in the wrong way.  It is certainly better that she should know her nerves by learning a wholesome, natural use of them.  The mother’s remark is common with many men and women when speaking of themselves,—­common with teachers when talking to or of their pupils.  It is of course quite natural that it should be a prevailing idea, because hitherto the mention of nerves by man or woman has generally meant perverted nerves, and to dwell on our perversions, except long enough to shun them, is certainly unwholesome in the extreme.

II.

PERVERSIONS IN THE GUIDANCE OF THE BODY

So evident are the various, the numberless perversions of our powers in the misuse of the machine, that it seems almost unnecessary to write of them.  And yet, from another point of view, it is very necessary; for superabundant as they are, thrusting their evil results upon us every day in painful ways, still we have eyes and see not, ears and hear not, and for want of a fuller realization of these most grievous mistakes, we are in danger of plunging more and more deeply into the snarls to which they bring us.  From nervous prostration to melancholia, or other forms of insanity, is not so long a step.

It is of course a natural sequence that the decadence of an entire country must follow the waning powers of the individual citizens.  Although that seems very much to hint, it cannot be too much when we consider even briefly the results that have already come to us through this very misuse of our own voluntary powers.  The advertisements of nerve medicines alone speak loudly to one who studies in the least degree the physical tendencies of the nation.  Nothing proves better the artificial state of man, than the artificial means he uses to try to adjust himself to Nature’s laws,—­means which, in most cases, serve to assist him to keep up a little longer the appearance of natural life.  For any simulation of that which is natural must sooner or later lead to nothing, or worse than nothing.  Even the rest-cures, the most simple and harmless of the nerve restorers, serve a mistaken end.  Patients go with nerves tired