Now if we, who would like to live happily and keep well, according to plain common sense, can put ourselves with intelligent humility in the place of these little children and study to be quiet, we will be working for that background which is never failing in its possibilities of increasing light and warmth and the expanse of outlook.

First with regard to a quiet body.  Indigestion makes us unquiet, therefore we must eat only wholesome food, and not too much of it, and we must eat it quietly.  Poor breathing and poor blood makes us unquiet, therefore we should learn to expand our lungs to their full extent in the fresh air and give the blood plenty of oxygen.  Breathing also has a direct effect on the circulation and the brain, and when we breathe quietly and rhythmically, we are quieting the movement of our blood as well as opening the channels so that it can flow without interruption.  We are also quieting our brain and so our whole nervous system.

Lack of exercise makes us unquiet, because exercise supplies the blood more fully with oxygen and prevents it from flowing sluggishly, a sluggish circulation straining the nervous system.  It is therefore important to take regular exercise.

Want of rest especially makes us unquiet; therefore we should attend to it that we get—­as far as possible—­what rest we need, and take all the rest we get in the best way.  We cannot expect to fulfill these conditions all at once, but we can aim steadily to do so, and by getting every day a stronger focus and a steadier aim we can gain so greatly in fulfilling the standards of a healthy mind in a healthy body, and so much of our individual dust will be laid, that I may fairly promise a happy astonishment at the view of life which will open before us, and the power for use and enjoyment that will come.

Let us see now how we would begin practically, having made up our minds to do all in our power to lay the dust and get a quiet background.  We must begin in what may seem a very small way.  It seems to be always the small beginnings that lead to large and solidly lasting results.  Not only that, but when we begin in the small way and the right way to reach any goal, we can find no short cuts and no seven-league boots.

We must take every step and take it decidedly in order to really get there.  We must place one brick and then another, exactly, and place every brick—­to make a house that will stand.

But now for our first step toward laying the dust.  Let us take half an hour every day and do nothing in it.  For the first ten minutes we will probably be wretched, for the next ten minutes we may be more wretched, but for the last five minutes we will get a sense of quiet and at first the dust, although not laid, will cease to whirl.  And then—­an interesting fact—­what seems to us quiet in the beginning of our attempt, will seem like noise and whirlwinds, after we have gone further along.  Some one may easily say that it is absurd to take half an hour a day to do nothing in.  Or that “Nature abhors a vacuum, and how is it possible to do nothing?  Our minds will be thinking of or working on something.”