66 BULLETIN OP THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN. 



thus far. While instinct may he trusted a good way in ad- 

 vising us what and how to eat, yet it is certainly not an infal- 

 lible guide, especially since it is not within its scope to suggest 

 improved methods of manufacturing foods, and even new kinds 

 of foods themselves. It merely determines sort and quantity 

 when articles are presented, so its sphere of usefulness is quite 

 limited. Again, we tend naturally in most instances to save 

 needless wear and tear of mind and body, yet as we shall see 

 later there are avenues of waste which continue to drain off much 

 of our energies until we get to work consciously to stop them up. 

 In respect to these matters, then, study cannot fail to be of bene- 

 fit to every person, teaching him how to make the best kind of a 

 machine of himself, so to speak. But when once he learns the 

 trick, his mind may with advantage be turned altogether in other 

 directions ; he need not, he must not, be in constant query re- 

 specting what he should eat, and how he should work. 



But now we are all apt to feel and often to say that we 

 have thus far been steering our barks in a given direction, 

 and considering how the winds have favored us, and what prog- 

 ress we have made, we cannot think we have been on the wrong 

 tack. There seems to lurk within the bosom of every one of 

 us a conviction begotten of the tendency to regard self as the 

 standard of excellence, that we cannot be very greatly improved 

 upon; but this belief, it need scarcely be said, is rarely if 

 ever the result of much reflection upon one's attainments and 

 limitations. While one may find occasion for congratulation 

 that he is as well balanced as he is, and that his energies are 

 devoted as largely as they are to profitable production,, yet he 

 needs to recognize, or most of us do at any rate, that we are 

 hindered in a thousand directions by obstacles and restrictions 

 which seriously impair efficiency. Most of us probably have 

 little conception of what a perfect man-machine would be, one 

 who is thoroughly balanced in mind and body, who always 

 has himself well in hand, who has abundant energies for the 

 tasks which lie in his way. One who, looks at life as in a 

 process of evolution, which seems in no wise to be yet com- 



