Civilisation : Its Cause and Cure 



of a healthy life, bodily and mental, and will be 

 spoken of later on. The second may be characterised 

 as the medical method, and is valuable, or rather 

 I should be inclined to say, will be valuable, when 

 it has found its place, which is to be subsidiary 

 to the first. It is too often, however, regarded as 

 superior in importance, and in this way, though 

 easy of application, has come perhaps to be productive 

 of more harm than good. The disease may be 

 broken down for the time being, but, the roots 

 of it not being destroyed, it soon springs up again 

 in the same or a new form, and the patient is as 

 badly off as ever. 



The great positive force of Health, and the 

 power which it has to expel disease from its neigh- 

 borhood is a thing realised, I believe, by few persons. 

 But it has been realised on earth, and will be realised 

 again when the more squalid elements of our 

 present-day civilisation have passed away. 



Ill 



The result then of our digression is to show that 

 Health — in body or mind — means unity, integra- 

 tion as opposed to disintegration. In the animals 

 we find this physical unity existing to a remarkable 

 degree. An almost unerring instinct and selective 

 power rules their actions and organisation. Thus 

 a cat before it has fallen (say before it has become 

 a very wheezy fireside pussy !) is in a sense perfect. 

 The wonderful consent of its limbs as it runs or 



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