THE MUSCLES 135 



wrecks from piano playing. The typewriter has one of 

 the objections named above, but it has the advantage over 

 the pen of giving some variety of motion compared to the 

 monotonous use of the same muscles in penmanship. 



228. Habitual Over-expenditure of Nervous and Muscular 

 Energy. The fact that the muscles are arranged in pairs 

 as antagonists of each other may have a calamitous effect 

 in the case of persons with ill-regulated nervous systems. 

 Such persons, on account of anxiety or worry, doubt, or 

 overactive desire, keep their muscles drawn tense, the an- 

 tagonists pulling against each other, and after awhile they 

 lose the power of relaxing their muscles. They wear anx- 

 ious expressions, because the muscles of the face are never 

 relaxed or in repose. Their movements are nervous and 

 jerky instead of graceful and easy. Their breathing is not 

 deep and natural, because the breathing muscles pull 

 against each other, and their voices, therefore, are not even 

 and steady. They cannot be perfectly still, but chew gum 

 or a pencil, rock the chair, pull the mustache, etc. Do you 

 know of any of your friends who are handicapped by this 

 condition of over-tension ? When such people listen to a 

 sermon their backs get tired because they cannot relax com- 

 fortably to the seat and use their ears only while listening. 

 When they lie down, they try to hold the body on the bed, 

 and they keep the muscles of the neck tense as if trying 

 to hold the head on the shoulders. Such persons should 

 lie down for ten minutes twice a day and have an assistant 

 make a test to ascertain whether they are thoroughly re- 

 laxed ; let the assistant lift one arm and see whether it will 

 drop as if lifeless when released, or fall like a rope when 

 flung to one side ; let him find out also whether the head 

 is relaxed on the shoulders. 



229. Over- tension is common to adults in cold cli- 

 mates, but is also known in warm climates. A graceful 

 person, like a child, uses just the muscles necessary for 



