no THE CONTEOL OF LIFE 



this dreadful field. Dr. Easterbrook writes : " It 

 cannot be too strongly emphasised that no one becomes 

 insane without previously being or becoming 'nervous.' 

 ... It does not follow that every nervous individual 

 will become insane. . . . Only a small proportion do 

 so. . . . Those who have an unstable nervous system 

 should recognise it as such, their weak point of defence 

 and resistance, and regulate their lives accordingly." 



A nervous disposition may be inherited and then 

 transmitted, but it may also be acquired and then not 

 transmitted. Faulty habits of mind and body which 

 lead to the nervous disposition — w^hich is the danger- 

 zone of insanity — are often remediable, especially in 

 early years. Just as sleeplessness may warn a man 

 that he is overworking or overpoisoning himself, or 

 that some organ of the body is insidiously going out 

 of gear, so the acquired nervousness may be a useful 

 warning of the possibility of worse. Insanity is often 

 summed up as due to unstable inheritance shaken by 

 stress, but it would be truer, Dr. Easterbrook says, to 

 refer insanity to nervous disposition and stress. And 

 the point for us in this simple discourse is just this, 

 that while the nervous disposition is sometimes inborn 

 or inherited, it is sometimes acquired or induced. In 

 the former case, it cannot be got rid of, but it can be 

 quieted or provoked according to the wisdom or folly 

 of nurture. In the latter case, it can be un-made if 

 taken in time, or redirected into safety by appropriate 

 discipline. Best of all, it may be avoided altogether. 



Criminals. — It would be absurd to try to discuss in 



