THE HEALTH INSTINCT 87 



should let the physician do any worrying or serious thinking that is 

 to be done, for now-a-days that is what the physician is for. In the 

 meanwhile he can go forward with life's daily endeavor, content with 

 his physical limitations, and only caring to do his best. 



The instinct for health can be cultivated until it is as good a guide 

 as in the lower animals. A semi-conscious instinct, of course it is, but 

 with our growing knowledge of health matters from day to day we can 

 add to it, and so make it fit into our civilized manner of living. 



Thinking eternally about health without making health a response 

 to our outward striving, will as surely interfere with, or derange this 

 guide, as the thinking about a telegraph pole will lead the learner on 

 a bicycle to bang into it. If one thinks of the middle of the road, of 

 whether he is up to par in his daily work, the telephone poles of dys- 

 pepsia and neurasthenia will take care of themselves; while, if listened 

 to, the health instinct will guide him through the distracting midway 

 of health fads without fretting because he does not find in each show 

 all that is advertised by the barker, or just what is suited to his own 

 particular needs. While strength is a good thing, no amount of exer- 

 cising will make us all Sandows, and though chewing is important to 

 the process of digestion, no amount of time spent in masticating food 

 will develop in each of us the phenomenal inborn endurance of a 

 Fletcher. It is not " in us," and it is just as well we are not all alike. 

 All that is required of us, and all that we should require of ourselves, 

 is that we develop our innate possibilities until we are conscious that 

 we are at our best, our own best and not another's. 



