The Life and Letters of Dr Samuel Hahnemann By Thomas Lindsley Bradford, M.D. Presented by Dr Robert Séror

The Life and Letters
of Dr Samuel Hahnemann
By Thomas Lindsley Bradford,
M.D.
Presented by Dr Robert Séror

Chapter 16.

Letter to patient on cheerful methods of life

The
next letter to his patient, who was a tailor in

Gotha
and died at the age of ninety-two, is so filled with advice that must be
of benefit to every one in this age of haste that it is given here in full
– (Monthly Hom. Review,
Vol. 31, p. 617. N. E. Med. Gazette, March, 1887.)

“My Dear Mr.

X-
:

” It is true that I am going to Hamburg, but that need not trouble
you. If you do not grudge the few groschen a letter will cost you can
still have my advice when I am there. Merely write my name, and Hamburg
beneath it, and your letter so addressed will find me.

” For the present I must say that you are on the fair road to
health, and the chief sources of your malady cut off. One source still
remains, and it is the cause of your last relapse. Man (the delicate human
machine) is not constituted for overwork, he cannot overwork his powers or
faculties with impunity.

If he does so from ambition, love of gain, or other praiseworthy or
blameworthy motive, he sets himself in opposition to the order of nature,
and his body suffers injury or destruction.

All the more if his body is already in a weakened condition ; what you
cannot accomplish in a week you can do in two weeks. If your customers
will not wait they cannot fairly expect that you will for their sakes make
yourself ill and work yourself to the grave, leaving your wife a widow and
your children orphans.

It is not only the greater bodily exertion that injures you, it is even
more the attendant strain on the mind, and the overwrought mind in its
turn affects the body injuriously. If you do not assume an attitude of
cool indifference, adopting the principle of living first for yourself and
only secondly for others, then there is small chance of your recovery.

Men you are in your grave men will still be clothed, perhaps not as
tastefully, but still tolerably well.

”
If you are a philosopher you may become healthy, you may attain to old
age. If anything annoys you give no heed to it ; if anything is too much
for you have nothing to do with it ; if any one seeks to drive you go
slowly and laugh at the fools who wish to make you unhappy. What you can
do comfortably that do ; what von cannot do don’t bother yourself about.

“Our temporal circumstances are not improved by overpressure at
work. You must spend proportionately more in your domestic affairs, and so
nothing is gained. Economy, limitation of superfluities (of which the hard
worker has often very few) place us in a position to live with greater
comfort- that is to say, more rationally, more intelligently, more in
accordance with nature, more cheerfully, more quietly, more healthily.

Thus we shall act more commendably, more wisely, more prudently, than
by working in breathless hurry, with our nerves, constantly overstrung, to
the destruction of the most precious treasure of life, calmly happy
spirits and good health.

“Be you more prudent, consider yourself first, let everything else
be of only secondary importance for you. And should they venture to assert
that you are in honor bound to do more than is good for your mental and
physical powers, even then do not, for

God’s
sake, allow yourself to be driven to do what is contrary to your own
welfare.

Remain deaf to the bribery of praise, remain cold and pursue your own
course slowly and quietly like a wise and sensible man. To enjoy with
tranquil mind and body, that is what man is in the world for, and only to
do as much work as will procure him the means of enjoyment — certainly
not to excoriate and wear himself out with work.

” The everlasting pushing : and striving of blinded mortals in
order to gain so and so much, to secure some honor or other, to do a
service to this or that great personage – this is generally fatal to our
welfare, this is a common cause of young people ageing and dying before
their time.

” The calm, cold-blooded man, who lets things softly glide,
attains his object also, lives more tranquilly and healthily, and attains
a good old age.

And this leisurely man sometimes lights upon a lucky idea, the fruit of
serious original thought, which shall give a much more profitable impetus
to his temporal affairs than can ever be gained by the overwrought man who
can never find time to collect his thoughts. –

” In order to win the race, quickness is not all that is required.
Strive to obtain a little indifference, coolness and calmness, then you
will be what I wish you to be.

Then you will see marvellous things ; you will see how healthy you will
become by following my advice. Then shall your blood course through your
blood vessels calmly and sedately, without effort and without heat. No
horrible dreams disturb the sleep. of him who lies down to rest without
highly strung nerves.

The man who is free from care wakes in the morning without anxiety
about the multifarious occupations of the day. What does he care ?

The happiness of life concerns him more than anything else. With fresh
vigor he sets about his moderate work, and at his meals nothing, no
ebullitions of blood, no cares, no solicitude of mind hinders him from
relishing what the beneficent Preserver of Life sets before him.

And so one day follows another in quiet succession, until the final day
of advanced age brings him to the termination of a well spent life, and he
serenely reposes in an other world as he has calmly lived in this one.

“Is
not that more rational, more sensible ? Let restless, self destroying men
act as irrationally, as injuriously towards themselves as they please ;
let them be fools. But be you wiser !

Do not let me preach this wisdom of life in vain. I mean well to you.

” Farewell, follow my advice, and when all goes well with you,
remember.

“DR. S. Hahnemann

“P. S.- Should you be reduced to your last sixpence, be still
cheerful and happy.

Providence watches over us, and a lucky chance makes all right again.

How much do we need in order to live, to restore our powers by food and
drink, to shield ourselves from cold and heat ?

Little more than good courage ; when we have that the minor essentials
we can find without much trouble. The wise man needs but little. Strength
that is husbanded needs not to be renovated by medicine.”

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