It is certainly important for a man to get the right mental attitude not only toward his own business but toward the world in general. Let him convince him self that this is a good world, that living in it is worth while, that he is going to enjoy it as much as possible, and that he is going to help others to enjoy it, for that will give him pleasure. Man is gregarious; Ile loves company ; lie works more cheerfully and effi ciently with others than alone. He likes cheerful, contented people about him, for then he the more easily maintains his own cheer and content. If worry comes he must banish it ; he will escape fr'om his diffi culties, not by worrying, but by thinking. One of the advantages of play is that it helps a man to forget his worries and tones up his mind for a fresh attack on their cause the next day. The man who gives willing harborage to any of the evil passions weakens himself much more than he hurts others.
9. Read,y remedies.—It should go without saying that a man who practises the gospel of health laid down in this chapter will need no medicines of any kind, but we all have our weak moments and are liable to indiscretions of conduct which bring in their wake headaches, constipation, "biliousness," and then we are tempted to see whether we cannot "get well quick" by trying some remedy which all our friends declare to be efficacious and perfectly harmless. But there is no such thing as a harmless drug. Any drug which will relieve a pain in the head is a poison; that is, it in terferes with nature's way of doing things. Physi cians know this truth perfectly and so are very earnest and sincere in advising against the use of medicines unless administered under competent medical super vision. Physical pain is nature's danger signal. A toothache gives you notice that you have not kept your teeth clean. The ache of a corn warns you that the shoe does not fit. Influenza is nature's notice that you have eaten too much, or that you have been breath ing impure air, or that you have been derelict in your exercises.
In every drug store there are ready remedies for al most every kind of human ailment. They are known as proprietary or patent medicines, and people can easily be found who will testify to the virtues of each one of them. These ready remedies do a great deal of harm, not only because in the long run they injure the health, but because they perpetuate the illusion that somehow health is to be found in a medicine bottle or in a pill box, and so they keep people from learning the important truth that health really can be got only by right living. When serious sickness
comes, then a man should consult his physician. To swallow drugs unprescribed by a doctor is gambling with disease and death.
10. Alcohol and other habit-forming drugs.—The kind of people who read the Modern Business Texts need not be warned against John Barleycorn in what ever guise he appears. They doubtless know that he is an enemy of efficiency and that the man who asso ciates with him can never achieve high success.
Sometimes we hear people talk as follows in favor of alcohol ancl other so-called stimulants : "The strenuous exactions of modern civilization make neces sary some use of narcotics and stimulants. We do not tire our muscles with heavy outdoor work as did our ancestors and we really need something to quiet our nerves and make us sleep." Or we hear people talking like this: "I do not believe in drinking too much, but a glass of beer or whiskey now and then does no harm and they certainly do liven up a com pany." Such people do not know that alcohol is a poison, a drug which produces abnormal changes in the tissues of the body and cells of the brain. These changes are at first pleasurable. Anxieties, fear, dis content seem to fade out of the consciousness. A cocktail, as some one has said, "throws a thin veil over reality," making the hard facts of life soft and pleas ant. All this seems very delightful to the man taking his first drinks. 2•..To one could convince him that the pleasure he enjoys is subtly weakening his will, and that if he does not stop at once the day will certainly come when he will be unable to stop, when alcohol will seem as necessary to him as food and sleep.
There are plenty of people who will tell the young business man that a moderate use of alcoholic bever ages is not harmful. A young man should give no ear to such talk. In the first place the moderate use of alcohol is harmful. It lessens all the powers of a man. It makes him waste an hour in bed, for his abused tissues need more rest in order to recuperate. In the second place, there are no moderate drinkers. The appetite for alcohol is cumulative. Today one drink leads to the second; in a few days or weeks your moderate drinker will want a third each day. Before long he will be taking a fourth and still think him self a moderate drinker. Any honest physician will tell such a man what place he is headed toward.