For many years I have mused8 on the phenomenon of second wind, trying to find a physiological9 theory. It is evident that our organism has stored-up reserves of energy that are ordinarily not called upon, but that may be called upon: deeper and deeper strata10 of combustible11 or explosible material, discontinuously arranged, but ready for use by anyone who probes so deep, and repairing themselves by rest as well as do the superficial strata. Most of us continue living unnecessarily near our surface. Our energy-budget is like our nutritive budget. Physiologists12 say that a man is in “nutritive equilibrium13” when day after day he neither gains nor loses weight. But the odd thing is that this condition may obtain on astonishingly different amounts of food. Take a man in nutritive equilibrium, and systematically14 increase or lessen15 his rations16. In the first case he will begin to gain weight, in the second case to lose it. The change will be greatest on the first day, less on the second, less still on the third; and so on, till he has gained all that he will gain, or lost all that he will lose, on that altered diet. He is now in nutritive equilibrium again, but with a new weight; and this neither lessens17 nor increases because his various combustion-processes have adjusted themselves to the changed dietary. He gets rid, in one way or another, of just as much N, C, H, etc., as he takes in per diem.
Just so one can be in what I might call “efficiency-equilibrium” (neither gaining nor losing power when once the equilibrium is reached) on astonishingly different quantities of work, no matter in what direction the work may be measured. It may be physical work, intellectual work, moral work, or spiritual work.
Of course there are limits: the trees don’t grow into the sky. But the plain fact remains18 that men the world over possess amounts of resource which only very exceptional individuals push to their extremes of use. But the very same individual, pushing his energies to their extreme, may in a vast number of cases keep the pace up day after day, and find no “reaction” of a bad sort, so long as decent hygienic conditions are preserved. His more active rate of energizing19 does not wreck20 him; for the organism adapts itself, and as the rate of waste augments21, augments correspondingly the rate of repair.
I say the rate and not the time of repair. The busiest man needs no more hours of rest than the idler. Some years ago Professor Patrick, of the Iowa State University, kept three young men awake for four days and nights. When his observations on them were finished, the subjects were permitted to sleep themselves out. All awoke from this sleep completely refreshed, but the one who took longest to restore himself from his long vigil only slept one-third more time than was regular with him.
If my reader will put together these two conceptions, first, that few men live at their maximum of energy, and second, that anyone may be in vital equilibrium at very different rates of energizing, he will find, I think, that a very pretty practical problem of national economy, as well as of individual ethics22, opens upon his view. In rough terms, we may say that a man who energizes23 below his normal maximum fails by just so much to profit by his chance at life; and that a nation filled with such men is inferior to a nation run at higher pressure. The problem is, then, how can men be trained up to their most useful pitch of energy? And how can nations make such training most accessible to all their sons and daughters. This, after all, is only the general problem of education, formulated24 in slightly different terms.
“Rough” terms, I said just now, because the words “energy” and “maximum” may easily suggest only quantity to the reader’s mind, whereas in measuring the human energies of which I speak, qualities as well as quantities have to be taken into account. Everyone feels that his total power rises when he passes to a higher qualitative25 level of life.
Writing is higher than walking, thinking is higher than writing, deciding higher than thinking, deciding “no” higher than deciding “yes”— at least the man who passes from one of these activities to another will usually say that each later one involves a greater element of inner work than the earlier ones, even though the total heat given out or the foot-pounds expended26 by the organism, may be less. Just how to conceive this inner work physiologically27 is as yet impossible, but psychologically we all know what the word means. We need a particular spur or effort to start us upon inner work; it tires us to sustain it; and when long sustained, we know how easily we lapse28. When I speak of “energizing,” and its rates and levels and sources, I mean therefore our inner as well as our outer work.
Let no one think, then, that our problem of individual and national economy is solely29 that of the maximum of pounds raisable against gravity, the maximum of locomotion30, or of agitation31 of any sort, that human beings can accomplish. That might signify little more than hurrying and jumping about in inco-ordinated ways; whereas inner work, though it so often reinforces outer work, quite as often means its arrest. To relax, to say to ourselves (with the “new thoughters”) “Peace! be still!” is sometimes a great achievement of inner work. When I speak of human energizing in general, the reader must therefore understand that sum-total of activities, some outer and some inner, some muscular, some emotional, some moral, some spiritual, of whose waxing and waning32 in himself he is at all times so well aware. How to keep it at an appreciable33 maximum? How not to let the level lapse? That is the great problem. But the work of men and women is of innumerable kinds, each kind being, as we say, carried on by a particular faculty34; so the great problem splits into two sub-problems, thus:
(1). What are the limits of human faculty in various directions?
(2). By what diversity of means, in the differing types of human beings, may the faculties35 be stimulated37 to their best results?
Read in one way, these two questions sound both trivial and familiar: there is a sense in which we have all asked them ever since we were born. Yet as a methodical programme of scientific inquiry38, I doubt whether they have ever been seriously taken up. If answered fully39; almost the whole of mental science and of the science of conduct would find a place under them. I propose, in what follows, to press them on the reader’s attention in an informal way.
The first point to agree upon in this enterprise is that as a rule men habitually use only a small part of the powers which they actually possess and which they might use under appropriate conditions.
Every one is familiar with the phenomenon of feeling more or less alive on different days. Every one knows on any given day that there are energies slumbering40 in him which the incitements of that day do not call forth41, but which he might display if these were greater. Most of us feel as if a sort of cloud weighed upon us, keeping us below our highest notch42 of clearness in discernment, sureness in reasoning, or firmness in deciding. Compared with what we ought to be, we are only half awake. Our fires are damped, our drafts are checked. We are making use of only a small part of our possible mental and physical resources. In some persons this sense of being cut off from their rightful resources is extreme, and we then get the formidable neurasthenic and psychasthenic conditions with life grown into one tissue of impossibilities, that so many medical books describe.
Stating the thing broadly, the human individual thus lives usually far within his limits; he possesses powers of various sorts which he habitually fails to use. He energizes below his maximum, and he behaves below his optimum. In elementary faculty, in co-ordination, in power of inhibition and control, in every conceivable way, his life is contracted like the field of vision of an hysteric subject — but with less excuse, for the poor hysteric is diseased, while in the rest of us it is only an inveterate43 habit — the habit of inferiority to our full self — that is bad.
Admit so much, then, and admit also that the charge of being inferior to their full self is far truer of some men than of others; then the practical question ensues: to what do the better men owe their escape? and, in the fluctuations44 which all men feel in their own degree of energizing, to what are the improvements due, when they occur?
In general terms the answer is plain:
Either some unusual stimulus45 fills them with emotional excitement, or some unusual idea of necessity induces them to make an extra effort of will. Excitements, ideas, and efforts, in a word, are what carry us over the dam.
In those “hyperesthetic” conditions which chronic46 invalidism47 so often brings in its train, the dam has changed its normal place. The slightest functional48 exercise gives a distress which the patient yields to and stops. In such cases of “habit-neurosis” a new range of power often comes in consequence of the “bullying-treatment,” of efforts which the doctor obliges the patient, much against his will, to make. First comes the very extremity of distress, then follows unexpected relief. There seems no doubt that we are each and all of us to some extent victims of habit-neurosis. We have to admit the wider potential range and the habitually narrow actual use. We live subject to arrest by degrees of fatigue which we have come only from habit to obey. Most of us may learn to push the barrier farther off, and to live in perfect comfort on much higher levels of power.
Country people and city people, as a class, illustrate49 this difference. The rapid rate of life, the number of decisions in an hour, the many things to keep account of, in a busy city man’s or woman’s life, seem monstrous50 to a country brother. He does n’t see how we live at all. A day in New York or Chicago fills him with terror. The danger and noise make it appear like a permanent earthquake. But settle him there, and in a year or two he will have caught the pulse-beat. He will vibrate to the city’s rhythms; and if he only succeeds in his avocation51, whatever that may be, he will find a joy in all the hurry and the tension, he will keep the pace as well as any of us, and get as much out of himself in any week as he ever did in ten weeks in the country.
The stimuli52 of those who successfully spend and undergo the transformation53 here, are duty, the example of others, and crowd-pressure and contagion54. The transformation, moreover, is a chronic one: the new level of energy becomes permanent. The duties of new offices of trust are constantly producing this effect on the human beings appointed to them. The physiologists call a stimulus “dynamogenic” when it increases the muscular contractions55 of men to whom it is applied56; but appeals can be dynamogenic morally as well as muscularly. We are witnessing here in America today the dynamogenic effect of a very exalted57 political office upon the energies of an individual who had already manifested a healthy amount of energy before the office came.
Humbler examples show perhaps still better what chronic effects duty’s appeal may produce in chosen individuals. John Stuart Mill somewhere says that women excel men in the power of keeping up sustained moral excitement. Every case of illness nursed by wife or mother is a proof of this; and where can one find greater examples of sustained endurance than in those thousands of poor homes, where the woman successfully holds the family together and keeps it going by taking all the thought and doing all the work — nursing, teaching, cooking, washing, sewing, scrubbing, saving, helping59 neighbors, “choring” outside — where does the catalogue end? If she does a bit of scolding now and then who can blame her? But often she does just the reverse; keeping the children clean and the man good tempered, and soothing60 and smoothing the whole neighborhood into finer shape.
Eighty years ago a certain Montyon left to the Académie Fran?aise a sum of money to be given in small prizes, to the best examples of “virtue” of the year. The academy’s committees, with great good sense, have shown a partiality to virtues61 simple and chronic, rather than to her spasmodic and dramatic flights; and the exemplary housewives reported on have been wonderful and admirable enough. In Paul Bourget’s report for this year we find numerous cases, of which this is a type; Jeanne Chaix, eldest62 of six children; mother insane, father chronically63 ill. Jeanne, with no money but her wages at a pasteboard-box factory, directs the household, brings up the children, and successfully maintains the family of eight, which thus subsists64, morally as well as materially, by the sole force of her valiant65 will. In some of these French cases charity to outsiders is added to the inner family burden; or helpless relatives, young or old, are adopted, as if the strength were inexhaustible and ample for every appeal. Details are too long to quote here; but human nature, responding to the call of duty, appears nowhere sublimer66 than in the person of these humble58 heroines of family life.
Turning from more chronic to acuter proofs of human nature’s reserves of power, we find that the stimuli that carry us over the usually effective dam are most often the classic emotional ones, love, anger, crowd-contagion or despair. Despair lames67 most people, but it wakes others fully up. Every siege or shipwreck68 or polar expedition brings out some hero who keeps the whole company in heart. Last year there was a terrible colliery explosion at Courrieres in France. Two hundred corpses69, if I remember rightly, were exhumed70. After twenty days of excavation71, the rescuers heard a voice. “Me voici,” said the first man unearthed72. He proved to be a collier named Nemy, who had taken command of thirteen others in the darkness, disciplined them and cheered them, and brought them out alive. Hardly any of them could see or speak or walk when brought into the day. Five days later, a different type of vital endurance was unexpectedly unburied in the person of one Berton who, isolated73 from any but dead companions, had been able to sleep away most of his time.
A new position of responsibility will usually show a man to be a far stronger creature than was supposed. Cromwell’s and Grant’s careers are the stock examples of how war will wake a man up. I owe to Professor C. E. Norton, my colleague, the permission to print part of a private letter from Colonel Baird–Smith written shortly after the six weeks’ siege of Delhi, in 1857, for the victorious74 issue of which that excellent officer was chiefly to be thanked. He writes as follows:
“ . . . My poor wife had some reason to think that war and disease between them had left very little of a husband to take under nursing when she got him again. An attack of camp-scurvy had filled my mouth with sores, shaken every joint75 in my body, and covered me all over with sores and livid spots, so that I was marvellously unlovely to look upon. A smart knock on the ankle-joint from the splinter of a shell that burst in my face, in itself a mere76 bagatelle77 of a wound, had been of necessity neglected under the pressing and incessant78 calls upon me, and had grown worse and worse till the whole foot below the ankle became a black mass and seemed to threaten mortification79. I insisted, however, on being allowed to use it till the place was taken, mortification or no; and though the pain was sometimes horrible I carried my point and kept up to the last. On the day after the assault I had an unlucky fall on some bad ground, and it was an open question for a day or two whether I hadn’t broken my arm at the elbow. Fortunately it turned out to be only a severe sprain80, but I am still conscious of the wrench81 it gave me. To crown the whole pleasant catalogue, I was worn to a shadow by a constant diarrhoea, and consumed as much opium82 as would have done credit to my father-inlaw [Thomas De Quincey]. However, thank God, I have a good share of Tapleyism in me and come out strong under difficulties. I think I may confidently say that no man ever saw me out of heart, or ever heard one croaking83 word from me even when our prospects84 were gloomiest. We were sadly scourged85 by the cholera86, and it was almost appalling87 to me to find that out of twenty-seven officers present, I could only muster88 fifteen for the operations of the attack. However, it was done, and after it was done came the collapse89. Don’t be horrified90 when I tell you that for the whole of the actual siege, and in truth for some little time before, I almost lived on brandy. Appetite for food I had none, but I forced myself to eat just sufficient to sustain life, and I had an incessant craving91 for brandy as the strongest stimulant92 I could get. Strange to say, I was quite unconscious of its affecting me in the slightest degree. The excitement of the work was so great that no lesser93 one seemed to have any chance against it, and I certainly never found my intellect clearer or my nerves stronger in my life. It was only my wretched body that was weak, and the moment the real work was done by our becoming complete masters of Delhi, I broke down without delay and discovered that if I wished to live I must continue no longer the system that had kept me up until the crisis was passed. With it passed away as if in a moment all desire to stimulate36, and a perfect loathing94 of my late staff of life took possession of me.”
Such experiences show how profound is the alteration95 in the manner in which, under excitement, our organism will sometimes perform its physiological work. The processes of repair become different when the reserves have to be used, and for weeks and months the deeper use may go on.
Morbid96 cases, here as elsewhere, lay the normal machinery97 bare. In the first number of Dr. Morton Prince’s Journal of Abnormal Psychology98, Dr. Janet has discussed five cases of morbid impulse, with an explanation that is precious for my present point of view. One is a girl who eats, eats, eats, all day. Another walks, walks, walks, and gets her food from an automobile99 that escorts her. Another is a dipsomaniac. A fourth pulls out her hair. A fifth wounds her flesh and burns her skin. Hitherto such freaks of impulse have received Greek names (as bulimia, dromomania, etc.) and been scientifically disposed of as “episodic syndromata of hereditary100 degeneration.” But it turns out that Janet’s cases are all what he calls psychasthenics, or victims of a chronic sense of weakness, torpor101, lethargy, fatigue, insufficiency, impossibility, unreality and powerlessness of will; and that in each and all of them the particular activity pursued, deleterious though it be, has the temporary result of raising the sense of vitality102 and making the patient feel alive again. These things reanimate: they would reanimate us, but it happens that in each patient the particular freak-activity chosen is the only thing that does reanimate; and therein lies the morbid state. The way to treat such persons is to discover to them more usual and useful ways of throwing their stores of vital energy into gear.
Colonel Baird–Smith, needing to draw on altogether extraordinary stores of energy, found that brandy and opium were ways of throwing them into gear.
Such cases are humanly typical. We are all to some degree oppressed, unfree. We don’t come to our own. It is there, but we don’t get at it. The threshold must be made to shift. Then many of us find that an eccentric activity — a “spree,” say — relieves. There is no doubt that to some men sprees and excesses of almost any kind are medicinal, temporarily at any rate, in spite of what the moralists and doctors say.
But when the normal tasks and stimulations of life don’t put a man’s deeper levels of energy on tap, and he requires distinctly deleterious excitements, his constitution verges103 on the abnormal. The normal opener of deeper and deeper levels of energy is the will. The difficulty is to use it, to make the effort which the word volition104 implies. But if we do make it (or if a god, though he were only the god Chance, makes it through us), it will act dynamogenically on us for a month. It is notorious that a single successful effort of moral volition, such as saying “no” to some habitual7 temptation, or performing some courageous105 act, will launch a man on a higher level of energy for days and weeks, will give him a new range of power. “In the act of uncorking the whiskey bottle which I had brought home to get drunk upon,” said a man to me, “I suddenly found myself running out into the garden, where I smashed it on the ground. I felt so happy and uplifted after this act, that for two months I was n’t tempted106 to touch a drop.”
The emotions and excitements due to usual situations are the usual inciters of the will. But these act discontinuously; and in the intervals107 the shallower levels of life tend to close in and shut us off. Accordingly the best practical knowers of the human soul have invented the thing known as methodical ascetic108 discipline to keep the deeper levels constantly in reach. Beginning with easy tasks, passing to harder ones, and exercising day by day, it is, I believe, admitted that disciples109 of asceticism110 can reach very high levels of freedom and power of will.
Ignatius Loyola’s spiritual exercises must have produced this result in innumerable devotees. But the most venerable ascetic system, and the one whose results have the most voluminous experimental corroboration111 is undoubtedly112 the Yoga system in Hindustan.
From time immemorial, by Hatha Yoga, Raja Yoga, Karma Yoga, or whatever code of practice it might be, Hindu aspirants113 to perfection have trained themselves, month in and out, for years. The result claimed, and certainly in many cases accorded by impartial114 judges, is strength of character, personal power, unshakability of soul. In an article in the Philosophical115 Review,14 from which I am largely copying here, I have quoted at great length the experience with “Hatha Yoga” of a very gifted European friend of mine who, by persistently117 carrying out for several months its methods of fasting from food and sleep, its exercises in breathing and thought-concentration, and its fantastic posture-gymnastics, seems to have succeeded in waking up deeper and deeper levels of will and moral and intellectual power in himself, and to have escaped from a decidedly menacing brain-condition of the “circular” type, from which he had suffered for years.
Judging by my friend’s letters, of which the last I have is written fourteen months after the Yoga training began, there can be no doubt of his relative regeneration. He has undergone material trials with indifference118, travelled third-class on Mediterranean119 steamers, and fourth-class on African trains, living with the poorest Arabs and sharing their unaccustomed food, all with equanimity120. His devotion to certain interests has been put to heavy strain, and nothing is more remarkable121 to me than the changed moral tone with which he reports the situation. A profound modification122 has unquestionably occurred in the running of his mental machinery. The gearing has changed, and his will is available otherwise than it was.
My friend is a man of very peculiar123 temperament124. Few of us would have had the will to start upon the Yoga training, which, once started, seemed to conjure125 the further willpower needed out of itself. And not all of those who could launch themselves would have reached the same results. The Hindus themselves admit that in some men the results may come without call or bell. My friend writes to me: “You are quite right in thinking that religious crises, love-crises, indignation-crises may awaken126 in a very short time powers similar to those reached by years of patient Yoga-practice.”
Probably most medical men would treat this individual’s case as one of what it is fashionable now to call by the name of “self-suggestion,” or “expectant attention”— as if those phrases were explanatory, or meant more than the fact that certain men can be influenced, while others cannot be influenced, by certain sorts of ideas. This leads me to say a word about ideas considered as dynamogenic agents, or stimuli for unlocking what would otherwise be unused reservoirs of individual power.
One thing that ideas do is to contradict other ideas and keep us from believing them. An idea that thus negates127 a first idea may itself in turn be negated128 by a third idea, and the first idea may thus regain129 its natural influence over our belief and determine our behavior. Our philosophic116 and religious development proceeds thus by credulities, negations, and the negating130 of negations.
But whether for arousing or for stopping belief, ideas may fail to be efficacious, just as a wire, at one time alive with electricity, may at another time be dead. Here our insight into causes fails us, and we can only note results in general terms. In general, whether a given idea shall be a live idea depends more on the person into whose mind it is injected than on the idea itself. Which is the suggestive idea for this person, and which for that one? Mr. Fletcher’s disciples regenerate131 themselves by the idea (and the fact) that they are chewing, and re-chewing, and super-chewing their food. Dr. Dewey’s pupils regenerate themselves by going without their breakfast — a fact, but also an ascetic idea. Not every one can use these ideas with the same success.
But apart from such individually varying susceptibilities, there are common lines along which men simply as men tend to be inflammable by ideas. As certain objects naturally awaken love, anger, or cupidity132, so certain ideas naturally awaken the energies of loyalty133, courage, endurance, or devotion. When these ideas are effective in an individual’s life, their effect is often very great indeed. They may transfigure it, unlocking innumerable powers which, but for the idea, would never have come into play. “Fatherland,” “the Flag,” “the union,” “Holy Church,” “the Monroe Doctrine,” “Truth,” “Science,” “Liberty,” Garibaldi’s phrase, “Rome or Death,” etc., are so many examples of energy-releasing ideas. The social nature of such phrases is an essential factor of their dynamic power. They are forces of detent in situations in which no other force produces equivalent effects, and each is a force of detent only in a specific group of men.
The memory that an oath or vow134 has been made will nerve one to abstinences and efforts otherwise impossible; witness the “pledge” in the history of the temperance movement. A mere promise to his sweetheart will clean up a youth’s life all over — at any rate for time. For such effects an educated susceptibility is required. The idea of one’s “honor,” for example, unlocks energy only in those of us who have had the education of a “gentleman,” so called.
That delightful135 being, Prince Pueckler–Muskau, writes to his wife from England that he has invented “a sort of artificial resolution respecting things that are difficult of performance. My device,” he continues, “is this: I give my word of honor most solemnly to myself to do or to leave undone136 this or that. I am of course extremely cautious in the use of this expedient137, but when once the word is given, even though I afterwards think I have been precipitate138 or mistaken, I hold it to be perfectly139 irrevocable, whatever inconveniences I foresee likely to result. If I were capable of breaking my word after such mature consideration, I should lose all respect for myself — and what man of sense would not prefer death to such an alternative? . . . When the mysterious formula is pronounced, no alteration in my own view, nothing short of physical impossibilities, must, for the welfare of my soul, alter my will. . . . I find something very satisfactory in the thought that man has the power of framing such props140 and weapons out of the most trivial materials, indeed out of nothing, merely by the force of his will, which thereby141 truly deserves the name of omnipotent142.” 15
Conversions143, whether they be political, scientific, philosophic, or religious, form another way in which bound energies are let loose. They unify144 us, and put a stop to ancient mental interferences. The result is freedom, and often a great enlargement of power. A belief that thus settles upon an individual always acts as a challenge to his will. But, for the particular challenge to operate, he must be the right challeng_ee. In religious conversions we have so fine an adjustment that the idea may be in the mind of the challengee for years before it exerts effects; and why it should do so then is often so far from obvious that the event is taken for a miracle of grace, and not a natural occurrence. Whatever it is, it may be a highwater mark of energy, in which “noes,” once impossible, are easy, and in which a new range of “yeses” gains the right of way.
We are just now witnessing a very copious145 unlocking of energies by ideas in the persons of those converts to “New Thought,” “Christian Science,” “Metaphysical Healing,” or other forms of spiritual philosophy, who are so numerous among us today. The ideas here are healthy-minded and optimistic; and it is quite obvious that a wave of religious activity, analogous146 in some respects to the spread of early Christianity, Buddhism147, and Mohammedanism, is passing over our American world. The common feature of these optimistic faiths is that they all tend to the suppression of what Mr. Horace Fletcher calls “fearthought.” Fearthought he defines as the “self-suggestion of inferiority”; so that one may say that these systems all operate by the suggestion of power. And the power, small or great, comes in various shapes to the individual — power, as he will tell you, not to “mind” things that used to vex148 him, power to concentrate his mind, good cheer, good temper — in short, to put it mildly, a firmer, more elastic149 moral tone.
The most genuinely saintly person I have ever known is a friend of mine now suffering from cancer of the breast — I hope that she may pardon my citing her here as an example of what ideas can do. Her ideas have kept her a practically well woman for months after she should have given up and gone to bed. They have annulled150 all pain and weakness and given her a cheerful active life, unusually beneficent to others to whom she has afforded help. Her doctors, acquiescing151 in results they could not understand, have had the good sense to let her go her own way.
How far the mind-cure movement is destined152 to extend its influence, or what intellectual modifications153 it may yet undergo, no one can foretell154. It is essentially155 a religious movement, and to academically nurtured156 minds its utterances157 are tasteless and often grotesque158 enough. It also incurs159 the natural enmity of medical politicians, and of the whole trades-union wing of that profession. But no unprejudiced observer can fail to recognize its importance as a social phenomenon today, and the higher medical minds are already trying to interpret it fairly, and make its power available for their own therapeutic160 ends.
Dr. Thomas Hyslop, of the great West Riding Asylum161 in England, said last year to the British Medical Association that the best sleep-producing agent which his practice had revealed to him, was prayer. I say this, he added (I am sorry here that I must quote from memory), purely162 as a medical man. The exercise of prayer, in those who habitually exert it, must be regarded by us doctors as the most adequate and normal of all the pacifiers of the mind and calmers of the nerves.
But in few of us are functions not tied up by the exercise of other functions. Relatively163 few medical men and scientific men, I fancy, can pray. Few can carry on any living commerce with “God.” Yet many of us are well aware of how much freer and abler our lives would be, were such important forms of energizing not sealed up by the critical atmosphere in which we have been reared. There are in every one potential forms of activity that actually are shunted out from use. Part of the imperfect vitality under which we labor164 can thus be easily explained. One part of our mind dams up — even damns up! — the other parts.
Conscience makes cowards of us all. Social conventions prevent us from telling the truth after the fashion of the heroes and heroines of Bernard Shaw. We all know persons who are models of excellence165, but who belong to the extreme philistine166 type of mind. So deadly is their intellectual respectability that we can’t converse167 about certain subjects at all, can’t let our minds play over them, can’t even mention them in their presence. I have numbered among my dearest friends persons thus inhibited168 intellectually, with whom I would gladly have been able to talk freely about certain interests of mine, certain authors, say, as Bernard Shaw, Chesterton, Edward Carpenter, H. G. Wells, but it would n’t do, it made them too uncomfortable, they would n’t play, I had to be silent. An intellect thus tied down by literality and decorum makes on one the same sort of an impression that an able-bodied man would who should habituate himself to do his work with only one of his fingers, locking up the rest of his organism and leaving it unused.
I trust that by this time I have said enough to convince the reader both of the truth and of the importance of my thesis. The two questions, first, that of the possible extent of our powers; and, second, that of the various avenues of approach to them, the various keys for unlocking them in diverse individuals, dominate the whole problem of individual and national education. We need a topography of the limits of human power, similar to the chart which oculists use of the field of human vision. We need also a study of the various types of human being with reference to the different ways in which their energy-reserves may be appealed to and set loose. Biographies and individual experiences of every kind may be drawn169 upon for evidence here.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
fatigue
|
|
| n.疲劳，劳累 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
obstruction
|
|
| n.阻塞，堵塞；障碍物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
onward
|
|
| adj.向前的，前进的；adv.向前，前进，在先 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
extremity
|
|
| n.末端，尽头；尽力；终极；极度 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
distress
|
|
| n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
habitually
|
|
| ad.习惯地，通常地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
habitual
|
|
| adj.习惯性的；通常的，惯常的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
mused
|
|
| v.沉思，冥想( muse的过去式和过去分词 )；沉思自语说（某事） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
physiological
|
|
| adj.生理学的，生理学上的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
strata
|
|
| n.地层（复数）；社会阶层 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
combustible
|
|
| a. 易燃的,可燃的; n. 易燃物,可燃物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
physiologists
|
|
| n.生理学者( physiologist的名词复数 )；生理学( physiology的名词复数 )；生理机能 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
equilibrium
|
|
| n.平衡，均衡，相称，均势，平静 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
systematically
|
|
| adv.有系统地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
lessen
|
|
| vt.减少，减轻；缩小 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
rations
|
|
| 定量( ration的名词复数 )； 配给量； 正常量； 合理的量 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
lessens
|
|
| 变少( lessen的第三人称单数 )； 减少（某事物） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
remains
|
|
| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
energizing
|
|
| v.给予…精力，能量( energize的现在分词 )；使通电 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
wreck
|
|
| n.失事，遇难；沉船；vt.(船等)失事，遇难 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
augments
|
|
| 增加，提高，扩大( augment的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
ethics
|
|
| n.伦理学；伦理观，道德标准 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
energizes
|
|
| v.给予…精力，能量( energize的第三人称单数 )；使通电 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
formulated
|
|
| v.构想出( formulate的过去式和过去分词 )；规划；确切地阐述；用公式表示 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
qualitative
|
|
| adj.性质上的，质的，定性的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
expended
|
|
| v.花费( expend的过去式和过去分词 )；使用（钱等）做某事；用光；耗尽 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
physiologically
|
|
| ad.生理上，在生理学上 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
lapse
|
|
| n.过失，流逝，失效，抛弃信仰，间隔；vi.堕落，停止，失效，流逝；vt.使失效 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
solely
|
|
| adv.仅仅，唯一地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
locomotion
|
|
| n.运动，移动 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
agitation
|
|
| n.搅动；搅拌；鼓动，煽动 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
waning
|
|
| adj.（月亮）渐亏的，逐渐减弱或变小的n.月亏v.衰落( wane的现在分词 )；（月）亏；变小；变暗淡 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
appreciable
|
|
| adj.明显的，可见的，可估量的，可觉察的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
faculty
|
|
| n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
faculties
|
|
| n.能力( faculty的名词复数 )；全体教职员；技巧；院 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
stimulate
|
|
| vt.刺激，使兴奋；激励，使…振奋 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
stimulated
|
|
| a.刺激的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
inquiry
|
|
| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
fully
|
|
| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
slumbering
|
|
| 微睡，睡眠（slumber的现在分词形式） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
forth
|
|
| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
notch
|
|
| n.(V字形)槽口，缺口，等级 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
inveterate
|
|
| adj.积习已深的，根深蒂固的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
fluctuations
|
|
| 波动，涨落，起伏( fluctuation的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
stimulus
|
|
| n.刺激，刺激物，促进因素，引起兴奋的事物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
chronic
|
|
| adj.(疾病)长期未愈的，慢性的；极坏的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
invalidism
|
|
| 病弱，病身； 伤残 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
|
48
functional
|
|
| adj.为实用而设计的，具备功能的，起作用的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
illustrate
|
|
| v.举例说明，阐明；图解，加插图 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
monstrous
|
|
| adj.巨大的；恐怖的；可耻的，丢脸的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
51
avocation
|
|
| n.副业，业余爱好 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
52
stimuli
|
|
| n.刺激（物） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
53
transformation
|
|
| n.变化；改造；转变 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
54
contagion
|
|
| n.(通过接触的疾病)传染；蔓延 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
55
contractions
|
|
| n.收缩( contraction的名词复数 )；缩减；缩略词；（分娩时）子宫收缩 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
56
applied
|
|
| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
57
exalted
|
|
| adj.(地位等)高的，崇高的；尊贵的，高尚的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
58
humble
|
|
| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
59
helping
|
|
| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
60
soothing
|
|
| adj.慰藉的；使人宽心的；镇静的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
61
virtues
|
|
| 美德( virtue的名词复数 )； 德行； 优点； 长处 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
62
eldest
|
|
| adj.最年长的，最年老的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
63
chronically
|
|
| ad.长期地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
64
subsists
|
|
| v.（靠很少的钱或食物）维持生活，生存下去( subsist的第三人称单数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
65
valiant
|
|
| adj.勇敢的，英勇的；n.勇士，勇敢的人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
66
sublimer
|
|
| 使高尚者，纯化器 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
|
67
lames
|
|
| 瘸的( lame的第三人称单数 )； 站不住脚的； 差劲的； 蹩脚的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
|
68
shipwreck
|
|
| n.船舶失事，海难 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
69
corpses
|
|
| n.死尸，尸体( corpse的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
70
exhumed
|
|
| v.挖出，发掘出( exhume的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
71
excavation
|
|
| n.挖掘，发掘；被挖掘之地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
72
unearthed
|
|
| 出土的（考古） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
73
isolated
|
|
| adj.与世隔绝的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
74
victorious
|
|
| adj.胜利的，得胜的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
75
joint
|
|
| adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
76
mere
|
|
| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
77
bagatelle
|
|
| n.琐事；小曲儿 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
78
incessant
|
|
| adj.不停的，连续的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
79
mortification
|
|
| n.耻辱，屈辱 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
80
sprain
|
|
| n.扭伤,扭筋 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
81
wrench
|
|
| v.猛拧；挣脱；使扭伤；n.扳手；痛苦，难受 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
82
opium
|
|
| n.鸦片；adj.鸦片的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
83
croaking
|
|
| v.呱呱地叫( croak的现在分词 )；用粗的声音说 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
84
prospects
|
|
| n.希望，前途(恒为复数) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
85
scourged
|
|
| 鞭打( scourge的过去式和过去分词 )； 惩罚，压迫 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
86
cholera
|
|
| n.霍乱 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
87
appalling
|
|
| adj.骇人听闻的，令人震惊的，可怕的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
88
muster
|
|
| v.集合，收集，鼓起，激起；n.集合，检阅，集合人员，点名册 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
89
collapse
|
|
| vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
90
horrified
|
|
| a.(表现出)恐惧的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
91
craving
|
|
| n.渴望,热望 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
92
stimulant
|
|
| n.刺激物，兴奋剂 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
93
lesser
|
|
| adj.次要的，较小的；adv.较小地，较少地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
94
loathing
|
|
| n.厌恶，憎恨v.憎恨，厌恶( loathe的现在分词)；极不喜欢 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
95
alteration
|
|
| n.变更，改变；蚀变 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
96
morbid
|
|
| adj.病的；致病的；病态的；可怕的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
97
machinery
|
|
| n.(总称)机械，机器；机构 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
98
psychology
|
|
| n.心理，心理学，心理状态 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
99
automobile
|
|
| n.汽车，机动车 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
100
hereditary
|
|
| adj.遗传的，遗传性的，可继承的，世袭的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
101
torpor
|
|
| n.迟钝；麻木；（动物的）冬眠 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
102
vitality
|
|
| n.活力，生命力，效力 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
103
verges
|
|
| 边，边缘，界线( verge的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
104
volition
|
|
| n.意志；决意 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
105
courageous
|
|
| adj.勇敢的，有胆量的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
106
tempted
|
|
| v.怂恿（某人）干不正当的事；冒…的险（tempt的过去分词） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
107
intervals
|
|
| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
108
ascetic
|
|
| adj.禁欲的；严肃的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
109
disciples
|
|
| n.信徒( disciple的名词复数 )；门徒；耶稣的信徒；（尤指）耶稣十二门徒之一 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
110
asceticism
|
|
| n.禁欲主义 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
111
corroboration
|
|
| n.进一步的证实，进一步的证据 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
112
undoubtedly
|
|
| adv.确实地，无疑地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
113
aspirants
|
|
| n.有志向或渴望获得…的人( aspirant的名词复数 )v.渴望的，有抱负的，追求名誉或地位的( aspirant的第三人称单数 )；有志向或渴望获得…的人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
114
impartial
|
|
| adj.(in,to)公正的，无偏见的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
115
philosophical
|
|
| adj.哲学家的，哲学上的，达观的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
116
philosophic
|
|
| adj.哲学的，贤明的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
117
persistently
|
|
| ad.坚持地；固执地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
118
indifference
|
|
| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
119
Mediterranean
|
|
| adj.地中海的；地中海沿岸的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
120
equanimity
|
|
| n.沉着，镇定 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
121
remarkable
|
|
| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
122
modification
|
|
| n.修改，改进，缓和，减轻 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
123
peculiar
|
|
| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
124
temperament
|
|
| n.气质，性格，性情 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
125
conjure
|
|
| v.恳求，祈求；变魔术，变戏法 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
126
awaken
|
|
| vi.醒，觉醒；vt.唤醒，使觉醒，唤起，激起 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
127
negates
|
|
| v.取消( negate的第三人称单数 )；使无效；否定；否认 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
128
negated
|
|
| v.取消( negate的过去式和过去分词 )；使无效；否定；否认 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
129
regain
|
|
| vt.重新获得，收复，恢复 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
130
negating
|
|
| v.取消( negate的现在分词 )；使无效；否定；否认 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
131
regenerate
|
|
| vt.使恢复，使新生；vi.恢复，再生；adj.恢复的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
132
cupidity
|
|
| n.贪心，贪财 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
133
loyalty
|
|
| n.忠诚，忠心 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
134
vow
|
|
| n.誓(言)，誓约；v.起誓，立誓 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
135
delightful
|
|
| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
136
undone
|
|
| a.未做完的，未完成的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
137
expedient
|
|
| adj.有用的，有利的；n.紧急的办法，权宜之计 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
138
precipitate
|
|
| adj.突如其来的；vt.使突然发生；n.沉淀物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
139
perfectly
|
|
| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
140
props
|
|
| 小道具； 支柱( prop的名词复数 )； 支持者； 道具； （橄榄球中的）支柱前锋 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
141
thereby
|
|
| adv.因此，从而 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
142
omnipotent
|
|
| adj.全能的，万能的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
143
conversions
|
|
| 变换( conversion的名词复数 )； （宗教、信仰等）彻底改变； （尤指为居住而）改建的房屋； 橄榄球（触地得分后再把球射中球门的）附加得分 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
144
unify
|
|
| vt.使联合，统一；使相同，使一致 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
145
copious
|
|
| adj.丰富的，大量的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
146
analogous
|
|
| adj.相似的；类似的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
147
Buddhism
|
|
| n.佛教（教义） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
148
vex
|
|
| vt.使烦恼，使苦恼 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
149
elastic
|
|
| n.橡皮圈，松紧带；adj.有弹性的；灵活的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
150
annulled
|
|
| v.宣告无效( annul的过去式和过去分词 )；取消；使消失；抹去 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
151
acquiescing
|
|
| v.默认，默许( acquiesce的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
152
destined
|
|
| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
153
modifications
|
|
| n.缓和( modification的名词复数 )；限制；更改；改变 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
154
foretell
|
|
| v.预言，预告，预示 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
155
essentially
|
|
| adv.本质上，实质上，基本上 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
156
nurtured
|
|
| 养育( nurture的过去式和过去分词 )； 培育； 滋长； 助长 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
157
utterances
|
|
| n.发声( utterance的名词复数 )；说话方式；语调；言论 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
158
grotesque
|
|
| adj.怪诞的，丑陋的；n.怪诞的图案，怪人（物） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
159
incurs
|
|
| 遭受，招致，引起( incur的第三人称单数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
160
therapeutic
|
|
| adj.治疗的，起治疗作用的；对身心健康有益的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
161
asylum
|
|
| n.避难所，庇护所，避难 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
162
purely
|
|
| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
163
relatively
|
|
| adv.比较...地，相对地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
164
labor
|
|
| n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
165
excellence
|
|
| n.优秀，杰出，(pl.)优点，美德 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
166
philistine
|
|
| n.庸俗的人；adj.市侩的，庸俗的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
167
converse
|
|
| vi.谈话，谈天，闲聊；adv.相反的，相反 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
168
inhibited
|
|
| a.拘谨的，拘束的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
169
drawn
|
|
| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |