Table Of ContentAT MEN L IVE
BY
« w
WORK
PL AY L OVE
WORSHIP
BY
RICHARD M . D .
ASSI STANT PROFESSOR OF MEDICINE
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
BOSTON AND NAK
HOUGHTON MIFFL IN COMPANY
(abs Whersme ies
; Qam htibge
p
TO MYWIFE
INCOMPARAB L E L EADER COMRADE
IN THE WORK PL AY L OVE AND WORSHIP
, , ,
OF MANYYEARS
PREFACE
T IS book has been Written in many Pullmans and in
H
the homes of many friends. I fear it bears evidence
of the Pullmans I am roudl certain that it shows
; p y
traces of all the friends of Dr. and Mrs . Philip
,
King Brown of San Francisco Bruce Porter of the
, ; ,
same incomparable city Maulsby Kimball of Buffalo
; , ;
‘
Profe ssor W. E . Hocking of New Haven Florence
, ;
Painter Rosalind Huide ko e r Greene and Henry
, p ,
Copley Greene of Boston. The last five have read the
,
t
entire manuscript corrected many errors and put ilt
, ,
m any improvements to all I am deeply grateful.
;
I owe still more to my Wife Whose influence appears
, ,
I hope on every page. Other friends Visible and in
, ,
visible have also helpe d G. K. Chesterton Josiah
, , ,
Royce Ralph Waldo Emerson and so many others
, ,
-
that no title page would hold their beloved names. I
m ust be co
ntent Wi th thanking them for Whatever is
true and absolving them from Whatever is false in the
pages to follow .
’
My title is that of one of Tolstoy s most beautiful
stories. Such use of his Words is quite in accord With
the s ir it and letter of his beliefs and With the gratitude
p
Which I owe him.
Parts of several chapters have already been printed
in theAtlanticMonthl and are here reprinted by cour
y
tesy of the editor.
INTRODUCTION
"
IN the s
pring oi 1909, I had been gnawing away at
three tough and ancient problems Which came to me
~
through the Social Service Department of the Massa
chuse tts General Hospital : What is the best w a to
y
“ ”
care for the tuberculous? How can ne rvous people
neurasthenics be restored to balance and happiness?
( )
Where can W e find help that is worth offering toa girl
facing mothe rhood without a husband?
A vacation in England that summer took me far
enou h awa from the surface details of these prob
g y
lems to se e that the solutions thus far suggested for
them all have a strong fam il likeness and illustrate
y
three stages of opinion.
An institution is our first idea for all these sufferers.
,
A sanitarium for the tuberculous a nervine for t he
,
“ ”
neurasthenics a Rescue Home for the unmarried
,
mother. This solution contents us for a time
, but
further experience s hows us how limited is
the good
ich an institution can do. Even at its best it is too
INTRODUCTION
body and soul . Mass treatment will accomplish only
the first stages of cure.
Personal cate then personal teaching personal
, , ,
influence seem to be the need We form a sm all roup
, g
“
of consumptives into a class. The doctor and the
nurse not only teach the patients hygiene but use
,
their Christian names and try to become f iendly with
r
each. The nurse visits the tenement and tries to show
the poor consum tive how to carry out at home the
p
sanitary r egime of the hospital. Personal influence is
appealed to for the momentum needed to encoura e the
g
sufferer alon the barren ugly path toward recovery.
,
g
80 with sexual troubles. The reaction against insti
tutionalism brings us to rely on personal influence and
personal teaching. Some one must win the
of each sufferer penetrate the intricacies of the past
, ,
nd guide the future better. Not alms or institutions
a ,
but a friend is what we hope to provide. Not material
’ ’
~
a id or
m ere instruction but one s self one s best serv
, ,
iee
, s e e rfis now the ideal gift.
But though this is certainly part of the answer we
,
( annot e
r st content with it for any one who tries to
,
i
“
give himself in this w a soon finds out that the gift
y
sm
is pitifully all and weak. We soon use up our slender
”
stock of wisdom. The appeal Do this for my s ke
a ,
,
soon wears out. No human ersonality is rich enough
p
’
to suffice for another s food Moreover in proportion
.
,
as
this plan succeeds we perceive the dangers of e
, d
pendence . The sufferer must learn to stand upon his
e
INTR DUCTION xiii
!
,
own feet. He m st et back into life Real Life,
g
p
then as we now begin to see
, is after all the best teacher
,
and the best doctor. Nothing less fruitful will nourish
body and soul. We do not give up friendship and per
sonal influence but we see that they must take their
;
part with the other sanative elements of normal ex
e r ience .
p
For the neurasthenic and for those struggling with
“
problems of s x this need of real life is now pretty
,
e
e era lly recognized . Seclusion in sanitaria or rescue
n
g
homes is b e in re laced by efforts to get the ufferers
g l p
s
back into the industrial world back into family life
, ,
back to the surroundings which keep ordinary people
-
a oin o It is not so obvious that the tuberculous need
g g
anything of the kind as a means of cure. Yet if not
, ,
wh do consumptive doctors at a sanitarium like
y
"
Trudeau get along better than other consumptive
patients? Because so Dr. Trudeau once told me the .
( )
‘
doctors are 11V1n a more normal life they can
g ,
sometimes do a little doctoring or microscopy and so
,
forget that they are patients. The successful progress
-
of their work in sick room or laboratory ives them
g
courage to be faithful to rules and to force down food.
In three widely separate fie lds then I think I see
, ,
a similar evolution away from institutionalism away
, ,
from dependence upon personal influence toward
,
a plan the essence of which is to e t the sufferer back
,
g
”
to real life : not back to nature but back to the best
,
that civilization has to offer to normal people.
