Strength and happiness / by Richard A. Proctor.

  • Proctor, Richard A. (Richard Anthony), 1837-1888.
Date:
1885
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Strength and happiness / by Richard A. Proctor. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    The evil effects of self-neglect, whether in the form of overwork, or asceticism, or avoidance of all sucli pleasurable emotions as lighten the toils and worries of life, or in other ways, affect posterity as well as the individual life. Ill-health and weakness are trans- mitted to children, and to children's children through many generations. It is not going too far to say that on the average more misery is wrought, and to a much greater number, by neglect of self, than can bo matched by any amount of benefit conferred during life, still less by such benefit as directly arises from self- sacrifice. A man shall work day after day beyond his strength for many years, and by such excess of activity shall perhaps accumulate, at the expense of a ruined constitution, wdiat may confer a certain amount ol happiness on several persons, or keep discomfort from them. Probably with better advised efforts during that time more real good might have been conferred oil those same persons, for man does not live by bread alone; and certainly in the long run, even of a singh; ordinary life, much more good may be done by com- bining zeal for others with due regard for the welfare of self; but when we consider the multiplied misery inherited by the offspring of weak, sickly, and gloomy parents, we see that even though on the whole there had been during life a balance in favour of happiness conferred, this—more than outweighed even in the first generation—would be many hundred times out- weighed in the long run. The thought seems strange to many that in conduct Q