Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 October 1885 — Meeting Trouble. [ARTICLE]

Meeting Trouble.

Huguet, who suffered five years’ solitary confinement in Austria for his political opinions, kept himself from insanity by sketching on the wall all the scenes of his past life which he could remember, compelling himself to take the greatest pains with every detail of each sketch. After a few months he took real pleasure in this work. “When God denies us great joys,” he adds, “it is the part of a wise man to fill the empty space with small ones.” Another philosopher recommends every man who has a heavy load of sorrow or misfortune to carry, to devote an hour every day to the study of some language or art which in happier days would be agreeable to him, forcing himself to do this until he takes an actual interest in the new occupation. The physician who was most successful in treatment of the insane in France always inquired, when a patient afflicted with melancholy mania was brought to him, whether the' person had, when in health, any special taste, such as a love of dogs, birds, gardening or fishing, or a passion for any kind of game. If this was the case objects that would suggest the favorite pursuit were brought before him. “When 1 can get a patient to making flies, planting seeds, or quarreling over chess, the victory is won, ” he said. In all these remedies for grief the motive is not to lessen the sorrow, but to turn the brain from incessant brooding upon one subject. We must remember that our mind is affected in sorrow through the brain, which is a physical organ as much as the stomach, and is equally subject to physical laws. Our first duty when a great grief overtakes us is submission to God. But even the highest spiritual exaltation does not hinder damage to the material brain by the engorgement of the blood vessels produced by incessant dwelling on a single theme. Every day we read of suicides of young people who are overwhelmed with their first misfortune in life, a disappointment in love or a failure at college. A manly struggle for submission, and after that some practical eflort, such as these which we have cited, would keep them from the coward’s exit from life.