The science of life : fully illustrated in tone and line and including many diagrams

BOOK 8

their. own inconsistencies and internecine contradictions.

§ 3 The Primary Biological Duties

Since Mr. Everyman, as we have seen, is from the biological point of view a mass of living cells detached from the rest of life -and organized to act together as one individual, it seems reasonable to assume that the first duty for education to impose upon the developing persona is that he keep this self of his in a fit and proper condition to act. He has to eat, drink, and sleep; imperatives so plain that no system of conduct, however fantastic, has ever ventured to forbid them altogether. And our modern disposition is to carry out these manifest indications to their logical conclusion, and declare that health and fitness, having regard to the characteristics of the individual role and organization, are primary demands upon a human being’s attention and energy. Mr. Everyman should keep his body and mind as a soldier keeps his weapons—ready for the utmost use.

‘That does not mean that he should become enslaved by an elaborate ritual of hygienic precautions. Health in itself is not a final human end ; it is merely a condition for the easy and thorough attainment of more justifiable objectives. The health faddist who places himself outside the normal usages of the life about him, in pursuit of some imaginary super-exaltation of his bodily life, and the game-playing enthusiasts of “‘ fitness ’’ and exercise, who spend so much time keeping fit that they are ultimately fit for nothing, are warnings to us that in this field, as in most fields of human concern, excess can be as absurd and futile as disregard.

In Book 7 we have reviewed the conditions of bodily health, and in the preceding chapter of this Book we have indicated many of the ways in which the nervous and mental organization may be thrown out of gear. So long as Mr. or Mrs. Everyman feels well, keeps happily active, does not suffer from boredom, sleeps well, is capable of occasional effort and exertion without a sense of stress, is not gnawed by unsatisfied desires, and is neither over-sensitive to minor stimulations nor subject to fits of bad temper, he or she may rest content with the balance of his or her bodily and subconscious processes. But it is the business of everyone to note these little discomforts and discontents that intimate the beginnings

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of a jar within or without one’s organism. Then comes the duty of finding out what is wrong, seeking outer advice, and adjusting routines, diet, habits, and circumstances to restore the smooth working of the bodymind. That readjustment may be impeded by many conditions beyond Mr. Everyman's immediate control. He may find he is under-nourished, ill-housed, cramped and restrained, living under vexatious compulsion, and urged to efforts beyond his powers. He may find it is not so much himself that is out of gear as the world of Man about him. His attempt to change his circumstances may bring him face to face with colossal adversaries. Social, economic, political forces, the pressure of other and more fortunate people may impede him in the performance of these primary duties. Then, if he is still to be content with life, his persona will adapt itself to a struggle in which hope, and sometimes disinterested hope, may have to be the substitute for fulfilment. Some sort of inflation of the persona is the normal response of the human being to frustration of the impulse to be free, vigorous, and mentally and physically satisfied. That impulse is thwarted because of fear and indolence ; it is thrust down into the anima, and its failure is rationalized often in some quasireligious form as resignation, as virtuous contentment, or the like. Compensation is sought in hopes and dreams of a future life, in which abstinence will be a recognized virtue and everyone who has meekly buried his inadequate talent will be disproportionately rewarded. Or the thwarted, hampered, and restricted human being may still keep the spirit of conflict alive, and then the inflation of the persona will take the form of self-identification with all the disinherited or oppressed in the community, with the Common People, with the Proletariat or what not, and lead to socially wholesome insurrectionary and revolutionary activities.

Here our interest in such activities is strictly biological. They appeal to a biologist as being more wholesome than submissiveness and selfeflacement. They are more conducive to progressive evolution. Theyare attempts toreadjust throughinflation and not through repression, and they may open a way to more generous institutions and more favourable methods of social association. The body-mind of Mr. and Mrs. Everyman is the outcome of a vast process of evolution, and it exists now—so far as We can say it exists for any purpose at allto try out its distinctive possibilities to the