HOW TO KEEP MENTALLY FIT.

Taranaki Daily News, 28 December 1921, Page 7

HOW TO KEEP MENTALLY FIT.

“Learn a sonnet o’ Shakespeare when you are shaving in the morning,” was Sir Chartres J. Symonds’ recipe for mental fitness, given in a lecture in London recently. He also reeSmmended the development of the powers of concentration and the pursuit of some hobby.. Newspapers, magazines, and the majority of modern novels were baneful, he said. We had too many of them, and they indulged the tendency for scrap reading. No day ought to pass without reading some good literature, such as Shakespeare’s plays or the Bible. “Take Solomon’s advice,” he said, “and do not winnow with every wind and go into every way. Don’t do too many things at the expense of not doing anything well.” Nobody had a right to feel like a bear with a sore head first thing in the morning. Tobacco was a great enemy to early morning fitness, and it was wise to develop the habit of smoking only in the evening. “Above all, keep cheerful,” said Sir Chartres. “Cheerfulness is essential to fitness of mind, and the goblins of life hate the singing of a cheerful heart. Cheerfulness is a duty. I have been practising it for the last three years, and the results are perfectly wonderful. T have taken to smiling at everybody, and the result is that everybody smiles at me. If you have a bundle of thorns in your lot there is no necessity to sit on them.” He concluded with a caution against introspection. “Don't look too closely for faults either in yourselves or other people,” he said, “but look for what is good and strong and beautiful and the faults will drop off like leaves.”