|
There is a great difference between discontented
people and those who are discomposed. Discontented people
are in the class with the "rolling stones." They
are beacons that light the path of progress. They are not
satisfied with the world as they find it and want to make it
better. Healthful discontent is a virtue.
The discomposed people are those whose lives are
disordered. They are easily irritated and vexed. They
usually do not know what they want, and whatever they get, they
usually want something else. They are nervous, neurasthenic
subjects. Discomposed people are merely luggage. They
do not know how to be happy and they seldom allow anyone else to
be. They never will accomplish great things, for, being in a
constant state of irritation and peevishness, their vision is
clouded. Discomposure breeds disease and fills hospitals and
asylums. The discomposed people shorten the average of human
life, as they usually die young. Everything vexes them.
They have an idea that life is teasing them and they resent
it. The discomposed people have no aim. By forgetting
self and undertaking some worthy task, they might forget their
discomposure.
Healthful discontent is God in man bursting forth
into fuller expression of infinite possibilities. The
discontented person thinks there is a better way. He is not
contented with methods used and wishes to find better ones.
Had Moses been contented, he would never have spent forty years
leading the children of Israel through the wilderness. We
never would have had the ten commandments and the Old Testament
would have lost a great part of its power. Had Christ not
been discontented with established religion, with the greed, sin,
cruelty and lust of the world, the sublime Sermon on the Mount
would never have been given to man. There would have been no
crucifixion and no resurrection and man would never have known
that the grave could be robbed of its victory. While Christ
was discontented, (not satisfied with life as it was lived), he
was never discomposed. Columbus was
discontented with the size of the world and added a new hemisphere
to the globe. Had Franklin been contented to sit down and
watch the storm, electricity would never have been induced to
slide to earth on his kite string. The discontent
of Robert Fulton enabled us to sail the seas by steamer. The
discontent of the steam in a tea kettle gave to the discontented
brain of James Watt the idea from which the steam engine was
evolved. Morse was not contented with the slow mail
and gave us the perfected telegraph which was born in the brain of
the discontented Joseph Henry. Bell and Grey's
discontent blessed us with the telephone. George
Westinghouse was not contented with the old hand brake and his
discontent gave to man the air brake, that reduced the danger of
travel and greatly lowered the cost of transportation. Thomas
Edison, that volcano of discontent, has given the world such a
number of blessings, it is difficult to enumerate them, and
thought three-score-years-and-ten (the supposed jumping off place
for man), he is still hard at work. The Roll of the
Discontented, but unconquered, to whom the world is deeply
indebted, would fill volumes. Among them are Stevenson,
Ericson, Thompson, Marconi, Wright, Curtis, Corliss, Roentgen,
Morton, --the noble list extends to history's very first page. Wholesome
discontent may be likened to wireless messages flashed into ethereal
space calling for help. They are man's conscious or unconscious
S O S calls, and as the operators pick up wireless vibrations and
interpret them, so great minds pick up the demands of discontent,
the needs of the world, and undertake to solve the problems.
They become the messenger boy and deliver to the world whatever
its discontent demands. Man is and always has
been discontented. he resents the fallacy that
three-score-years-and-ten is the allotted span of life ordained by
Nature. Most men fail to appreciate the fact that it is
mesmerism that holds him to this belief. Owing to his
discontent, man has searched he world over for the Fountain of
Youth --compounded elixir after elixir --thought he had found it
in S-rays, violet rays, radium, etc., but prolonged life will
not come from without. It is the product of the
within. Man must force his mind to work in harmony with his
body and as that rebuilds and rebuilds, always replacing the old
cells with new ones, so he must replace old life thought with new
ones, and if he visualizes youth as persistently as his body
reproduces youth cells for old ones, he will have found the
Fountain of Youth. But, it will not be elixirs or waters,
but visions that will constantly renew his vital being and keep
him young. The healthy discontented people who read
this book will be more discontented than ever over the accepted
world-wide belief of three-score-years-and-ten, and if they become
sufficiently discontented, they will destroy its mesmeric power. The
discomposed people -- the ones vexed and irritated --will, no
doubt, become more discomposed. They will doubt the truth of
these statements that life can be prolonged. Every new truth
will vex them. The discontented, however, working in harmony
with Nature, will determine to rival the longevity of Moses and
Thomas Parr. In another half-century this goal will be
attained. When at that time there shall be a host of people,
140, 150 and 160 years young, the Jubilee Edition of this book
will call attention to the age attained by Noah, Cainan, Jared,
Enoch and Methuselah and beg those who are discontented with their
attainment of 160 years, to continue this process of life renewal
and emulate the vital history of Methuselah.
|
