WHO IS RESPONSIBLE?

Evening Star, Issue 20117, 6 March 1929, Page 7

WHO IS RESPONSIBLE?

OTHER PEOPLE’S HERVES “ It had not hitherto occurred' to me that 1 had any responsibility lor other people’s nerves,” says a w °Td lll writer in the London ‘ Daily felcoranb ’ “ But now lam instructed by a lecturer to-the Institute of Hygiene that if you are above yourself or beside yourself or anything like that it may very well be my fault. H doctors, teachers, and journalists, says -LU Charles Thompson, ‘ could keep then feeling tone on the intellectual plane there would be fewer cases ot nervous breakdown,’ lam not quite sure that I know what this means. .1 always become a little uneasy when people assume that I have an intellectual plane or any of these endowments of the higher brow. But 1 take it the doctoi is "exhorting me not to get qxcited. ‘‘‘Anger,’ says he, ‘and storms ol passion can shake the nervous system to pieces. The coarser passions, such as anger, hatred, and jealousy, react adversely on the body far more than. ambition, pride, and aesthetic and Intellectual emotions.’ These classifications are rather difficult. Ambition has a way of sliding into jealousy, envy, hatred, and malice and all uncharitableness. Neither pride nor ambition is necessarily an intellectual emotion; both may" be. and often are, altogether worldly, sordid, and mean. Ihe suniciently common ambition to have more money than your neighbour is not res- 1 thotic or intellectual. ,L have heard people pride themselves on the smallness of the tips they give. Bub it never occurred to me that they were inspired by or aesthetic ideals. I should have said that it was not uncommon to see disappointed ambition or wounded pride produce a nervous breakdown. “ At least the sufferers say that what is the matter with them is a nervous breakdown. That brings us to another little difficulty. Ido not wish to hurt anyone’s feelings, but we can all agree that what other people say about their nerves is not invariably accurate. The line (in other people) between bad temper and ill-health is not as clear as one could wish. r lhaL however, does not invalidate Dr Thompson’s theory that a bad temper or a sullen temper is behind many a crisis of the nerves This, you see, is where the teacher comes in, and even the humble journalist. ‘ The whole point of educational training,’ says Dr Thompson, ‘should be to establish control of feeling.’ Therefore the teacher and 1 have to keep our ‘ feeling tone on the intellectual planed At present we do not. and the nation loses by the attacks from which these men (and women) suffer.’ “I really had no idea I was so dangerous. 'lhe teachers must speak for themselves. Most schools which .1 know anything about make rather a point of disciplining the temper and the emotions. The normal public school boy, I should have thought, had as much self-control as can be expected of any young animal. The schoolmasters and mistresses that X come across seem to have a bracing way of dealing with the emotional side of youth. No doubt there are others. What about the journalist? It _is not one of the sins upon my conscience that I have tried to excite passion about anything or played upon any emotion. Those who like this kind of stimulus can doubtless obtain plenty of it. But I should have thought that it is taken less and less seriously. If we get excited we may still be read, but with a smile.”

Mrs Highclass: “I’m sure your language on the telephone is quite uncalled for.” Highclass; “So is the number they’ve given me.” “ Bridget, didn’t I hear you quarrelling with the milkman this morning? ” “Ye did not, ma’am. I inquired for the health of the milkmaid at the farm, who's ill.” “Yes, and ” “Says I, ‘How’s the milkmaid?’ An’ he got in a tempest o’ i'urv. an’ .said ‘That’s a trade sweet ’ ”