ELLA WHEELER WILGOX.

Grey River Argus, 29 May 1914, Page 7

ELLA WHEELER WILGOX.

.■■ ■ ■ I?..: 1 ♦' ' ' ■ : : : ART' OF CONVERSING. WASTE OF T'TME TO DISCUSS SUBJECTS WHICH. "CANNOT BRING. GO_OD RESULTS. Bad for Oije's Body and Soul to Talk About Disease Instead of Health; R^jJ Instead of Pleasant Topics, or \nything Maligittant. « Guard your self from unprofitable conversation ; conversation which Pastes time, energy thought : 4and speech, and brings no good result to : ; M'^aker or listener. ■ One does not want to talk always on -•'rious or profound subjects. To hear sen ous or profound conversation continually would xA alee life so ponderous th^ 1 - it would, become insupportable to most of us. . 'Wit, humor, repartee .have their profitable part in life. The man, dr 'baok, or : play, or recreation;, wiuch; rnakesus laugh in pure glee gives us ;•?■■. tonic for laind and bodyThere is no system of calisthenics s:o~ beneficial to health, as the habit of hearty, rib-shaking- (laughter. The laughing cure has been advocated for all 'ills of .mind and body. The patient is told to stand .before the mirror and force laughter for ten minutes at a time. . It is declared that this process will, drive away melancholy^, , cure depression and put tp rout all nervous maladies arising- from, oversensitiveness and lack of .selfoonifidence ; and tnat hope, courage- and. ambition will soon . reorganise t)ie disordered realm oi the mind'ail.d iyin^ a happy train of helpers in their, rear, including: health and success. ' . : ■ cupantion,of t:mp \thich' causes us to •»h at. !ea*| D^H far the day :s Therefore, any conversation, or ,ocbe commended. . , LAUGHTER :^ : AS ... FLOWERS ARE^ M) NATURE. It is. . even well to be f K^olous " T a J ' >.imes ;. to think and talk p'f'li^'^tl' superficial matters, such as dress anafashions, and dancing arid' sports. ' Just .-■• as nature does not' give all her energies, to producing .noiirishment for ; her tcre ! atures, but takes earth -space to. send forth' flowers and plants which have no practical use save their beauty, so may our minds be-occupied at times with light themes. But there are . few of us who do not waste precious, precious moments and still more : precious mindstuff in what we know/ if we pause to think of it, is unprofitable conversation or worse thaii; unprofitable. " . ' Have you not heard a whole family of .inteliUgent^bemgs; use fifteen golden 1 moments in a heated discussion regarding the precise date, on which some un important event occurred? One said it was.- the r tenth ; another was retain it oiiust have been the ninth, or the eleventh— certainly not. the tenth; a third' was sure it happened an entire week eaxlier ,'»r lat*-r ; and so on and so f orti. And .whe the matter was -settled: or not -settled, no pn^ was a whit -benefited. ■<■ ■.• •. It is only when 1 one is on the witness stand ot some vital issue is at stake that such a use of memory and word is of ' the least importance. Again, so much valuable time is, lost in. discussing the weather. -The weather is- a topic one naturally finds in the, foreground in lands where t^e thermometer priaes-- itself upon rapid climbs and sudden descents. But even in- the • tropics, where; the ternperr ature does not vary over ten degrees in : the entire twelve months, people gnd the weather a time-kil'ing 'topic-; In our ever-varying and never-du-plicated season I "have .heard sensible human beings wax almost violent, dis-r puting whether last yea? or the year . before was not warmer or- colder than . this year; or whether"" such unseason-

able weather • had ever before been known; .-or trying to. prove that the first snows fell earJier or later, some other year than tihis, . Surely -all this is' unprofitable .conr versation. It is not instructive,- interesting- or amusing. gossip is unprofitable and '.also Malignant. ' It does not develop the reasoning powers or give food to the mind. And it entertains no one. Gossip is not only, unprofitable, but it is a malignant Substance^ dangerous to the mind. •> • If our cailers introduce gossip., like 'a poison needle, we can readily change the and ' refuse the inocular tion. And we can go alone after the .caller departs and use a mental antidote in the way of .affirmations of Jo.ye and good! wall !? and -p^cci^^to ;aJI .created things.; and more light for the gossiped. - To read what is painful, vicious or terrible, unless we are prepared *o go forth and endeavour to relieve the •conditions of which we read 4 is unprofitable. The siame time devoted to music or a language would soon bring us an accomplishment. To sit and listen, to the stories of terrible surgcal operations, or to relate them, is a popular method of indulging in profitless^ conversation with many women. ♦ And it is a sure method of invitingsickness and maladies which may 'tad to similar operations. Ever y thought and every word has its effect upon omr. physical structures. I n Poverbs xii: 18 ,we read ."The tongue ofj:he wise is in the same book, "In the rnurJturie cf words there vanteth not sin; buf he that refraineth his Jips .is "wise." • And yet again, "A wholesome tongue is a tree of life." '•* > . _ Cultivate wholesomeness in your conversation. Invite it "from others. Talk of good things; of happy things; of great things; and of cleai things There are so many interesting topics which'come under this category. TALK ABOUT DISEASE USUALLY RESULTS IN SELF-HYPNOSIS. When you .aVc , obliged to speak of the bad, tf>e sad/the petty and the unclean things ,get it oVer as, soon, a<= possible and cease to think of them afterward. Just as you might; be foTCed to take something nauseating in your mouth, 'and as you would go and rinse your mouth with an antiseptic" afterward, so hasten to talk of good and sweet things and to make I affirm aions after your unpleasant talk has ended. Your thoughts '.and your conversations are building your character and shaping your future. Do not indulge in unprofitable ccn versation! " . And do not be afraid to Temain silent when, you have nothing of interr est or value to say ! ■ v