HOW TO LIVE LONG.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 12926, 17 March 1906, Page 7

HOW TO LIVE LONG.

A French writer, M. Finot, has recently contributed to "La Revue" an article on the " will to live." He maintains, as Sir James Crichton Browne has recently maintained, that human life should be prolonged to a greater age than at present, and that a man should not begin to get old in ordinary circumstances till he is over 30. His argument is that by the power of self-suggestion we may, to a certain extent, influence the period of our existence. A jnan gets into the way of thinking he has not long to live. He makes himself the victim of ill-directed suggestion, and as a consequence dies somewhere about the time he hew expected. If he had kept up his heart, laughed at death, and gone on with his work, determining to complete it, death would probably have steered clear of him fox* twenty or thirty years longer. Nor does M. Finot stop at this. He indicates a system of discipline to attain this object. Supposing we Ir.ive a strc.ntj desire not to die before 80, our best plan is to store up in the brain beneficient, serene, and comforting suggestions to determine that- resistance to death and disease is possible. So keep the thoughts occupied with work that interests and pleasures that do not destroy: to be in Jove with life, and to control it properly. To be in love -with life! There comes th'e ftib. So many are not in love with life at the age of 50. They have been burdened with grief and disappointment-. To ask these persons to be jolly is to make fun of their troubles. You cannot make people happy at once, any more than . you can make people believe. There is, however, no doubt that there is a large, scope for a mental discipline which should seek to remove as far as is possible avoidable-; worries. The naturally long-lived: person; does this unconsciously." Tie question can any other type be trained to thishabit? It.is, perhaps possible, says M. Finot, for a very large number to set optimistic visions as a guard of honour against poisonous fears. These can take life with, less of the anxious distresses of a harassed householder, with more of the daring ardour of the first romantic adventurers. All that is wanting is the will to live.