But before venturing anew
upon a subject which may possibly excite controversy and indignant
comment, let me premise that I am talking chiefly of the crowded
portions of our country, of our great towns, and especially of their
upper classes, and am dealing with those higher questions of mental
hygiene of which in general we hear but too little. If the strictures I
have to make applied as fully throughout the land--to Oregon as to New
England, to the farmer as to the business man, to the women of the
artisan class as to those socially above them--then indeed I should cry,
God help us and those that are to come after us! Owing to causes which
are obvious enough, the physical worker is being better and better paid
and less and less hardly tasked, while just the reverse obtains in
increasing ratios for those who live by the lower form of brain-work; so
that the bribe to use the hand is growing daily, and pure mechanical
labor, as opposed to that of the clerk, is being "levelled upward" with
fortunate celerity.
Before attempting to indicate certain ways in which we as a people are
overtaxing and misusing the organs of thought, I should be glad to have
the privilege of explaining the terms which it is necessary to use, and
of pointing out some of the conditions under which mental labor is
performed.
The human body carries on several kinds of manufacture, two of
which--the evolution of muscular force or motion, and intellection with
all moral activities--alone concern us here.
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