Importance of Self-Control
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reading fictitious stories. The mind should be so disciplined that all its
powers will be symmetrically developed. A certain course of training
may invigorate special faculties and at the same time leave other
faculties without improvement so that their usefulness will be crippled.
The memory is greatly injured by ill-chosen reading, which has a
tendency to unbalance the reasoning powers and to create nervousness,
weariness of the brain, and prostration of the entire system. If the
imagination is constantly overfed and stimulated by fictitious literature,
it soon becomes a tyrant, controlling all the other faculties of the mind
and causing the taste to become fitful and the tendencies perverse.
You are a mental dyspeptic. Your mind has been crammed with
knowledge of all sorts,—politics, history, theology, and anecdote,—
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only a part of which can be retained by the abused memory. Much
less information, with a mind well disciplined, would be of far greater
value. You have neglected to train your mind to vigorous action;
therefore your will and inclination have controlled you and been your
masters instead of your servants. The result is a loss of physical and
mental power.
For years your mind has been like a babbling brook, nearly filled
with rocks and weeds, the water running to waste. Were your powers
controlled by high purposes, you would not be the invalid that you now
are. You fancy you must be indulged in your caprice of appetite and in
your excessive reading. I saw the midnight lamp burning in your room
while you were poring over some fascinating story, thus stimulating
your already overexcited brain. This course has been lessening your
hold upon life and enfeebling you physically, mentally, and morally.
Irregularity has created disorder in your house, and, if continued, will
cause your mind to sink into imbecility. Your God-given probation has
been abused, your God-given time wasted.
God bestows upon us talents for wise improvement, not for abuse.
Education is but a preparation of the physical, intellectual, and moral
powers for the best performance of all the duties of life. Improper
reading gives an education that is false. The power of endurance, and
the strength and activity of the brain, may be lessened or increased
according to the manner in which they are employed. There is a work
before you to dispose of your light reading. Remove it from your house.
Do not have before you the temptation to pervert your imagination, to
unbalance your nervous system, and to ruin your children. By much