soldier's fancy irresistibly dwells upon his possible wounds or death, while as soon as he nears the front he sees the victims of battle all about him and even sees his friends and comrades fall. He serves his turn on the burial squad and has to bring back the dead and wounded to the rear. This gives a certain immunizing callousness to it all, and he becomes very familiar with the thought that he may be the next victim and so accepts the fact with growing equanimity. The seasoned fighter learns to fight on even though his mates are falling on all sides in death or agony. Human nature can get used to anything, and wont raises the threshold of temibility higher than anything else.

6. Training for Decision

Indecision between courses of action is both annoying and detrimental to the child. This indecision is the result of poor training. It is probable that it is due to repression of impulses by parents or teachers. Constantly telling the child "You mustn't" and "You cannot" tends to make the child timid and self-conscious. They keep him from making de cisions and adjusting himself to the outcomes of the decisions. When children are faced with an alternative between courses of actions, they must be taught to make a decision and to abide by the decision. The final decision, however, should be arrived at only after a careful study has been made of what is involved; that is, having considered the different elements involved in each alternative and having made his decision, he should meet it frankly and fully, facing it with all the vigor and determination he can command. If the decision has been unwise, its results will be annoying and he shall be more cautious and careful perhaps in making similar decisions the next time. If the decision was wise, he will be more strongly fortified for future decisions. If for no other reason than for the hygiene and peace of mind, the child should be trained in the making of decisions.

7. Relaxation

[PATRICK, G. T., The Psychology of Relaxation, pp. 18–20, 244–247. Boston, Houghton Mifflin Co., 1918.]

The principle involved in all the forms of relaxation. . . is relief. . . from tension or release from some form of restraint.

Although this tension and restraint on the part of the individual are necessary conditions of all social evolution, they have been greatly intensified by the manner of life which characterizes the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

When this everlasting urge of progress is excessive, as it has been in recent times, we may say that there is in a way a constant subconscious rebellion against it and a constant disposition to escape from it, and the method of escape is always the temporary reversion to simpler and more primitive forms of be-havior, a return to nature, so to speak. Sudden momentary and unexpected release from this tension, with instinctive reinstatement of primitive forms of expression, is laughter. Daily or periodic systematic return to primitive forms of activity is sport or play. War is a violent social reversion to elemental and natural inter-tribal relations. Profanity is a resort to primitive forms of vocal expression to relieve a situation which threatens one's well-being. Alcohol is an artificial means of relieving mental tension by the narcotizing of the higher brain centers. .

Psychology of Play, Sport, and War.-The study which we have made of the psychology of play and sport enables us more easily to understand the psychology of war. The high tension of the modern workaday life must be periodically relieved by a return to primitive forms of behavior. . . . War has always been the release of nations from the tension of progress. Man is a fighting animal; at first from necessity, afterwards from habit. . .

The warring nation is purified by war, and thereafter, with a spirit chastened and purged, enters again upon the upward way to attain still greater heights of progress. . . . In war, society sinks back to the primitive type, the primitive mortal combat of man with man, the primitive religious conception of God as God of battles, and the primitive morality of right as might. It brings rest to the higher brain, it brings social relaxation, it brings release from the high tension which is the condition of progress.

8. The Gospel of Relaxation

[JAMES, William, Talks to Teachers, pp. 208, 212-213. New York, Henry Holt & Co., 1915.]

Dr. Clouston . . . visited this country, and said something that has remained in my memory ever since. "You Americans," he said, "wear too much expression on your faces. You are living like an army with all its reserves engaged in action.

The duller countenances of the British population betoken a better scheme of life. They suggest stores of reserved nervous force to fall back upon, if any occasion should arise that requires it. This inexcitability, this presence at all times of power not used, I regard," continued Dr. Clouston, "as the great safeguard of our British people. The other thing in you gives me a sense of insecurity, and you ought somehow to tone yourselves down. You really do carry too much expression, you take too intensely the trivial moments of life."

The American overtension and jerkiness and breathlessness and intensity and agony of expression are primarily social, and only secondarily physiological, phenomena. They are bad habits, nothing more or less, bred of custom and example, born of the imitation of bad models and the cultivation of false personal ideals.

9. Cure for Sleeplessness

[SIDIS, Boris, "Secret of Sound Sleep," in an interview with K. Sumner for the American Magazine, February, 1923, Vol. 95, pp. 14-15.] Sleep is not as important as people think it is. Rest is important! In fact, it is essential. But we do not have to be absolutely unconscious (as we are in the sleep state) in order to rest. The lower animals do not sleep as human beings do. They literally sleep with one eye open, sometimes with both eyes partially open. They prick up their ears at sounds which, in our own sleep state, we would not hear. In them, sleep is only a pronounced rest state.

Therefore, the first thing for you to realize, if you are more or less wakeful, is that it is nothing you have cause to worry about. Moreover, this realization that sleep is not all-important will be a great factor in helping you to sleep. Nine-tenths of your difficulty in going to sleep is due to your fear that you won't go to sleep. And nine-tenths of the bad effects of a sleepless night are not the result of your loss of sleep, but of your worry over it.

I do not say this in order to delude you into a better frame of mind, one that is favorable to sleep; but because it is physiologically, as well as psychologically true! People make a sort of fetish of sleep. They fix upon a certain number of hours which they think they must have, in order to be well. Then they measure each night's sleep; and if it is short of the sacred number of hours which they think they must have in order to be well, they are full of worry and fear.

Don't be impatient for sleep to come. Let it take its time. Don't lie there, saying to yourself, "It is two o'clock now! I have to get up at seven. If I don't go to sleep right away I won't get even five hours of sleep-and I ought to have eight!"

If you do pay attention to the time, say to yourself, "I have been in bed, resting, for several hours already. And I have five hours more in which I can rest. Eight hours of rest! It's wonderful to lie here quietly and to know that I am storing up energy all the time."

10. Three Essentials for Mental Health

[BURNHAM, William H., The Normal Mind: An Introduction to Mental Hygiene and the Hygiene of School Instruction, pp. 207-208, 210211, 213. New York, D. Appleton & Co., 1924.]

Dr. William H. Burnham gives us in plain straightforward language the minimal essential conditions of human happiness reduced to their lowest terms. His three essentials apply equally well for all, young and old, rich and poor, the healthy and the diseased. These are not mere guesses or opinion. They are founded on observation and many investigations.

The essentials, without which a person cannot be quite sound mentally and with which, apart from accident, infection, or heredity, one can have no serious mental disorder, the absolutely essential conditions are three: a task, a plan, and freedom.

The task in the generic sense includes everything from the immediate and concrete goal of the moment to the objectification of the highest ideals and ends. A plan is necessary to make the work purposive activity. It must be my own task; hence freedom is necessary. . . . A score, perhaps, of recent books in education-in this country, books emphasizing the project method and motivation, in England, books emphasizing purposeful activity and the problem attitude-may be summed up in the words-task, plan, and freedom, and what is involved in them; so that the clear understanding of these fundamental conditions and what they mean for the mental health is more important for the teacher than superficial reading of many books on principles and methods, and worth more than a mere knowledge of all the mental tests, standard scales, and all devices for increasing and measuring the scholastic product, because without this one does not see the meaning of the tests and

scales. With this on the one hand one sees the real value. of methods, tests, and devices, and is able to keep clear vision in the field of practical education and hygiene.

These three essentials of mental hygiene and of education for the individual represent also the fundamentals in industry. A task, a plan involving coördinated and purposeful activity, and a maximum of freedom for the individual worker, are the essential conditions of prosperity and industrial health.

11. Nervousness and Its Treatment

Nervousness is a condition of increased irritability of nerve centers and a lack of perfect control or coordination. Vigorous exercise may be beneficial for the restless child, but the nervous or exhausted child should have instead mild exercise and a chance for quiet rest. The nervous child should not be scolded, or in any way induced to worry, or found fault with. A loud voice or unattractive dress on the part of the parent or teacher may be irritating to the nervous child. Teachers should be quick to know signs of nervousness, but the child should never be made conscious of his condition. The establishment of regular habits of work, rest, sleep and play and healthy attitudes are of great value in assisting the child to gain poise and serenity of mind.

12. Training in Mental Hygiene

[BURNHAM, William H., "Mental Health for Normal Children," Mental Hygiene, 1918, Vol. 2, pp. 19-22.]

The simple principles of mental hygiene are based both on world-old experience and on scientific study. They should be practiced in every home, and heeded in all forms of school instruction and discipline. Among the most important of them are the following:

1. Children should be given opportunity for normal reaction to their natural instincts and impulses+to be active in play and work, to sleep at need, to express their emotions, not only to assert themselves, but to serve others and coöperate with them. Function, response to stimulation, action, work, represent the first condition of mental as well as physical health.

2. Children should be trained to control their activities and impulses. Natural and helpful control is not by repression and direct inhibition, but rather by indirect control. We control one muscle