[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.By means of a small spoon the water in the first bowl must be transferred to the second,while taking every precaution to spill as little as possible.These motions must be performed slowly, regularly, and without any sign of impatience.Sixth Exercise.After having made an estimate of one's muscular powers, one must setoneself to accomplish the task of raising a weight greater than one is able to lift at themoment of commencing this exercise.One should begin with a weight that one can handle with some ease, and should practicelifting it for several days, until one is able to do it readily and without fatigue.When this result has been achieved a gram should be added to the weight, and this shouldbe lifted for two days. 59Two days afterward a second gram should be added to the original weight.This should be kept up until the point is reached where the effort involves fatigue.At the first indication of difficulty, one should allow the weight to remain at the pointreached and should continue to lift it every day, being very careful not to change it in theleast in anyway.It must be only at the end of several days, when the effort is quite readily made, that oneshould attempt to increase the amount of the weight.This exercise can be repeated in various ways, to obtain the suppleness or the power ofendurance one desires, whether in the case of walking, of jumping, or of any other sport.It is only by measuring out one's physical efforts that one can succeed in accomplishingthat of which one definitely hopes to see the fulfillment.GENERAL OBSEEVATIONSBefore commencing these exercises it will be a good thing to prepare oneself for them bytaking a few deep breaths.In order to do this one should stand upright, the chest thrown well forward, the lungs ex-tended outward and the back curved inward.One should then fill one's lungs to their full capacity and allow the air to escape as slowlyas possible.This exercise is designed to produce composure, by making certain the proper functioningof the lungs and by regularizing the circulation.Composure is one of the conditions essential to the mastery of perseverance.Another very important point to observe is never to attempt to overtax one's strength.Discouragement is the enemy of perseverance, and this is susceptible of a very naturalexplanation.All efforts, up to the moment when it becomes impossible to continue them, lead alwaysto weariness, of which the least unpleasant result is that it shows us our goal underdisagreeable colors.The memory of the difficulty we have experienced becomes linked with apprehension offuture efforts and retards their performance, until the time arrives when one finds somereasonable pretext for abandoning them altogether. 60It is also indispensable, while one is performing these exercises, to fix one's thoughtsteadily upon them and to allow nothing to cause it to wander.It is for this reason that, at the start, it is essential to attempt nothing that can not bequickly brought to a conclusion, in order to be easily able to retain the mastery of one'sthoughts that will prevent the idea from escaping us.If, in spite of all our efforts, wandering of the mind does take place, it will becomenecessary to rigidly refuse all indulgence to our own weakness.The mind should be brought back briskly to the subject under consideration, by redoublingthe effort of attention needed to center it upon that subject.There is another recommendation of which the importance must not be overlooked.It is disastrous for the conquest of perseverance to undertake one piece of work when an-other is still in process of completion.We are not speaking here of the different things which it may become necessary to do inthe course of accomplishing it, and which, far from doing any injury to it, actuallycontribute to the perfection of the work.We wish merely to describe those undertakings of a similar nature, of which the beginningof one must necessarily be an absolute interruption to the completion of another.It is quite impossible to stop certain kinds of work, to commence other tasks of the samesort without dividing one's energies, that is to say without doing like the man of whom theNorwegian fable tells us.He had to go from a certain place to a certain other place to rejoin his fiancée.But thedirect road seemed to him a little monotonous, and he abandoned it to follow a by-path,which he very soon left in order to try another.His wanderings became more and more involved, until he completely lost sight of hisoriginal objective point [ Pobierz caÅ‚ość w formacie PDF ]