It is not enough that the individual should know how to live. Knowledge
is of no avail without practise. Mr. Moody, the evangelist, once said of
religious conversion, 'Merely to know is not to be converted. I once
boarded a train going in the wrong direction. Some one told me my
mistake. I then had knowledge, but I did not have "conversion" until I
acted on that knowledge--seized my traveling-bag, got off that train,
and boarded one going in the opposite direction.' Many people are on the
wrong train in hygiene, as in religion, and know it. They are traveling
fast to that kind of perdition which in the end unhygienic living always
brings. In fact, a great many people practise unhygienic habits more
through indifference than through ignorance. Most people have acquired,
by imitation of their neighbors, a great number of unhygienic habits and
have continued in these habits for so many years, that they can not get
rid of them, except through a great effort of will. This effort they are
usually unable or unwilling to put forth unless very strong incentives
are brought to bear. Often--in fact, if the truth were known,
usually--they wait until ill health supplies the incentive. The man who
is most receptive on the subject of health conservation, is, in the
majority of cases, the man who has just had some ominous warning of
coming ill health; although there is now a small but increasing number
who do not wait so long, men who pride themselves on keeping 'in the
pink of condition.' These are the men who are rewarded for their efforts
by enjoying the highest reaches of working-power.
