QUIT YOUR WORRYING!
BY
GEORGE WHARTON JAMES
AUTHOR OF
"Living the Radiant Life," "What the White Race may learn from the Indian," "The story of Scraggles," "California, Romantic and Beautiful," "Our American Wonderlands," etc. etc.
PASADENA, CALIF.
1916
TO THOSE
who are standing on the banks of worry before the ocean of God's love I cry aloud
"COME ON IN--THE WATER'S FINE!"
CONTENTS
FOREWORD
I THE CURSE OF WORRY II OURS IS THE AGE OF WORRY III NERVOUS PROSTRATION AND WORRY IV HOLY WRIT, THE SAGES AND WORRY V THE NEEDLESSNESS AND USELESSNESS OF WORRY VI THE SELFISHNESS OF WORRY VII CAUSES OF WORRY VIII PROTEAN FORMS OF WORRY IX HEALTH WORRIES X THE WORRIES OF PARENTS XI MARITAL WORRIES XII THE WORRY OF THE SQUIRREL CAGE XIII RELIGIOUS WORRIES AND WORRIERS XIV AMBITION AND WORRY XV ENVY AND WORRY XVI DISCONTENT AND WORRY XVII COWARDICE AND WORRY XVIII WORRY ABOUT MANNERS AND SPEECH XIX THE WORRIES OF JEALOUSY XX THE WORRIES OF SUSPICION XXI THE WORRIES OF IMPATIENCE XXII THE WORRIES OF ANTICIPATION XXIII HOW OUR WORRY AFFECTS OTHERS XXIV WORRY VERSUS INDIFFERENCE XXV WORRIES AND HOBBIES
JUST BE GLAD
BY JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY
_O heart of mine, we shouldn't worry so, What we have missed of calm we couldn't have, you know!_
_What we've met of stormy pain, And of sorrow's driving rain, We can better meet again, If it blow._
_We have erred in that dark hour, we have known, When the tear fell with the shower, all alone._
_Were not shine and shower blent As the gracious Master meant? Let us temper our content With His own._
_For we know not every morrow Can be sad; So forgetting all the sorrow We have had, Let us fold away our fears, And put by our foolish tears, And through all the coming years, Just be glad._
FOREWORD
Between twenty and thirty years ago, I became involved in a series of occurrences and conditions of so painful and distressing a character that for over six months I was unable to sleep more than one or two hours out of the twenty-four. In common parlance I was "worrying myself to death," when, mercifully, a total collapse of mind and body came. My physicians used the polite euphemism of "cerebral congestion" to describe my state which, in reality, was one of temporary insanity, and it seemed almost hopeless that I should ever recover my health and poise. For several months I hovered between life and death, and my brain between reason and unreason.
Table of contents (by pages)
- 1: Quit Your Worrying! by George Wharton James
- 2: I might have selected Don't Worry
- 3: How few of the serene would there be named
- 4: Occidental civilization to sneer and scoff at the quiet
- 5: When we use the word worry what do we mean
- 6: And friend alike the hypochondriac is a pest
- 7: Every neurasthenic is a confirmed worrier
- 8: The motorman and conductor were changed
- 9: The more one worries the more he learns to worry
- 10: Wireless and now the wireless telephone
- 11: Nervous prostration is a disease of overwork
- 12: To worry is to cerebrate intensely
- 13: Nervous prostration causes worry
- 14: And one rejoiceth in the sense of peace and safety
- 15: Which passeth all understanding
- 16: And why are ye anxious concerning raiment
- 17: Still another proverb says Worry killed the cat
- 18: And persistently drinking it to the very dregs
- 19: Can it be said of the worrier He's in a bad business
- 20: When worrying thoughts obtruded
- 21: Nagging is worry put into words
- 22: She has cluttered up her mind with a wrong idea
- 23: And the worrier really desires to be unselfish
- 24: If I dinna tell Macgreegor hoo to behave hissel'
- 25: Is a source of worry a cause of worry
- 26: And Celia Thaxter in her Sandpiper
- 27: So sure that people regard him enough to want to affront him
- 28: But what a truly pitiable object is the man
- 29: It is not pleasant to be supplanted
- 30: Lummis would have faced the inevitable without a whimper
- 31: What are the essentials for life
- 32: Isn't it ' Rankin shook his head
- 33: If socialists are trying to fix things better
- 34: Hyper sensitiveness may cause bashfulness
- 35: Fretted and worried almost to death
- 36: While our civilization has reached some very elevated points
- 37: Invariably the results produce worry
- 38: A careless or lazy plumber causes much worry
- 39: Magnus has just introduced himself to Pickwick
- 40: Worries meet them on every hand
- 41: People become confirmed worriers about their health
- 42: The worries of parents are protean
- 43: And the child is not only nagged
- 44: And as the worries grew around the poor duckling
- 45: But to put your fears and worries
- 46: He strives in every way to make Saul happy
- 47: The marital divide is even finer than that
- 48: He doesn't need such admonitions
- 49: Was the leader of Endbury society
- 50: In Endbury be a come down for her
- 51: Lydia now began her own squirrel cage existence
- 52: As their entire living used to cost
- 53: Or come out here and find you thinking they're funny
- 54: His sentiments grew hotter and hotter as he walked about
- 55: CHAPTER XIIIRELIGIOUS WORRIES AND WORRIERS Misunderstandings
- 56: Most of these worriers have found comfort
- 57: All this worry was much ado about nothing
- 58: Never spent one thousandth part the time
- 59: I dare not seek to fetter others
- 60: And that his worry anyhow is a ridiculous
- 61: Whisper of its unsure and unstable condition
- 62: Lets her covetousness gnaw hourly at her very vitals
- 63: Was vindictive and cruel to Philoxenius
- 64: Misunderstood and unappreciated
- 65: There are many varieties of cowardice
- 66: Uncertainty is always irritating or worrying
- 67: Palmer has tersely said We are terrorized by custom
- 68: By small grammatical negligences
- 69: Finical sticklers for gentility simple
- 70: Iago leaves the handkerchief in Cassio's room
- 71: The paltriness of such jealousies
- 72: Iago plays upon these suspicions
- 73: And in their impatient fretfulness they annoyed
- 74: Lest it fall out of the window
- 75: Worries real or worries imaginary
- 76: A worrying husband can drive his wife distracted
- 77: Be tender and sympathetic with them
- 78: He who blesses another is thrice blessed
- 79: With scrupulous care as to enunciation
- 80: The beloved geologist of the California State University
