英语励志美文精华 26（在线收听）

The Law of the Heart

by J. George Frederick

At long last, I have come to a rather simple point, as to what I believe. I believe in what I choose to call, the Law of the Heart. In the medical world, this phrase—The Law of the Heart—means the great discovery by the Professor Ernest Henry Starling of the precise method by which the heart accelerates and retards itself through the heart muscle; also, the manner in which it accomplishes the vital two-way exchange of fluids between the bloodstream and the body tissues.

In my view of life, there is also supremely needful a vital, two-way exchange of heart qualities between human beings. Without it, the human spirit and relationship to other spirits is lifeless and dangerous. Dependence on head qualities is mechanical and empty, just as we have discovered that babies do not thrive, even with technical, expert nursing care, without mother love.

The law of the heart, in my belief, then, means that I can achieve greatest physical and mental health and have the most constructive relations with life and people if my matured emotional self dominates my motives and actions. When, after due consultation with my head, the true heart speaks, it is the finest and most mellowed judgment that I, human creature, am capable of. Man is indivisible, I believe. He is a whole—mind, spirit, body—but with only one real, fully representative voice: the voice of the heart.

There is in my belief, very suggestive symbolism in the means by which the law of the heart operates. We know that the man needs to give others—weaker, less fortunate—a transfusion of his blood as proof of fellowship. We know that hearts, which beat in unison with the problems, pains, miseries, and needs of others, knows celestial music, which can never be known to those who do not. We know that hearts—capable of quickened pulse at the sight of beauty and nobility, courage and sacrifice, love and tenderness, a child or a sunset—achieve intensities of living, a song in their hearts unknown to others. We know that those who choke off the heart’s native impulses will likely bring on a coronary thrombosis of obstructed emotion, which can cripple.

The first law of the heart, I feel sure, is to pulsate: to love. To fail to pulsate and love is swift and certain spiritual death. There are far, far too many of us who seemed obsessed with self, unable or unwilling to love. The second law of the heart, I believe, is to give and forgive: to sacrifice.

These things, I know and believe. They provide me with a foundation to what I call my “Humanistic Philosophy of Life.” It works for me. I feel close to the Earth with it; yet, face uplifted. The heart is closer to everlasting reality, although I am fully aware that I must not let raw emotion masquerade as a heart quality and that the immature heart can make serious errors. The educated, matured heart is, to my belief, not only the noblest thing in man but also the great hope of the world.