The Art of Living Author:J. W. Williams Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE VALUE OF DEEP BREATHING I Expect most of you are wondering first of all what the Art of Living is ; and then, what it has got to do with you at school. Le... more »t me begin by saying that it is the most important thing in this world, and according to the way we practise it, so our success or failure in life will be measured. Remember that the majority of people do not live, they only exist, and that more or less miserably : and so it is impossible for them to help forward the great process of evolution which is to draw us upward to an altogether higher plane. School is the nursery in which the man is reared; and it is at school that we get our-characters formed for good or for ill. The soil is being prepared, and whatsoever a boy sows, that, and nothing else, shall he also reap. You will see then how important it is to understand the true Art of Living. Now the system I am going to explain to you is the " Ars Vivendi " system of Self-development, and let me say at once that it is nothing new. Indeed, it is very old, and it has been elaborated, bv its author, Mr. Arthur Lovell, from the writings of the most learned menof all ages, including the writers in the Bible. More than that—if we did but understand it —this Art of living is to be found in its entirety in the Bible itself; and everything necessary for physical, mental, and spiritual development is contained in the sayings of Jesus Christ. But just as in those days He was continually saying, even to his most intimate followers, "Are ye also without understanding?" so the same thing may be said to-day. I hope to show you in these lectures how this understanding may be obtained, and in such a way that you will not forget it. It is always well to have a picture in one's mind, and I want you to think of the Ars Vivendi system as a ...« less