Читать книгу The Kneipp Cure - Sebastian Kneipp Kneipp - Страница 7
ОглавлениеPREFACE TO THE FIFTIETH GERMAN EDITION.
HAD a stranger passed through Wörishofen six years ago, counting the house-numbers as he went along, he might have said to himself: "This is not a bad place, it has a good many buildings." Now, in the year 1894 going again through the same Wörishofen, and counting the old houses as they stood when he last saw them, and the new ones which had sprung up since, he might exclaim full of astonishment: "Well! how has it come about that the new houses are almost outnumbering the old ones? What can have influenced these people so powerfully as to cause them to build so much?" To this he could not obtain a better answer than the following: "Father Kneipp has written a book called: 'My Water-cure', and has sent it out into the world, as a father sends his son. This book has taught and enlightened young and old, rich and poor, high and low, as to how they should make use of water, and how they can by its various applications be cured of disease and be delivered from many ills, or at the very least find relief. On account of this book invalids have come to Wörishofen in increasing numbers from year to year, so that, at last, the available houses became insufficient for their accommodation,— and that is the reason why so many new buildings have been erected."
The book "My Water-cure" has now outlived its fiftieth edition and would like to celebrate its
JUBILEE
and to cry out to men, especially to the sick: "Learn ye to know water, its application and its effects, and it will bring you help where help is possible!"
As regards me, I can only rejoice and wish from my heart that, in times to come, all the sick may find this relief and help. I particularly wish that medical practitioners would hasten to make proper use of water, this gift of the Creator, and to grant this step-child a place in their households and among their store of remedies.
To the fiftieth edition I give the mission: Take care of the sick that they may be cured! Be a good friend to the healthy that they may not fall ill! And as I, a Priest, offer daily the Holy Sacrifice, so shall all those who come to Wörishofen, together with those who employ the cure at home, be included in my prayers, that they may obtain the blessing of Heaven for their recovery. Wörishofen, Candlemas-day, 1804.
THE AUTHOR.