At the end of a year and a quarter of idleness I began to write a book, and presently found that the pen was strangely reluctant to go.

I tried a smoke to see if that would help me out of the difficulty.

It did.

I smoked eight or ten cigars and as many pipes a day for five months; finished the book, and did not smoke again until a year had gone by and another book had to be begun.
I can quit any of my nineteen injurious habits at any time, and without discomfort or inconvenience.

I think that the Dr.Tanners and those others who go forty days without eating do it by resolutely keeping out the desire to eat, in the beginning, and that after a few hours the desire is discouraged and comes no more.
Once I tried my scheme in a large medical way.