The universe is governed by law, infallible, immutable law, and if not, what sort of universe would it be?

We accept this fact knowing it to be such, and through our studies in astronomy we are able to foretell to the very minute any happening in the future.

Eclipses occur at computable periods, and we know these to the minute.

Everything happens on time, on exact schedule, and we accept this fact because we know that it requires law to operate anything in other than haphazard fashion.

The seed is planted in the ground, it requires the materials of the earth, the light of the sun, warmth and moisture, the things that we recognise as elements necessary to the growth of the seed into a plant or tree, and while we may wonder at this unchangeable arrangement, yet we are more apt to accept the fact as demonstrated by Nature and let it go at that.

But have you ever stopped to think of this arrangement by which Nature perpetuates herself?

Congress of animals produces progeny, if the basic essentials to this are present; not otherwise.

Nature again reproduces herself according to immutable law.

Growth is part of this law, depending on the conditions that must be present for growth.

Animal life develops to a certain standard of size for each species, then stops growing, but does not the same process continue? When the animal has reached the average size designed by Nature, is the law of growth then suspended?

So far as increase of stature is concerned there is no further operation of the law in evidence, but it goes on according to the same conditions as obtained for increase in stature, for the body dies daily and is daily replaced with new material, and still this law of growth applies as repairs have to be made, as new material has to be elaborated and built into the body for repairs.

All this goes on without our conscious knowledge, yet we know somewhere in the depth of our consciousness that it does go on, for we see the visible parts of the body change, as the hair, the nails, the skin, and we realize that we are never really through growing, except as relates to stature.

Even the soil, from which comes all life, is subject to law, for when we extract from the soil certain ingredients, as by raising crops, we know that if we do not replace these elements in kind we impoverish the soil, and just so does the soil decline in many localities till it will scarcely support the life of the region.

An ingenious scientist has figured out that just as the soils of a country decline even so does its supported flora and fauna decline, and traces the downfall of previous civilizations to this fact.

Recently many experiments have been performed on soils, by complete fertilization of certain parts and the usual partial fertilization of other parts by means of the barnyard humus or the ordinary, three-part fertilizer of commerce, and the results charted.

For the complete fertilization certain volcanic rocks that contain all the usual sixteen elements of the normal soil were used. A row of common garden vegetables was fertilized in this way, six feet distant was a row of the same vegetables fertilized with the ordinary barnyard humus, and still six feet distant was a row fertilized with the three-part fertilizer of the market.

What happened was in obedience to this great law of compensation, and just what is always bound to happen in any similar test.

The completely fertilized row did not at first grow any faster than did the other two, scarcely as fast, but it grew steadily, it continued to grow till it outgrew the other two rows; it grew sturdy stalks that stood up in the storm, while the other two sagged down, lay largely along the ground for lack of silicon or other of the minerals that had been previously cropped out.

When seed time came around the completely fertilized row showed three times the fertility of the other two.

But the thing that particularly interested the writer was the behavior of these plants to parasites.

The completely fertilized row resisted the invasion of these almost wholly, while the other two rows were fairly eaten up by the pests.

This is the law, but surprisingly worked out in this case, for we have always supposed the parasites outlaws who preyed on all vegetation, irrespective of its state, while this experiment would indicate that plants of sufficient vitality will resist the encroachments of these garden pests almost wholly.

Now is it possible that man alone is outside the great law by which the entire universe is run?

There is nothing farther from the truth than this supposition, for man is amenable to all the laws of the universe just as are all flora and fauna of the earth.

You cannot continually subtract without replacement of the extracted ingredients without eventually running into bankruptcy, neither can man continually use up his body chemicals without replenishment of these daily, yearly, every year of his life, and it is trying to live as if we were immune to the law of the universe that has brought us to the pass in which we now find ourselved lodged.

Just as surely as two and two make four, just so surely will two subtracted from four leave but two, a part of the great law of the universe that has never changed nor will ever change.

We are dimly recognizing diseases that we call deficiency diseases, and as we extend our studies in feeding we find that all disease is made up of deficiencies plus plethoras, that is, while we may be at one and the same time suffering from too much and not enough, it is too much of certain things and not enough of other things.

This imbalance goes to make up disease of all kinds, and as surely as the law says that we cannot continually subtract without addition, just so surely can we not go shy on certain necessary chemical salts without running into a bankruptcy that will show in what we recognize as deficiency disease.