And now a warning!

When you commence to study into these newfangled health ideas, you will run into a vast network of contradictions. One fellow will say one thing and one another, and the "doctors" will consistently disagree with them all, as they do with each other on everything but the proper amount to charge for their services.

One faddist will tell you to eat prunes, and another that prunes are dangerous and that you should eat asparagus, while others will lead you this way and that on every point you take up. Listen to them all patiently and then do as you darn please. At least that's the way the author regulates his mental apparatus.

In the last analysis each tub must stand on its own bottom, even though it has the poor judgment to kick the bottom out that it stands on. The best way to know a thing is to make a personal demonstration of it; this thing of "trying it on the dog" may be safer, but the poor dog can't tell you about his "inside feelings," and even a dog has some rights that a human being should respect. If you really want to know if prunes are good food, try them for awhile. If you have even the slightest suspicion that a raw food diet will sustain human life successfully and vigorously, give it a fair trial, - a month is all I ask for this experiment.

This does not mean that I would have you trying all manner of experiments that are suggested. First put them through the gauntlet of your reasoning powers, search them, sift them, run them to earth, but don't discard them until you have satisfied yourself by reasonable investigation and analysis that they are not worthy of your further consideration.

And in this connection do not forget that nearly all the great discoveries and inventions have been laughed at and ridiculed. Mathematicians figured it out to a certainty that the steam engine could not propel anything; religious teachers told us the world is flat, while the "doctors" pronounced the man crazy who first told them about the circulation of the blood.

A thing may seem to be very, very foolish, and still be very, very true; the "foolishness" may be in your own mind.

It is not safe to turn down any new theory these days, just because it is new. Listen patiently to the fellow who has a new message and try and set aside your preconceived notions and get his viewpoint; it may be good, and it certainly won't hurt you to be fair and open minded.

And when it comes to this question of right living, do not forget that the "doctor" may not take to it kindly for purely economic reasons, and again he may oppose it from Simon pure ignorance. Perhaps you have been a good "customer," have regularly had your aches and pains, and have called for his assistance to fix up your old body and keep you in running order; and now you get the notion that you ought to keep your own body in running order, that nature intended it to run properly, and that by obeying certain simple laws it will run properly, and you go and tell the dear "doctor" about it; you need not be at all surprised if he goes straight up in the air. I can picture him now with hands raised in holy horror at your audacity, and I can hear his warning that you are running the gravest risks of doing yourself irreparable bodily injury. And I can hear the tone of sarcasm in his voice as he speaks of the "quacks" and "freaks" who have no "professional knowledge" and who try to "induce the unsophisticated to follow their brainless paths that lead to ruin and to death." Mercy me!

As for what the "doctor" tells you, I wouldn't let that worry me much; not that I would not listen, but after listening I'd use my think-box and analyze and dissect his statements; and then I'd keep right on seeking the road to health, which is not paved with pills and medicine bottles, but which leads along pleasant wooded fields and green pastures, out where the fruit grows and the nuts cling on the stems, out where the air is pure and the water is pure and thoughts are pure and acts are clean and wholesome. And when I found that road, I'd walk its pleasant pathway past one hundred mile-stones, walk with head erect and buoyant step well into the distance where unseen hands beckon me to lay down the well-worn body of physical matter and take up the new life in that indestructible body not made of flesh, and on a higher plane of vibratory manifestation.

Whether or no, dear reader, you believe in the continuity of life in the astral world is a matter of comparatively small importance, but that you should believe in and have abundant life right here and now is a matter of the utmost importance. Right living not only means the extension of the years into a ripe old age, but it means that every day will be full of life, that the body will be the perfect tool of the mind, obeying its wishes with power and reserve strength, and that every task attempted will be carried through to a successful completion. Through a strong, clean, perfect body the mind can manifest the highest that is in it.

And one good thing about this entire proposition is that it don't cost you a penny to demonstrate the truth, and to know from personal experiment whether the road to Wellville lies along the pathway of copious breathing, abstemious eating, fasting when ill, and right thinking and acting. It will certainly cost you much to disobey the laws of nature and be "made whole'' by "doctoring," admitting this to be a possibility.

I dream of an age when every man will be his own doctor, his own lawyer, and his own judge. I may be crazy, but for all that it is a pleasant dream, and I shall ever strive to make it a reality.