But for all that, here is the explanation and the warning:

The human system is built on the "surplus energy" plan. For instance, the lungs have many cubic inches of capacity that are not used on ordinary occasions. Sad to say, some people never use their full lung capacity, and this means that the normal lungs are weakened by non-use. You are not supposed, however, to use your full capacity in ordinary breathing; the surplus is for an emergency, when, for instance, you have to run for your life. Now the savages had to make this "run for life" quite frequently, and there is no evidence that they were ever bothered by the white plague; in fact, all the "plagues" in those days were black. Civilized man has protected himself to some extent on this "running" business; one's life these days is comparatively safe from physical assault unless one has to make a short sprint occasionally to avoid a passing automobile. The human race today is not a "running race"; man seldom runs; in spite of the idea that we are hitting a pretty high pace, we are walking through it all the time.

Every organ has a surplus power, a reserve force. The strength of the average man, when taxed to its utmost, is really marvelous. Perhaps you have heard of the wonderful stunts a man will do in cases of excitement, - say a fire, - when he will lift and move things that he otherwise couldn't budge. The strength of a crazy person is phenomenal; it is concentrated energy, because the mind of a crazy person is fixed on just the one thing he is doing, and he can muster all his power at that point.

Now this is what I'm driving at: I want you to know that you have "surplus energy" that is not used on ordinary occasions; it is really "stored energy" that carries you forward after you have crossed the meridian of life and have struck the down grade.

Up to a certain time the body continually stores this surplus energy; for a considerable period it holds its own, and then comes the autumn days when the surplus should be gradually used up in a ripe old age.

Every wrong habit, every broken law of nature, every excess, extracts its tribute from the surplus vitality.

In the case of a normal manifestation, such as a run, the surplus energy is not depleted; while the full capacity of the body is brought into play, it gains strength by this full use. A good brisk run, with copious breathing through the nose, is far better to tone up the system and send the blood tingling with new life through every part of the body, than all the medicine in Christendom.

But there are many "runs" that are made on the system that simply enter into the reserve storehouse and sap the surplus strength without giving anything in return.

Oh, no, Mr. Smoker, you don't feel the drain! The surplus supplies it readily. But for all that you are using up your old age and burning your candle at both ends.

You may say it does not harm you to smoke or drink or take morphine or dope coffee, but be not deceived - "whatsoever you sow, that shall you also reap." The law is inexorable, the penalty is not to be escaped, and the Grim Reaper will mow you down many years before your allotted time. No matter how many doctors you call in to try and cheat old Mother Nature, they can fool no one but themselves, and you - and the undertaker is certain of his job, and the coffin trust has the last whack at you.

It's very easy to blow a few dozen years of your life into soothing rings of tobacco smoke, but is it really a sensible thing to do? And this is but one of the many habits that tend to shorten life by using the surplus energy and by incapacitating the body to store energy.

It's not an easy thing to break a habit, but it's a mighty easy thing for a habit to "break'' you, both financially, which is comparatively unimportant, and physically, which is of great importance and some day will be so considered.

Among smokers there is a general feeling of "I don't care" in regard to this entire matter. Though some men knew that every puff of their cigar would take a day from their lives, they would puff on complacently and say, "What of it? life is of small consequence anyway!" And they would not understand that this very nicotine habit that deadens their nerve sensation would dictate this answer.

The normal man holds to life tenaciously. When the body is in a healthy state, the mind is apt to be healthy, and to view the world as full of latent possibilities and unexplored resources. Health and Hope walk hand in hand.

The ethical mind sees in life a vast opportunity for unfoldment and character-building. It views life as an intellectual battlefield, and bravely faces up stream and against the tide.

Habits are good and bad, the good ones are the result of earnest striving towards the light, the ever out reaching of the soul for knowledge, and the application of this knowledge to life itself. Bad habits are the result of inactivity, the acceptance of things as they are, without question; the result of conformity to environment, instead of struggle against it, for all environment is in a degree "hostile," and no soul that goes down stream is making real progress.

To know a thing is wrong and to continue doing it is to acknowledge you are licked without even a fight.

To continue doing a thing just because you are in the "habit of it" is to refuse to make progress, to drift with the tide, though the word might well be spelled "tied," for one held in the clutches of a bad habit is truly tied, bound, and often gagged.

The best proof that one is in the clutches of habit is the fight one will put up in its defense. It is right at this point that the same fight put up against the habit would conquer it. Later the victim of habit gradually understands its debilitating and damning influence and power over him, but then the habit has sunk its fangs into his very vitals and almost a superhuman effort is needed to shake it off, but the victory is worth the effort.

From the broader viewpoint life is not a narrow span between the cradle and the grave; it reaches out into a vast eternity of possibilities, - and would you limp through future centuries of manifestation, bound and gagged and helpless because in the grip of habit, or will you rise and fight a good fight and become the master of yourself?

From the narrow viewpoint, all there is to life is its present manifestation: today we eat, drink, and make merry; tomorrow we die. Yet even from this narrow point of vision the one who has the most abundant life lives most, and one can not have abundant life without health, and one can not have health and be the slave of bad habits.

Even though there are no open doors to the tomb and the soul sleeps through eternity in its "windowless palace of rest," yet is it worth while to live right, in accordance with nature's laws, that one may have the fullest expression in the physical realm of which the body is capable. From the physical standpoint there is no joy that can equal the normal, healthful expression of the physical organism along right lines.

A bad habit is as a fence that shuts one out of the really good things, though it is admitted that it is hard for the soul in the grip of a habit to comprehend this viewpoint.

A bad habit is as a weight that holds one down to a lower plane of expression, and trends ever to drag one still further down.

Bad habits are hard to cure in proportion to their long continuance, and the weakness of the character of their possessor.

Many bad habits are acquired because of lack of understanding and without any knowledge of their baneful influence. With many people when knowledge comes in at the front door, the bad habit is imme diately kicked out at the back. Many bad habits of eating, breathing, etc., may well be classed here. We have had very little chance to learn how to live right; the "doctors" have been so busy "doctoring" that they haven't had time to tell us how to keep well, nor could they reasonably be expected to do so, and we haven't taken the trouble to find out these things for ourselves, which is the sensible thing to do.

Many bad habits are wilfully acquired, and wilfully retained, even after full knowledge of their "badness" is present. In such cases the problem is not an easy one for an outsider to solve; in fact, the individual himself must ever be the arbiter of his own fate.

Habits are not to be cured in a day, even when one earnestly desires to be cured, for a cure can not be said to be effected until every vestige of "desire" has been conquered, and that's no easy matter.

Here is the psychology of it. Do not wait till the desire is on, until every nerve and fiber of your being seems to be demanding the particular indulgence that you are striving to overcome. Commence at once to fill your mind with "counter suggestions." Fill it with firm resolves backed up by good arguments and solid facts why you will no longer continue to be a slave. Fill it full of loathing for this habit. And when the habit tries to storm the citadel of your soul, fight from the very start by refusing to think about it. Fill your mind with SOMETHING ELSE. Do something, play a fiddle, dance a jig, sing a song, or get out in the open and run, run like the very devil himself is after you (and this is the "realest" devil you'll ever meet), and keep running till you have conquered.

The foregoing seems simple, but it is the key to the lock that chains you to a bad habit, for "as a man thinketh, so is he," and you are only bound to physical habits because you are mentally bound. Refuse mentally to entertain a bad habit and you become the master of it. Many people in the grip of some bad habit lose courage and cease to fight; they feel that it is not possible for them to conquer it. This is a serious mistake. There is no stage where all hope is forever lost. The quickened soul can rise triumphant over every obstacle that impedes its pathway. With some who still have strength of character the battle may be easily won, with others it may take weeks and months and years, but with every effort made towards a given goal one makes progress, just in proportion to the effort expended.