Nature cures, and not medicines. The drug theory is a fallacy. God never made his work for man to mend. It is necessary that this fact should be empha sized in order that all false dependence be laid aside and the true methods carefully studied and faithfully practiced. It should be a great pleasure to every man and woman to know that there is within each of us a fountain of abundant life, which, when fully recognized and developed, will literally bathe every part of the being in its renewing stream.

Youthful life and beauty is a reality so inviting, and decrepitude and ugliness so repulsive, that we should faithfully direct our powers toward living the life that gives enduring youth and health.

In the minds of all true and intelligent men and women there are strong ambitions and desires to excel in some particular line of endeavor. To such people the shortness of the average life is a great disappointment, because the greater part of their ambition must be repressed and much of the work they desired to do be left unfinished. To these aspiring souls the knowledge of how to prolong the youthful life of the body to the crest of a century will be a welcome message. Instead of their grand ideals being laid aside as impossible on account of limited time, they will be taken up with renewed purpose and vigor. What grand opportunities will be opened up to them for the devel opment of power and genius. These opportunities mean everything to those noble men and women who are constantly seeking for a higher and better expression of life.

It is a noteworthy fact that it is the strong, healthy people of well-developed intellects who most desire to prolong life. It is the coward and weakling who desires to early escape its responsibilities. The man of intelligence knows that each added year of health and strength means increased opportunities for improvement, for the development of character and for living a life of usefulness that will be a blessing to others as well as self.

Under old conditions, just when a man's forces should have developed into great power and usefulness, they began to decline. Just when the wisdom from past experiences should have been of the greatest value, it was supplemented by failing powers, lack of perception and loss of physical and mental control. This is an abnormal condition that need no longer destroy the usefulness of humanity.

This is a century of rapid progress and wonderful discoveries. We can only dimly foresee the grand and glorious benefits to future generations that will result from our present efforts. The near future holds for you and for all more wonderful possibilities than you can now comprehend. To participate in the coming developments, you, like every other man of thought and action, must aspire to gain and retain health, strength and long life.

The growing intelligence of man is removing the crudities of life, banishing sickness, poverty and misery, and, in their place, attracting health, wealth and happiness, thus making this earth a literal paradise. I have a definite reason for pointing out to you some of the glorious possibilities of the coming years. Because it is necessary that you enter into this attainment with the vim and vigor of the man who has high ideals and with the confidence, determination and will to effectually carry the rules into daily practice.

I want you to understand that the mere length of life is not the only question at issue. It is true that we desire long life, health and youthfulness, but we must also be wise enough to recognize that the quantity or length of life depends upon the quality or usefulness of life.

Our great attainment therefore consists of elevating the quality of daily life to the highest possible stand ard. You will readily see that the method I teach is not based on the selfish desire to gain life for purely personal gratification. We can do nothing without life, and without healthful, vigorous life we are seriously handicapped. "The survival of the fittest" is a law we must consider. The normal ambition of every man and woman, therefore, should be to prolong health and life by becoming fit to survive. If you would live one hundred years in health and beauty, you must fit yourself for that grand position. You need not expect to live a century by reason of your mere desire. You must back up that desire by the honest endeavor to truly fit yourself for the prolongation of life. The stern, yet beautiful, purpose of Nature is to remove the unfit to make room for the fit. As a student of these lessons, you can positively place yourself in a fit condition to live a complete century and still possess the clear mind, the strong, healthy, beautiful body, the perfect hearing and sight of the man of twenty-five. The hundred years will not represent the decline, but the prime of life.

Take a good honest look at yourself as you appear today. What do you see pictured in the mirror before you? Do you see youth, power and beauty of form and features? If you are so fortunate, you may retain all these beyond the boundary of a century. Do you instead see pictured the man or woman of middle age? Are you at that critical point between youth and old age? If so, these lessons will teach you to live each day so that the advance of age may be stopped. Perhaps the mirror reveals the image of old age. Is your case hopeless? Is it too late to mend? No, not if you will make a supreme effort to renew and invigorate your life. The signs of approaching old age can be removed, the will power strengthened, the memory brightened, the body made erect, strong and supple.

From this introductory lesson, you will have gleaned an idea of my purpose in teaching people to prolong their lives. It will have prepared you to understand the system of bodily renewal which I will explain in the next lesson, and the instructions and rules given in the succeeding lessons.

The majority of people who fail, do so for the reason that they have no clearly defined and formulated ideals in life. They have vague longings and half formed ambitions, but have not devoted sufficient study and energy to them to have them rightly directed. The marksman must clearly center his vision on the bulls eye. There must be no uncertainty in his aim. His skill as a marksman depends upon his clearness of direction. So each student of these lessons must see clearly before his mental vision the ideal of one hundred years of superb health and beauty and never let a lesser ideal obscure the view.