The desire to live is the most natural and logical ambition of the human race. Nature created us with a desire to live, and it is through this desire that we have prolonged our lives. Perfect physical and mental manhood or womanhood is the image we admire and aspire to. Those who desire death bring about their own destruction. Fortunately, all pleasures spring from abundant life; hence, life becomes worth striving for. Life means health, and health means life. Where health does not exist, life is not abundantly present. Accomplishment is gradually becoming more attractive to man, and, as a natural result, a de sire is created for a longer term of years in which to perfect his work and enjoy the result of his labor. The capacity to live increases in perfect correspondence with the increased desire to live, Nature having provided a supply for every natural demand.

Life insurance statistics clearly demonstrate that the average length of life has increased greatly in the past twenty years. This increase has been so pronounced that it has been necessary for Insurance Companies to formulate a new scale of rates for the different ages. This is a very important fact, as it has a direct bearing upon your life and upon mine. The future, however, holds greater promises than have been realized in the past, because we have arrived at an age of intelligence, where man has learned that he can be the master of his own body and keep it in perfect health and beauty for an indefinite length of time. Heretofore people were ignorant of the process by which their bodies were built and sustained, but now they are learning the wisdom of the words, "Know thyself."

In response to the demand of an intelligent public for a longer and healthier existence, I shall in these lessons give detailed, definite and practical instructions that will enable every person who follows them to live one hundred years or longer and preserve both mind and body in perfect condition.

There are living at the present time several thousands of people who are over one hundred years of age. This is a proof that people can live longer than the average man or woman is now doing. Where there are now thousands, there should be millions, and will be before another century rolls around. The public is prone to regard the centenarian with awe and wonder, as though for some mysterious reason Nature had in his case stepped aside from its stern purpose of destruction. This is a serious misconception, for the efforts of Nature are always directed toward producing a more abundant life for us. It is through ignorance of this fact that man unconsciously places obstacles in Nature's way, thereby retarding his harmonious progress toward health and long life.

The men and women who have reached one hundred years of life have no peculiar power unattainable by the rest of humanity. Consciously or unconsciously, they have placed themselves in tune with certain principles of life, and thereby secured the natural reward - health and longevity.

I desire to assure you that to reach one hundred years in the full possession of health and beauty is a veritable possibility. Consider carefully the many advantages of a longer life. To desire to live one hundred years is certainly a laudable ambition, but how much grander is the firm intention of reaching the century milestone in the full possession of the power and beauty of superb manhood and womanhood. The decrepit, tottering centenarian, whose childish tones and infantile expressions attract the sympathy of those who observe them, is the direct opposite of the ideal I present to you. That you may more clearly understand my meaning, picture the hero or heroine of a hundred years as stronger, healthier, happier and wiser for every year that has been lived, as being in the prime of life and still having many years of happy, useful life ahead, and you will then approach to a conception of the condition I shall instruct you to attain.

Some men and some women have reached the age of one hundred years without following a well-defined system of living. But this was not due to chance, for in the whole realm of Nature nothing occurs except as the direct result of a specific cause. Those who have reached the one hundred mark without apparent effort have unconsciously conformed to Nature's laws. In some cases they may even have ignored certain principles of hygiene. In such cases long life was earned not by these peculiarities, but in spite of them. In the cultivation of vitality their other habits of living overbalanced the defective ones and resulted in their favor. Had the correct course in all things been followed, they, no doubt, would have added many more years to their lives. Because a few have lived to the century mark in spite of their negligence, it would not be wise for you to hazard your future on a similar plan with the prospects so strongly against you. You can, however, be absolutely sure of reaching the desired goal if you earnestly adhere to the principles of life as explained in these lessons.

Ignorance is daily leading men and women to premature graves, and nothing can rescue them from this destruction but intelligence applied to the daily life. The present awakening interest in the subject of longevity is leading people of intelligence to ask "How shall I live today so that I can assure myself of increased life in future years?" This is a wise question for you to ask yourself. The manner in which you live from today on will decide your future health and happiness. In other words, you are today sowing the seeds of youth or old age, health or sickness, happiness or misery, life or death. Every seed brings forth of its kind, and the harvest is sure to follow in due time.

You, no doubt, have read the romantic story of Ponce de Leon and his search in the vales and forests of Florida for the mystic fountain of youth, that would enable the discoverer to regain and retain youth, health and beauty. He was doomed to disappointment, for, while his ideal was beautiful, his method was impractical. He made the serious mistake that so many people of today are making - he believed that the source of health and youth existed outside of himself. Those who have learned the laws of health and life know that the fountain of youth is within us. The majority of people, through a failure to recognize this all-important fact, resort to the medicine bottle for health. In this way they limit their life and injure their health. Those who worship at the shrine of drugs will eventually, and possibly when too late, discover that they have been serving a false master - that they have been slaves to a delusion that has destroyed them.