During a comparatively few weeks, immediately preceding the commencement of this chapter, the author lost five old friends, varying in age from sixty to sixty-six - all of whom, blessed with good constitutions, ought by all the laws of life to have lived another twenty years. In one instance health was subordinated to science, in another to pleasure, and in the third and fourth to carelessness, born of ignorance of themselves. In each case a vital organ broke down owing to that absolute failure to recognise the laws which govern health, and to the consequent pressure which is placed upon the mechanism of the body - a pressure which a much less delicate organism could not successfully withstand.

Man has constructed beautiful machinery, and whether it is working or not, he maintains it in perfect order. He lubricates it, he adjusts it, he repairs it, and when it is working he "stands by," careful not to work it too fast, and to maintain regular action and perfect equilibrium. The same man neglects the mechanism of his own body, which is a thousand times more fragile and wonderful than any machine in the world; he fails to keep it clean, and never adjusts it for twenty-four consecutive hours. On the contrary, he abuses it with more or less regularity until the end of his life, denying to himself that care, thought and attention which he confers on the machinery in his factories, and the horses and cattle which he controls.

I have met with persons who indulge in all the good things of life, and who, with the arrival of physical trouble, throw the onus on God. The unwritten laws of the universe which teach us that we shall reap what we have sown, are ignored altogether in the claim to eat and to drink, not only what God has provided, but what man has invented to give pleasure to the palate or a stimulant to the system, as often and as abundantly as he chooses.

If alcohol kills its thousands, excessive eating and the consumption of improper foods kill their thousands too. The systems of man and the animals he domesticates are closely allied. Why, therefore, should he indulge himself as he dare not indulge them, without the conviction that he will pay for it, as they would, by the destruction of his health or the loss of his life? Science has determined with some accuracy not only what foods but what quantities of those foods domestic animals require, both under conditions of labour and inactivity, for the maintenance of their health and productive power. Man ignores all teaching in the same direction, and, having eaten enough for two or three people, or eaten unsuitable foods and been attacked by some disease in consequence, he prays for recovery from the trouble which he says God has "inflicted" upon him. The disease is not the work of a merciful Creator, it is self-inflicted; it is the harvest which follows the sowing of the seed.

The man who drives to his office after a bountiful breakfast, works until one, and then indulges in a costly and liberal luncheon, cannot continue the practice without harm. Still less can he drive home again, eat a four or five course dinner with wine, and remain well, in spite of his doctor. He may abuse himself in this way when he is young and vigorous, but he is only deferring the day of collapse, which nothing can avert if he persists. So it is that strong men live "well" for a time, and later on simply exist with the assistance of their medical man, until an organ breaks down when they reach sixty to sixty-five years of age - and they are gone. Thus a life is wasted although it might have been long, useful and happy. This is no less than unintentional suicide. God is not the dread being who condemns one of His creatures to die immature, and another to die at the age of fourscore. Inheritance, environment, occupation, the example and teaching of parents, all play a part in man's physical power, his health, his happiness, and the length of his life. Knowing, as we do, that the clergyman and the farmer live much longer than the butcher or the miner, that the temperate man lives longer than the intemperate, the children of long-lived parents than those whose parents were unhealthy and died young, how can we regard "chance" as a factor in the length of our days, or presume to believe that God selects victims for early destruction or for the infliction of a lingering or painful disease? Or, on the other hand, how can we suppose that health and length of life are not largely in our own hands?

Life, and especially happy life, depends much upon its usefulness. If it is aimless, if it is unoccupied, it breeds discontent, alike with its fellow-man and its Maker. Life should be employed with a purpose, an object which is outside of itself. If it is buoyant and bright, that object will be attained, in so far as its powers permit; but if it is governed by a temperament which is always devoted to self and self's sorrows, whether they are real or imaginary, it will decline and leave nothing behind it but the sad epitaph: "What might have been."

Those who are sinking in the "vale of years" will not find the physical life respond to mere physical help. There is a psychical side. While recognising all the blessings we enjoy, we should follow some pursuit right up to the last, engaging the mind by which the body should be controlled. It has been said that while the healthy body of a strong man obeys the mind, the unhealthy body of a weak man rules it. In the practice of the art of life man should not be controlled by circumstances - he should control them. If he knew that, like a clever woman, he could preserve himself, as she can preserve her beauty, by self-control, he would still fail, as woman fails, because she declines to believe. There is no more certain road to this result than to reject those foods which, like alcohol, make the body coarse and impinge upon the mind. The beauty of woman, like the mind of man, is marred by flesh-food eating, as by strong drinking, and retained by taking fruit instead.