As a purifier of both body and mind it is without doubt the thing par excellence for the purpose, for not only is the body again as that of a new-born babe, but the mind is purged of unrighteous thoughts, and is occupied with the higher things of life, thus greatly aiding spiritual growth.

This is natural and easily thinkable, as accounted for by the chapter on The Trinity of Man, for the physical man during the latter stages of the fast can have no depressing effect on the mental man, being free from disease or toxic states, so the mind enters more and more into the subconscious, the soul part, the ego, unencumbered with the usual physical handicaps of the usual toxic body.

While fasting is the short cut to better physical conditions, it is by no means the only or the best, except where the element of time enters in strongly.

If the physical state is such that it cannot be carried much longer, then the fast may be the best as well as the quickest way out of the difficulty, and many are the cases of deep-seated disease that recover through this means after all hope through other sources has been cut off, so as a last resort in desperate cases it is still perhaps the best way.

In this age of table worship it will never be as popular as it fully deserves, but will always continue to serve those who are so far down the slope that they will adopt any means whatever that offers hope of salvation from impending death.

In preparing for a fast it is better not to break off at once from full diet, especially if this contains the usual highly concentrated foods, but to begin by missing one meal a day for a week, then for another week miss two meals a day, taking but one meal daily for at least a week before trying to stop eating entirely. It is also better to make the meals allowed of vegetables and fruits only, till the appetite for regular meals has been thoroughly broken.

It is never so hard for a vegetarian to fast as is the case with the heavy meat eater.

One of the latter, hearing this statement made, said if he were a vegetarian he would gladly fast.

Yet the vegetarian, as a rule, enjoys what he eats as thoroughly as does the meat-eater, but his habits do not have so strong a hold on him as they are not so stimulating.

After two weeks of preliminary diet the fast may then be undertaken without much jar; there is not so great desire for food, and usually after the first two or three days there is no desire at all. The thought of food becomes remote, and one wonders why people think they must eat three meals a day.

When the appetite first leaves is when the first great uplifted feeling comes, the first realisation of emancipation from the formerly imperious demands of habit appetite.

Then day after day there is a feeling of lightness and ability to think, nothing seems hard to accomplish, there is freedom from the depression of fatigue of either physical or mental man, and one becomes in love with life.

This does not last, however, for there are still periods of both mental and physical depression, corresponding to the cycles of detoxication, when more waste than usual is thrown into the circulation, creating the former toxic feelings.

These depressions are of shorter and shorter duration, however, as the body unloads more and more of its toxins, till at the end there may be the greatest freedom from all depression, even though physical weakness is more marked during the last day or two before the end of the fast than at any time after the appetite is broken.

The writer during the last fast, two years ago last June, undertook a measurement of strength before and during and after the fast, using a bar-bell arrangement that was increased, both as to weight and number of movements, for a month before the fast and the twenty-eight days during the continuance of the fast itself.

May first the exercise was begun with thirty pounds in the barbell and fifteen in the dumbbell, and increased as prescribed in the course accompanying the outfit, till by June first the weights were at forty-five and twenty-two and a half, and the number of movements increased as per schedule.

June first the fast was begun without previous preparation, but out of a clear sky and in cold blood.

A feeling of weakness was present during the first three days, which was not actual but merely a feeling that made for a disinclination to work, but when this was undertaken there was no actual weakness, as the usual weight was lifted the usual number of times with only about the ordinary fatigue.

After the third day the weights seemed to grow lighter, and the lifts easier and freer and with less sense of fatigue, and at the end of twenty-eight days the weights were at sixty and thirty pounds and the number of lifts increased as per instructions with even less sense of fatigue than in the beginning when on full diet and with just half the weight used.

He has further noticed that when beginning exercise during fast' ing there was a sense of weakness that passed off after a few lifts, and thoroughly convinced him that he is just as strong while fasting as when eating the full rations.

All his previous fasts have been carried on without any change in his usual work, which is always fairly busy.

The present fast is undertaken, however, under entirely different conditions, but it is anticipated that it will be at least three days longer, the work being purely mental, with only so much lake and sun bathing as is desired or enjoyed.

No other physical activities whatever are taken, with the exception of one weekly visit to the sanatorium to see how everything is going on in his absence, and to spend a week-end with his family at another beach many miles distant.

If judgment is used in exercise, there is no reason why the fast should be taken at absolute rest, as is so often urged, though violent exercise to the limit of endurance is of course not to be considered in any case.