Maintaining Health | Page 2

to be considerably older, and it is within the
power of each individual to prolong his life beyond what is now
considered old age.
Under favorable conditions people should live in comfort and health to
the age of one hundred years or more, useful and in full possession of

their faculties. Barring accidents, which should be less numerous when
people fully realize that unreasonable haste and speed are wasteful and
that life is more valuable than accumulated wealth, human life could
and should be a certainty. There should be no sudden deaths resulting
from the popular diseases of today. In fact, pneumonia, typhoid fever,
tuberculosis, cancer and various other ills that are fatal to the vast
majority of the race, should and could be abolished. This may sound
idealistic, but though such results are not probable in the near future,
they are possible.
All civilized nations of which we have record, except the Chinese, have
decayed after growing and flourishing a few centuries, usually about a
thousand years or less. Many reasons are given for the decline and fall
of nations. Rome especially furnishes food for much thought. However,
look into the history of each known nation that has risen to prominence,
glory and power, and you will find that so long as they kept in close
contact with the soil they flourished. With the advance of civilization
the peoples change their mode of life from simplicity to luxuriousness
and complexity. Thus individuals decay and in the end there is enough
individual decay to result in national degeneration. When this process
has advanced far enough these people are unable to hold their own. In
the severe competitition of nations the strain is too great and they
perish. There is a point of refinement beyond which people can not go
and survive.
From luxury nations are plunged into hardship. Then their renewed
contact with the soil gradually causes their regeneration, if they have
enough vitality left to rise again. Such is the history of the Italians.
Many others, like the once great Egyptians, whose civilization was very
far advanced and who became so dissolute that a virtuous woman was a
curiosity, have been unable to recover, even after a lapse of many
centuries. The degenerated nations are like diseased individuals: Some
have gone so far on the road to ruin that they are doomed to die. Others
can slowly regain their health by mending their ways.
Nations, like individuals, generally do better in moderate circumstances
than in opulence. Nearly all can stand poverty, but only the exceptional

individual or nation can bear up under riches. Nature demands of us
that we exercise both body and mind.
Civilization is not inimical to health and long life. In fact, the contrary
is true, for as the people advance they learn to master the forces of
nature and with these forces under control they are able to lead better,
healthier lives, but if they become too soft and luxurious there is decay
of moral and physical fibre, and in the end the nation must fall, for its
individual units are unworthy of survival in a world which requires an
admixture of brain and brawn.
Civilization is favorable to long life so long as the people are moderate
and live simply, but when it degenerates to sensuous softness,
individual and racial deterioration ensue. Among savages the infant
mortality is very great, but such ills as cancer, tuberculosis, smallpox
and Bright's disease are rare. These are luxuries which are generally
introduced with civilization. Close housing, too generous supply of
food, too little exercise and alcohol are some of the fatal blessings
which civilized man introduces among savages.
A part of the price we must pay for being civilized is the exercise of
considerable self-control and self-denial, otherwise we must suffer.
The state of the individual health is not satisfactory. There is too much
illness, too much suffering and too many premature deaths. It is
estimated that in our country about three millions of people are ill each
day, on the average. The monetary loss is tremendous and the anguish
and suffering are beyond estimate.
The race is losing every year a vast army of individuals who are in their
productive prime. When a part of a great city is destroyed men give
careful consideration to the material loss and plan to prevent a
recurrence. But that is nothing compared to the loss we suffer from the
annual death of a host of experienced men and women. Destroyed
business blocks can be replaced, but it is impossible to replace men and
women.
We look upon this unnecessary waste of life complacently because we

are used to it and consequently think that it is natural. It is neither
necessary nor natural. If we would read and heed nature's writings it
would