Against this axiom, alas, graceless and suicidal seems the unwisdom of the world, in action against all who offer it salvation from its pain; aye, though he be Christ or Commoner.

Rather be wrong in league with wealth and power than be right—­and stand alone.  This is now the worldly wisdom of the sage.

Genius at grips with material and religious power, fares ill; as with far-famed Copernicus, or “starry Galileo and his woes”; or, in a brave woman’s daring words:—­“He, who dares to see a truth not recognized in creeds, must die the death.”

“A time of transition is a time of pain,” is a truism well recognized by all, and he who would press Regeneration upon the world—­weak, weary and unthinking as its people are—­must run the gauntlet of the bitter antagonism of the exploiting clans on this benighted sphere, though later he may see, across the bourne that bounds life’s earthly day, a stately monument, perchance, by gratitude upreared, where pious crowds pay tribute to his name.

HYMN OF HEALTH

(From the Greek)

  Health, thou most frangible of heaven’s dower,
  With thee may what remains of life be spent;
  Cease not upon me, thus, thy gifts to shower,
  And in my soul to find a tenement.

  For what is there of beauty, wealth or power,
  Of gentle offspring, or the wiles of love,
  But owes its solace, sweet, in every hour,
  To thee, thou regent of the powers above.

  The spring of pleasure blooms if thou but bless,
  And every step upon the Autumn way
  Is lit by thee, parent of happiness! 
  Without thee sadly sounds life’s roundelay.

  (M.B.)

Health is one of those intangible inestimably precious possessions, like life and liberty, to which all are entitled by natural Law.  Yet are there but few who are careful to conserve this priceless heritage.  It is a boon all too often unappreciated until lost, and once lost, it may not always be regained, though intense be our regrets and our endeavours exhaust the field of human resource.

Again, although the possession of passable health may be ours, it is a condition rarely totally untroubled and continuous and, therefore, cannot be correctly classified as perfect health.

These simple definitions may seem to the reader trite and trivial; but how many of us, let me ask, give thought to their vital vast significance.

Never to need a physician; ever to be unconsciously guarded against all access of disease; to maintain the fair form and vigor of the body without effort, so that no depleting influences can find a hold; this is the health ideal by nature set, the standard to which the earliest progenitors of our race may doubtless have conformed, but upon which succeeding generations have sedulously turned their backs.

Philosophers have defined this physically perfect state.