morbid and feverish—­I am firmly convinced that by cutting down their meals most people would not only greatly improve their health, but their mental and spiritual condition as well, and also greatly increase their capacity for work ...  And if in this way we can effect such an improvement in our life and condition it does not really matter whether we get to the two or even one meal basis or not.

As to myself, my work is chiefly literary and my life moderately sedentary.  But the fact is that I now have two moderate meals a day whereas I used to have four pretty good ones.  But I have many friends whose work is mechanical, and demands much muscular energy, who are two-mealists.  One lady I know, who is one of the healthiest, strongest and best physically developed persons I have ever met, is a two-mealist, and not only does she work at a mechanical occupation for ten hours a day, but on several evenings each week conducts a ladies gymnastics class as well.  But in her case, as in mine, the two meal was an ideal that was gradually and slowly attained, and not a sudden reform.  Indeed, the main thing to remember is that it is all a matter of training, it being quite impossible to say where the limit is.  For of one thing I am quite sure—­viz. that most people, were they to adopt a slow process of food and meals reduction, on the lines I suggested in my article, would be astonished at the result.  The number of people one meets, chiefly among those whose life is more or less sedentary, who say they can’t work as they should, are subject to pains and heaviness in the head, constipation and indigestion, is simply appalling; and on questioning such people I come to the conclusion that in the majority of cases it is because they eat too much or too often.

My meals are very simple, and the simpler they are the better I like them.  I like a cold lunch about noon, and a hot meal about six.  I have tried a wholly uncooked diet, but as yet my body does not seem ready for it:  perhaps it will be after a little while.  The first meal usually consists of wholemeal bread and fruit, green or vegetable salads, just according to my needs at the time.  In winter I take a more liberal supply of dried fruits and nuts.  Pulses I eschew altogether.  My second meal consists of a substantial entree with one or two conservatively cooked vegetables—­occasionally I have a soup and a sweet in addition.  But of course it is for everyone to find out his or her own ideal diet; and let me say that it is worth while to do so, even though it involves much confusion and perplexity during the period of experimentation.

 WILFRED WELLOCK.

 A BALLADE OF SKYFARING.

     Ye whom bonds of the city chain,
        Yet whose heart must with Nature’s be;
     Ye who, bound to a bed of pain,
        Dream there of torrent and tower and tree,
        Here behold them—­the magic key,
     Turned by a thought in yon gates of blue,
        Even now has revealed to me
     Alps and Mediterranean too.