le 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.

Historians have immortalized it in heroic tomes.

Poets have extolled it in great epic verse.

Artists have depicted it in portraiture and tapestry.

Sculptors have expressed it in the life-like stone.

The sick have longed for it.

Saints have prayed for it and, in the search for its fabled, false elixir,
alchemists have sacrificed their lives. It remained for the smug