n it are the
extensions and limits of our possibilities. In it are health and long
life, or disease and premature death. In it are our hopes and our
fears, our courage, our cowardice, our energy or lassitude, our
strength or weakness, our success or failure. In it are
susceptibilities of high or broad culture, or pinched or narrow
faculties handed down from an uncultured ancestry. From it our bones
and nerves, our muscles and brain, our comeliness or ugliness, all
come. In it are locked up the elements of a vicious or a gentle life,
the tendencies of a criminal or a saint. How important is it, then,
that we should obey the laws of health, and thus maintain the purity
and power of this our earthly River of Life!

"We hear a great deal about the 'vile body,'" said Spencer, "and many
are encouraged by the phrase to transgress the laws of health. But
Nature quietly suppresses those who treat thus disrespectfully one of
her highest products, and leaves the world to be peopled by the
descendants of those who are not so foolish."

Nature gives to him that hath. She shows him the contents of her vast
storehouse, and bids him take all he wants and be welcome. But she
will not let him keep for years what he does not use. Use or lose is
her motto. Every atom we do not utilize this great economist snatches
from us.

If you put your arm in a sling and do not use it, Nature will remove
the muscle almost to the bone, and the arm will become useless, but in
exact proportion to your efforts to use it again she will gradually
restore what she took away. Put your mind in the sling of idleness, or
inactivity, and in like manner she will remove your brain, even to
imbecility. The blacksmith wants one powerful arm, and she gives it to
him, but reduces the other. You can, if you will, send all the energy
of your life into some one faculty, but all your other faculties will
starve.

A young lady may wear tight corsets if she chooses, but Nature will
remove the rose from her cheek and put pallor there. She will replace
a clear complexion with muddy hues and sallow spots. She will take
away the elastic step, the luster from the eye.

Don't expect to have health for nothing. Nothing in this world worth
anything can be had for nothing. Health is the prize of a constant
struggle.

Nature passes no act without affixing a penalty for its violation.
Whenever she is outraged she will have her penalty, although it take a
life.