w life, and to preserve it from
decay, many years longer than it does now. The longest-lived men and
women have, as a rule, been those who have attained great mental and
moral development. They have lived in the upper region of a higher life,
beyond the reach of much of the jar, the friction, and the discords
which weaken and shatter most lives.

Every physician knows that courageous people, with indomitable will, are
not half as likely to contract contagious diseases as the timid, the
vacillating, the irresolute. A thoughtful physician once assured a
friend that if an express agent were to visit New Orleans in the
yellow-fever season, having forty thousand dollars in his care, he would
be in little danger of the fever so long as he kept possession of the
money. Let him once deliver that into other hands, and the sooner he
left the city the better.

Napoleon used to visit the plague hospitals even when the physicians
dreaded to go, and actually put his hands upon the plague-stricken
patients. He said the man who was not afraid could vanish the plague. A
will power like this is a strong tonic to the body. Such a will has
taken many men from apparent death-beds, and enabled them to perform
wonderful deeds of valor. When told by his physicians that he must die,
Douglas Jerrold said: "And leave a family of helpless children? I won't
die." He kept his word, and lived for years.

CHAPTER V.

THE ROMANCE OF ACHIEVEMENT UNDER DIFFICULTIES.

What doth the poor man's son inherit?
Stout muscles, and a sinewy heart,
A hardy frame, a hardier spirit!
King of two hands he does his part
In every useful toil and art:
A heritage it seems to me,
A king might wish to hold in fee.
_Lowell_.

Has not God given every man a capital to start with? Are we not born
rich? He is rich who has good health, a sound body, good muscles; he is
rich who has a good head, a good disposition, a good heart; he is rich
who has two good hands, with five chances on each. Equipped? Every man
is equipped as only God could equip him. What a fortune he possesses in
the marvellous mechanism of his body and mind. It is individual effort
that has achieved everything worth achieving.

THE FUN OF THE LITTLE GAME.

A big Australian, six feet four, James Tyson, died not long since, with
a property of $25,000,000, who began life as a farm hand. Tyson cared
little for money. He used to say of it:

"I shal