dis-comfort, and remove the contributing cause rather than smother or cover up the danger signal with a pill, potion, powder or pellet. Eat less, sleep more, breathe more fully, walk more, ride less, exercise more, get out into Nature more, live more simply in every way and thus come back to God's condition of ease, comfort, joy, and radiant happiness of body. This is possible,—it is attainable, for it is God's plan for each and every one.

I am fully convinced that we shall never rise to the heights of spiritual power and joy possible to us here on the earth until we learn to "stop! look! listen!" We must observe more carefully, and sit quiet, receptive to the voice of the Master. Few Americans know the joy and the comfort of meditation. How many of us can sit still for an hour, half an hour, ten minutes, deliberately shutting out all outside things, and allowing the Spirit voices to speak to our soul?

Tagore, the Hindu poet, when in this country, even though traveling, lecturing, writing, etc., devoted two hours of every morning to meditation.

I am assured that when we learn thus to sit and listen to the Spirit's voice, we shall make fewer mistakes, have fewer errors to lament, and therefore, will be more perfectly able to Go Through Life Singing with God.

CHAPTER XLI

SONGS THAT ALL SHOULD SING

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We have volumes in series of songs that all should

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know, poems that all should read, legends and folk tales, myths, historical stories, dramas, tragedies, comedies, novels, etc., etc., ad libitum, ad infinitum, that all should be familiar with.

My chapter will be patterned after none of these, for it will not deal with books or any of the creative works of man's imagination. I would take men and women away from man's work, for awhile, away from books, and theaters, and concert-halls, away from human skill and achievement, away from those things that are most accounted "worth while" by the great majority. I would take them out of doors, into the primitive simplicities of life. I would draw their attention to, and try to teach them the allurements and attractions of the common things, the grass, the trees, the songs of the birds, the flowers, the shrubs, the odorous pine and other balsamic trees, the forests, canyons, brooks, creeks, rivers, mountains, seashore and desert.

Indeed, I would go further. If I may be allowed to express myself with perfect freedom I would re

fuse the designation "civilized" to any and all governments that did not teach every child within its boundaries, at its (the government's) own expense if necessary, the full significance of the words country, forest, seashore, ocean, island, mountain, canyon, glacier, waterfall, mountain-creek, river, geyser, and desert.

As for the wealthier and so-called educated classes, I would refuse them a passport into accepted society until they could demonstrate intelligently their familiarity with all the chief scenic wonders of their own land.

But there are a few "ideals of longing," a few ought-to-be-attained visions that I would place in the hearts of the great mass of my countrymen and women for themselves and their children, all of which are attainable, and none of which can be neglected, in my humble judgment, without great and irrepara

ble loss.

Every boy and girl, every youth and maiden, and most men and women should sing the song of the seaside. No matter what kind of a bathing suit is in fashion, everyone that can should plunge in the surf, learn to swim and have a full knowledge of the delight of rising and falling as he breasts the waves of the sea. There is an exhilaration, a stimulus to the senses, a vivifying of the whole body, that comes from this all-embracing clasp of the sea, this close, intimate, surrounding contact.

Then, while I do not wish to come in conflict with any of the high ideals of morality or decency held by my many friends, I do want to express my assurance that the lounging on the sand by children and adults and the kissing of the body by the sun and air is of incalculable benefit. It makes the pores sing with health, and gives the skin a color that would rejoice an Indian, and at the same time helps make the breath sweet and clean, and gives to the eyes a brightness, a sparkle and a dance that no cosmetic or bottled stuff ever accomplished.

The next step in the universal education should be an initiation into country living-not a hasty dash through it in an automobile, but a full month or two, given over to real country living,-fresh milk, fresh eggs, freshly picked fruit, vegetables, taken from the garden an hour before they are eaten, climbing trees, bathing in the creek, fishing, perhaps, as one follows its meanders and windings, walking barefoot in the grass or in the dust of the country roads, milking the cows or goats, making butter and cheese, skimming the cream from the milk-pans, wearing one's oldest and raggedest and holeiest clothes, going out into the sunshine without a hat, accumulating freckles, tan, and lungs full of fresh air. Then there should be games of running and jumping and climbing-all the baseball, football and basket ball that youth could desire, exercises of every kind to compel deep breathing and the stretching

and pulling and working of every muscle, sinew, nerve, vessel, and organ of the body. No one (except those too old or physically incompetent) should be exempt. All should get up a healthy "tired," and an equally healthy appetite. Tea, coffee, tobacco, candy, puff boxes, vanity bags, and the like should be absolutely tabooed and living the simple life should be the keynote of every song. Then, when night-time came, no sleeping indoors in stuffy rooms. with windows and doors closed, on feather beds, but out-of-doors, on straw or pine-needle mattresses, looking up to the sky and the stars as a ceiling, walled in by the rising sun on the east and the setting sun on the west.

Then, for breakfast, instead of the usual indigestible "truck" of hot cakes and coffee, I would substitute a full quota of ripe fruit,-oranges, peaches, pears, plums, prunes, apples or whatever could be had, giving the body what it so seldom gets and yet ever craves and delights in, a full meal of deliciously sweet, yet refreshingly acid fruit.

Some time during the morning I would interject a few minutes practical exercises, giving to each muscle its work, setting up the body as the soldiers do in their drill, in fact, giving to every girl as well as every boy, the main features of the healthful portion of military drill without any of its suggestion of war.

Then in the afternoon, every boy and girl, youth