In the chapter elucidating the Law of Assimilation in the _Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception_, we stated that minerals cannot be assimilated because they lack a vital body, which lack makes it impossible for man to raise their vibratory rate to his own pitch. Plants have a vital body and no self-consciousness, hence are most easily assimilated and remain with man longer than cells of animal flesh, which is permeated by a desire body. The vibratory rate of the latter is high, and much energy is required in assimilation; its cells also quickly escape and make it necessary for the flesh eater to forage often. We are aware that alcohol is a “foreign spirit” and a “spirit of decay,” because _it is generated by fermentation_ OUTSIDE the consumer’s system. Being “spirit,” it vibrates with such intense rapidity that the human spirit is incapable of tuning it down and controlling it as food must be, hence metabolism is out of the question. Nay, more, as we cannot reduce its vibratory rate to that of our bodies, this foreign spirit may accelerate their vibratory pitch and control us as happens in the state of intoxication. Thus alcohol is a great danger to mankind and one from which we must be emancipated ere we can realize our divine nature. A stimulant spirit is necessary while we live on a _diet of flesh_ or progress would stop, and _a food_ has been provided for the pioneers of the West that answers all requirements; its name is “sugar.” _From sugar the ego itself generates alcohol_ INSIDE the system by the very processes of metabolism. This product is therefore both food and stimulant, perfectly keyed to the vibratory pitch of the body. It has all the good qualities of alcohol in enhanced measure and none of its drawbacks. To perceive properly the effect of this food, consider the peoples of eastern Europe where but little sugar is consumed. They are slavish; they speak of themselves in terms of depreciation; the pronoun “I” is always spelled with small letters but “you” with a capital. England consumes five times as much sugar per capita as Russia. In the former we meet a different spirit, the big “I” and the little “you.” In America the candy store becomes a most dangerous rival of the saloon, for _the man who eats sweets will not drink_, and there is no surer cure for alcoholism than to induce the sufferer to eat freely of sweets. The drunkard abhors sugar, however, while his system is under the sway of the “foreign spirit.” The temperance movement was begun in the land where _most sugar is consumed_, and has _generated “the spirit of self-respect.”_ Chapter XI MEAT AND DRINK AS FACTORS IN EVOLUTION