Whether this astounding statement of the learned doctor has any basis
of truth or not I do not know, but that the lesson he sought to impress
by it is true, my own experience can attest. During a period of several
years, with another young enthusiast, I subsisted on a diet of bread
and apples except when these could not be had, when we repaired the
waste of our bodies by eating whole wheat, a bag of which we constantly
carried with us for "emergencies." Often we have subsisted on whole
wheat and clear water alone for several days, and even a week at a
time. During these periods we did not notice that we lost flesh. Of
course we had very little to lose, but our vigor and the intensity of
our enthusiasm and faith in our powers, all of which depend largely
upon the amount of nutriment carried from the stomach to the brain, and
various nerve centers, were not in the least diminished. Later on we
found that when convenient, we could obtain more nourishment from the
wheat with less chewing by having it boiled, but when boiled, we could
not carry with us a week's rations without fatigue, and boiled wheat
will become sour in the summer time while whole dry wheat will keep for
years, and, like feminine beauty, remain ever fresh. It is the most
condensed form of digestible food known to man.
Of course where men have dissipated and their powers of digestion have
been undermined by intoxicating liquor, tobacco, or the habitual use
of highly spiced and over-prepared foods, any coming down to a natural
diet like this is a severe hardship. But for a young man with firm
faith and good health, NOT TO BE IMPEDED IN HIS DESIRE TO BECOME AN
ESSENTIAL FACTOR IN THE GREATEST MOVEMENT OF HISTORY BY THE MERE FACT
THAT HE HAS NO MONEY WITH WHICH TO PAY CAR FARE AND BUY GOOD FOOD AND
CLOTHES, the suggestions here given will be found helpful. I would
not advise others to do, what I have not done or am not willing to do
myself. The fact is, however, that any young man, in good health, and
formed of the right kind of "dust," can travel, without any money from
one end of the country to the other speaking daily, and accomplish
much for our cause, even if he does not meet more than one true
friend in a thousand miles. But the comforts and vices and follies of
civilization he must be able to do without.
This austere and ascetic mode of life is not commended for its own
sake. The suggestion is merely thrown out as one possible way of
beginning work, so that no young man in good health can claim that he
would have done wonders for the cause had he not been prohibited by
poverty. No such excuse exists. Healthy single men can live and thrive
if buoyed up by hope and faith and manly purpose, and travel the world
over on a quarter of the wages of a day laborer.
NOT CIVIL BUT MILITARY.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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