directly by upbuilding the body, yet physical vigor arouses, and makes keener and sharper all of the mental faculties, so that if you keep your body in a superb condition your brain will also be in a superb condition, capable of doing the maximum of its greatest and best possible work. In other words, the better animal you are, the more intelligent, the greater achiever you will be. Theodore Roosevelt is a remarkable example of what the harmonious cooperation of body and brain can accomplish. Mr. Roosevelt knows perfectly well that the basis of all achievement is a robust physique, enduring vitality. He knew this at the start, and, when a delicate youth, he diligently and systematically applied himself to the upbuilding of a vigorous body. This is the secret of his marvelous force, his tireless energy, his many and varied accomplishments. There are numerous instances to show that a nursed weakness will often outlast an abused strength. I know people who were born delicate, who, because of inherited weakness, have been forced to take such good care of themselves, to be so systematic and careful in their living habits, that they have lived much longer and accomplished a great deal more than many of their friends and associates, who had such vigorous health at the start that they actually abused it because they thought they could stand almost anything. Later, they found, to their cost, that the spendthrift of health is the worst, the most foolish and reckless, of all spendthrifts. Although most of our college students are a healthy, athletic lot of young fellows, it is pathetic to see the tremendous efforts made by some of them, who neglect college sports in order to give more time to study. While grinding for higher marks, for higher rank, these cadaverous, devitalized students sap their bodies to feed their brains. They do not take half enough exercise; they get little play or fun in their college life, and worse still, they do not eat enough, and what they do eat often is not the right kind of food. The result of this is frequently a physical breakdown. Whatever lessens physical strength or injures the health, sooner or later enfeebles the mind and makes for inefficiency. A large part of the poor work of the world is done because people do not keep themselves in a fit condition to do superb work. No one can do the best of which he is capable unless he feels fit, and the kind and quality of his food, his manner of partaking of it, his habits, regularity of exercise, of recreation, of sleep, his mental habits, all these things have a tremendous influence upon his health. It takes a giant to do a giant's work. No matter how able your brain, if you don't make the stomach, the lungs, and the other bodily organs its allies, if you don't back up your brain in every possible way, you won't get the results you desire. Many people to-day are getting second-class results from first-class brains, because they are not backed up by good health, a strong physique. Everywhere we see men and women with splendid natural ability, fine brains, doing inferior, work; their one hundred per cent. ability is producing only fifty per cent. results on account of low vitality, poor health. Breeding cannot, talent Most of the prizes of life fall to the strong, the physically vigorous, the men and women who back their brains with capacious lung power and fine physical stamina. Nothing else can take the place of these success factors. cannot, education cannot. cripples you, puts you at a will appear in everything you do. You cannot disguise it; you will fall as far below your highest possible success as you fall below the health line. Physical weaklings do not make good leaders, good executives, and as a rule they must march in the ranks of mediocrity. In short, it is an inexorable law of life that the weakest shall go to the wall. Nature has no use for weaklings. With her it is the survival of the fittest. She tramples under foot the physically unfit, the weak and infirm. Frailness of body is inevitably handicapped in life. Physical weakness always discounts the possibilities of achievement. Tackling the great game of life with a weak, depleted body, a low vitality, and indifferent health habits, is about as sensible as it would be to try to win a prize in an athletic contest by entering in an unfit condition—half fed, tired out, exhausted, and without proper training. If If anyone were to suggest competing under such conditions you would say, of course, "Why, there is no chance of success for one so terribly handicapped." How can you expect to win in the great game of life, in competition with giants, if your vitality is low, or if your nerve cells are poisoned with alcohol, or impaired by any kind of dissipation, any vicious life habits? If you want to win the grand prizes of life you must enter the race every day in a superb condition, with every faculty intact, with all your reserve ready to back you in any emergency that may arise. You can't do this if your blood is vitiated, weakened by poor food or by any form of dissipation. The power of every success asset is multiplied by every bit of improvement or increase in physical health, because robust health means the intensification and strengthening of all the mental faculties. Will-power itself is largely a matter of perfect digestion. The very edge of your ambition lives in your blood. Your ambition is sharp, your ideals clean cut, if you are in good condition, but if your blood is devitalized by wrong living, your brain will be weak, your brain product will be stale and lacking in vitality and virility. Courage has a physical basis. A large part of grit is really physical stamina. Rebuffs, failures, disappointments, which only stimulate us when health abounds, terrify us when our bodily standards are down, when we are physically depleted, There will come discouragements, disappointments, and failures even in the best lived lives; and what we do under fire, under discouragement after failure, will depend upon how much courage we have left, how much grit there remains in us, or, to put it in other words, it will depend on how much iron there is in our blood, how much lime there is in our backbone. Your success in rising above failures and disappointments, in overcoming obstacles, depends very largely upon your physical reserves, your plusvitality. It is not enough to be merely well. You must have abounding health; you must have sufficient reserve power stored in your physical bank to carry you safely through the critical places, the emergencies, which will confront you all through your career. I once heard a great surgeon say, as he stood by a patient on the operating table, about to perform a delicate operation, that he feared the operation would prove fatal because the patient's habits and manner of living had been such that he had no reserve vitality to meet the demand about to be made on him. The man, of about fifty, he said, had so exhausted his physical force that he |