Young men and
women use up their apparently limitless capital with heedless waste;
those who start with a lesser inheritance neglect the means at their
command for increasing their stock of strength and winning the power
and exuberance of life that might be theirs. There are, of course,
many cases of undeserved ill health; we ill understand as yet the causes
and enemies of bodily vigor, and many a gallant fight for health has
gone unrewarded. But in the great majority of cases a wise conduct
of life would retain robust strength for the threescore or more years
of our allotted course, increase it for those who start poorly equipped,
and regain it for those who by mischance, blunder, or imprudence have
lost their heritage. Yet half the world hardly knows what real health
is. Our hospitals and sanitariums are crowded, our streets are full
of half-sick people-hollow chests, sallow faces, dark-rimmed eyes,
nervous, run-down, worn-out, brain-fagged, dragging on their existence,
or dying before their time, robbed by stupidity and ignorance of their
birthright of full-breathed rosy-cheeked health, and robbing the
society that has reared them of the full quota of their service. Health
is not merely freedom from disease; we have a right to what Emerson
called "plus health." And among the men who rightly awaken our
enthusiasm are those who out of a frail childhood have built up for
themselves by perseverance and will a manhood of physical power,
endurance, and efficiency.
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