_Health_, _Happiness_ and _Longevity_ seem to be all that is required for mortal man. They are the foundation, the superstructure, and the apex respectively of the great _Pyramid_ of life. Who would desire more than the possession of perfect health, the realization of happiness, the achievement of ripe old age, retaining all the pleasurable attributes of Perfected Manhood, experiencing all these until called upon to surrender this present house of clay for a more advanced state, whatever that may be? Such degrees of soundness, felicity, and age, which we have mentioned, are within the reach of all who desire them, if they will observe the rules implied in the following terms, arranged in the order of their importance: Regularity, Cleanliness, Temperance (or moderation), Morality, and Self-control. It is safe to state the proposition that there is not one in a thousand of those induced to peruse this humble effort, who will not claim to possess one or more of the foregoing virtues, while a fair minority will urge that they are characterized by all of them.
That your _egoism_ may not get the better of you in the start and bias you before reading my talk, I will frankly say that there is hardly a person living to-day who is either regular, cleanly, temperate, moral, or self-controlled. It is a fact that some have made fair efforts in those lines of action, but we shall attempt to prove that not any have perfected themselves in a single attribute above mentioned. With us, regularity, cleanliness, temperance, morality, and self-control are so interlaced as to become synonymous terms, the perfection of any one of which means the consummation of all, while their master could laugh at sorrow, pain, and even death, for through long years they would pass his door and forget to knock. Just in proportion as we approximate these virtues, correspondingly will our _lives_ be prolonged and our _happiness_ intensified. _Fear_ will not prostrate us because
"Death rides on every passing breeze, He lurks in every flower."
As modifying the foregoing partially, let us understand, however, that it is possible to have health and longevity to a wonderful degree without cleanliness, temperance, morality, and self-control, on one vital consideration. That is, the _continual_ exercise of _regularity_. Here we have the corner-stone of the whole structure of health, the cardinal first law. But can we be happy without the generous employment of _all_ these virtues? Obviously and fortunately, we cannot. _Health_ is also the chief _desideratum_ to happiness. As disease creeps through the physical frame, as aches and pains increase and torment our bodies, our _doubts_ supplant _faith_ in the _Source_ of all goodness.