444 ROSICRUCIANCOSMO-CONCEPTION
to do this. Where does it renew its deadly load? There can be
but one answer to that question—from the food and drink;
there is absolutely no other source.
The food and drink which nourish the body must be, at
the same time, the primary source of the calcareous, earthy
matter which is deposited by the blood all over the system,
causing decrepitude and finally death. To sustain physical
life it is necessary that we eat and drink but as there are
many kinds of food and drink, it behooves us, in the light of
the above facts, to ascertain, if possible, what kinds contain
the smallest proportion of destructive matter. If we can find
such food we can lengthen our lives and, from an occult
standpoint, it is desirable to live as long as possible in each
dense body, particularly after a start has been made toward
the path. So many years are required to educate, through
childhood and hot youth, each body inhabited, until the spirit
can at last obtain some control over it, that the longer we can
retain a body that has become amenable to the spirit's
promptings, the better. Therefore it is highly important that
the pupil partake of such food and drink only as will deposit
the least amount of hardening matter and at the same time
keep the excretory organs active.
The skin and the urinary system are the saviors of man
from an early grave. Were it not that by their means, most of
the earthy matter taken with our food is eliminated, no one
would live ten years.
It has been estimated that ordinary, undistilled spring
water contains carbonate and other compounds of lime to
such an extent that the average quantity used each day by
one person in the form of tea, coffee, soup, etc., would in
forty years be sufficient to form a block of solid chalk or
marble the size of a large man. It is also a significant fact