448 ROSICRUCIANCOSMO-CONCEPTION
may be disseminated, as flowers entice bees for a similar
purpose.
Fresh fruit contains water of the purest and best kind,
capable of permeating the system in a marvelous manner.
Grape juice is a particularly wonderful solvent. It thins and
stimulates the blood, opening the way into capillaries
already dried and choked up—if the process has not gone
too far. By a course of unfermented grape juice treatment,
people with sunken eyes, wrinkled skins and poor
complexions become plump, ruddy and lively. The increased
permeability enables the spirit to manifest more freely and
with renewed energy. The following table, which with the
exception of the last column, is taken from the publications
of the United States Department of Agriculture, will give the
aspirant some idea of the amount it is necessary to eat for
different degrees of activity, also the constituents of the
various foods named.
Considering the body from a purely physical standpoint,
it is what we might call a chemical furnace, the food being
the fuel. The mor e the body is exercised, the mor e fuel it
requires. It would be foolish for a man to change an ordinary
diet which for years had adequately nourished him, and take
up a new method without due thought as to which would be
the best for serving his purpose. To simply eliminate meats
from the ordinary diet of meat-eaters would unquestionably
undermine the health of most persons. The only safe way is
to experiment and study the matter out first, using due
discrimination. No fixed rules can be given, the matter of
diet being as individual as any other characteristic. All that
can be done is to give the table of food values and describe
the general influence of each chemical element, allowing the
aspirant to work out his own method.