"No man can be happy without health," answered Paul, "and surely you
will admit that the discoveries of the last few decades have done
much to improve his physical condition."
He was nestling back into the corner of his lounge, where the shadow
of the mantelpiece screened his face, and enabled him to look
directly into Ah Ben's eyes, now fixed upon him with strange
intensity. There was a power behind those eyes that was wont to
impress the beholder with a species of interest which he felt might
be developed into awe; and yet they were neither large nor handsome,
as eyes are generally counted. Deep set, mounted with withered lids
and shaggy brows, their power was due to the manifestation of a
spiritual force, a Titanic will, that made itself felt, independent
of material envelopment. It was the soul looking through the narrow
window of mortality.
"Health?" said Ah Ben, repeating Henley's last idea interrogatively,
and yet scarcely above a whisper.
"Yes, health," answered Paul. "I maintain that the old maxim of
'early to bed' says something on that score, as well as on that of
wealth."
"True, but you said that a man must needs be healthy to be happy."
"That's it, and I maintain that it's a pretty good assertion."
"There again we must differ. Happiness should be independent of
bodily conditions, whether those conditions mean outward luxury or
inward ease. I must again refer you to the prize-fighter. But if you
will pardon me, I think you have put the cart before the horse; for
once having granted that personal power, happiness must ensue, and
your health as a necessity follow. First cultivate this occult force,
and we need submit to no physical laws; for inasmuch as the higher
controls the lower, we are masters of our own bodies."
"That is a pretty good prescription for those who are able to follow
it, but for my humble attainments I'd rather depend on physic and a
virtuous life."
"Quite so," answered Ah Ben, thoughtfully, "but, speaking frankly,
this limitation of your powers to the chemical action of your body
only shows the narrowness of your scientific training. Had men been
taught the power of the will as the underlying principle of every
effect, one drug would have proved quite as efficacious as another,
and bread pills would have met the requirements of the world."
"But in the state of imbecility in which we happen to find
ourselves," added Paul, "I should think that a judicious application
of the world's wisdom would be better than trifling with theories one
does not comprehend."