THE SECRET? 5OI 



This question would take long to answer in full, for life 

 is a twisted cable of many cords ; but there are always 

 some main strands that run through every man's history 

 and give it its special character. Let us unwind a few of 

 these in the rope of John Duncan's story. They are not 

 difficult to unloose. 



The secret lay, primarily, in the possession and constant 

 cultivation of pure and simple tastes in regard to the daily 

 needs of life. His appetites were satisfied with the plainest 

 substantial fare. It is surprising how very plain may be 

 the food we need, in both eating and drinking, if only it is 

 good and wholesome a fact that science, now that it has 

 condescended to study the relation of our tables to our 

 stomachs, increasingly demonstrates. The more we act on 

 the real scientific wisdom of plainness in these things, the 

 healthier and happier we shall be. " Can a man," wisely 

 asks good Jeremy Taylor, " quench his thirst better out of 

 a river than a full urn, or drink better from the fountain 

 which is finely paved with marble than when it wells over 

 the green turf?" 



But in spite of such demonstrations towards plainness, 

 we are all of us, even the poorest, suffering from the 

 insidious growth of luxury, attendant on the general in- 

 crease of material wealth. We are forgetting how little 

 man really requires for health, and we are losing the capacity 

 of enjoying the plain and good in food, dress, house and 

 ''comforts." Thus are we constantly requiring to be re- 

 minded, by living examples, of the true facts of the case, 

 the really homely conditions of human happiness. To 

 these John Duncan's life should once more recall us, and 

 thereby do good service. By his narrow possessions and 



