6 REPRODUCTION 



Whether this particular explanation is true or not, it is 

 certain that the loss of power, the decline in the work of 

 some of the cells of the body, is responsible for what we 

 call "old age" in the body as a whole. 



It is not to be imagined that the external conditions 

 are without influence in this. Aging comes faster under 

 some conditions than under others. All the conditions 

 that help to make life possible have some influence on the 

 rate of maturing and the rate of decline. We find, for 

 example, that human beings tend to mature more rapidly 

 in warm countries. You can "force" plants by increasing 

 the heat and moisture. In general, the conditions that 

 hasten maturity also hasten old age. In human beings 

 many internal conditions and habits also hasten these 

 things. Worry, dissipation, overwork, lack of worth-while 

 work, extreme habits of all sorts seem to increase the rate 

 of living and hasten the moment of decline. It is a paying 

 thing to respect these ways of nature. She does not 

 always hurry, but we can never cheat her in the end. 



9. Death. As the decline passes on, and the income 

 becomes less and less able to meet the outgo, the organism 

 loses more and more its power to adjust itself to the 

 outside conditions and to meet its own needs thereby. 

 Death is merely the entire loss of this power to adapt the 

 inbernal conditions to the external. Dying really begins 

 when the decline begins. Death is merely like the final 

 snap of a bar that has been gradually bending toward its 

 breaking point. When the materials, of which the body 

 of a plant or animal is made, have lost their power of 

 adjustment the plant or animal is dead. The very 

 conditions that stimulated and supported its life before 

 now cause the decay of the complex materials. 



10. The Cycle. If a body is born, grows into and through 

 youth, matures, grows old and dies, it does not end where 

 it began; except that the matter of which it was made 

 came from the outside world and at death goes back to it. 



