It is not possible here to transcribe more than a few extracts from the
book on which my attention now became completely riveted. The passages
selected are chosen simply because they may by chance be useful to
those few--those very few--who desire to make of their lives something
more than a mere buy and sell business, and also because they can
hardly be called difficult to understand. When Paracelsus wrote 'The
Secret of Long Life' he did so in a fashion sufficiently abstruse and
complex to scare away all but the most diligent and persevering of
students, this no doubt being his intention. But the instructions given
in the volume placed, as I imagined, for my perusal, were simple and in
accordance with many of the facts discovered by modern science, and as
I read on and on I began to see light through the darkness, and to gain
a perception of the way in which I might become an adept in what the
world deems 'miracle,' but which after all is nothing but the
scientific application of common sense. To begin with, I will quote the
following,--headed