The distinction between the movements of reaction and of regression is of importance, because upon imitating Nature in its curative processes, it will be necessary to follow different courses; one along the same lines as the effort, and the other divergently such as tends towards reaching the finality of Nature: its conservation.
The vital process does not cease its evolution until it has accomplished its complete development and complied with the mission corresponding to it on the stage of life.
The organism of normal type follows an ascending curve up to the age of maturity where it then stops and thereafter begins its descent or decadence on account of the senescence of the organization.
This regression is first noted in the strictly vegetative organs: as the hair, teeth, finger and toenails, skin, etc., and then in those having greater functions: as the lungs, heart, stomach, etc. Even when the human organism has not suffered any lacerations nor moral afflictions such as affect the health, the simple passing of the years would suffice for bringing on that most natural and necessary infirmity of them all: old age.
This form of debilitation, the really natural one, should constitute the normal ending of all living creatures, including man; but it does not so occur, because in man diseases become multiplied owing to the accidents which take place as the result of his mode of life. As long as men lived in accordance with the laws of Nature, they suffered from very few maladies, but as civilization continued to increase their necessities other ills made their appearance. Animals, owing to their natural instincts, do not require in life any satisfaction other than that which is demanded by the law of self-preservation.
Once their hunger has been appeased, they cease their depredations; once the female becomes pregnant, they do not touch her again, and thus she conserves her fecundity during the whole natural period. Animals do not take stimulants nor narcotics; they do not perturb their desires by means of those incentives which man has invented for the purpose of making the satiation of his necessities more attractive; nor do they resort to those subterfuges of the imagination in order to excite their unvitiated desires, for their pleasures and their necessities are satiated according to their desires, and consequently they do not experience any loathings, nor have they a reason to deplore their behavior. Birds, fishes, insects, etc., require no physicians, for Nature takes charge of their preservation and restores their health on the few occasions that they lose it.
Man excites his functions by means of stimulants, depraves himself by means of medicinal drugs, exhausts himself by the immoderate use of his functions, and shortens his days as the result of the artificial life which he leads. Instead of the sweet satisfaction of living in accordance with the laws of Nature, he lives contrary to them, and thereupon suffers the punishment which the selfsame Nature imposes upon all those who violate its mandates. Even death is so feared would be pious enough as to come and close the eyes of a sick man and gladden him with a friendly smile.
Humanity continues its onward march down through the centuries, renovating itself continually, and as a part of that constant movement the human generations struggle and strive to occupy the place which the former generations have left on the stage of life. The human mowing is necessary and constant, the pretext is disease and if this were not a natural accident of life which must perforce have an ending, senescence would eliminate the weak element for the purpose of providing a place for the vigorous ones, and for those who had completed the natural cycle of their existence.
Death, like sleep, is the well-earned rest after an incessant period of labor such as constitutes life.
