I believe all manner of asceticism to be the vilest blasphemy--
blasphemy towards the whole of the human race. I believe in the
flesh and the body, which is worthy of worship--to see a perfect human body
unveiled causes a sense of worship. The ascetics are the only persons who
are impure. Increase of physical beauty is attended by increase of soul
beauty. The soul is the high even by gazing on beauty. Let me be fleshly
perfect.

It is in myself that I desire increase, profit, and exaltation
of body, mind, and soul. The surroundings, the clothes, the dwelling, the
social status, the circumstances are to me utterly indifferent. Let the
floor of the room be bare, let the furniture be a plank table, the bed a
mere pallet. Let the house be plain and simple, but in the midst of air and
light. These are enough--a cave would be enough; in a warmer climate the
open air would suffice. Let me be furnished in myself with health, safety,
strength, the perfection of physical existence; let my mind be furnished
with highest thoughts of soul-life. Let me be in myself myself fully. The
pageantry of power, the still more
foolish pageantry of wealth, the senseless precedence of place;
words fail me to express my utter contempt for such pleasure or
such ambitions. Let me be in myself myself fully, and those I
love equally so.

It is enough to lie on the sward in the shadow of green boughs,
to listen to the songs of summer, to drink in the sunlight, the air, the
flowers, the sky, the beauty of all. Or upon the hill-tops to watch the
white clouds rising over the curved hill-lines, their shadows descending the
slope. Or on the beach to listen to the sweet sigh as the smooth sea runs up
and recedes. It is lying beside the immortals, in-drawing the life of the
ocean, the earth, and the sun.