ANTAGONISM. 615 



tary life is voluntarily undertaken, ill as it is paid. If it were 

 well paid, half our men would be in tlie military or naval service, 

 and I am not sure that we should not have regiments of Amazons ! 

 The increased risk of life or limbs and the arduous nature of the 

 work do not prevent men belonging to all classes from entering 

 these services, little remunerative as they are. Others take the 

 risks of traveling in the deserts of Africa or wintering in the polar 

 regions, of being eaten by lions or frozen to death, of falling from 

 a Swiss mountain or foundering in a yacht, in preference to a life 

 of tranquillity ; and sportsmen elect the danger of endeavoring to 

 kill an animal that can and may kill them, to shooting tame pheas- 

 ants at a battue or partridges in a turnip-field. Then, in what is 

 euphemistically called a life of peace, buyer and seller, master and 

 servant, landlord and tenant, debtor and creditor, are all in a 

 state of simmering antagonism ; and the inventions and so-called 

 improvements of applied science and art do not lessen it. Exer- 

 cise is antagonism ; at each step force is used to lift up our bodies 

 and push back the earth ; as the eminent Joseph Montgolfier said, 

 that when he saw a company dancing, he mentally inverted his 

 view and imagined the earth dancing on the dancers' feet, which 

 it most unquestionably did. Indeed, his great invention of bal- 

 loons was guessed at by his witnessing a mild form of antagonism 

 between heat and gravitation. He, being a dutiful husband, was 

 airing his wife's dresses, who was going to a ball. He observed 

 the hot air from the fire inflated the light materials, which rose up 

 in a sort of spheroidal form (you may have some of you noticed 

 this form in dress !). This gave him the idea of the fire-balloon, 

 which, being a large paper-maker at Annonay, he forthwith ex- 

 perimented on, and hence we got aerial navigation. This anecdote 

 was told me by his nephew M. Seguin, also an eminent man. 

 Even what we call a natural death is a greater struggle than that 

 which other animals go through, and is, in fact, the most artifi- 

 cial of all deaths. The lower animals, practically speaking, do 

 experience a natural death, i. e., a violent or unforeseen death. As 

 soon as their powers decline to such an extent that they can not 

 take part in the struggle for existence, they die or are killed, gen- 

 erally quickly, and their sufferings are not protracted by the arti- 

 ficial tortures arising from the endeavors to prolong life. 



Let us now pass from individuals to communities. Is there 

 less antagonism now than of yore ? Do the nations of Europe 

 now form a happy family ? Are the armaments of Continental 

 nations, or is the navy of this country, less than in former years ? 

 The very expression "the great powers" involves antagonism. 

 As with wars and revolutions, so, as I have said, with regard to 

 individuals, during our so-called peace, the fight is continuous 

 among communities. If the water does not boil, it simmers. Not 



