The Rambles of an Idler 



free to get it, if lie can. How best to do so, is 

 the momentous question. I hold that the surest 

 road to success is that beset with obstacles. I 

 do not find that wild life, as we call it, is readily 

 discouraged, and it is never in any sense free 

 and easy. Man's enemies are many, but Na- 

 ture 's humbler children have legions of implac- 

 able foes. Man, at times, can walk in perfect 

 peace; not so, at any time, can beast, bird, or 

 butterfly. 



Did the mouse not fear the weasel, and the 

 weasel not stop to- listen when it heard my foot- 

 steps; did the squirrel not crouch when the 

 hawk hovered above it, and the hawk scream 

 when plagued by passing crows, I do not know 

 why I should walk in the fields. I am not anx- 

 ious to witness a tragedy, but I am filled with 

 excitement when the exercise of ingenuity is 

 shown and an obstacle successfully removed or 

 avoided. Give the world at large an easy time, 

 and I hope to get out of it. There is nothing 

 so monotonous as inactive life. 



"So, then, because thou art lukewarm, and 

 neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my 

 mouth. " 



I remember recently meeting with a superb 

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