A JOURNEY TO NATURE 



If there is anything that an apparently robust 

 man of large appetites and energetic brain particu 

 larly dislikes, it is to snap. I suppose that he 

 can contemplate fading away and dwindling out 

 with complacency, but there is something dis 

 reputable in falling down dead at a moment of 

 supreme exultation or of conceded triumph. One 

 does not enjoy the prospect of being found dead 

 in his bed, or being carried out of the opera feet 

 first by the ushers, in one s dress-coat, with the 

 boutonniere on one s breast looking so superflu 

 ous, and the wide-open eye so helpless. Man is 

 here like a sick animal he prefers to keep some 

 unobserved place and take time to adjust his dying 

 with some sense of relevancy. 



But what can a man do when the bell sounds ? 

 Somewhere, suddenly, like a vivid flash, comes 

 the summons out of a clear sky : &quot; Here you are, 

 now presto, are you ready ? &quot; He isn t ready, 

 of course. I have read of men who were ready, 

 but as a business man I never saw one who was. 

 To get this dire summons in the middle, perhaps, 

 of a smart remark, one-half of which must die out 

 on blue lips, and know beforehand that admira 

 tion is to be petrified into pity, hurts a man s 

 pride. It is curious, but we prefer death as a 

 torturing jailer rather than as a highwayman with 

 a club, who leaps at us out of unsuspected coverts. 

 I am free to acknowledge that when I got my 

 premonitory summons I took to my heels like a 

 panic-stricken horse. Then, during the months 

 of retirement, of which I have tried to tell, there 



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