An Etcher s Voyage of Discovery. 307 



CHAPTER VIII. 



AFTER St. Nizier the river became even more pic- 

 turesque as it proceeded. Rushing swiftly and 

 merrily between willowy islets it carried the traveller 

 along with very little consideration for his private tastes 

 and preferences. The only possible exercise of choice 

 was at the moment of selecting the channel ; after that, 

 retreat was simply out of the question, and all that could 

 be done was to keep as clear of accident as might be. 

 A river voyage has been compared over and over again 

 to the course of human life, and no wonder, for the 

 simile holds good in the minutest details, especially in 

 such a voyage as this. How very important, for exam- 

 ple, and at the same time how very difficult, it is to 

 choose the right channel when several lie before you of 

 which you are about equally ignorant ! If you have 

 made a mistake, if you have chosen the wrong profession 

 or the wrong wife, then there is nothing for it but to try 

 to get along as safely and creditably as you can, and 

 avoid an upset if possible. If the mistake has been made 

 it cannot be unmade, but skill and courage may still often 

 save a man from its most disagreeable consequences. 

 There are lives which must be as easy as it would be to 

 paddle down the broad Loire with the ordnance map in 

 your pocket, which shows the safest way everywhere ; 

 but these existences lose in interest what they gain in 



