24 RETROSPECTS OF A LIFE OF TRAVEL. 



cases where travellers, returning after such an experience, 

 have frankly admitted that its effect had gone the 

 length of influencing their whole subsequent careers; 

 and all without exception look back to it ever afterwards 

 as among the happiest and brightest periods of their 

 existence. Nevertheless there may have been cases 

 where the results have been less fortunate, but if so 

 it is more than probable that the fault was with the 

 individual not with the wild graces of Nature. 



The unanimous verdict of the experienced travellers 

 whose opinions we append is that they at all events 

 were each and all of them the better for it. The 

 opinions of these experts, moreover, prove beyond 

 question how strongly the charms of nomadic life 

 appeal to the human heart; and perhaps it is not too 

 much to say that in nearly every case (notwithstanding 

 many counterbalancing circumstances, and certain 

 undoubted drawbacks) the instinct has continued to 

 burn fiercely within the breast of each of them, to the 

 end of their earthly careers. 



As regards the risk to health in making these expedi- 

 tions, it would be wrong to minimize it. The reader 

 will, however, be aware that a number of these gentlemen 

 whose opinions we shall lay before him, passed success- 

 fully through their experiences; most of them attained 

 to an honoured and respected old age ; and the greater 

 number of them died quietly in their beds, like other 

 people, when the inevitable hour struck for them, as 

 it must do for all of us. As a rule, however, weakly 

 and delicate men should think well before exposing 

 themselves to unwonted hardships and exertions, or to 

 the influence of either great heat, or of cold, damp, 

 or inclement weather. Nevertheless, both in dry hot, 



