RETURN TO ENGLAND. 2>^7 



the springs of healthy action. If there be in truth 

 such beings as genuine and incurable pessimists, the 

 stern believer in progress will be tempted to say that 

 the sooner they carry out their doctrine to its logical 

 result the better it will be for the race. Their con- 

 tinued existence, where it is not merely useless, must 

 be altogether a mischief to their fellow-creatures. 



On the morning of the i6th of August, all but com- 

 pleting five months since I quitted her shores, the 

 coast of England was dimly descried amid gusts of 

 cold wind and showers of drizzling rain. My winter 

 experiences in the Straits of Magellan were forcibly 

 recalled to my mind, and I felt some partial satisfac- 

 tion in the seeming confirmation of the conclusion 

 which I had already reached — that the physical dift*er- 

 ences between the conditions of life in the northern 

 and southern hemispheres are not nearly so great as 

 has generally been supposed. 



