i8o GLIMPSES OF NATURE. 



life, I can imagine they will have at least secured a 

 very pregnant text for their admonitions. My Anglo- 

 Indian acquaintance put it pungently enough when he 

 said of this matter that " they've begun to simplify 

 our funerals ; but, by Jove, Sir ! that's tackling the 

 question at the wrong end." 



It is plain enough that there is no panacea for the 

 ills and disappointments to which life is subject. The 

 treatment, to use a medical term, is only palliative, 

 not radical. One cannot lay down laws and precepts 

 which can make every man and woman happy. Out 

 of Utopia itself there could not exist such a condition 

 as that of universal satisfaction with everybody and 

 everything. But humanity has had sufficient experi- 

 ence of life and living, nevertheless, to make it clear 

 and plain that certain broad rules of conduct carry 

 in their practice the basis of the true answer to the 

 question, " Is Life Worth Living ? " To be honest 

 and true and upright, let us hope, will never become 

 an old-fashioned order. If to these things one adds 

 that we must be healthy as a primary condition of 

 life, we may find, with Dr. Sampson, that following 

 closely on the care of the " carkus " is a whole host 

 of other ways and means of enjoying existence in 

 fairly full measure. 



