AN OVERDOSE OF PROSPERITY 17 



scientific charms, no longer tolerable to one born in the 

 purer air of Sweden and nurtured among her Lapland 

 Alps.' He now proposed to leave Clifford and return 

 home. The banker wondered why Carl could think of 

 quitting him and giving up his fame and prospects. 

 Here was the secret : he was homesick for Sweden and 

 the Lapland Alps. 



'What a mysterious curse-blessing is this same 

 Heim-weh, this intense love of one's own country, 

 which makes it seem pleasanter to lie down there and 

 die, than to live anywhere else on the earth ! Carlyle 

 says it distinguishes man from the ape : but the poor 

 animals in the Zoo must have an inexpressible longing 

 for their native wilds a feeling of the bliss of liberty 

 that comes well-nigh to bursting their heart out, though 

 the liberty itself they cannot perhaps remember. If 

 the cat and dog are capable of deep feelings of local 

 and personal attachment, then surely more so are the 

 tiger and the lion. When one sees the lion ranging to 

 and fro, wearying his life out in his cage ah, poor dumb 

 animal, we may be sure he feels intensely, though he 

 cannot express his feeling but by those deep sighs of 

 his, that melancholy breathing.' 



This local attachment is the root of all patriotism, 

 valour, and civilisation. ' The Swedes and Swiss find 

 the greatest relief from nostalgia (next to their return 

 home) in strong exercise.' l Linnaeus defied his pain by 

 incessant work, arming himself with additional science, 

 1 Clough. 



VOL. II. C 



