The War with Nature. 83 



save himself, and must for ever and always keep all 

 his faculties keen and brightly polished. With 

 regard to man, who has the power of self-analysis 

 and of seeing in his own mind all minds, the case is 

 very different, and it does concern us to know the 

 truth. A great deal very many pages, chapters 

 and even books might be written on this subject, 

 but to write them is happily unnecessary, since 

 every one can easily find out the truth from his own 

 experience. This will tell him which satisfied him 

 most in the end the rough days or the smooth in 

 his life ; and which was most highly valued the 

 good he struggled for or that which came to him in 

 some other way. Even as a child, or as a small 

 boy, assuming that his early years were passed in 

 fairly natural conditions, the knocks and bruises 

 and scratches and stings of infuriated humble bees 

 he suffered served only to excite a spirit that had 

 something of conscious power and gladness in it ; 

 and in this the child was father to the man. But 

 the subject which specially concerns me just now is 

 the settler's life in some new and rough district ; 

 and as it appears that the greatest, the most real, 

 and in many cases the only pleasures of such an 

 existence are habitually spoken of as pains, the 

 subject is one on which I may be pardoned for 

 dwelling at some length. 



If Mill's doctrine be true, that all our happiness 

 results from delusion, that to one capable of seeing 

 things as they are life must be an intolerable burden, 

 then it may seem only a cruel kindness to whisper 



G 2 



