The War with Nature. 85 



metal. Knowing how much can be done with it at 

 home where it is held in great esteem, he will take 

 care to provide himself with an abundant supply 

 against his return. The precise way in which it is 

 to be acquired he will not trouble himself about 

 until he reaches his destination. It will perhaps flow 

 in upon him through business channels ; in most 

 cases it will be thought more agreeable to pick it 

 up in its native state during his walks abroad in 

 the forest. The simple-minded aborigines, always 

 ready to humour an eccentric taste, will assist him 

 in collecting it; and, finally, for a small considera- 

 tion in the form of coloured beads and pocket- 

 mirrors, convey it in large sacks and hampers to 

 the place of embarkation. It is not meant that the 

 immigrant in all cases paints his particular delusion 

 in colours bright as these ; let him shade the picture 

 until it corresponds in tone with his individual 

 creation a dream and a delusion it will nevertheless 

 remain. Not in these things which will never be 

 his, nor in still cherishing the dream will he find his 

 pleasure, but in something very different. 



I speak not of that large percentage of immi- 

 grants who are doomed to find no pleasure at all, 

 and no good. To the youth of ardent generous 

 temperament, arrived in some far-off city where all 

 men are free and equal, and the starched conven- 

 tionalities of the old world are unknown, it is 

 perhaps the hardest thing to believe that when he 

 slips down not a hand will be put forth to raise him ; 

 that when he pronounces these common words, " I 



