232 Idle Days in Patagonia. 



of our artificial life and all we have done to rid our- 

 selves of an inconvenient heritage, that we are 

 capable of so-called heroic deeds; of cheerfully 

 exposing ourselves to the greatest privations and 

 hardships, suffering them stoically, and facing death 

 without blenching, sacrificing our lives, as we say, 

 in the cause of humanity, or geography, or some 

 other branch of science. 



It is related that a late aged prime minister of 

 England on one occasion stood for several hours at 

 his sovereign's side at a reception, in an oppressive 

 atmosphere, and suffering excruciating pains from a 

 gouty foot ; yet making no sign and concealing his 

 anguish under a smiling countenance. We have been 

 told that this showed his good blood : that because 

 he came of a good stock, and had the training and 

 traditional feelings of a gentleman, he was able to 

 suffer in that calm way. This pretty delusion 

 quickly vanishes in a surgical hospital, or on a field 

 covered with wounded men after a fight. But the 

 savage always endures pain more stoically than the 

 civilized man. He is 



Self-balanced against contingencies, 

 As the trees and animals are. 



However great the sufferings of the gouty premier 

 may have been, they were less than those which 

 any Indian youth in Guiana and Venezuela volun- 

 tarily subjects himself to before he ventures to call 

 himself a man, or to ask for a wife. Small in com- 

 parison, yet he did not endure them smilingly 



