The Plains of Patagonia. 233 



because the traditional pride and other feelings of a 

 gentleman made it possible for him to do so, bub 

 because that more ancient and nobler pride, the 

 stern instinct of endurance of the savage, came to 

 his aid and sustained him. 



These things do not, or at all events should not, 

 surprise us. They can only surprise those who are 

 without the virile instinct, or who have never be- 

 come conscious of it on account of the circumstances 

 of their lives. The only wonder is that the stern 

 indomitable spirit in us should ever in any circum- 

 stances fail a man, that even on the scaffold or 

 with the world against him he should be overcome 

 by despair, and burst into weak tears and lamenta- 

 tions, and faint in the presence of his fellows. In 

 one of the most eloquent passages of his finest work 

 Herman Melville describes as follows that manly 

 spirit or instinct in us, and the effect produced on 

 us by the sight of its failure : " Men may seem 

 detestable as joint-stock companies and nations ; 

 knaves, fools, and murderers there may be; men 

 may have mean and meagre faces ; but man, in 

 the ideal, is so noble and so sparkling, such a grand 

 and glowing creature, that over any ignominious 

 blemish in him all his fellows should run to throw 

 their costliest robes. That immaculate manliness 

 we feel in ourselves so far within us that it 

 remains intact though all the outer character seems 

 gone bleeds with keenest anguish at the spectacle 

 of a valour-ruined man. Nor can piety itself, at 

 such a shameful sight, completely stifle her up- 



