4 THE PHILOSOPHY OF LEISURE. 



from their native land a black silt, which the flood 

 strews over the whole valley as a kind of top-dressing 

 or manure. On that rich and unctuous mud, as soon 

 as the waters have retired, the natives cast their seed. 

 Then their labours are completed ; no changes of 

 weather need afterwards be feared, no anxious looks 

 are turned towards the sky ; sunshine only is required 

 to fulfil the crop, and in Egypt the sun is never 

 covered by a cloud. 



Thus, were it not for the White Nile, the Abys- 

 sinian rivers would be drunk up by the desert ; and 

 were it not for the Abyssinian rivers, the White Nile 

 would be a barren stream. The River is created by 

 the rains of the equator ; the Land by the tropical 

 rains condensed in one spot by the Abyssinian 

 mountain pile. 



In that fair Egyptian valley, fattened by a foreign 

 soil, brightened by eternal sunshine, watered by ter- 

 restial rain, the natives were able to obtain a year's 

 food in return for a few days' toil, and so were pro- 

 vided with that wealth of time which is essential for 

 a nation's growth. 



A people can never rise from low estate as long as 

 they are engrossed in the painful struggle for daily 

 bread. On the other hand, leisure alone is not suffi- 

 cient to effect the self-promotion of men. The savage 

 of the primeval forest burns down a few trees every 

 year, his women raise an easy crop from the ashes 

 which mingle with the soil. He basks all day in the 

 sunshine, or prostrates himself in his canoe with his 

 arms behind his head and a fishing line tied to his big 

 toe. . When the meat-hunger comes upon him he 

 takes up bow and arrow and goes for a few days into the 

 bush. His life is one long torpor, with spasms of 



