232 Idle Days m Patagoma. 



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 j^rivatious 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 

 sufJer 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-balrtiiOL'il against contingeucie.^, 

 As the trees uiid aniiiuils 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 



