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 
