436 DAVID LIVINGSTONE. [chap. xxn. 



north and south seem in favour of its being the Nile. Great westing 

 is in favour of the Congo." 



"2ith June. — The medical education has led me to a continual 

 tendency to suspend the judgment. What a state of blessedness it 

 would have been had I possessed the dead certainty of the homoeopathic 

 persuasion, and as soon as I found the Lakes Bangweolo, Moero, and 

 Kamolondo pouring out their waters down the great central valley, 

 bellowed out, ' Hurrah ! Eureka !' and gone home in firm and honest 

 belief that I had settled it, and no mistake. Instead of that, I am 

 even now not at all ' cock-sure ' that I have not been following down 

 what may after all be the Congo." 



We now know that this was just what he had been 

 doing. But we honour him all the more for the diffidence 

 that would not adopt a conclusion while any part of the 

 evidence was wanting, and that led him to encounter 

 unexampled risks and hardships before he would affirm 

 his favourite view as a fact. The moral lesson thus 

 enforced is invaluable. We are almost thankful that 

 Livingstone never got his doubts solved, it would have 

 been such a disappointment ; even had he known that in 

 all time coming the great stream which had cast on him 

 such a resistless spell would be known as the Livingstone 

 River, and would perpetuate the memory of his life and 

 his efforts for the good of Africa. 



Occasionally his Journal gives a gleam of humour : — 

 " l%th June. — The Ptolemaic map defines people accord- 

 ing to their food, — the Elephantophagi, the Struthio- 

 phagi, the Ichthyophagi, and Anthropophagi. If we 

 followed the same sort of classification, our definition 

 would be by the drink, thus : the tribe of stout-guzzlers, 

 the roaring potheen-fuddlers, the whisky-fishoid-drinkers, 

 the vin-ordinaire bibbers, the lager-beer-swillers, and an 

 outlying tribe of the brandy cocktail persuasion." 



Natural History furnishes an unfailing interest : — 

 " l§th June. — Whydahs, though full-fledged, still gladly 

 take a feed from their dam, putting down the breast to 

 the ground, and cocking up the bill and chirruping in 

 the most engaging manner and winning way they know. 



