368 



MY LIFE 



[Chap. 



I can return with satisfaction of mind ; were I to leave now 

 I should be ever regretful and unhappy. That alone is an 

 all-sufficient reason. I feel that my work is here as well as 

 my pleasure ; and why should I not follow out my vocation ? 

 As to materials for work at home, you are in error. I have, 

 indeed, materials for a life's study of entomology, as far as 

 the forms and structure and affinities of insects are con- 

 cerned ; but I am engaged in a wider and more general 

 study — that of the relations of animals to space and time, or, 

 in other words, their geographical and geological distribution 

 and its causes. I have set myself to work out this problem 

 in the Indo-Australian Archipelago, and I must visit and 

 explore the largest number of islands possible, and collect 

 materials from the greatest number of localities, in order to 

 arrive at any definite results. As to health and life, what 

 are they compared with peace and happiness } and happiness 

 is admirably defined in the Family Herald as to be best 

 obtained by * work with a purpose, and the nobler the pur- 

 pose the greater the happiness.* But besides these weighty 

 reasons there are others quite as powerful — pecuniary ones. 

 I have not yet made enough to live upon, and I am likely to 

 make it quicker here than I could in England. In England 

 there is only one way in which I could live, by returning to 

 my old profession of land-surveying. Now, though I always 

 liked surveying, I like collecting better, and I could never 

 now give my whole mind to any work apart from the study 

 to which I have devoted my life. So far from being angry 

 at being called an enthusiast (as you seem to suppose), it is 

 my pride and glory to be worthy to be so called. Who ever 

 did anything good or great who was not an enthusiast } The 

 majority of mankind are enthusiasts only in one thing — in 

 money-getting ; and these call others enthusiasts as a term 

 of reproach because they think there is something in the 

 world better than money-getting. It strikes me that the 

 power or capability of a man in getting rich is in an inverse 

 proportion to his reflective powers and in direct proportion 

 to his impudence. It is perhaps good to be rich, but not to 

 get rich, or to be always trying to get rich, and few men 



