ELEMENTS OF AN IDEAL LIFE.
THE MODERN GOSPEL OF WORK.
A gentleman who had resided some years in
Central and South America, conversing one evening
with friends upon a doctrine of happiness, illustrated
his argument with an anecdote. A Yankee
living in South America observed that the native
bees had no care for the morrow. He thought to
make a fortune by bringing hard-working honey
bees from the North to this land of perennial flowers,
where they could store up honey the year around,
and he tried the experiment. The bees worked
eagerly for a time, but soon discovered that there
was no winter in this paradise, and they perched on
the flowers and trees and dozed the livelong day.
Our philosopher assumed that the indolent, improvident
life of the ignorant natives of sunny climes is
the one of real happiness, and that a life of great
activity is not to be desired. If his theory holds,
then the savage under his palm tree is happier than
the civilized man of the temperate zone, the monkey
in the tropical jungle is better off than the savage,
and the clam is happiest of all.
An observant traveller, returning by the southern route from California, studies Indians of various tribes at successive stages of the journey. Near
