Non-Fiction > Books > London, 1887 - Virginibus Puerisque, and other papers

EL DORADO
T T seems as if a great deal were attainable
in a world where there are so many-
marriages and decisive battles, and where we
all, at certain hours of the day, and with
great gusto and despatch, stow a portion of
victuals finally and irretrievably into the bag
which contains us. And it would seem also,
on a hasty view, that the attainment of as
much as possible was the one goal of man's
contentious life. And yet, as regards the
spirit, this is but a semblance. We live in
an ascending scale when we live happily,
one thing leading to another in an endless
series. There is always a new horizon for
onward-looking men, and although we dwell
on a small planet, immersed in petty business
and not enduring beyond a brief period of