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0467 The heart of a continent : vol.1
The heart of a continent : vol.1 / Page 467 (Color Image)

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doi: 10.20676/00000247
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but towards larger hearts, with warmer, fuller blood flowing
through them. The development now is of man as a social
being, and in the keen struggle of societies for existence, that
society will win whose members are able to subordinate most
thoroughly their own individual interests to the well-being of
the whole society to which they belong. Nowhere has this
principle been more deeply impressed than on the society
formed by the Christian religion, and may we not then con-
clude that, if that society now finds itself foremost in all the
societies of the world, it is so because of the inherent superiority
of the principles which it professes?

These are the thoughts that fill me as I bring together in
one focus the various impressions of Nature and of Man that
have, during ten years' wanderings, formed themselves upon
my mind. And here I will close this narrative, these last words
of which I am writing on the Atlantic Ocean, far away from the
scenes I have depicted, as I approach the shores of Africa,
the field, maybe, of yet further explorations to come. Hard-
ships I necessarily had in the course of those travels, and, to
a certain degree, danger also, but never once now do I regret
leaving those comforts of my native land, now more appreciated
than ever, to wander amid the real haunts of Nature. For-
gotten now are all the trials; dimmer and dimmer do they
become as they recede into the background. But the keen
pleasure of travel remains, and the impressions of Nature live
and grow for ever. Nature, when once she has revealed herself,
impresses herself more deeply on us with each succeeding
year.

" 'Tis her privilege,
Through all the years of this our life, to lead
From joy to joy: for she can so inform
The mind that is within us, so impress
With quietness and beauty, and so feed
With lofty thoughts, that neither evil tongues,

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