XLVIII.
8.—“Happy what each may bring to help the common fate.”
“I would submit to a severe discipline, and to go without many things cheerfully, for the good and happiness of the human race in the future. Each one of us should do something, however small, towards that great end.... How pleasant it would be each day to think, to-day I have done something that will tend to render future generations more happy. The very thought would make this hour sweeter. It is absolutely necessary that something of this kind should be discovered.... It should be the sacred and sworn duty of everyone, once at least during lifetime, to do something in person towards this end. It would be a delight and a pleasure to me to do some thing every day, were it ever so minute. To reflect that another human being, if at a distance of ten thousand years from the year 1883, would enjoy one hour’s more life, in the sense of fulness of life, in consequence of anything I had done in my little span, would be to me a peace of soul.”—Richard Jefferies (“The Story of My Heart,” pp. 129, 131, 160).