“And that would be a pity,” observed Mr. Heard.  “I was much interested, Count, in what you said yesterday.  You spoke of the Mediterranean becoming once more the center of human activity.  There is an attraction in the idea to one who, like myself, has been brought up on the classics and has never forgotten his spiritual debt to antiquity.  But I question whether the majority of my countrymen would be moved by such considerations.”

The old man replied: 

“I think we need not trouble about majorities.  No one can expect a majority to be stirred by motives other than ignoble.  Your English majority, in particular, is quite unaware of its debt to us:  why should it turn eyes in our direction?  But as for other Northern men, the enlightened ones—­I cannot help thinking that they will come to their senses again one of these days.  Oh yes!  They will recover their sanity.  They will perceive under what artificial and cramping conditions, under what false standards, they have been living; they will realize the advantages of a climate where nature meets you half-way.  I know little of England, but the United States are pretty familiar to me; the two climates, I imagine, cannot be very dissimilar.  That a man should wear himself to the bone in the acquisition of material gain is not pretty.  But what else can he do in lands adapted only for wolves and bears?  Without a degree of comfort which would be superfluous hereabouts, he would feel humiliated.  He must become strenuous if he wishes to rise superior to his inhospitable surroundings.”

“We think a good deal of strenuousness,” objected the bishop.

“Have you not noticed that whenever anything, however fantastic, is imposed upon men by physical forces, they straightway make a god of it?  That is why you deify strenuousness.  You dare not forgo it.  The Eskimo doubtless deifies seal-blubber; he could not survive without it.  Yet nobody would be an Eskimo if he had a chance of bettering his condition.  By all means let us take life seriously.  But let us be serious about things that matter.”

“Things that matter, Count!  Is it not creditable for a man to support his wife and family in the best conditions possible?”

“Assuredly.  But chosen spirits will do this in regions where the same results can be obtained with a smaller outlay of vital force.  We have only a certain amount of energy at our disposal.  It is not seemly to consume every ounce of it in a contest with brute nature.  Man is made for better things.  Whatever fails to elevate the mind is not truly profitable.  Tell me, sir, how shall the mind be elevated if the body be exhausted with material preoccupations?  Consider the complex conditions under which a Northern family is obliged to live.  Think of the labour expended upon that unceasing duel with the elements—­the extra clothing and footwear and mufflers and mantles, the carpets, the rugs, the abundant and costly food required