Page:California Inter Pocula.djvu/265



There are  a  hundred  ways  to  measure  a  man's  soul — hy the  size  of  his  gift ;  by  the  breadth  of  his  self- denial for  the  sake  of  others ;  by  the  command  over  self; by the  devotion  to  a  cause ;  by  the  powers  of  endur- ance; by magnanimity  or  meanness— and  all  the  rest. Wherever the  achievement  of  stubborn  fact  is  subordi- nated to the  tickling  of  a  fancy  there  is  sure  to  be  cheat- ing and quackery. A school  professing  superior  man- ners is not  usually  renowned  as  a  seat  of  learning  ;  a temperance  hotel  is  proverbially  the  poorest  of  inns,  and a journal  of  extra  high  morality  is  a  poor  newspaper.

What had  California  to  do  ? Everything. There was the  bare  stretch  of  earth,  nothing  more. It was a paradise  for  wild  men,  but  for  civilization's  pets  it must  be  swept  and  garnished. After a  day  of  gold- diiiQriiio; a  o'overnment  must  be  established,  lands  cul- tivated, and  by  and  by  cities  built,  with  their  streets, sewers, churches,  houses  of  prostitution,  schools, gambling shops,  hospitals,  and  jails. And while  all this is  going  on,  in  addition  to  money-making  and family-rearing, what  time  shall  then  be  left  for  the more refined  culture?

Tossinofs hither  and  thither,  tossino-s  to  the  larboard and to  the  starboard  of  the  ship  of  experience,  down- falls and kicks  u^^ward,  flesh-tearings,  bone-raspings, pride-tamings, and  the  rest— all  this  is  the  digging and fertilization  that  makes  the  barren  tree  to  yield fair fruit. Foreign winds  blow  fresh  experience,  and with the  frostino;  of  the  hair  the  brain  is  made  clear. Yet all  of  this  in  those  young  days  was  but  a  cos  in- geniorum, a  whetstone  for  the  wits.

There was  here  in  its  warmest  mood,  circumscribed between beo-innino-s  and  ends,  that  first  element  of progress,  change. Like all  the  elements  of  matter, like all  the  forces  of  nature,  men  labored  in  unrest. Nothing was  fixed,  nothing  was  in  repose. Launched from the  shores  of  time  into  the  boundless  sea  of  the eternities, they  could  still  hear  the  cries  of  birth mincrling: with  the  moans  of  death.