Page:Here and there in Yucatan - miscellanies (IA herethereinyucat00lepl 0).djvu/110



ABOR is the unavoidable condition of life; to toil for existence an unchangeable law of nature. From the smallest microscopic insect to the largest globe that is forever rushing through boundless space, every atom is active; every creature struggling, toiling, battling for life; millions upon millions of individuals bound together, forming one great whole, and mutually dependent on each other.

Whether life is worth living or not, makes no difference; the ever-dominant power that we call instinct, impels us to strive; repels us from extinction; we blindly obey. We are weary in mind and body, we suffer only: nevertheless we employ the proper means to go on existing. "Would that I were dead!" exclaims some unhappy wretch; but propose to send him forth into the great unknown, and see how he shrinks back from the dark abyss when the actual minute of yielding up his existence arrives Happy or miserable, we cling to life.