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Returning Home By: Anthony Trollope (1815-1882) |
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RETURNING HOME by Anthony Trollope
It is generally supposed that people who live at home, good
domestic people, who love tea and their arm chairs, and who keep the
parlour hearth rug ever warm, it is generally supposed that these
are the people who value home the most, and best appreciate all the
comforts of that cherished institution. I am inclined to doubt
this. It is, I think, to those who live farthest away from home, to
those who find the greatest difficulty in visiting home, that the
word conveys the sweetest idea. In some distant parts of the world
it may be that an Englishman acknowledges his permanent resting
place; but there are many others in which he will not call his daily
house, his home. He would, in his own idea, desecrate the word by
doing so. His home is across the blue waters, in the little
northern island, which perhaps he may visit no more; which he has
left, at any rate, for half his life; from which circumstances, and
the necessity of living, have banished him. His home is still in
England, and when he speaks of home his thoughts are there. No one can understand the intensity of this feeling who has not seen
or felt the absence of interest in life which falls to the lot of
many who have to eat their bread on distant soils. We are all apt
to think that a life in strange countries will be a life of
excitement, of stirring enterprise, and varied scenes; that in
abandoning the comforts of home, we shall receive in exchange more
of movement and of adventure than would come in our way in our own
tame country; and this feeling has, I am sure, sent many a young man
roaming. Take any spirited fellow of twenty, and ask him whether he
would like to go to Mexico for the next ten years! Prudence and his
father may ultimately save him from such banishment, but he will not
refuse without a pang of regret. Alas! it is a mistake. Bread may be earned, and fortunes, perhaps,
made in such countries; and as it is the destiny of our race to
spread itself over the wide face of the globe, it is well that there
should be something to gild and paint the outward face of that lot
which so many are called upon to choose. But for a life of daily
excitement, there is no life like life in England; and the farther
that one goes from England the more stagnant, I think, do the waters
of existence become. But if it be so for men, it is ten times more so for women. An
Englishman, if he be at Guatemala or Belize, must work for his
bread, and that work will find him in thought and excitement. But
what of his wife? Where will she find excitement? By what pursuit
will she repay herself for all that she has left behind her at her
mother's fireside? She will love her husband. Yes; that at least!
If there be not that, there will be a hell, indeed. Then she will
nurse her children, and talk of her home. When the time shall come
that her promised return thither is within a year or two of its
accomplishment, her thoughts will all be fixed on that coming
pleasure, as are the thoughts of a young girl on her first ball for
the fortnight before that event comes off. On the central plain of that portion of Central America which is
called Costa Rica stands the city of San Jose. It is the capital of
the Republic, for Costa Rica is a Republic, and, for Central
America, is a town of some importance. It is in the middle of the
coffee district, surrounded by rich soil on which the sugar cane is
produced, is blessed with a climate only moderately hot, and the
native inhabitants are neither cut throats nor cannibals. It may be
said, therefore, that by comparison with some other spots to which
Englishmen and others are congregated for the gathering together of
money, San Jose may be considered as a happy region; but,
nevertheless, a life there is not in every way desirable. It is a
dull place, with little to interest either the eye or the ear... Continue reading book >>
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Genres for this book |
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Fiction |
Literature |
Short stories |
Travel |
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