In arctic regions plants, which under more genial conditions
would unfold themselves in a delightful perfection, remain
stunted and mean, exhausting their vitality in withstanding
the severities of the climate. The same is true of animal
life. The Newfoundland dogs of Kane, in the Polar seas, became
mad through the excruciating severity of the cold. The birds
come to a certain strength and glory through the necessity of
awareness, but there is often such a fearful blood-thirstiness
in the tropical forest, such a profusion of cruel hawks, owls,
serpents, and beasts of prey, that a bird’s life is one long
terror, and it forgets its music. And this applies equally
to man. He is all the better for a regulated conflict with
his environment, but all the worse if the conflict attain
undue severity. His conflict with nature may exhaust him.
(Text.)--W. L. WATKINSON, “The Transfigured Sackcloth.”
(1993)