8.—“_Happy what each may bring to help the common fate_.”
“I would submit to a severe discipline, and to go without many things
cheerfully, for the good and happiness of the human race in the future.
Each one of us should do something, however small, towards that great
end.... How pleasant it would be each day to think, to-day I have done
something that will tend to render future generations more happy. The
very thought would make this hour sweeter. It is absolutely necessary
that something of this kind should be discovered.... It should be the
sacred and sworn duty of everyone, once at least during lifetime, to do
something in person towards this end. It would be a delight and a
pleasure to me to do some thing every day, were it ever so minute. To
reflect that another human being, if at a distance of ten thousand years
from the year 1883, would enjoy one hour’s more life, in the sense of
fulness of life, in consequence of anything I had done in my little
span, would be to me a peace of soul.”—Richard Jefferies (“The Story of
My Heart,” pp. 129, 131, 160).