In Search of Eden

The Donner Party


It is odd to watch with what feverish ardor Americans pursue

prosperity. Ever tormented by the shadowy suspicion that they

may not have chosen the shortest route to get it. They cleave

to the things of this world as if assured that they will never die,

and yet rush to snatch any that comes within their reach as if they

expected to stop living before they had relished them.

Death steps in, in the end, and stops them before they have

grown tired of this futile pursuit of that complete felicity

which always escapes them.

Alexis de Tocqueville