,,the ,,privilege ,,of ,,pain ,,by ,,mrs4 ,,leo ,,everett ,,introduction ,,by ,,kate ,,douglas ,,wiggin ,illustration ,,boston ,,small1 ,,maynard ,,company ,,publishers ,copyright1 #aibj1 ,,by ,,small1 ,,maynard ,,company 7,,incorporated7 ,,to ,,my ,,cousin ,,belle ,,hunnewell ---------------------------------------- -------------------------------- ,,the ,,privilege ,,of ,,pain ,,introduction ,a very suggestive and intriguing title is 8,the ,privilege of ,pain40 ,those who know a good deal about the subject will doubtless raise the eyebrow of incredulity1 while those who have lived in blissful ignorance will be curious if not wholly sympathetic4 ,when ,i first heard the essay 7since developed into this book7 read before an audience of very thoughtful and discriminating women1 ,i fancied1 although it awakened the liveliest interest in all present1 that there was not entire unanimity as to the essayist's point of view4 ,several invalids and semi-invalids wore an expression of modest pride in the eloquent plea that physical limitations had not succeeded in stemming the tide of mental and spiritual achievement in the long history of the world's progress4 ,robust ladies1 equal to eight hours' work1 and if advisable1 eight hours' play1 out of the twenty-four1 looked a trifle aggrieved1 as if the gift of perfect health had been underrated1 and the laurels that had always surmounted their shining hair and glowing faces might be wrested from them and placed on paler brows4 ,they had no wish to shorten the list of the essayist's heroes1 7,heaven forbid67 but they evidently wished to retire to their private libraries and compile a roll of honor from the merely healthy4 ,however there was no acrimony in the discussion that followed the reading of the paper nor any desire to withhold honor where honor was so gloriously due4 ,those who disbelieved in the validity of pain2 those who were convinced that mind is not only superior to1 but able to win complete triumph over matter2 those who felt that laying hold of the ,great ,source of ,healing and ,power would enable them not only to deny but to defy pain1 these naturally were not completely in accord with the writer4 ,myself1 ,i have always thought that the happy waking after dreamless sleep2 the exultation in the new day and its appointed task2 the sense of vigor and ability to do whatever opportunity offered2 the feeling that one could 8run and not be weary1 could walk and not faint0--that these were the most precious things that the gods could vouchsafe to mankind1--and yet6--,what of the latent powers that wake into life when we look into 8the bright face of danger08 ,our bodies are not commonly the temples that ,god intended them to be1 and yet often an unquenchable fire burns within2 an inner flame that incites to effort and achievement1 turns the timid slave into the happy warrior4 ,what if the strength born of overcoming should rescue dormant powers equal to those that exist where there is no effort save that engendered by abounding vitality8 ,after all life is an obstacle race to most of us4 ,who knows whether the horse could make a spectacular jump had he not often been confronted by bar1 gate1 hurdle and hedge8 ,i wonder how many great things have been carved1 painted1 written1 conceived1 invented1 where the creative human being has never suffered1 but has been sheltered1 lapped in ease1 the burden lifted from his shoulders8 ,i wonder if the eye that is seldom wet with tears is ever truly capable of the highest vision8 ,i think that my own unregenerate watchword would be3 8,all for health and the world well lost60 so ,i am by no means a special pleader1 even yet1 for the 8privilege of pain02 but ,mrs4 ,everett's enthusiasm and the ardor of her conviction compels a new and more sympathetic understanding of her thesis4 ,i have more often seen spiritual than intellectual exaltation follow pain1 but both were present in one woman1 half-poet1 half-saint1 whose verses were written in intense suffering1 as indeed were most of ,w4 ,e4 ,henley's4 ,with closed eyes and pale lips she once quoted to me3 8,angel of ,pain6 ,i think thy face ,will be in all the ,heavenly ,place ,the earliest face that ,i shall see ,and swiftest face to smile on me60 8,how is it possible for you to say it80 ,i asked brokenly4 8,because10 she answered1 8all dreams and all visions have come to me1 as well as all that ,i know of earth and heaven1 through pain4 ,it opens windows in what would otherwise be blank walls60 ,the blind1 deaf1 dumb1 maimed1 crippled 7if so be it the soul is strong7 seem to develop a splendid fighting spirit unknown to those who1 apparently1 have complete command of all their powers4 ,take one sense away and the others spring1 full-armored1 into more active service4 ,rob them of a right hand and the underrated left becomes doubly skilful4 ,these are soldiers in the 8army with banners10 and should be led and followed by acclaiming hosts4 ,i have known hundreds of invalids more or less saintly1 but ,i have had personal friendship with only two completely joyous1 triumphant ones1--,robert ,louis ,stevenson and ,helen ,keller4 ,if 8one with ,god is a majority10 then two such conquering human creatures as these furnish inspiration for our generation1 and ,mrs4 ,everett in her eager search has found hundreds of similar examples4 ,for that reason ,i call this a unique1 gallant1 courageous1 helpful little book1 likely to give pluck and spirit to many readers handicapped by various ills6 ,there is nothing patient1 meek1 or resigned in its pages2 no air of being crushed-but-still-smiling2 it simply radiates a plucky1 chin-in-the-air atmosphere calculated to make an aching hand pick up its pen1 brush1 lump of clay or shovel and go to work2 not grimly and doggedly1 with lips set1 but glowing in triumph over the secret adversary4 ,the magnificent company marshalled by ,mrs4 ,everett has an exhilarating effect upon the hearer or reader4 ,as ,i listened to instance after instance of weakness gloriously transmuted into strength2 of personal grief and sorrow turned into joy for the whole world2 of vast knowledge1 spiritual and intellectual1 amassed bit by bit in the very grip of physical suffering1 ,i remembered the poetic pronouncement in ,revelation4 8,he that hath an ear let him hear what the ,spirit saith unto the churches2 ,to him that overcometh will ,i give to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of ,god40 ,,kate ,,douglas ,,wiggin ,new ,york1 ,may1 #aibj4 ,i ,,health ,,and ,,strength ,several years ago one of the ,new ,york papers published an interview with a well-known physician1 on the advisability of women being drafted for war4 ,he expressed himself in favor of their receiving military training1 although1 he casually remarked1 8a good many would undoubtedly perish4 ,but10 he argued1 8if we blot out the individual equation and judge from the standpoint of race1 would their perishing be regrettable80 ,he thinks not4 8,for1 objectors must remember10 he continues1 8that mental and moral man gets his strength and efficiency only from the physical man4 ,a sick man1 just as a sick race1 is the one that goes to the wall40 ,this outrageous statement was published at the very height of the world war1 when men without arms1 legs1 eyes1 men permanently shattered in health1 men who will hide all their lives behind masks1 were crawling home in hordes4 ,and the worst of it is1 that practically everybody agrees with his verdict4 ,we offer these heroes1 who have sacrificed their splendid young bodies on the altar of humanity1 a few fine phrases about glory and honor1 yet are smugly content to allow them to be crushed by our degrading conviction that the heights of achievement are no longer for them4 ,now if a sick race could exist at all1 it might go to the wall as the doctor prophesies2 but when he narrows his contention to the individual1 when he declares that 8a sick man goes to the wall10 he is venturing a statement which only a surprising ignorance can excuse4 ,for what is more surprising than for an educated man1 a physician1 to put forward a claim which can be refuted by anyone who has even a superficial knowledge of the past8 ,every one ,i have questioned has been able to recall at least one invalid who has attained celebrity4 ,for instance1 all but the unlettered are familiar with the fact that both ,keats and ,robert ,louis ,stevenson were diseased4 ,the vast majority1 however1 even of cultivated people1 do not seem to realize what an extraordinarily large percentage of the greatest men and women have been physically handicapped4 ,it is the joyous mission of this book to prove to all invalids1 but more especially to those living victims of the ,great ,war1 that ,keats and ,stevenson1 far from representing isolated instances of achievement despite bodily infirmities1 are but members of a gallant army1 some of whom have reached even greater heights in spite of more painful disabilities4 ,the relation of insanity to genius has not escaped the notice of scholars1 who have already exhaustively dealt with it4 ,i intend therefore to confine myself to those giants of the past who have suffered either from disease1 mutilation or constitutional debility4 ,if ,i have cited a few who have been afflicted with attacks of insanity1 ,i have selected only those whose best work was done after recovering from such seizures1 and have carefully excluded all who have had to pay with their intellects the price of a too stupendous vision4 ,i wish furthermore to impress upon you that of all the illustrious men and women ,i shall enumerate there is not one whose fullest development was not coincident with ill-health1 or reached after joining the ranks of the physically unfit4 ,if we scrutinize more closely this heterogeneous assemblage1 we shall discover that it is composed of representatives of the most varied forms of human endeavor1--,saint and philosopher1 poet and scientist1 author and statesman1 musician and artist1 and1 what is really astonishing1 some of the greatest soldiers and one1 at least1 of the greatest sailors are among them4 ,,ii ,,soldiers ,,and ,a ,,sailor ,of all vocations1 the profession of arms is the one for which it might be supposed that a perfect physique is the most essential4 ,yet ,alexander1 ,csar1 ,alfred the ,great1 ,john of ,bohemia1 ,torstensson1 ,le ,grand ,cond and his great rival ,turenne1 ,luxembourg1 ,napoleon1 ,general ,wolfe and finally ,lord ,nelson are proofs to die contrary4 ,alexander the ,great1 singular even among men of action for the splendor of his imagination1 was an epileptic4 ,so also was ,julius ,csar4 ,the latter was often attacked by his malady on the very field of battle4 ,alfred1 so justly called 8the ,great10 was stricken in his twentieth year by a mysterious disease which caused him intense pain and from which he was never afterwards free4 ,the extent and diversity of his activities are1 however1 almost incredible4 ,he excelled as a soldier1 politician and administrator4 ,he was also a scholar1 and the revival of learning which took place under his reign was due solely to his efforts4 ,king ,john of ,bohemia stands out as the most romantic and chivalrous figure of the ,middle ,ages4 ,he dazzled his contemporaries by his exploits and his reputation for valor has never been exceeded4 ,he was overtaken by blindness at the age of forty-three1 but1 strapped to his horse1 continued to lead his armies to battle4 ,for six years this blind hero successfully resisted all the attacks of the ,emperor ,louis and his allies4 ,his heroic death at the battle of ,crey was a fitting conclusion to a gallant life4 ,according to ,camden1 the ostrich feathers and the motto 8,ich dien10 borne ever since by the ,prince of ,wales1 originally formed the crest of ,king ,john1 and were first assumed by the ,black ,prince as a token of the admiration with which his antagonist inspired him4 ,cond1 known to history as 8,le ,grand ,cond10 was so delicate in childhood that he was not expected to reach maturity1 and his nervous system was 8at no time to be trifled with40 ,during his innumerable campaigns he was a constant martyr to fevers and other maladies1 but these seldom interfered with his untiring energy or his capacity for work4 ,he had also the power of arousing the enthusiasm of his followers4 ,they said of him3 8,in the midst of misfortune ,cond always maintains the character of a hero40 ,turenne is one of the captains whose campaigns ,napoleon recommended all soldiers to 8read and re-read40 ,physical infirmities and an impediment in his speech hampered his career in youth4 ,however1 by devoting himself to bodily exercises1 he succeeded in a measure in overcoming his weaknesses1 but to the end he never possessed a normal physique4 ,count ,torstensson1 the brilliant ,swedish field-marshal1 celebrated after ,gustavus ,adolphus as the hero of the ,thirty ,years' ,war1 and compared to ,napoleon for the rapidity with which he was able to move his troops1 had frequently to lead his army from a litter1 as his infirmities would not permit him to mount a horse4 ,he is considered by experts to have been a greater man than his opponent1 ,tilly1 although the latter1 strangely enough1 has a more widespread reputation4 ,a propos ,luxembourg and ,william ,,iii 7although the latter should be included among the statesmen71 ,i will quote a passage from ,macaulay4 8,in such an age 7#afid7 bodily vigor is the most indispensable qualification for a warrior4 ,at the battle of ,landon two poor1 sickly beings1 who1 in a rude state of society1 would have been considered too puny to bear part in combats1 were the souls of two great armies40 ,and further on3 8,it is probable that the two feeblest in body among the hundred and twenty thousand soldiers that fought at ,neerwinden were the hunch-backed dwarf 7,luxembourg7 who urged forward the fiery onset of ,france1 and the asthmatic skeleton 7,william ,,iii7 who covered the slow retreat of ,england40 ,napoleon was an epileptic and ,lord ,nelson1 at the height of his efficiency1 had lost an arm and an eye and what is even more remarkable was1 so it is said1 sick every time he went to sea or whenever the weather was exceptionally rough4 ,general ,wolfe1 although only thirty-two years old1 was already a man of shattered health when he undertook his famous expedition against ,quebec4 ,in spite of disheartening failures and the torture of an internal malady1 he finally won the decisive victory which wrested ,quebec from the ,french4 ,during the battle he was twice wounded but refused to leave the field until a third bullet pierced his lung4 ,he survived only long enough to give a final order for cutting off the retreat and breathed his last murmuring3 8,now1 ,god be praised1 ,i will die in peace40 ,let us consider for a moment what made these men pre-eminent4 ,it was not courage4 ,csar and ,napoleon were no braver than thousands of their followers4 ,nor was it the capacity for endurance4 ,what then was the secret of their power8 ,i answer unhesitatingly1--imagination4 ,no leader has been without it and the greatest leaders are the men who have had it to a superlative degree4 ,napoleon recognized its mysterious sway1 for it was he who said3 8,imagination rules the world40 ,now1 imagination is the very quality we find most frequently allied to ill-health4 ,i beg to call to your attention that with the exception of le grand ,cond and possibly ,napoleon1 not one of these men would have passed his 8medical40 ,it is certainly curious that the profession of arms1 the most physically exacting of all professions1 is the only one whose greatest examples have without exception been tainted with disease4 ,,iii ,,ill-,,health ,,and ,,its ,,relation ,,to ,,genius 8,the physical conditions which accompany and affect what we call genius are obscure1 and have hitherto attracted little but empirical notice4 ,it is impossible not to see that absolutely normal man or woman1 as we describe normality1 is very rarely indeed an inventor1 or a seer1 or even a person of remarkable mental energy4 ,the bulk of what are called entirely #8healthy' people add nothing to the sum of human achievement1 and it is not the average navvy who makes a ,darwin nor a typical daughter of the plough who develops into an ,elizabeth ,barrett ,browning4444 ,the more closely we study1 with extremely slender resources of evidence1 the lives of great men of imagination and action since the beginning of the world1 the more clearly we ought to recognize that a reduction of all types to one stolid uniformity of what is called #8health' would have the effect of depriving humanity of precisely those individuals who have added most to the beauty and variety of human existence4444 ,when the physical conditions of men of the highest celebrity in the past are touched upon1 it is usual to pass them over with indifference1 or else to account for them as the result of disease4 ,the peculiarities of ,pascal1 or of ,pope1 or of ,michelangelo are either denied1 or it is presumed that they were the result of purely morbid factors against which their genius1 their rectitude1 or their common sense more or less successfully contended4 ,it is admitted that ,tasso had a hypersensitive constitution1 which cruelty tortured into melancholia1 but it is taken for granted that he would have been a greater poet1 if he had taken plenty of out-door exercise40 ,these are the conclusions of ,mr4 ,edmund ,gosse1 and they are even more radical than mine4 ,it is1 however1 true that in sickness the perceptions1 physical1 mental and spiritual1 become supernormally acute1 and this extreme sensitiveness to impression is one of the attributes of genius4 ,it follows1 therefore1 that imagination is stimulated by suffering1 but not that suffering creates genius or is even inseparably allied to it4 ,the most universal concomitant of genius is the power of concentration and there is nothing that so fosters that quality as ill-health4 ,by forcing us to limit our activities1 our human contacts1 it automatically eliminates everything that is not the basic essential of each individual4 ,we may dream of an absolutely balanced man1 one equally supreme in mind1 body1 and spirit1 but ,i do not believe it possible for such a being to exist4 ,it seems to be a law that we must purchase and develop one faculty at the expense of another4 ,only by excessive application to one restricted form of activity can we excel in it4 ,genius is not eccentric1 it is concentric4 ,the all-round man is the mediocre man4 ,to perfect even a rose1 you must mutilate the bush4 ,of all the great men of imagination ,leonardo da ,vinci and ,goethe seem to have been the most superabundantly healthy4 ,this was certainly true of ,leonardo in his youth1 but ,i cannot help feeling that when he painted ,mona ,lisa's smile1 ,pain1 the great teacher1 was not unknown to him4 ,however1 ,i may be mistaken1 and if so1 he is the most complete man in the whole history of art1 science or literature1 for he enjoyed the advantages of health without forfeiting the hypersensitiveness of suffering4 ,there is no doubt1 however1 about ,goethe4 ,he kept his splendid physique to the last1 and ,goethe was unquestionably a very great man4 ,his gigantic intellect is curiously stimulating4 ,no one else of whom ,i know1 with the exception of ,leonardo1 has had such a multiple outlook on life4 ,that amazing eye of his dissected as well as comprehended all that it rested upon1 and it rested upon almost everything tangible4 ,but the very universality of ,goethe's genius is one of its limitations4 ,he gives so much1 and yet--there it is1 he knows no 8half-lights40 ,he never leads one to those shadowy regions where the soul is in travail2 he knows nothing of that mysterious tract which lies beyond the last outpost of the intellect4 ,his imagination even in its wildest flights is curiously earthbound4 ,i feel that he was too healthy4 ,,iv ,,among ,,the ,,poets 8,,they ,,learn ,,in ,,suffering ,,what ,,they ,,teach ,,in ,,song0 ,horace was a man of feeble health2 ,milton was blind2 ,pope deformed4 ,george ,herbert1 to whom we owe so many of our most beautiful hymns and anthems1 was consumptive4 ,john ,donne had an enormous influence on ,english literature1 although1 according to ,mr4 ,edmund ,gosse1 his influence was mostly malign4 ,he was praised by ,dryden1 paraphrased by ,pope1 and then completely forgotten for a century4 ,his versification is often harsh1 but 8behind that fantastic garb of language there is an earnest and vigorous mind1 and imagination that harbors fire within its cloudy folds and an insight into the mysteries of spiritual life which is often startling4 ,donne excels in brief flashes of wit and beauty1 and in sudden1 daring phrases that have the full perfume of poetry in them40 ,izaak ,walton was his admiring friend and first biographer4 ,donne was constantly ill during the years of his greatest creative activity1 yet this is what he once said1 speaking of his illnesses3 8,the advantage you and my other friends have by my frequent fevers is that ,i am so much the oftener at the gate of heaven2 and1 by the solitude and close imprisonment they reduce me to1 ,i am so much the oftener at my prayers1 in which you and my other dear friends are not forgotten40 ,it was owing to ill-health that ,coleridge first took opium under the guise of a patent medicine4 ,william ,cowper early showed a tendency to melancholia1 but it was not until he was almost thirty that the prospects of having to appear at the bar of the ,house of ,lords1 preliminary to taking up the position of clerk--a mere formality--drove him completely insane4 ,he attempted suicide and was sent to an asylum where he spent eighteen months4 ,at the age of forty-two he had another attack from which it took him almost three years to recover completely4 ,nevertheless we find him three years later making his first appearance as an author with 8,olney ,hymns10 written in conjunction with a friend4 ,this was followed by a collection of poems1 which was badly received1 one critic declaring that 8,mr4 ,cowper was certainly a good1 pious man1 but without one spark of poetic fire40 ,it was not until #aghe when he was already fifty-four years old and had been twice declared insane that he published the book that was to make him famous4 ,it is entitled3 8,the ,task1 ,tircinium or a ,review of ,schools1 and the ,history of ,john ,gilpin40 ,cowper is among the poets who are epoch-makers4 8,he brought a new spirit into ,english verse4 ,with him begins the #8enthusiasm for humanity1' that was afterwards to become so marked in the poetry of ,burns1 ,shelley1 ,wordsworth and ,byron40 ,keats suffered from consumption and it is interesting to note that the progress of his disease coincided with the expansion of his genius4 ,chatterton is the most astounding and precocious figure in the whole history of letters4 ,he was only seventeen years and nine months old when starvation drove him to commit suicide1 8but the best of his numerous productions1 both in prose and verse1 require no allowance to be made for the immaturity of their author40 ,chatterton's audience has never been a large one for the reason that with a few exceptions all his poems are written in ,fifteenth ,century ,english4 ,among the discriminating1 however1 he holds a very high place4 ,his genius and tragic death are commemorated by ,wordsworth in 8,resolution and ,independence10 by ,coleridge in 8,a ,monody on the ,death of ,chatterton10 by ,d4 ,g4 ,rossetti in 8,five ,english ,poets10 and ,keats dedicated 8,endymion0 to his memory4 ,i have hesitated as to whether ,i had a right to include ,chatterton among my examples1 because ,i can find no record of his having suffered from actual disease4 ,on the other hand he was so abnormal that ,i feel that ,i have no right to ignore him4 ,from his earliest years he was subject to fits of abstraction during which he would sit for hours in seeming stupor from which it was almost impossible to wake him4 ,for a time he was even considered deficient in intellect4 ,thomas ,hood was a chronic invalid2 his most famous poem1 8,the ,bridge of ,sighs10 was written on his death-bed4 ,byron and ,swinburne were also physically handicapped4 ,w4 ,e4 ,henley was not only a poet but a trenchant critic and a successful editor4 ,a physical infirmity forced him at the age of twenty-five to become an inmate of an ,edinburgh hospital4 ,while there he wrote a number of poems in irregular rhythm describing1 with poignant force1 his experiences as a patient4 ,sent to the ,cornhill ,magazine1 they at once aroused the interest of ,leslie ,stephen1 the editor1 and induced him to visit the young poet and to take ,robert ,louis ,stevenson with him4 ,this meeting in the hospital and the friendship which ensued between ,stevenson and ,henley were famous in the literary gossip of the last century4 ,henley's reputation will rest on his poetry1 and the best of his poems will retain a permanent place in ,english literature4 ,as a literary editor he displayed a gift for discovering men of promise1 and 8,views and ,reviews0 is a 8volume of notable criticism40 ,sidney ,lanier1 one of the most original and talented of ,american poets1 was consumptive1 and ,francis ,thompson1 author of 8,the ,hound of ,heaven10 wrote his flaming verse under acute pain4 ,the ,sixteenth ,century was the heyday of poets4 ,princes regarded them as the chief ornament of their courts and disputed among themselves the honor of their company4 ,ronsard's life1 therefore1 was exceptionally fortunate4 ,he enjoyed the favor of the three sons of ,catherine de' ,medici1 more especially of ,charles ,,ix1 after whose premature death the poet retired from ,paris4 ,ronsard is celebrated as the chief glory of an association of poets who called themselves the 8,pliade40 ,his own generation bestowed upon him the title of 8,prince of ,poets40 ,ronsard became deaf at eighteen and so he became a man of letters instead of a diplomatist4 ,his infirmity is probably responsible for a 8certain premature agedness1 a tranquil1 temperate sweetness0 which characterizes the school of poetry he founded4 ,joachim du ,bellay was destined for the army and his poetry would most probably have been lost to the world if he had not been attacked by a serious illness which seemed likely to prove fatal4 ,it was during the idle days of his convalescence that he first read the ,greek and ,latin poets4 ,he was also a member of the 8,pliade0 and some of his isolated pieces excel those of ,ronsard in 8airy lightness of touch40 ,molire is the greatest name in ,french literature4 ,the facts as to his youth and early manhood are so wrapped in uncertainty1 that it is impossible to say when the frailty of his health first became manifest4 ,when he emerges from obscurity we find him already subject to attacks of illness and forced to limit himself to a milk diet4 ,his best work1 however1 was still undone4 8,tartuffe0 was not written until #affd when ,molire was already forty-two years old1 and 8,le ,misanthrope0 was performed a year later4 ,although it had probably long been latent1 he first showed unmistakable symptoms of consumption in #affg4 ,in spite of the ravages of disease1 and the continual strain of an impossible domestic situation1 he produced 8,le ,bourgois ,gentilhomme0 three years later1 followed by 8,les ,fourberies de ,scapin40 8,le ,malade ,imaginaire0 was written shortly before his death1 and it was while acting the title rle that he ruptured a blood vessel4 ,he died a few hours afterwards1 alone1 except for the casual presence of two ,sisters of ,charity4 ,scarron1 poet1 dramatist and novelist1 lived twenty years in a state of miserable deformity and pain4 ,his head and body were twisted2 his legs useless4 ,he bore his sufferings with invincible courage4 ,scarron was a prominent figure in the literary and fashionable society of his day4 ,his work1 however1 is very unequal4 ,that the 8,roman ,burlesque0 is a novel of real merit1 no competent critic can deny4 ,it was republished during the nineteenth century1 not only in the original ,french but in an ,english translation4 ,scarron is also of interest as the first husband of the lady who as ,mme4 de ,maintenon became the wife of ,louis ,,xiv4 ,boileau was the youngest of fifteen children4 ,he is said to have had but one passion1 the hatred of stupid books4 ,he was the first critic to demonstrate the poetical possibilities of the ,french language4 ,his two masterpieces are 8,l',art ,potique0 and 8,lutrin40 8,after much depreciation ,boileau's critical work has been rehabilitated and his judgments have been substantially adopted by his successors40 ,he suffered all his life from constitutional debility4 ,schiller was a leading spirit of his age1 yet from his thirty-second year 8every one of his nerves was an avenue of pain40 ,nevinson1 however1 considered 8it possible the disease served in some way to increase ,schiller's eager activity and fan his intellect into keener flame40 ,carlyle also writes of the poet that 8in the midst of his infirmities he persevered with unabated zeal in the great business of his life4 ,his frame might be impaired1 but his spirit retained its fire unextinguished40 ,schiller wrote some of his noblest and greatest plays during the periods of his most acute suffering4 ,when he died it was found that all his vital organs were deranged4 ,heinrich ,heine1 another immortal1 spent eight years of his agitated struggling life on what he called 8a mattress-grave40 8,these years of suffering seem to have effected what might be called a spiritual purification of ,heine's nature1 and to have brought out all the good side of his character1 whereas adversity in earlier days had only emphasized his cynicism40 ,though crippled and racked with constant pain1 his intellectual and creative powers were no whit dimmed4 ,his greatest poems were written during these years of suffering from which he found relief only in death4 ,petrarch suffered from epilepsy1 and ,alfieri1 one of the greatest of the ,italian tragic poets1 was a martyr to pain4 ,so likewise was ,leopardi1 author of some immortal odes2 the latter was1 furthermore1 deformed4 ,it was said of him that 8,pain and ,love are the two-fold poetry of his existence40 ,camoens1 the greatest of ,portuguese poets1 lost his right eye attempting to board an enemy ship4 ,after a life of incredible hardship1 he died in a public almshouse worn out by disease4 ,there are hardly any women poets1 which is rather curious1 as it is almost the only career that requires neither training nor paraphernalia1 yet among this handful we find four1 three of them being of real importance1 namely3 ,mrs4 ,browning1 ,christina ,rossetti and ,emily ,dickinson4 ,mrs4 ,browning was a chronic invalid and wrote her greatest poems1 8,sonnets from the ,portuguese10 while actually on her back4 ,mr4 ,edmund ,gosse says of ,christina ,rossetti1 8,all we really know about her1 save that she was a great saint1 was that she was a great poet40 ,she was also a great sufferer4 ,the most curious event of ,american literary history was the sudden rise of ,emily ,dickinson into a posthumous fame4 ,this strange woman1 who shunned publicity with a morbid terror and never left her 8father's house for any house or town10 nevertheless bequeathed to the world poems which for life and fire are unexcelled4 ,she was an invalid4 ,in #ahfc she writes3 8,i was ill since ,september1 and since ,april in ,boston for a physician's care4 ,he does not let me go1 yet ,i work in my prison1 and make guests for myself4 ,carlo 7her dog7 did not come1 because he would die in jail and the mountains ,i could not hold now1 so ,i brought but the gods60 ,frances ,ridley ,havergal wrote some of her most beautiful hymns on a sick bed4 ,v ,,novelists ,the first name ,i find on my list of novelists who have been subject to ill health is that of ,cervantes4 ,he did not start life an invalid1--far from it4 ,he seems to have been a youth of unusual vigor4 ,but when only twenty-three years old he was severely wounded and lost his left hand in battle--8,for the greater glory of the right10 as he gallantly exclaimed4 ,after that he spent five years in slavery and he escaped from the ,moors only to languish at various times in a ,spanish prison4 ,hardship1 and privations doubtless1 and also his old wounds1 had completely shattered his health when he finally sat down to create his immortal 8,don ,quixote40 ,the first part was published when he was fifty-eight years old1 the last when he was sixty-nine4 ,when ,fielding wrote 8,tom ,jones10 he had been for years a martyr to gout and other diseases3 ,gibbon predicted for this work 8a diuturnity exceeding that of the house of ,austria60 ,it is curious that this book1 which bubbles over with the joy of life1 was written at a time when ,fielding was plunged into the deepest melancholy4 ,swift suffered from 8labyrinthian vertigo40 ,laurence ,sterne1 creator of 8,tristram ,shandy10 was consumptive1 as he says of himself1 8from the first hour ,i drew breath unto this that ,i can hardly breathe at all40 ,sterne1 no longer young1 was increasingly suffering during the years he brought forth the numerous volumes of his unique book4 ,sir ,walter ,scott was not only lame from infancy but is an inspiring example of what can be accomplished under conditions of extreme physical suffering4 ,when he was forty-six years old began a series of agonizing attacks of cramps of the stomach which recurred at frequent intervals for two years4 ,but his activity and capacity for work remained unbroken4 ,he made his initial attempt at play-writing when he was recovering from this first seizure4 ,before the year was out he had completed 8,rob ,roy40 ,within six months it was followed by 8,the ,heart of ,midlothian10 which filled four volumes of the second series of 8,tales of my ,landlord10 and has remained one of the most popular among his novels4 8,the ,bride of ,lammermoor0 and 8,the ,legend of ,montrose0 were dictated to amanuenses1 through fits of suffering so acute that he could not suppress cries of agony4 ,when ,laidlaw begged him to stop dictating he only answered1 8,nay1 ,willie1 only see that the doors are fast4 ,i would fain keep all the cry1 as well as all the wool to ourselves1 but to give over work1 that can only be when ,i am woolen40 ,mme4 de ,la ,fayette lost her health a year before her epoch-making novel1 8,la ,princess de ,clves10 was published4 ,she lived fifteen years afterwards1 8tant de ceux10 as ,sainte-,beuve says1 8qui tranent leur miserable vie jusqu' la dernire goutte d'huile40 8,la ,princesse de ,clves0 is not only intrinsically a work of real merit1 which is still read with pleasure1 but is important because it is the first novel of sentiment1 the first novel1 in the sense we moderns use the word1 that was ever written4 ,le ,sage was a handsome1 engaging youth1 but it was not until he was thirty-nine years old that he made his first success with the 8,diable ,boiteux40 ,already his deafness was rapidly increasing2 and he was sixty-seven years old and had long been completely deaf when the last volume of the masterpiece1 8,gil ,blas10 appeared4 ,vauvenargues was a soldier until he had both of his legs frozen during a winter campaign4 ,this injury1 from which he never recovered1 forced him to leave the army4 ,an attack of small-pox completed the ruin of his health1 and thenceforth he led a secluded life devoted to literary pursuits4 ,it is mainly as a novelist that ,vauvenargues occupies a place in ,french literature1 although his other works were held in high esteem by his contemporaries4 ,edmond and ,jules de ,goncourt are names famous in ,french literary history4 8,learning something from ,flaubert1 and teaching almost everything to ,zola1 they invented a new kind of novel1 and their works are the result of a new vision of the world4444 ,a novel of the ,goncourts is made up of an infinite number of details1 set side by side1 every detail equally prominent4444 ,french critics have complained that the language of the ,goncourts is no longer the ,french of the past1 and this is true4 ,it is their distinction1 the finest of their inventions1 that in order to render new sensations1 a new vision of things1 they invented a new language40 7,mr4 ,arthur ,symons47 ,their journal is a gold mine from which present-day writers still carry away unacknowledged nuggets4 ,m4 ,paul ,bourget said of them3 8,life reduced itself to a series of epileptic attacks1 preceded and followed by a blank40 ,dostoievsky is considered by many critics the greatest of the great ,russian novelists4 ,his health was completely shattered by his spending four years in a ,siberian prison as a political offender4 ,this terrible experience1 however1 served to create 8,recollections of a ,dead ,house0 and 8,buried ,alive in ,siberia40 ,anton ,chekhov1 the ,russian novelist and short story writer1 was only a little over twenty when he began to suffer from attacks of blood spitting4 ,although he believed that these came from his throat they were undoubtedly due to consumption4 ,he was also a martyr to digestive trouble and headaches4 ,chekhov possessed to an unusual degree the nervous energy which so frequently accompanies disease4 ,he was a remarkably prolific author1 so much so that in one of his letters he prophesies that he will soon have written enough to fill a library with his own works4 ,literature was1 however1 not his only pursuit4 ,he also practiced medicine1 although he refused to receive any remuneration for his services4 ,he was public spirited and altruistic and organized an association for the relief of ,siberian prisoners4 ,his books enjoy an immense vogue and have been translated into every language4 ,whatever may be the future of ,english fiction1 ,charlotte ,bront's novels will always command attention1 by reason of their intensity and individuality4 ,she suffered from permanent bodily weakness with various complications4 ,some critics consider ,emily ,bront superior to her sister4 8,wuthering ,heights0 is a 8thing apart1 passionate1 unforgettable40 ,this remarkable book was written while its author was dying of consumption4 ,that super-woman1 known to fame as ,george ,eliot1 suffered all her life from frequent attacks of illness4 ,in spite of her physical limitations she was capable of the most prolonged and intense application4 ,her numerous novels1 dating from her thirty-sixth year1 are only a part of her widespread intellectual activities4 ,jacobsen1 the great ,danish novelist1 unfortunately too little known in this country1 was1 like so many others1 cut off from his chosen or destined profession and driven into literature by ill health4 ,during the worst phases of his sufferings he produced books that in their way have never been surpassed4 ,i must mention here1 though she belongs to no category1 that extraordinary child1 ,marie ,bashkirtseff1 who1 dying of consumption at twenty-four1 left behind her several pictures of great promise 7two of them are in the ,luxembourg ,gallery1 ,i believe7 and her 8,journal10 a remarkable production which created a sensation thirty years ago and which has lately been republished4 ,robert ,louis ,stevenson's life is so well-known that ,i need only to recall him to your memory4 ,henry ,james was so delicate that he was forced to remain a spectator of the ,civil ,war1 in which his younger brothers fought4 ,mr4 ,edmund ,gosse writes the following description of a visit to ,henry ,james when the latter was already thirty-two years old4 8,stretched on a sofa and apologizing for not rising to greet me1 his appearance gave me a little shock1 for ,i had not thought of him as an invalid4 ,he hurriedly and rather evasively declared that he was not that1 but that a muscular weakness of the spine obliged him1 as he said1 #8to assume a horizontal posture during some hours of every day in order to bear an almost unbroken routine of evening engagements4'0 ,it is recorded that in one winter he dined out one hundred and seven times4 ,what amazing assiduity6 ,his health gradually grew stronger1 but for many years it seriously handicapped his activity4 ,i should like to linger a moment with ,lafcadio ,hearn4 ,he is known to the world at large as the foremost interpreter of the old and new ,japan4 ,he married a ,japanese wife and this gave him a peculiar insight into the customs as well as the psychology of his adopted countrymen4 ,his books show a unique understanding of the ,oriental mind and their literary art is exquisite4 ,he not only suffered from ill health1 but in addition lost the sight of one eye in early youth and ever after went in fear of total blindness4 ,yet1 far from regretting his afflictions1 this is what he said about them3 8,the owner of pure horse-health never purchased the power of discerning the half-lights4 ,in its separation of the spiritual from the physical portion of existence1 severe sickness is often invaluable to the sufferer1 in the revelation it bestows of the psychological undercurrents of human existence4 ,from the intuitive recognition of the terrible but at the same time glorious fact1 that the highest life can only be reached by subordinating physical to spiritual influences1 separating the immaterial from the material self1--therein lies all the history of asceticism and self-suppression as the most efficacious measure of developing religious and intellectual power40 ,that is what experience had taught one who was certainly not a religionist4 ,,vi ,,physical ,,perfection ,,and ,,its ,,relation ,,to ,,civilization ,i am persuaded that it is impossible to banish suffering from the world4 ,all we have so far accomplished is to exchange one form of suffering for another4 ,take the case of women1 for example1 and the ailments to which they are subject4 ,primitive woman was virtually free from these4 ,she suffered little at childbirth4 ,to-day the operation of even the normal female functions has become a serious matter4 ,science with all its strides has not been able to cope successfully with the increasing burden which the conditions of modern life impose on woman's physique4 ,i have chosen women as an illustration because they themselves would be the first to insist that they had profited more than men from the advance of thought and the perfecting of a social system that is largely their own creation4 ,well1 compare this ,flower of the ,ages1 as we see her in shops1 offices1 ball-rooms or even colleges1 with an ,australian bush-woman1 and we will find that neither in health1 strength nor endurance can she rival her savage sister4 ,the woman of the bush is capable of following her master all day with a baby on her back2 of stopping for a brief period to produce another and of resuming her progress1 unimpeded by her additional burden4 ,it is well to realize that civilization1 which has bestowed such incalculable benefits upon mankind1 has done so largely at the expense of its physical welfare4 ,moreover1 as men1 and more particularly women1 rise in the intellectual scale1 they risk the sacrifice not only of a robust1 but of a normal1 body4 ,but what of it8 8,wisdom is better than strength2 and a wise man is better than a strong man40 ,nor must we forget that while civilization has undoubtedly undermined our physique1 it has also abolished the circumstances which made strength and endurance the supreme necessities of the battle of life4 ,to be able to follow her male with a child on her back--to say nothing of the interesting interlude--is not a quality that would add either to the allurement or efficiency of the woman of to-day4 ,let me here cite four celebrated women who1 differing from each other in every other particular1 suffered in common from ill health4 ,the first in order of time is ,madame du ,deffand who was for many years the center of one of the most brilliant of the ,eighteenth ,century salons4 ,her correspondence with ,voltaire1 ,la ,duchesse ,choiseul and ,horace ,walpole is immortal and has been frequently republished4 ,many of her letters to ,voltaire and all of those to ,mme4 de ,choiseul and ,horace ,walpole were dictated when she was over sixty-seven years of age1 broken in health and totally blind4 ,rachel was the daughter of a poor ,jew pedlar1 and from the age of four she roamed the streets singing patriotic songs4 ,a famous singing teacher heard her and1 impressed by the crude power of the little creature1 offered to teach her gratuitously4 ,it is almost unbelievable to read of the excitement this small1 plain ,jewess created4 ,she still lives in hundreds of books and is an integral part of the history of her period4 ,if we can judge from contemporary praises1 ,rachel is the greatest actress of whom there is any record4 ,she suffered from continual ill health and died of consumption in her thirty-seventh year4 ,grace ,darling was the daughter of a lighthouse keeper1 and with her father braved almost certain death in attempting to save the survivors of the wreck of the ,forfarshire4 ,by well-nigh superhuman efforts they succeeded in rescuing a great number4 ,this gallant exploit made them both famous4 ,grace ,darling had always been delicate and died of consumption four years later4 ,florence ,nightingale1 immortal nurse and one of the most influential women in history1 had at the time of her greatest activity a body so weak that it was a wonder how a woman in such delicate health was able to perform so much of what ,sidney ,herbert called 8a man's work40 ,during many years of important achievement she was altogether bed-ridden4 ,working incessantly1 writing1 organizing1 she was a power throughout the ,british ,empire4 ,her influence has spread over the world2 to her we owe the first idea of training nurses4 ,it is really curious that physical fitness should have become an ideal only after it had ceased to be the indispensable requirement of our environment4 ,piano-moving is perhaps the sole occupation to-day where strength is the only qualification1 and intelligence of no account whatsoever2 yet few of us aspire to become piano-movers6 ,the body is a most delicate machine and only in exceptional cases can it be kept through life in perfect condition1 without an immense expenditure of time and trouble4 ,now1 a perfect body should only be considered desirable1 if it enables us to rise to greater heights of achievement4 ,countless people1 however1 regard health and vigor not merely as the means but as the goal itself4 ,they tend and exercise their bodies at the expense of every other form of activity4 ,the disproportionate amount of time1 energy and aspiration that is wasted in attempting to perfect and preserve that which is inevitably doomed to destruction is incredible4 ,a child building a castle on the sand is engaged in a more durable occupation4 ,for the child1 while erecting its tunnelled and turreted fortress1 is at least attempting to realize some haunting dream of the heights1 the depths1 the mystery and magnificence of life4 ,what matter the tide8--the vision is indestructible4 ,the ,greeks regarded a beautiful body as an end in itself1 because their civilization1 by permitting its unveiling1 allowed it to act as an inspiration to others4 ,the nude1 however1 has no recognized place among us1 and although it still serves to create beauty1 it does so under restricted and abnormal conditions4 ,to be a model is not a title to fame1 nor the ideal of our most enlightened contemporaries4 ,i hope that ,i have proved conclusively that a splendid body is no longer a necessary means of enabling us to rise to the greatest heights either of ambition or of service4 ,why1 therefore1 should we so morbidly covet physical perfection8 ,,vii ,,the ,,physically ,,handicapped ,,philosophers 4 --,aeschylus1 ,agememnon1 line #ahf4 ,among the ,british philosophers who were physical sufferers we find the great ,francis ,bacon1 who from childhood was always weak and delicate4 ,john ,locke became world-famous by reason of his still celebrated 8,essay concerning ,human ,understanding40 ,he was also of political importance1 having occupied for years the position of confidential adviser to the great ,earl of ,shaftesbury4 ,professor ,campbell says of him3 8,locke is apt to be forgotten now1 because in his own generation he so well discharged the intellectual mission of initiating criticism of human knowledge1 and of diffusing the spirit of free enquiry and universal toleration which has since profoundly affected the civilized world4 ,he has not bequeathed an imposing system1 hardly even a striking discovery in metaphysics1 but he is a signal example in the ,anglo-,saxon world of the love of attainable truth for the sake of truth and goodness4 ,if ,locke made few discoveries1 ,socrates made none4 ,but both are memorable in the record of human progress40 ,robert ,boyle1 the natural philosopher1 was the seventh son and fourteenth child of the great ,earl of ,cork4 ,his scientific work procured him extraordinary reputation among his contemporaries4 ,it was he who 8first enunciated the law that the volume of gas varies inversely as the pressure1 which among ,english-speaking people is still called by his name40 ,great as were his attainments they were almost over-shadowed by the saintliness of his character1 the liveliness of his wit and the incomparable charm of his manner4 ,boyle was a man of the most feeble health4 ,this is what ,evelyn says of him3 8,the contexture of his body seemed to me so delicate that ,i have frequently compared him to ,venice glass1 444 which though wrought never so fine1 being carefully set up1 would outlast harder metals of daily use40 ,robert ,hooke1 the experimental philosopher1 was both deformed and diseased4 ,he was not a great man and his scientific achievements would have been 8more striking if they had been less varied40 ,nevertheless he was renowned in his day1 and his contribution of real importance for1 although 8he perfected little he originated much40 ,i mention him1 and shall mention several others1 who have been forgotten by all but scholars1 because ,i wish to show how large an army stands behind its illustrious chiefs4 ,besides1 if we contemplate only the giant luminaries of the firmament of fame1 we shall become discouraged4 ,they paralyze us by the very intensity of the admiration they evoke4 ,lesser men1 on the contrary1 for the reason that they are nearer our own orbit1 are more likely to stir us into emulation4 ,herbert ,spencer's achievements are too well known to necessitate further comment4 ,he was exceedingly delicate and at his best only able to work three hours a day4 ,descartes1 the foremost ,french philosopher1 had a feeble and somewhat abnormal body4 8,yet he considered it0 7,i am quoting ,mr4 ,edmund ,gosse7 8well suited to his own purposes1 and was convinced that the ,cartesian philosophy would not have been improved1 though the philosopher's digestion might1 by developing the thews of a plough-boy40 ,nicholas ,malebranche1 the great ,french ,cartesian philosopher1 was the tenth child of his parents4 ,although deformed and constitutionally feeble he was one of the most sought after men of his day4 ,from all countries of the world1 but more especially from ,england 7be it said in her honour7 scholars1 writers and philosophers flocked to his door4 ,the ,german princes voyaged to ,paris expressly to see him4 ,the philosopher ,berkeley was probably the cause of his death by forcing himself on ,malebranche when the latter had been ordered absolute quiet4 ,his influence has been variously estimated4 ,spinoza is undoubtedly one of his disciples4 ,mons4 ,emile ,faguet says of him3 8,malebranche est un des plus beaux 7metaphysiciens7 que j'aie rencontrs4 ,si l'on veut ma pense1 je trouve ,descartes plus grand savant et plus vaste sprit2 mais je trouve ,malebranche plus grand philosophe1 d'un degr au moins que ,descartes lui-,mme40 ,speaking of his character he writes3 8,il n'y eut jamais homme de plus d'sprit1 ni plus homme de bien1 ni plus seduisant40 ,blaise ,pascal1 the great ,french religious philosopher1 still holds a position of immense importance in the history of literature as well as philosophy4 ,his 8,provincial ,letters0 are the 8first example of polite controversial irony since ,lucian and they have continued to be the best example of it during more than two centuries in which style has been sedulously practised and in which they have furnished a model to generation after generation40 ,his 8,penses10 published after his death1 is 8still a favorite exploring ground 444 to persons who take an interest in their problems40 ,in philosophy his position is this3 8,he seized firmly and fully the central idea of the difference between reason and religion1 but unlike most men since his day who1 not contented with a mere concordat1 have let religion go and contented themselves with reason10 ,pascal1 though equally dissatisfied1 8held fast to religion and continued to fight out the questions of difference with reason40 ,from the age of eighteen1 ,pascal never passed a single day without pain4 ,nevertheless1 in the worst of his sufferings he was wont to say3 8,do not pity me2 sickness is the natural condition of ,christians4 ,in sickness we are as we ought always to be 444 in the suffering of pains1 in the privation of goods and of all the pleasures of the senses1 exempt from all passions which work in us during the whole course of our life1 without ambition1 without avarice1 in the continual expectation of death40 ,voltaire suffered frequent attacks of illness4 ,it was said of him that 8he was born dying40 ,comte1 the ,french ,positive philosopher1 accomplished the bulk of his work after recovering from an attack of insanity during which he threw himself into the ,seine4 ,perhaps it is too soon to judge of the ultimate value of his system of philosophy4 ,it has had impassioned adherents as well as scornful critics4 ,his main thesis seems to be 8that the improvement of social conditions can only be effected by moral development and never by any political mechanism1 or any violence in the way of an artificial redistribution of wealth40 ,in other words1 he preached that a moral transformation must precede any real advance4 ,yet he was not a ,christian4 ,an enemy defined ,comtism as 8,catholicism without ,christianity40 ,henri ,frederic ,amiel1 ,swiss philosopher and critic1 whose chief work1 the 8,journal ,intime10 published after his death1 obtained for him ,european reputation1 was a valetudinarian4 ,amiel wrote but little1 but all he accomplished has the quality of exquisite sensitiveness4 ,the great ,kant was a wretched little creature barely five feet high with a concave chest and a deformed right shoulder2 his constitution was of the frailest1 though by taking extraordinary precautions he escaped serious illness4 ,,viii ,,astronomers ,,and ,,mathematicians ,johann ,kepler1 the great ,german astronomer1 was a contemporary of ,tycho ,brahe and ,galileo with both of whom he was in correspondence4 ,kepler's contributions to science were of the utmost importance4 ,it was he who established the two cardinal principles of modern astronomy--the laws of elliptical orbits and of equal areas4 ,he also enunciated important truths relating to gravity4 ,in spite of the backward condition of mechanical knowledge1 he attempted to explain the planetary evolutions by a theory of vortices closely resembling that afterwards adopted by ,descartes4 ,he also prepared the way for the discovery of the infinitesimal calculus4 ,his literary remains were purchased by ,catherine the ,second of ,russia and were only published during the latter half of the ,nineteenth ,century4 ,it is impossible to consider without astonishment the colossal amount of work accomplished by ,kepler1 despite his great physical disabilities4 ,when only four years old an attack of small-pox had left him with crippled hands and eyesight permanently impaired4 ,his constitution1 already enfeebled by premature birth1 had to withstand successive shocks of illness4 ,flamstead1 the great ,british astronomer1 was obliged to leave school in consequence of a rheumatic affection of the joints4 ,it was to solace his enforced idleness that he took up the study of astronomy4 ,the extent and quality of his performance is almost unbelievable when one considers his severe physical suffering4 ,nicholas ,saunderson lost his sight before he was twelve months old1 yet he became professor of mathematics at ,cambridge4 ,he was an eminent authority in his day1 an original and efficient teacher and the author of a book on algebra4 ,his knowledge of optics was remarkable4 8,he had distinct ideas of perspective1 of the projection of the sphere1 and of the forms assumed by plane or solid figures40 ,d',alembert was not only a mathematician but also a philosopher of the highest order4 ,he was made a member of the ,french ,academy at the age of twenty-four4 ,he was so frail that his life was continually despaired of and he remained a valetudinarian to the end4 ,,ix ,,statesmen ,,and ,,politicians ,we now come to the statesmen and politicians4 ,robert ,cecil1 first ,earl of ,salisbury1 ,secretary of ,state under ,queen ,elizabeth and ,lord ,treasurer under ,james ,i1 was a statesman who all his life wielded immense power to the undoubted benefit of his country4 ,yet in person he was in strange contrast to his rivals at court1 being deformed and sickly4 ,elizabeth styled him her pigmy2 his enemies vilified him as 8wry-neck10 8crooked-back0 and 8splay-foot40 ,in ,bacon's essay 8,of ,deformity0 he paints his cousin to the life4 ,john ,somers1 ,lord ,keeper under ,william and ,mary1 8was in some respects0 7,i am quoting ,macaulay7 8the greatest man of his age4 ,he was equally eminent as a jurist1 as a politician and as a writer4444 ,his humanity was the more remarkable because he received from nature a body such as is generally found united to a peevish and irritable mind4 ,his life was one long malady2 his nerves were weak2 his complexion livid2 his face prematurely wrinkled40 ,william ,,iii1 ,i have already mentioned1 and now comes a name to conjure with1 the great ,lord ,clive1 founder of the ,british ,empire4 ,at eighteen he went out to ,india and shortly afterwards the effect of the climate on his health began to show itself in those fits of depression during one of which he ended his life4 ,we see in his end the result of physical suffering1 of chronic disease which opium failed to abate4 ,william ,pitt1 ,earl of ,chatham1 one of the greatest statesmen ,england ever had1 suffered from hereditary gout4 ,the attacks continued from boyhood with increasing intensity to the close of his life4 ,he was for two years mentally unbalanced1 yet after that he returned to ,parliament and directed for eight years all the power of his eloquence in favor of the ,american ,colonies4 ,dr4 ,johnson said3 8,walpole was a minister given by the ,king to the people1 but ,pitt was a minister given by the people to the ,king40 ,whatever we may think of ,marat as a man1 we cannot deny that he occupies a large place in the history of his time4 ,yet he was always delicate1 so much so that after the completion of one of his books he lay in a stupor during thirteen days4 ,in #aghh he was attacked by a terrible malady1 from which he suffered during the whole of his revolutionary career4 ,pitt1 the younger1 was a sickly child and although he grew into a healthy youth1 his constitution was early broken by gout4 ,owing to an accident in early childhood ,talleyrand was lamed for life4 ,at the time this seemed a great misfortune1 for owing to his disability he forfeited his right of primogeniture and the profession of arms was closed to him4 8,no ,frenchman of his age did so much to repair the ravages wrought by fanatics and autocrats40 ,henry ,fawcett1 the ,english politician and economist1 was accidentally blinded at the age of twenty-five4 ,the effect of his blindness was1 as the event proved1 the reverse of calamitous4 ,by concentrating his energies1 it brought his powers to earlier maturity than would otherwise have been possible1 and 8it had a mellowing influence on his character1 which in youth had been rough and canny1 and inclined to harshness40 ,gladstone appointed him ,postmaster-,general in #ahhj and not ,england alone1 but the world as well1 is deeply indebted to him for the reforms he inaugurated4 ,he instituted the parcel post1 postal orders1 sixpenny telegrams1 the banking of small savings by means of stamps and increased facilities for life insurance and annuities4 ,kavanaugh was an ,irish politician and member of the privy council of ,ireland4 ,he had only the rudiments of legs and arms but in spite of these physical defects he had a remarkable career4 ,he learned to ride in the most fearless fashion1 strapped to a special saddle and managing his horse with the stumps of his arms2 he also fished1 shot1 drew and wrote1 various mechanical devices supplementing his limited physical capacities4 ,x ,,the ,,freedom ,,of ,,ill-,,health ,one of the greatest advantages of invalidism is that it frees us from petty obligations1 unworthy pleasures1 and meaningless conventions4 ,the blessed freedom of ill-health is something few people appreciate2 neither have they learned to make full use of its unearned leisure4 ,yet we are always clamoring for time2 in ,america1 apparently1 it can be found only in the sick-room4 ,how many people do we not know1 who are so busy making1 what they are pleased to call a living1 that they never find time to live6 ,as a matter of fact1 only the small minority of the inefficient are obliged to sacrifice all possibility of leisure to the exigency of obtaining a livelihood2 the majority1 which include men and women of every class and of every vocation--plumbers and captains of industry1 stenographers as well as dbutantes--are occupied in accumulating superfluities4 ,by superfluities ,i do not mean everything which is not normally necessary for the existence of the body1 but everything that is not essential to the perfect expansion of separate individuality4 ,the tendency of the day is to pour all mankind into the same mould2 to fetter great and small to the one ideal of obvious achievement4 ,we have degraded success by popularizing it2 we are suppressing individuality instead of fostering it2 and unless a change comes before long1 and the individual is again able to liberate himself and to germinate1 we shall perish as other civilizations have perished without leaving more than a scratch on the page of history4 ,for nations are ultimately judged1 not by their numbers1 their riches or their power1 but solely by the glory of the individuals they have produced4 ,think of the empires which have so completely vanished that but for a few broken stones we could not even guess the sites of their vast cities1 and compare these nations either to the ,jews or ,greeks who during their flowering gave birth to men who have conferred immortality on their respective races4 ,suffering quickens individuality by removing the pressure of circumstance1 custom and occupation4 ,moreover1 in the sick-room the intellect as well as the soul has not only the liberty but the time to mature4 ,it always surprises me to hear people complain of insomnia4 ,why should they consider it a misfortune to live precious hours instead of spending them in unconsciousness8 ,by sleeping even as much as five hours instead of nine1 we gain twenty-one hours a week4 ,think of it6 ,almost three working days6 ,the reason the average person is so exhausted by lying awake a few hours longer that he is accustomed to do1 is because he turns and twists in his bed bemoaning his sad fate1 until he has worked himself into a fever4 ,stay awake2 enjoy the night1--it is quite as wonderful as the day4 ,taste the charm of the silence as it steals by degrees over your weary spirit4 ,be grateful for these hours2 they are a gift from fate4 ,read1 write1 think1 meditate1 and when morning comes you will wake more refreshed after two hours' sleep than you used to after nine4 ,napoleon and other great men never slept more4 ,,xi ,,artists ,the great painters and sculptors seem to have been strangely healthy and normal4 ,i say that they seem to have been so1 because of the extreme difficulty of getting any accurate information on the subject4 ,it sounds incredible1 but ,i read a long life of ,petrarch in which everything was mentioned but his health and only discovered quite accidentally that he had been an epileptic4 ,i am1 therefore1 convinced that there are many examples ,i might cite if ,i could only unearth the truth1 yet even so1 ,i have been able to ferret out four artists who were physically handicapped4 ,navarette1 called the ,spanish ,titian and celebrated under the name of 8,el ,mudo10 was dumb4 ,they say that ,guercino squinted so badly that he could focus only one eye4 ,antoine ,watteau suffered all his life from tuberculosis1 which no doubt accounts for a certain 8wistful gaiety0 which characterizes his work4 ,watteau's position in ,french art is of unique importance4 ,he became the founder--as the culmination--of a new school which marked a revolt against the pompous classicism of the preceding period4 8,the vitality of his art was due to the rare combination of a poet's imagination with a power of seizing reality4 ,in his treatment of landscape background and the atmospheric conditions surrounding his figures we find the germ of ,impressionism40 ,from the middle of the ,eighteenth ,century until about #ahge ,watteau's work fell into disrepute4 ,it was chiefly owing to the efforts of the brothers de ,goncourt that a reaction set in which has slowly carried ,watteau to the summit of fame4 ,he died in his thirty-seventh year4 ,aubrey ,beardsley flashed into fame with black and white drawings of extraordinary originality and beauty4 ,his peculiar technique has been widely imitated but never approached4 ,after twenty years his reputation has not yet reached its zenith4 ,aubrey ,beardsley during the whole of his meteoric career suffered from consumption4 ,he died at the age of twenty-six4 ,,xii ,,musicians ,one would expect deafness to be an insuperable obstacle to a musician1 yet ,beethoven produced a large part of his work while handicapped by it1 and some of his greatest compositions when his deafness had become complete4 ,mozart was delicate and subject to fevers2 his last work and his best was written just before his death4 ,it was said of ,hndel3 8,he was never greater than when1 warned by palsy of the approach of death1 and struggling with distress and suffering1 he sat down to compose the great works which have made his name immortal in music40 ,schubert was barely five feet one and walked with a strange shuffling gait2 his eyesight was so defective that he slept in his spectacles4 ,he suffered from digestive trouble and died young4 ,so also did ,chopin1 having been an invalid the greater part of his short life4 ,mendelssohn was very frail and delicate4 ,carl ,maria von ,weber was not only ravaged by disease but also deformed and lame4 ,paganini1 the most extraordinary violinist the world has ever heard1 suffered from phthisis of the larynx and was constantly ill4 ,the case of ,robert ,schumann is very curious4 ,he was studying to be a pianist1 when1 in attempting to strengthen his fingers1 he accidentally paralyzed his right hand4 ,to this apparent misfortune we owe one of the greatest composers4 ,,xiii ,,three ,,physicians1 ,a ,,naturalist ,,and ,a ,,chemist 8,physician1 heal thyself10 might have been said to ,sir ,william ,harvey1 the famous discoverer of the circulation of the blood2 and to ,albert von ,haller1 the great ,swiss doctor1 who is considered the father of modern physiology4 ,to ,louis ,pasteur the world is indebted for the introductions of methods which have already worked wonders and bid fair to render possible the preventive treatment of all infectious disease4 ,his most sensational discovery was the cure of hydrophobia1 which he accomplished despite the fact that the special microbe causing this dread disease had not yet been isolated4 ,pasteur's motto was1 8,travaillez1 travaillez toujours40 ,on his death-bed he turned to his devoted pupils and exclaimed3 8,o en tes-vous8 ,que fates-vous80 and ended by repeating3 8,il faut travailler40 ,he once said3 8,in the field of observation1 chance only favors those who are prepared40 ,this great benefactor of the human race1 though loaded with honors1 remained to the last simple and affectionate as a child4 ,pasteur was subject to fits of apoplexy and it is curious that some of his most important discoveries were made immediately after such attacks4 ,darwin1 from the age of thirty1 was a great sufferer4 ,his daughter writes3 8,no one indeed1 except my mother1 knows the full amount of suffering he endured1 or the full amount of his wonderful patience40 ,dr4 ,darwin1 however1 once said to a friend3 8,if ,i had not been so great an invalid1 ,i should not have done nearly so much work as ,i have accomplished40 ,dr4 ,trudeau1 who worked such miracles for the cure of consumption1 was himself consumptive4 ,,xiv ,,inventors ,sir ,richard ,arkwright1 the inventor of the spinning jenny1 though a man of great personal strength1 suffered from wretched health4 ,james ,watt1 the inventor of the steam engine1 was continually ailing until he approached old age4 ,he had a prodigious memory and as an inventive genius he has never been surpassed4 ,ill health and failing eyesight forced ,joseph ,niepce to retire from the army at the age of twenty-eight4 ,it was during this opportune leisure that the idea of obtaining sun-pictures first suggested itself to him4 ,in #ahbf he learnt that ,daguerre was working on the same lines and three years later they cooperated in order to perfect what was1 however1 ,niepce's discovery4 ,,xv ,,historians ,,and ,,men ,,of ,,letters ,aristides1 surnamed ,theodosius1 was a ,greek rhetorician and sophist4 ,he was so celebrated that in many places statues were erected during his lifetime to commemorate his talents4 ,he suffered for many years from a mysterious disease1 which was1 however1 a positive benefit to his studies as they were prescribed as part of his cure4 ,pliny1 the ,younger1 was far from robust4 ,he suffered from weakness of the eyes1 throat and chest4 ,he himself speaks of his delicate frame4 ,it has been said of ,erasmus that he was the first man of letters since the fall of the ,roman ,empire4 ,he occupied during his lifetime the position of supreme pontiff to an elect public which the ardors of the ,renaissance had called into being4 ,his admirers were to be found in every country and among all ranks4 ,presents were continually sent to him by great and small4 ,we hear of a donation of two hundred florins from ,pope ,clement ,,xii and of a contribution of comfits and sweetmeats from the nuns of ,cologne4 ,from ,england in particular1 he obtained constant supplies of money4 8,i receive daily10 he writes1 8letters from the most remote parts1 from kings and princes1 prelates and men of learning1 and even from persons of whose existence ,i have never heard40 ,his position as regards the ,reformation has been for centuries a subject of passionate contention4 ,it was said of him1 8,erasmus laid an egg1 and ,luther hatched it40 ,this1 however1 is only partly true4 ,as a matter of fact1 ,erasmus had but one passion1 the passion for learning4 ,when he found that ,luther's revolt aroused a new fanaticism--that of evangelism1 he recoiled from the violence of the new preachers4 8,is it for this10 he exclaimed1 8that we have shaken off bishops and popes that we may come under the yoke of such madmen as ,otto and ,farel80 ,erasmus' works are too numerous to enumerate separately4 ,his greatest contribution is undoubtedly his ,greek ,testament4 ,erasmus spent the greater part of his life in agony4 ,for twenty years he was unable to sit down either to read1 write or even to take his meals4 ,he could eat but little and only of the most delicate meats4 ,he could neither eat nor bear the smell of fish4 8,my heart10 he said1 8is ,catholic1 but my stomach is ,lutheran40 ,nevertheless1 his various biographers exclaim at the amount of work he accomplished4 ,one of them writes1 8,through the winter of #aead-aeae ,erasmus worked with the strength of ten4 ,in ,venice 444 he did the work of two men40 ,montaigne was never strong but1 after a few years at the court of ,paris1 his health gave way completely and he retired to his castle1 resolved to devote the rest of his life to study and contemplation4 ,we undoubtedly owe his immortal essays to his invalidism4 ,the same is true of ,brantme4 ,he was a soldier until a fall from his horse compelled him to retire into private life4 ,this fortunate accident is directly responsible for his 8,memoirs10 which are not only delightful reading but of the greatest historical value4 ,fnelon1 the famous tutor to the duke of ,burgundy1 had an enormous influence1 not only on his own but on the succeeding generations4 ,his 8,treatise on the ,education of ,girls0 guided ,french opinion on the subject for almost two centuries4 ,this book brought him literary glory together with the position of tutor to the grandson and heir of ,louis ,,xiv4 ,during the eight years at court he published the 8,fables10 the 8,dialogues of the ,dead0 and finally 8,tlemaque40 ,these books were intended primarily for the instruction of his pupils2 they became1 however1 universally popular4 ,fnelon was banished from ,paris as a result of a doctrinal difference with ,bossuet4 ,pope ,innocent ,,xiii1 while upholding the latter1 gave this verdict3 8,fnelon errs by loving ,god too much and ,bossuet by loving his neighbor too little40 ,excessively delicate from childhood1 ,fnelon's health grew more and more feeble4 ,while ,archbishop of ,cambrai1 to which city he had retired after his disgrace1 we read that he was forced to make his bed his retreat from whence to say his offices and administer his diocese4 ,jean ,jacques ,rousseau1 ,french 8philosopher10 occupied during three years of his youth the position of footman in various houses4 ,from his own account1 he made an uncommonly bad one1 impertinent1 mean1 untruthful and dishonest6 ,rousseau had a most despicable character1 and although he never lacked patrons1 quarrelled with each in turn4 ,rousseau leapt into fame in #agdi1 when he was thirty-seven years old1 by reason of an article extolling the savage over the civilized state4 ,his two most celebrated books are 8,le ,contrat ,social0 and 8,la nouvelle ,heloise40 ,only the indulgence of his contemporaries would have granted him the title of 8philosopher10 but as a 8man of letters0 he occupies 8a place unrivalled in literary history40 ,his fame1 great as it was during his lifetime1 reached to vertiginous heights after his death4 ,rousseau's health was execrable and like ,voltaire it was said of him that he 8was born dying40 ,it might have been better for ,lord ,chesterfield if he had not dabbled with medicine2 he would perhaps not have 8been so often his own patient1 or entrusted his health to the care of empirics40 ,even before reaching middle age1 his debilitated constitution had given him repeated warning of what he had to expect4 ,when he wrote the renowned letters to his son1 he was a deaf1 solitary1 sick man1 who had to resort almost habitually to drugs to help him to endure his sufferings4 ,boswell's 8,life of ,samuel ,johnson0 is so universally familiar that ,i need only remind you that ,dr4 ,johnson was scrofulous and half-blind4 ,horace ,walpole occupied a curiously large place in the literary as well as the social life of the eighteenth century4 ,despite his prolific pen the only one of his books which achieved popular success during his lifetime was 8,the ,castle of ,otranto40 ,it was translated into both ,french and ,italian and has been frequently republished4 ,it is a strange book1 and ,i doubt if it will ever again be read with pleasure4 ,whatever significance it has for us lies in the fact that it forms the starting point of the great romantic revival4 ,walpole's diary1 published after his death1 is of the utmost historical importance4 ,it is1 however1 chiefly by his letters that he will be remembered1 for he is undoubtedly the greatest of the ,english letter-writers4 ,walpole suffered all his life from frequent attacks of gout which at times completely crippled him4 ,winckelmann1 the famous ,german archologist1 was the son of a poor shoemaker4 ,he became librarian to ,cardinal ,passioni in #aged1 and while occupying this position he gave to the world a succession of admirable books4 ,it was from him that scholars first obtained accurate information as to the treasures excavated at ,pompeii4 ,his greatest contribution to ,european literature is the 8,history of ,ancient ,art40 ,it is a delightful book1 written with a free and impassioned pen and marked an epoch by 8indicating the spirit in which the study of ,greek art should be approached and the methods by which investigators might hope to obtain solid results40 ,he was a great friend of ,goethe and many1 if not all1 of their letters have been preserved4 ,winckelmann was so delicate that he could never partake of anything but a little bread and wine4 ,his gentle1 blameless life was cut short by the hand of a murderer1 who killed him for the sake of a few ancient coins1 the gift of the ,empress ,maria ,theresa4 ,herder1 one of the most influential writers ,germany has produced1 was exceedingly delicate2 so also was our own ,washington ,irving1 which perhaps accounts for the extreme sensitiveness of the latter's impressions4 ,thierry1 the eminent ,french historian1 ransacked the archives with such unremitting zeal that on the eve of beginning to write his history1 he became totally blind4 8,but he never lost heart and in making friends with darkness10 as he puts it1 he returned to his work1 and by means of dictation was able to finish the masterpiece that was to prove the foundation of a new school of history6444 ,thierry said3 8,if1 as ,i believe1 the progress of science is to be numbered among the glories of our land1 ,i should again take the road that brought me to this pass4 ,blind and suffering1 without any respite or hope of recovery1 ,i can still witness to one point1 that1 coming from me1 admits of no doubt2 that there is something in the world of higher value than material enjoyment1 nay1 even than bodily health1 and that is--devotion to science40 ,thus was the road discovered which was to be followed by ,prescott1 ,sismondi1 ,macaulay and many others1 including ,professor ,ranke4 ,charles ,lamb had a mental breakdown at the age of nineteen1 and ,mary ,lamb suffered from frequent attacks of insanity4 ,sir ,w4 ,f4 ,p4 ,napier's health was permanently injured during a campaign which carried hostilities into ,spain4 ,this obliged him to retire from the army at the age of thirty-four4 ,this unwelcome leisure was an inestimable benefit not only to himself but to the world1 as it permitted him to become the greatest military historian that ,england has ever produced4 ,carlyle became a chronic invalid in his twenty-fourth year4 ,the precise nature of his ailment it is impossible to ascertain1 but he declared that a rat was continually gnawing at the pit of his stomach4 ,a most remarkable example of achievement in the face of terrible physical disabilities is presented by the historian1 ,francis ,parkman4 ,he was unable to open his eyes except in the dark1 so that all his information had to be read aloud to him while he made notes with his eyes shut1 by means of a machine he had invented as a guide to his hand4 ,for years he suffered so intensely that half an hour's application exhausted him4 ,the superb works he left behind1 composed despite such incredible physical obstacles1 have been a splendid legacy to his country4 ,prescott1 the eminent ,american historian1 suffered1 while at ,harvard1 an accident which changed the course of his life4 ,a hard piece of bread1 thrown at random in the commons hall1 struck his left eye and destroyed the sight4 ,nevertheless he graduated honourably1 but when he entered his father's office as a student of law the uninjured eye showed dangerous symptoms of inflammation4 ,he was urged1 therefore1 to travel and it was at the ,azores where he had to spend much of his time in a darkened room1 that he 8began the mental discipline which enabled him to compose and retain in memory long passages for subsequent dictation40 ,his secretary gives this picture of him1 while writing the 8,history of the ,reign of ,ferdinand and ,isabella0--8seated in a study lined on two sides with books and darkened by screens of blue muslin1 which required readjustment with every cloud that passed across the sky40 ,prescott trained his memory until he was able to retain sixty pages of printed matter1 8turning and returning them as he walked or drove40 ,after fifty his remaining eye showed serious symptoms of enfeeblement and his general health also gave cause for alarm4 ,nevertheless he gallantly set to work on his 8,history of ,philip ,,ii40 ,the third volume was1 however1 not through the press1 before an attack of apoplexy put an end to his life4 ,alfred ,ainger1 ,english divine and man of letters1 chiefly remembered for his sympathetic writings on ,charles ,lamb and ,thomas ,hood1 was often speechless with prostration from headaches and sickness4 ,ainger was no more than a charming writer4 ,i only insert him because his handicap is one of the most difficult to overcome4 ,synge1 the remarkable ,irish dramatist1 was delicate and died young4 ,,xvi ,,protestant ,,reformers ,luther stands out as the most powerful figure of the ,reformation4 ,protestant churches of every denomination owe to him their inception1 not so much on points of dogma1 as because the success of his revolt made theirs possible4 ,luther was afflicted with epilepsy and at times from other disabilities1 the exact nature of which ,i have been unable to ascertain4 ,like so many other renowned invalids1 we are struck with the amount of work he accomplished4 ,during the last ten years of his life he suffered from continuous ill health1 yet he spent them in incessant labor4 ,he was preaching with vehemence and fervor on ,february #ai1 #aedf1 when suddenly he said1 quietly1 8,this and much more is to be said about the ,gospel2 but ,i am too weak and will close here40 ,four days later he was dead4 ,calvin suffered constant bodily pain1 yet he was a man of incessant activity and of supreme courage4 ,at one time1 not only the council but the people of ,geneva revolted against his authority2 a riot was imminent4 ,calvin at once set out alone for the council-chamber where he was greeted with yells and threats of death4 ,advancing slowly into their midst he bared his breast1 saying3 8,if you will have blood1 strike here60 ,not an arm moved and1 turning his back on his enemies1 he slowly mounted the stairs to the tribune4 ,john ,knox began his career as a ,catholic priest and we have so little knowledge of his early life that we are ignorant as to what occasioned the startling change in his views4 ,after his accession to the ranks of ,protestantism he had at first no idea of preaching but confined himself to instructing his friends' children4 ,his friends1 however1 recognized his capacity and on his refusing 8to run where ,god had not called him10 they planned a solemn appeal to ,knox from the pulpit to accept 8the public office and charge of preaching40 ,at the close of this exhortation ,knox burst into tears and shut himself in his chamber1 8in heaviness1 for many days40 ,the call had at last found a leader of men4 ,yet it was an invitation to danger and to death4 ,shortly afterwards ,st4 ,andrews was attacked by the ,french fleet and ,knox was among the prisoners taken4 ,he was thrown into a galley and for nineteen months remained in irons and subject to the lash4 ,when he was finally released1 he was a man almost forty-five years old and completely broken in health1 by reason of the hardships and cruelty to which he had been subjected4 ,yet his career was only just beginning4 8,to ,knox more than to any other man ,scotland owes her religion and individuality40 ,he was of great political importance and one of the most powerful enemies of ,maria ,stuart4 ,as an historian he occupies an important place4 ,his 8,history of the ,reformation in ,scotland0 is a remarkable book4 ,it was said of him 8he neither flattered nor feared any flesh40 ,he was an inspired preacher4 ,elizabeth's very critical ambassador wrote from ,edinburgh that 8this one man was able in one hour to put more life in us than five hundred trumpets40 ,richard ,baxter was diseased from head to foot2 nevertheless1 he became celebrated as the most eminent of the ,english ,protestant schoolmen4 ,he was also of political importance and instrumental in bringing about the ,restoration of ,charles ,,ii4 ,,xvii ,,the ,,saints 8,when we look into ,god's ,face we do not feel ,his ,hand40 ,health is a form of capital1 and like any other capital may be either well or ill invested4 ,moreover1 we can squander it foolishly or convert it into the supreme oblation1 and to most of us life itself is a less difficult sacrifice4 ,the tragedy of war is not so much the toll of the dead as the lists of the disabled4 ,few of us are given the chance of dying for others1 but to all of us is offered the privilege of spending ourselves for humanity1 either individually or collectively4 ,countless parents1 fathers as well as mothers1 purchase with their own lives and health1 life1 vigor and opportunity for their children4 ,the instinct of sacrifice is to a greater or less degree universal to parenthood1 and although ,i do not wish to belittle their offering1 ,i think it even more admirable when placed on a less obvious altar4 ,numberless people are daily overspending their physical resources in the service of mankind1 by the furtherance of knowledge1 the improvement of material conditions1 by widening the door of opportunity or carrying the message of the spirit into teeming slum and arid desert4 ,others give themselves with equal prodigality in the more limited and less glorious field of their personal contacts2 not merely to their homes1 their dependents and friends but to all who come even casually within the radius of their fellowship4 ,it seems to me difficult to live at the height of our possibilities more especially if our activities are purely selfless1 without being at times tempted to overdraw our health account4 ,the soldier is only one of a great host whose bodies have been sacrificed in the performance of an imperative duty4 ,health is often purchased at the price of ignominious refusal4 ,it is therefore not surprising that a large proportion of the saints were men and women with ruined bodies1--bodies that had been rapturously spent in the service of ,god and man4 ,i will mention only a few of the most renowned4 ,st4 ,jerome1 one of the greatest of the early ,christian ,fathers1 lived an unregenerate life until a severe illness induced a complete change in him and he resolved to renounce everything that kept him back from ,god4 ,his greatest temptation was the study of the literature of ,greece and pagan ,rome1 and he determined from thenceforth to devote all his vast scholarship to the ,holy ,scriptures and to ,christianity4 ,to him we owe the first translation of the ,bible into ,latin1 commonly known as the 8,vulgate40 ,very few men have ever wielded greater power over the minds of men than ,st4 ,augustine4 ,he is to-day a living force1 yet he struggled all his life against consumption4 ,he lived1 however1 to be seventy-six4 ,st4 ,bernard of ,clairvaux1 the most famous monk and preacher of the ,middle ,ages1 was a martyr to so many physical infirmities that at first sight he appeared 8like one near unto death40 ,all this suffering1 however1 never quelled his ardent spirit or his overmastering zeal for purging the world of sin4 ,it was ,st4 ,bernard who said1 8,nothing can work me damage but myself2 the harm ,i sustain ,i carry about with me1 and ,i am never a real sufferer but by my own fault40 ,st4 ,francis of ,assisi was a gay1 dissipated youth when a severe illness put a stop to his pleasures1 and gave him time to reflect1 so that he became dissatisfied with his mode of life4 ,on his recovery he set out on a military expedition1 but at the end of the first day's march he fell ill and had to return to ,assisi4 ,this disappointment brought on another spiritual crisis and shortly afterwards he went on a pilgrimage to ,rome4 ,before everything he was an ascetic and a mystic1--an ascetic who though gentle to others wore out his body in self-denial1 so much so that when he came to die1 he begged pardon of 8brother ,ass1 the body10 for having unduly ill-treated it4 ,st4 ,catherine of ,siena was not only a very great saint1 but one of the greatest women that ever lived4 ,the daughter of a poor dyer who learned to read when she was twenty and to write when she was twenty-seven or eight1 she dictated books and letters celebrated not only for their spiritual fragrance and literary value1 but also for their great historical importance4 ,no empress ever wielded greater power than this extraordinary woman4 ,towards the end of her life her court consisted of pilgrims who flocked daily by the thousands to visit her4 ,the miracle of her personality had its effect on all who approached her4 ,a young libertine1 belonging to one of the most aristocratic families of ,siena1 after one interview with this dyer's daughter1 abandoned his former life and became her humble follower until the day of her death4 ,she converted a notorious robber1 who for years terrorized the vicinity of ,siena and had almost paralyzed its commerce4 ,as a proof of the sincerity of his repentance he gave her his stronghold1 together with all the spoils he had accumulated4 ,the abandonment of ,avignon as the seat of the ,papal court undoubtedly changed not only the map1 but also the history of ,europe1 and it was solely owing to ,st4 ,catherine's passionate insistence that ,pope ,gregory ,,xi returned to ,rome1 despite his own reluctance and the opposition of his cardinals4 ,during her short life she was continually ill and during the period of her greatest activity she was dying4 ,st4 ,ignatius ,loyola1 one of the most remarkable and influential personages in the history of the ,catholic ,church1 led the adventurous life of a courtier and a soldier until he received a wound at the siege of ,pamplona4 ,according to an old chronicler this 8was the occasion of his conversion to ,god40 ,a cannon-ball hit his legs1 shattering one4 ,serious illness followed the most painful operation1 and for weeks his life was despaired of4 ,it was on the bed of torment which he eventually left1 lame for life and constitutionally enfeebled1 that grace came to him4 ,the saint himself said1 when he returned from the ,valley of the ,shadow3 8,i have seen ,god face to face and my soul has been saved40 ,from that time onward he devoted himself to a spiritual life1 wandering far and accomplishing much4 ,chief among his achievements was the founding of the ,order of ,jesuits4 ,i must mention here a very remarkable fact that has1 however1 nothing to do with my thesis4 ,in his will he bequeathed to the order he founded this legacy3 8that all men should speak ill of it40 ,it is also curious that he who had benefited by illness should have said3 8,a sound mind in a sound body is the most useful instrument with which to serve ,god40 ,st4 ,theresa of ,jesus1 the great ,spanish saint1 whose personality and writings have never lost their influence1 was always extremely delicate1 and during the period of her greatest accomplishments not only ill but old4 ,with ,st4 ,theresa closes my list of those gallant souls who1 apparently unfit for the battle of life1 have nevertheless left their mark on history and civilization4 ,and ,i wish to remind you again that ,i have mentioned no one whose height of achievement has not been coincident with ill-health1 or reached after the suffering of some serious physical disability4 ,neither have ,i thought it proper to cite any of the numerous instances of handicapped genius among our living contemporaries4 ,i am certain that many other names might be presented to your consideration1 if it were not for my own ignorance as well as the extreme difficulty of getting any reliable data on the subject4 ,,xviii ,,pain1 ,,the ,,great ,,teacher 8,what does he know10 said a sage1 8who has not suffered80 ,that we may be benefited by physical suffering is no new idea1--it is not even a forgotten idea4 ,from the time when civilization first expressed itself in terms of ,christianity until the ,reformation1 the spiritual value of pain has been an undisputed axiom4 ,the ,catholic ,church has never ceased to preach the mortification of the flesh1 and all religious communities1 heathen as well as ,christian1 consider a certain degree of asceticism necessary for the perfect manifestation of a spiritual life4 ,as to the merits of voluntary suffering inflicted for the purpose of subjugating the appetites of the body1 ,christendom differs fundamentally1 but until recently1 it has been united in regarding illness as one of the means by which ,providence purifies as well as punishes its children4 ,the discovery of the germ1 even more than the preaching of ,mrs4 ,eddy1 dealt a terrific blow to this ancient belief1 with the result that the masses no longer regard physical suffering as a remedial agency but as something not only unprofitable but purely destructive4 ,for more than thirty years the final abolition of pain has been the ,mecca towards which doctors and ,christian ,scientists have passionately journeyed2 moreover1 their ranks have been swelled by numerous sects1 schools or religious bodies that have been called into existence by the rallying cry of this ,new ,hope4 ,they pointed to the declining death rate as an irrefutable testimony of battles already won1 and as disease after disease disappeared before the advance of sanitation1 of serums or of ,right ,thought2 as surgery developed unheard-of possibilities1 the most limitless expectations seemed not unjustified4 ,the natural infirmities of age must eventually yield before the onslaught of knowledge4 ,bolder spirits even dreamed of conquest over death4 ,and then the ,world ,war came4 ,their boasted death-rate mounted to unheard-of heights4 ,the maimed and blind overflowed from the hospitals unto the farthest corners of the earth4 ,still the havoc was not complete4 ,infantile paralysis came from the north1 killing and crippling our children by thousands4 ,finally1 influenza mowed down old and young in such numbers that even here in ,america it was impossible to care for all the victims4 ,one would have expected these facts to be a staggering blow to our theorists4 ,could they not have realized--if only dimly--that they were battling against some fundamental law8 ,evidently not1 for according to them war is to be abolished4 ,not only that1 but ,dr4 ,voronoff now offers an infallible cure for old age6 ,now1 as ,i said before1 ,i neither believe that physical suffering will ever be abolished nor do ,i even hope it4 ,for pain is one of the great human and humanizing experiences and1 since the beginning of time1 each generation has learned in its school the same fundamental lessons4 8,when a man is laboring under the pain of any distemper it is then that he recollects there is a ,god and that he is but a man4 ,no mortal is then the object of his envy1 his admiration or his contempt2 and1 having no malice to gratify1 the tales of slander excite him not40 ,this is the testimony of a heathen1 ,pliny1 who was himself an invalid4 ,sixteen centuries later an ,anglican divine1 ,jeremy ,taylor1 voiced a similar conviction4 8,in sickness the soul begins to dress herself for immortality4 ,at first she unties the strings of vanity that made her upper garments cleave to the world and sit uneasy40 ,even during the materialistic nineteenth century we find ,dr4 ,samuel ,smiles declaring3 8,suffering is doubtless as divinely appointed as joy1 while it is much more influential as a discipline of character4 ,it chastens and sweetens the nature1 teaches patience and resignation and promotes the deepest as well as the most exalted thoughts40 ,latterly there have been indications that this time-honored conception is again becoming more universally recognized4 ,for instance1 during the darkest days of the war the ,bishop of ,london writes that he had 8come to believe that a painless world is a world not regenerate but degenerate40 ,who shall say that the revival of religious feeling which is now taking place is not due to the physical and mental suffering entailed by the war8 ,i should like to linger on the spiritual value of suffering1 yet ,i feel ,i am on very delicate ground4 ,for the spirit is so gloriously independent of the flesh1 that it can expand under any circumstances and in any habitation4 ,st4 ,hildegarde believed 8,god could not dwell in a healthy body10 and ,st4 ,ignatius ,loyola that 8a healthy mind in a healthy body is the best instrument with which to serve ,god40 ,yet he himself had a shattered body4 ,the efficacy of suffering in promoting the growth of the spirit seems to me to lie chiefly in the fact that it does for us what we so seldom have the courage to do for ourselves4 ,it sweeps away all the rubbish and dust of life4 ,in the blessed emptiness induced by this mental house-cleaning we are able1 often for the first time1 to separate clearly the essential from the unessential4 ,in sickness soul and body demand instinctively only that which is for each its most imperative necessity4 ,in the crucible of suffering the true essence of our character becomes manifest4 ,all our pitiable pretences are torn from us1 leaving our inherent self face to face with reality4 ,it is a tremendous experience2 it must either break us or make us4 ,it is for us to choose which it shall be4 ,suffering is the ultimate test of character4 ,yet as ,i write these words ,i find myself wondering if there is any one ultimate test4 ,as no two crystals react to the same solvent1 so it may be that no two hearts respond to the same probe4 ,of one thing1 nevertheless1 ,i am certain3 to each of us is applied at some time in our lives that which constitutes for that individual soul the supreme trial of its mettle4 ,i am frequently reminded1 however1 that there are countless people who1 instead of being purified and sensitized by physical pain1 have been destroyed or at least rendered sterile by it4 ,this is undoubtedly true4 ,whether we are to profit by suffering or not depends entirely on ourselves4 ,how then are we to transmute pain into privilege8 ,certainly not through resignation1 for there is no virtue without action4 ,it may only be the interior travail of the spirit1 but to attain even the initial step to spiritual1 intellectual or material advancement necessitates labor4 ,so it is with the benefits of suffering4 ,they are there within the reach of all1 but can only be obtained as the wage of persistent endeavor4 ,resignation is not merely inactive1 it is positively harmful inasmuch as it is a tacit acknowledgment that pain is in itself an evil1 and to believe that is to stultify its possibilities4 ,for what we believe to be evil1 no matter how innocent in itself1 becomes so by the corrosive power of that belief4 ,it is a dogma of ,christianity that disease is one of the punitive consequences of original sin4 ,now punishment implies correction4 ,therefore1 if disease represents a fall from perfection1 it also holds within it the germs of a future perfection4 ,although theology teaches sin as the inception of disease1 yet if we consider only the immediate cause of our physical disabilities we will find that although they are frequently the result of breaking a moral law1 they are quite as frequently to be attributed to no fault of our own1 and may even be the emblem of sacrifice4 ,if so many fail to benefit through suffering1 we must remember that only a few of us are able to sustain the daily test of life4 ,every experience1 especially any great and unusual experience1 is a fire through which few pass unscathed4 ,beauty1 charm1 riches1 personality1 even intellect1 have each their separate temptation1 their different limitations4 ,it is so easy for the spirit to sleep contented within the soft prison of a perfect body4 ,superabundant health and vitality1 unless guided by infinite wisdom1 are as likely to cast us into the abyss of life as to raise us to the summit4 ,power fosters pride1 and charm is the twin-sister of vanity4 ,life is a continuous trial of our strength1 but disease is not necessarily the supreme trial4 ,it was ,george ,eliot who said3 8,there is nothing the body suffers the soul may not profit by40 ,,xix ,,conclusion ,who best can suffer1 best can do4 --,milton4 ,we have seen that as mankind rises in the scale of civilization the body becomes increasingly less important4 ,nevertheless1 ,i wish it to be clearly understood1 that ,i do not maintain that it is preferable to be ill than well1 but only that each state has its own peculiar privileges1 which are rarely interchangeable4 ,health and sickness are merely different roads to achievement4 ,the earth requires rain as well as sunshine2 we need both tears and laughter2 navvies are necessary and so are philosophers4 ,you may therefore reasonably ask why1 if suffering is indispensable to humanity1 doctors and sociologists should spend themselves and their lives in attempting to banish it from the world8 ,because1 if pain is the gate through which we must pass to attain certain experiences and realizations1 to battle against it is undoubtedly the road to others4 ,to endure pain and to relieve pain are both instrumental in freeing us from the prison of ourselves1 and freedom from self is the only real freedom4 ,moreover1 whatever ameliorates human conditions1 whether serums or sanitation1 free concerts or fireless cookers1 results in loosing us from the thraldom of the body4 ,the race reaches toward an ideal of ultimate perfection1 just as a plant stretches upward towards the sun4 ,both are unattainable1 yet all activity would cease1 if we demanded nothing less than absolute and indestructible achievement4 ,the tide flows only to ebb1 the field must be sown anew year after year2 we build cities knowing that time will eventually destroy them2 we bear children doomed to death4 ,but after the ebb comes the tide1 bringing ever new treasures to our shores2 the germ of spring lies hidden in the barren breast of autumn2 out of the ashes of vast cities still greater cities will arise1 and ,death is but the portal of ,life4 ,no physical disablement is a barrier to achievement4 ,this is the glorious fact which the illustrious men and women ,i have enumerated have proved beyond the possibility of dispute4 ,to cripple and hunchback1 to blind1 deaf and dumb1 to those chained to 8a mattress-grave10 and to those who have been mentally unbalanced1 they have bequeathed this precious legacy of ,hope4 ,on the other hand we can no longer plead our infirmities as an excuse for our weakness1 our sterility or failure4 ,for whatever may be our disablement we can find in history a parallel debility triumphantly transmuted into strength4 ,,the ,,end ---------------------------------------- -------------------------------- ,,transcriber',s ,,notes #a4 ,silently corrected typographical errors and variations in spelling4 #b4 ,retained anachronistic1 non-standard1 and uncertain spellings as printed4 #c4 ,enclosed italics font in underscores4