Having concentrated attention upon the point that the end is not the development of any particular faculty1 or assemblage of faculties2, but the awakening3 in man, in and through his development, of the consciousness of interrelation, of life in life, we shall now turn to the three great shadows: sickness, sorrow, sin. In the case of sickness the suffering, however acute, must be made to pass over into action. There is a certain work to be done, something to be accomplished5 on the sick bed. What is it? I shall briefly6 review a few of the answers that have been given.
First, the Stoic7 says: A man in pain is to resist the pain by an act of will, thereby8 demonstrating that his essential self is inaccessible9 to bodily suffering. “If there is a pain in thy limb, remember that the pain is in thy limb, and not in thyself.” Now the fortitude10 of the Stoic is admirable as far as it goes; his counsels are bracing11 and manly12. But, because he is a materialistic13 pantheist, the reason he gives for his defiance14 of pain is not convincing. In effect his appeal is rather to the empirical than to the spiritual nature of man. The spiritual nature is characterized by humility15; the appeal of the Stoic is to pride. Fate with all its sledge155hammer blows shall not crush him. Yet the Stoic’s pride when put to the supreme16 test does not avail, and the proof of it is that at the last it breaks down in suicide.
We come to a second answer. There is business in hand for the sufferer on the sick bed. What is the business? To hide the expression of his suffering, so that the cloud which rests on him may not cast its shadow upon others, obscuring their sunshine. But, we are bound to ask, are others always worthy17 of such consideration? Is not our sympathetic regard for their pleasures, their sunshine, often misplaced? Are not their pleasures often selfish and frivolous18? The Greeks believed that outcries in situations of great distress19 are perfectly20 legitimate21, since they seem to afford a kind of relief. Is it not cruel to forbid such outcries? In our age the view prevails that it is a proof of moral grandeur23 to suppress the signs of suffering. But the cynical24 question obtrudes25 itself whether it may not be the collective selfishness of the multitude that imposes this rule. The common run of men desire to go on their way undisturbed by cries that emanate26 from the sick chamber27, and perhaps it is on this account that they impose a rule of behavior based, not on the principle of human worth, but on its opposite. The individual forsooth is not to count; the unhappiness of one is not to interfere28 with the happiness of the greater number!
There is, however, another view of the matter possible. Everyone carries his own particular burden. When tortured by some painful malady29, we are apt to think that others, because they wear a smiling exterior30, are therefore free from pain. But often those who seem156 in sound health are in fact as great sufferers as we, or even greater. And physical pain is not the only kind of suffering. Why, then, should I, for one, add to the troubles of others by imposing31 my own upon them? Put in this way, it is plain that there is an ethical32 element in the kind of behavior that is expected of a manly person. But the reason assigned, sympathy with the pleasures of others, is unconvincing. Unless there be some good to which grievous suffering can be made instrumental, there is no warrant for enduring it. As for the Stoics33, so for the philosopher of sympathy, the logical end would be suicide, at least when the pain is exceptionally intense.
There is a third answer. Something is to be worked out on the sick bed. What is it? To be purified in the furnace, to learn patience and humble34 submission35 to the inscrutable will of God. Patience is the supreme virtue36. “Be patient, Oh, be patient,” I once heard a dying man repeat with touching37 accents. But patience for the sake of what? There must be some object to be gained by the patience to make it commendable38. I can be patient in a storm at sea if I may entertain the hope of reaching port. I can be patient in conducting a difficult scientific experiment if I may hope that it will issue in an important discovery, or prepare the way for such discovery by others. I can be patient in sickness if I have any reason to expect a return to health. But patience for mere39 patience’s sake is absurd. Well, then, the third answer is,—patience for the sake of manifesting your faith and trust in a wise and beneficent Deity40. Why he has sent this suffering, why he has so made157 the world that it is replete41 with the agony of sentient42 creatures we do not know. We cannot know. But he knows. Trust him, have faith in him: “Though he slay43 me yet will I trust him.”
Here a genuine characteristic of the spiritual attitude has been expressed, but the ground on which it is put is once more unconvincing. How do I know that there is such a being as this wise and loving Deity of whom you tell me? By the evidence of his works, by the testimony44 of the world he has created, by the life for which I am indebted to him. But the world is the playground of good and evil forces. There is a semblance45 of design; there is on the other hand apparently46 the wildest disorder47. The stars in their courses travel with incredible celerity in every direction, but no astronomer48 has ever yet been able to discern a plan in their journeyings. Human life is full of sorrow as well as joy; and whether there be more sorrow or more joy in the lives of most persons, who will venture to say? There is kindness, but there is also cruelty. There is co?peration, and there is merciless competition. There is health and bloom, and there is miserable49 physical decay. At present, in my case, suffering and sorrow are in the ascendant. The picture of the Deity as fashioned from the evidence of experience is dark and bright, cruel and kind. If he be omnipotent50, why did he introduce the elements of discord51 and trouble into his creation? Why, in particular, does he at present torture me so cruelly? In order that I may believe in him despite the evidence! But how can I believe, seeing that in my own case the evidence on the bad side preponderates52? Thus the mind158 of the sufferer on his couch of pain gropes in the labyrinth53 of argument and counter-argument—for the intellectual processes are often preternaturally acute in times of physical suffering—and there is no outlet54. In a fine spiritual nature there is something which pleads that the counter-arguments ought not to prevail. Desperately55, by an act of faith, a man lays hold on his God. But presently his faith again relaxes, his state of mind becomes confused, and unless supported by strong impressions received in and retained from childhood on, the third answer will not avail him.
There is business in hand on the sick bed. What is it? The fourth answer, the answer as it appeals to me, depends on the very incongruity56 of the finite and the infinite order. Every attempt to explain this incongruity breaks down, every theodicy is a fiction. To explain is to find the cause of effects. But the notion of cause does not apply to the relation between the finite and the infinite. And of the infinite order itself we possess only the plan or scheme of relations. The members of this ideal world are related to one another in such a manner that the essential uniqueness of the one is to be provocative57 of the diverse distinctiveness58 of the others. This, as I think, is a very fruitful formula, furnishing a rule of conduct to be applied59 to our finite relations. But it sheds no light on the uniqueness itself, which is forever ideal. What in its ultimate constitution our spiritual being may be, remains60 unknown. Did we know, were we capable of comprehending the infinite order, and seeing things in that supersolar light, we might then be able to solve the insoluble riddle,159 the coexistence side by side of the finite and the infinite. As it is, the problem of finiteness especially in its human aspect of suffering and evil is impenetrable, inexplicable61. But if we cannot explain suffering and evil, we can utilize62 them for a definite spiritual end. And that end is to achieve through the ministry63 of frustration64 and the persistence65 of the effort toward the unattainable, the consciousness of the reality of the spiritual universe and of our membership in it.
The answer, therefore, which I should offer, is based on this pivotal distinction between explaining and using. And thus the business in hand, the end to be gained, is the intensified66 realization67 of our spiritual interconnectedness with others, the life in life. To this end we accept from the Stoic, though for a reason which he does not give, resistance to pain, and from the philosopher of sympathy the obligation of not clouding the life of others with our shadow, and from the theologian the law of patience—and we take a step beyond all three.
Let me carry this out somewhat more in detail. To gain the consciousness of interrelation, there must be an object outside of myself of supreme interest to me, enabling me to transcend68 the ego69. Now, pain has the opposite effect, that of concentrating attention on the ego. Pain builds a prison around us, raises up high walls which shut us in. Anyone in great pain is incessantly70 reminded of his physical state. In order that the mind may pass out of the prison cell and over the encompassing71 wall, there needs to be some object beyond the wall appealing enough to solicit72 the outward movement. This object is the spiritual self of my fel160lowmen. It is my concern for their spiritual self which is their highest good, it is my eager wish to reinforce what is best in them that works the transcendence of the ego and of its pains. In such supreme moments the lesser73 values dwindle74 into relative insignificance75. And what is best in others is the same consciousness on their part of the interrelation. It is this that I am to awaken4 in them, to strengthen in them by the intensity76 with which I myself realize it. In the case of loving kin22 and friends, they, too, suffer with me. In vain I try to hide my sufferings. They divine what I try to suppress; and the more I try to suppress it, the more they suffer with me. They suffer not only with the suffering, but with the attempt to conceal77 the suffering. I have seen this in the case of a mother at the bedside of her dying daughter. They go with me to the brink78 of life. They enter into the anxieties and forebodings that haunt my mind as I face death. There may be young children that still need fostering care. Dangers to the family may arise after I am gone. The more my life is implicated79 in the lives around me, the more as I stand on the edge of life will my thoughts be occupied, not with the obliteration80 of my empirical self, but with the future of those that survive—that best future of theirs which I long to assure. And they, in turn, if they are fine natures, will pass through this inward experience with me. Thus I descend81 into the darkness and the depths, and they descend with me; and I am also to rise out of the darkness and the depths, and am to gain the force to do this in order that I may lift them with me.
This is the business in hand. I am to draw myself161 out of the depths, to overcome the centralizing, egotizing effects of physical and mental pain, in order by my effort to make those around me realize the intensity with which I feel my interrelatedness with them, and thereby to reveal to them the same spiritual power in themselves. Plans for the future education of the children, counsels of peace, by way of anticipation82 for the too lonely hours that await the most loving and the most beloved,—these things have value chiefly in so far as they are insignificant83 of the indissoluble interlacing of life with life.
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1
faculty
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| n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员 | |
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faculties
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| n.能力( faculty的名词复数 )；全体教职员；技巧；院 | |
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awakening
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| n.觉醒，醒悟 adj.觉醒中的；唤醒的 | |
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awaken
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| vi.醒，觉醒；vt.唤醒，使觉醒，唤起，激起 | |
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accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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briefly
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| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
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stoic
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| n.坚忍克己之人，禁欲主义者 | |
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thereby
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| adv.因此，从而 | |
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inaccessible
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| adj.达不到的，难接近的 | |
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fortitude
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| n.坚忍不拔；刚毅 | |
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bracing
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| adj.令人振奋的 | |
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manly
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| adj.有男子气概的；adv.男子般地，果断地 | |
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materialistic
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| a.唯物主义的，物质享乐主义的 | |
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defiance
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| n.挑战，挑衅，蔑视，违抗 | |
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humility
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| n.谦逊，谦恭 | |
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supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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frivolous
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| adj.轻薄的；轻率的 | |
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distress
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| n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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legitimate
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| adj.合法的，合理的，合乎逻辑的；v.使合法 | |
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kin
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| n.家族，亲属，血缘关系；adj.亲属关系的，同类的 | |
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grandeur
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| n.伟大，崇高，宏伟，庄严，豪华 | |
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cynical
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| adj.(对人性或动机)怀疑的，不信世道向善的 | |
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obtrudes
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| v.强行向前，强行，强迫( obtrude的第三人称单数 ) | |
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emanate
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| v.发自，来自，出自 | |
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chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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interfere
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| v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰 | |
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malady
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| n.病，疾病(通常做比喻) | |
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exterior
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| adj.外部的，外在的；表面的 | |
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imposing
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| adj.使人难忘的，壮丽的，堂皇的，雄伟的 | |
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ethical
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| adj.伦理的，道德的，合乎道德的 | |
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stoics
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| 禁欲主义者，恬淡寡欲的人，不以苦乐为意的人( stoic的名词复数 ) | |
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humble
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| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
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submission
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| n.服从，投降；温顺，谦虚；提出 | |
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virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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commendable
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| adj.值得称赞的 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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deity
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| n.神，神性；被奉若神明的人(或物) | |
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41
replete
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| adj.饱满的，塞满的；n.贮蜜蚁 | |
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sentient
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| adj.有知觉的，知悉的；adv.有感觉能力地 | |
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slay
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| v.杀死，宰杀，杀戮 | |
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testimony
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| n.证词；见证，证明 | |
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semblance
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| n.外貌，外表 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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disorder
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| n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调 | |
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astronomer
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| n.天文学家 | |
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49
miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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50
omnipotent
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| adj.全能的，万能的 | |
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51
discord
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| n.不和，意见不合，争论，（音乐）不和谐 | |
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52
preponderates
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| v.超过，胜过( preponderate的第三人称单数 ) | |
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labyrinth
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| n.迷宫；难解的事物；迷路 | |
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54
outlet
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| n.出口/路；销路；批发商店；通风口；发泄 | |
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55
desperately
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| adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地 | |
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56
incongruity
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| n.不协调，不一致 | |
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provocative
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| adj.挑衅的，煽动的，刺激的，挑逗的 | |
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distinctiveness
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| 特殊[独特]性 | |
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59
applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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60
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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inexplicable
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| adj.无法解释的，难理解的 | |
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62
utilize
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| vt.使用，利用 | |
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63
ministry
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| n.(政府的)部；牧师 | |
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frustration
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| n.挫折，失败，失效，落空 | |
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persistence
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| n.坚持，持续，存留 | |
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66
intensified
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| v.（使）增强， （使）加剧( intensify的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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realization
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| n.实现；认识到，深刻了解 | |
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transcend
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| vt.超出，超越(理性等)的范围 | |
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ego
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| n.自我，自己，自尊 | |
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incessantly
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| ad.不停地 | |
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encompassing
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| v.围绕( encompass的现在分词 )；包围；包含；包括 | |
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solicit
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| vi.勾引；乞求；vt.请求，乞求；招揽(生意) | |
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lesser
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| adj.次要的，较小的；adv.较小地，较少地 | |
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dwindle
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| v.逐渐变小（或减少） | |
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insignificance
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| n.不重要；无价值；无意义 | |
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intensity
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| n.强烈，剧烈；强度；烈度 | |
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conceal
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，隐蔽 | |
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brink
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| n.(悬崖、河流等的)边缘，边沿 | |
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implicated
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| adj.密切关联的；牵涉其中的 | |
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obliteration
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| n.涂去，删除；管腔闭合 | |
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81
descend
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| vt./vi.传下来，下来，下降 | |
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anticipation
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| n.预期，预料，期望 | |
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insignificant
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| adj.无关紧要的，可忽略的，无意义的 | |
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