The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1873-02-18
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Human sympathy.

iumnn sympathy.
The theory OF sympathy is that it
should be bestowed in cases of human sor
row and trouble. Bat there is capri.
ciousuess in the hcstowal which renders
this most appropriate and happily
prompted human affection--an affection
Of truly Divine origin-to great extent
unavailable aud Intellectual for the pur-
poses for which it was designed and i'm
planted by our Maker in the human
heart.
There is conventional understanding
that for some kinds of aflliction person
is entitled to claim profound coincidence
from all who know him. while many other
kinds of calamity are left out of all ac-
count. Or, at least the manifestation Of
sympathy would couvcntonally be regard
ed as malapropos and sometimes an I'M
warranted assumption, There is reason
for this rule Of conventionaity, and this
current scale Of sympathy seems to be
founded on the assumption that troubles
Of certain kind which often are the
most distressing that can beiall one, are
always so. Bereavement. for instance,
always commands loud and ample sympa-
thy as it shodld while ill-hcalth, and Pc
cuniary losses, and want. and those bodily
ills which are supposed to be only tenn
porary in their effects. like boils and the
toothache, demand no more than conrte-
GUS inquiry and the off-hand expression of
a wish or regret. The sympathy is
mainly from the teeth outward.
l.. I.sno varnnt eeoioty outside pco
pie, can only recognize official relations,
while oftentimcs irregular and unofficial
affections are very much more severely
torn and lacerated than those which are
outwardly recognized in the relations of life
Yet if there is to be rule about it, this
is perhaps as good as any other, and will
more than half Of the time hit right
Money vexations are often very hard
to bear indeed II very easy for the rich
who are perplexed and tried about invest
ments, losses, failure sometimes threaten
ing, and thousand trials never known
until experienced. In these days of
fraudulent mining or oil stocks, insolvent
railway companies, and the more common
tricks Of trade, people who were supposed
to have Independent sources of living, Of
ten experience pinches, and terrors and
wrongs, which perplcx and harrass their
lives out of them Yet this is not the
most terrible form in which the ogre comes
to men. 1t is not uncommon for it to
come as a wall of flint between mans
children and their dinner, or their school
ing. And then who will deny that it
calls for mans warmest sympathy. But
this species Of suffering scarcely awakcns
tho sentiment. There is felt to be some.
thing sordid and small, and non-tragic
about money troubles and toothache \ ct
money makes frightful havoc with human
happiness. 1t is impossible to make nice
estimate of the mutiation of purpose, en-
ergy, aspiration, accomplishment, but if
were we should find much greater Grip.
pling misery, resulting from money causes
than from bereavement even, which
though the greater calamity perhaps, car
ries with it the thought that no human
foresight could have prevented it, and
men come to accept it as the inevitable.
OF course true philosophy would re.
ceive and weigh intlictions by standard
Of proper estimate. But most men are
not philosophers, With mankind ecner-
ally it comes easier to do great things
than small. They nerve themselves up
to them, upon the inirequent occasions Of
their visits. While the more petty trials
harrass and perplex and worry without
the benefit Of philosophy or outside sym.
pathy, A little sympathy would DC well
expended in pcrsuading people that the
proper endurance OF minor ills partakes
very much Of the nature, if not Of The
substance, Of hcroism. Ifthen the worlds
sympathy is so grcvously misplaced, and
so out of proportion, so habItualy be.
slowed where it is neither needed nor de-
sired, and withheld when it ought to be
brought into play, perhaps it would be
wise to wrap ones self in the cloak of his
own heroism, and face distrcsses without
turning so much as a glance Of the eye to
the world