Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1876-01-13
Sufferings Of Body and Mind Com
pared-A Discussion.

Among the numerous students of
Law and Latin now domicled ia the
village of Lancaster, some interest.
ing topics are discussed with an abil-
ity that justifies some public recog-
milton. We heard two speakers dis
cuss this question ais the body
capable of mere intense suffering
than the mind ?"
Mr.. Affirmative called attention to
the inquisition-the wheel, the rack
the instruments of torture contrived
with scientific skill to dart the ar
rows of pain through every nerve,
vein, artery and tissue of the human
frame, till it became frightful, dis
torted organ, whose notes were
groans, sobs, sighs and woes unutter-
able. You cannot rack the mind
you cannot pierce it with red hot
iIon, or tear it limb from limb with
red hot pincers. And there was the
Roman crucifxion men and women
nailed to the cross. We shudder to
think of the terrible bodily agonies
of these cruel periods. II | lived
then | should not like to have carried
about sensitive body with me. |
should have preferred to have been
a paralytic or leper. OF all the
groans uttered by human being be-
tween his cradle and his grave, nine
out of ten are due to the body.
Nine-tenths of all the woe and suffer
ing from Adams day to the Centen-
NAL are bodily pains. Show me q
man or woman suffering under the
acutest agones that the mind can
feel touch him with a coal of fire,
and be will winoe, writhe and force
himself from the contact frel few
embers would make him forget bis
mental agony. Hnd there's the
tooth ache. headache.
-"all maladies
Of CHASTITY spasm or rackng torture,
Quams Of heart sick agony, all feverous
kinds,
Commissions, epilepsies, fierce catarrhs,
Intestine stone and ulcer, collie pangs,
Dropsies and asthmas and Joint rackng
rheums"
Indeed, Mr.. President, every pain
is bodily pain for the new Phil )sophy
of Professor Tyndall, Huxley and
Darwin has proved that the mind is
only function or part of the body
But here the speaker was called to
order, and Mr.. Negative began his
argument.
81 am surprised at the assertions
of Mr.. Affirmative. He was APP
pointed to argue in favor of his posi-
ton, not to believe it. fl chose to
dodge the question, | might contend
that there can be no suffering in
man or beast without the quality
we call mind. Matter itself cannot
suffer. 1t is impossible for US to
form any conception of matter that
indentifies it with mind. Nature
has separated the ideas 80 far that
even imagination cannot unite them.
What Herbert Spencer calls the
"Ego" the ~ the consciousness of
existence, (and without this there
can be no pain of any kind,) though
united with matter in the body, is
as distinct from it in nature and es-
sence a. though the two we're at the
opposite poles of the Universe
There is first the mental suffering
OF disappointed hope and pampered
worlds would undergo tho fiery
pangs of the first Napoloan in ST.
Helena? He turns his thoughts
towards the gay Ronlevards Of Paris,
the throngs that fawn at the foot
stool of royalty, his enemies in The
enjoyment of the thrones he once
distributed with as lavish a hand as
Santa Claus scatters his Christmas
toys. In his fitful slumbers he sees
his invincible banners ascending the
Alps. Italy appears on the land
scape and Popes kneel and make
confession at his feet But the hard
memorable reality returns again.
There are the dark hearse-lke cur
tains that surround his couch; there
is the narrow sutfocating room 10
which he is confned-exiled from
the world, thrust out by the nations
as a dsmon unfit for human society.
He vas in the world but not Of tho
world What situation more awful
than the solitude of his own thoughts?
What imagination can trace them ?
What pen describe them ? The
physical suffering of the three mil
lions of Frenchmen, inundated on
the alter of his ambition, did not
equal the agOnies OF that mighty
soul imprisoned in the bars of mex
orabls destiny. And who can des-
cribe the mortal sufferings of the
suicide, the dark pail that shrouds
his future and compels him to seek
q refuge in the grave? What pangs
OF despair wrung the bosom of poor
Ralston when be, in whose Golfers the
gold Of the Pacific had lodged,
plunged beneath the waves to escape
the sight of W rid he hated? And
in modern times The telegraph and
newspapers and commerce spread
our reputation and good name so far,
blending our existence with the good
opinions of our fellow men, that it is
living death to lose that reputation
Who can tell what Henry Ward
Beecher must suffer, especially if he
is a guilty man? In Republic like
ours the passion of ambition is
wonderfully developed among all
classes. What regret, what poign-
ant pain does the politician expert
ence when be has lost the public con
fdence, and is defeated by rival
1t is dangerous to build our happi-
ness upon the quick sands of popular
favor.
But | contend that the most terri
bic of all human suffering proceeds
from q sense of guilt or crime. "A
wounded spirit who can bear z Did
the thong that crushed the neck of
Judas equal the stings of remOrse
that pierced his soul No, no: the
apothecary NAV furnish balm aud