The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-08-17
THE PHILOSOPHY OF PAIN.

1t is claimed by Christian Scientists,
and probably by other mental scien-
lists. that pain and evil are illusions,
and have no legitimate place in the
universe. In other words, they are the
product of mortal mind and not of God.
The following striking article-striking
because of its philosophy and truth
is from the Independent.
when modern science began to eX-
anime critically the ladder by which
man has climbed to his present posi-
ton it was found that every step was
stained with blood; that life was war,
and suffering the common lot of all;
that animals preyed upon plants, ana
man upon animals, and bacteria upon
mana cycle of suffering; that every
species was an Ishmael; that birds and
butterflies were not the careless, JOY
Gus things the poet thought them, liv-
ing only for beauty and pleasure, but
were engaged in a terrible struggle for
existence; that the song Of birds was
war-cry, and the adornment of the
butterfly was merely war paint. 1T
was found that there was an awful
waste in nature, waste of time, waste
of work, waste of life. Only million
seeds sown by the wind, only one lived.
A thousand eggs were cast upon the
waters to produce one fish. A hundred
men labored and sweat that one might
rise 1t was an awful revelation, that
of science fifty years ago. No wonder
that 1t drove men insane; made them
pessimists and atheists. If science
had stopped here it would have been
gospel of despair.
But it did not stop; another step
changed it to a gospel of hope. 1t was
discovered that this suffering that
looked to a casual glance like an I'M
pediment to progress, was really its
cause; that pain was the handspring
of the universe; that war was the
mother of all things, as the Greek had
said long ago; that the rod of afllic-
ton was the modelling tool by which
God created all living things; that
there could have been no happiness
now if there had been no suffering in
the past; that joy is the offspring of
sorrow; that out of war comes peace,
and through death comes life. This
changed the whole view. 1t put optim-
ism in the place of pessimism. Man
could see the uses of adversely.
'"rhere was a time when there was
no suffering in the world, but that was
when there was no life; when the
earth was void and without form, and
darkness was upon the face of the deep.
With life came suffering. and in
creased with it. Progress may be de-
fined as increase in the capacity for
suffering. A stone does not feel pain;
probably a plant does. Ancient ami
mails suffered less than their descend
ants The gigantic saurians that used
to creep across the Rocky Mountain
plains We're as big as house, but their
brains could have been put into a tea
cup. Not much chance for pain there.
And finally man came, a creature built
upon a new and improved plan. But
his chief endowment was that he was
able to suffer more.
Now we see more clearly what is
meant by the many mysterious sayings
in the Bible, that benefits arise from
Affections: that good comes out of evil
and life comes from death. People
used to believe these statements and
they were doubtless true, but in some
hazy, mystical sense, nobody, knew
how. Now we know that they are not
imaginative, but plain statements of
fact. They are not fgurative, but lit
orally true