Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1901-05-27
LITERATURE As AN ANopyNE.
Works Noted Men Nave Read on Their
Death Beds,
- ka,1s.s

VeWM 0eVS,
- ssoa~~ $50
fhat was an interesting story told
the other day by Mr.. Choate about
James Russell Lowell. When Lowell
was Wing on his couch waiting for
! death he was visited by Oliver Wen
dell Holmes, who asked his brother
poet how he was. Lowell replied that
ne had forgotten all his bodily pains.
for he was deep in Rob Roy" The
story Is not only testimony to Scott.
1t Is testimony to literature as the
most powerful anodyne we know. We
may well throw physic to the dogs
when we can stir the pulses of our de-
Ginning frame by the words of the
great masters Of human thought and
emotion. The particular kind of book
which cheers and consoles a human
spirit In times of bodily weakness va
ries great deal. TennysOn called on
his deathbed for "Cymbeline," George
Eliot was found when dying with the
Imitation in her hand, Whewell the
omniscient preferred in the same cir
cumstances to read Mansfield Park"
But all testified. like Lowell, to the
power of literature to ease the distress
of the body.
Modern science has taught us more
and more that many OF the ills of the
body. however they may be caused
and their roots lie deep-can often be
more thoroughly treated by mental
ana moral means than by mere ma
terial devices. To rally the moral and
mental forces of the torpid nature. to
Ia 20 nj
the mind supreme over the body-this
is the great aim of medical science in
many, if not i'm all, cases. Even when
n" chance exists Of curing :. disease
and nothing but alienation Of suffer
ing Is possible. then it is still the OBJ
Ject % the wise physician to rouse the
inner mind forces and rely on them.
father than to treat the patient as
though he were n mere bundle of
tissues and bodily organs cunningly
put together. Whatever Of auackery
there may have been in the develop
ment Of healing by suggestion or in So
called mind cures land doubtless there
has been mrch). still the central idea
of The mind cure has forced itself on
the reason and imagination of the doc
tor. and has persuaded him to modify
his practice and abandon practical ma
terialism for the doctrine that man Is
ut bottom 4 soul.
This, We suppose is the reason for the
prayer of literature on the sick he'd IL
leading men to forget their pain and live
IN another world than that which seems
to surround them. Medicine cannot effec:
this. We administer drugs faithfully. but
ntsI IN, ,,f,
long. Even the most sympathetic nurse
too often finds all power Of soothing use
less. Every conscious moment brings up
Images of misery and of dread. What i.
needed is that the patient should lie taken
out al the actual into an ideal world
where his ina cinatiun may be stirred and
reused mo new roia tionship with his
Surroundings. IT IS vain to enter on the
question whether mental surroundings
born ~ the unseen are real; the point is
that ihcy are real to him. He is caught
up into the third heaven Of delight and
secs and hears that which cannot he ut
tered. There are fow OF us who have not
enjoyed this experience In the midst of
an Illness which seemed TO enrelop us in
horrors black as night. What a sweet
sensation II was to emerge from this pit
~ d. SIiair for a time ard to sit. as IL We're
in tho hEht of day. taken away from
tFrfe Ives. 1ud borne into goIEc IDEAL land.
Even the pain and distress OF the illness
itself can almost he excused for the tenn
Tordrt- relief just as We can put up with
thirst for the sake of the cooling liquid
which follows.
The book of fine Imagination destroys
the SPELL Of disease 50 that it may place
us under higher and purer spell. II
takes us out of the actual world. not that
II may drug our senses. but that il may
introduce us into an ideal world. We are
absorbed in now interests. but not in an
unhealthy way. We thread the forest of
Aruen with lsosalind. we trarnp along the
English roads with Jeanne Deans, we are
free of the old hauctcd py1cheon house,
We enter with GREATNESS ca9rrncss into
All the details Of CrisjcS strange dwell
ing, we Weep over nli&l ingratitudr with
Lear and Goriot.
The world Of disordered beds, and med
irirc Walls and heavy sick-rC ON odors ha :
midst of adventures. We are threading the
mazcS of character, we are involved III the
problems of hate and love. We are back
Gnc1 more in the scenes of youth. when
the world was fresh; We have hones ana
smiles ard tears. Here is thr blessed cf-
feet Of literature on the suffering body
through The mind.
The great writer. then. is really good
physician. a physician Of the body and
the lnind Little did Shakesneare or
Scott or Dickens dream of Ine diffused
power which would radiatc from their
works and tighten UP the mind of count
less sufferers. \ chapter from Pick
wick is as good as tonic-better than
most tonics. because We know and see
all it's constituent clements. play of
Shakespeare s is Il deep draught OF puri-
fying and healing drink. OF more value
Than that in the bottle by the bedside.
The natGrc-poctry Of Wordsworth sinks
insenshly into the soul with its hcalin;
ana blessing agency. And the hidden bu,
sure sources of spiritual power dominate
the body. and reach out int" all its ducts
and veins, and if they do not cure they
help us to bear our bodily intirnlity. Thus
literature lives in the lives not only of
hose who are vigorous. but perhaps il
performs its highest and noblest work in
The diScn sod ana the StrickCn.-LondOn