Evening star., 1901-05-17
LITERATURE AS AN ANODYNE
THE POWER OF GOOD READING on
THE SICK BED.
Some Testimonials From Famous Men
as to the Efficacy of Books
In Relieving Pain.


From the London Spectator.
That was an interesting story told the
other day by Mr.. Choate about James Rus
sell Lowell When Lowell was lying on his
couch waiting for death he was visited by
Oliver Wendell Holmes, who asked his
brother poet how ne was. Lowell replied
that he had forgotten all his bodily pains
for he was deep in Rob Roy The story
is not only testimony to Scott it is a
testimony to literature as the most power
full anodyne We know. We may well throw
physic to the dogs when we can stir the
pulses of our declining 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 varies a great
deal. Tennyson called on his deathbed for
"Cymbeline,' George Eliot was found when
dying with the Imitation" in her hand,
Whewen the omniScient preferred in the
same circumstances to read Mansfield
Park" But all testified like Lowell, to
the power of literature 10 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 lies deep-can often be more thor
Oughly treated by mental and moral means
than by mere material devices. To rally
the moral and mental forces of the torpid
nature, to call forth latent moral energy,
TO make the mind supreme over the body
this is the great aim Of medical science in
many, if not in all, cases Even when no
chance exists of curing disease, and moth
Ing but alleviation of suffering is possible,
then IL is still the object of the wise phySi-
clan to the inner mind forces and
rely on them, rather than to treat the pa
tient as though he were a mere bundle OF
tissues and bodily organs cunningy put
together. Whatever of quackery there
may have been in the development of heal
ing by suggestion or In so-called mind cures
(and doubtless there has been much), still
the central idea of the mind cure has forced
itself on the reason and Imagination Of the
doctor, and has persuaded him to modify
his practice and abandon practical mate
rialism for the doctrine that man Is at
bottom a soul.
This, we suppose is the reason for the
power of literature on the sick bed In lead
ing men to forget their pain and live in
another world than that which seems to
surround them. Medicine cannot effect
this. We administer drugs faithfully, but
the patient groans and tosses the night
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 is
needed is that the patient should be taken
out of the actual into an ideal world where
his imagination may be stirred and reused
into new relationship with his surround
ings. 1t Is vain to enter on the question
whether mental surroundings born Of the
unseen are real, the point Is lndt tney are
real to him. He is caught up into the third
heaven of delight, and sees and hears that
which cannot be uttered. There are few
of US who have not enjoyed this expe-
rience in the midst Of an illness which
seemed to envelop in horrors black as
night. What sweet sensation 1t was ta
emerge from this pit of despair for time
and to sit, as 1t were, in the light OF day,
taken away from ourselves, and borne into
some ideal land! Even the pain and dis
tress of the illness itself can almost be
excused for the temporary relief, just as
we can put UP with thirst for the sake Of
the cooling liquid which follows
Books are world both pure and good,
wrote Wordsworth, and it is for that reu-
| son they exercise a power over the mind
which leads to a corresponding power over
| the body We gain forgetfuiness by opiates,
| but at a cost too great. The body soon re-
| lapses into it's former condition, or perhaps
| the condition becomes even worse than it
was. But of the work of fine Imagination
| we may the words OF Milton, that 1t
| after no repentance draws" 1t does not