South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1916-01-10
Need to Forget
Physical Pain and Suffering.

The primary cause OF suffering is the vul-
nerability OF the flesh. II bodies could not
be hurt we should not suffer. in this way at
any rate, and perhaps not in any other either
And yet it is this very susceptibility. this
sensitiveness to physical pain, that has
brought the race to where it is. 1t is the root
OF everything fine and gracious, noble and ad-
mirable. in our complex and imperfect nature.
II is the heart of all the social virtues, i'm
agination. feeling. poetry. art. and govern
ment
Without It humanity as we know it today.
IN all that distinguishes it from the lower
creation. could not have come to u.s.
Physically less protected y nature
than any other organisms We are more ex-
posed at all points to the assaults of danger
and disease. We are more liable to perish
OF hunger and cold. We have had to bestir
ourselves in order to live at all. We cannot
comfortably take existence for granted. And
II is to this, more than anything else, that we
owe the development Of faculty which has
raised US to where we are in the scale OF
being-the incessant stimulus of physical pain
and the necessity of scheming to avoid il. have
given us our elaborate nervous organization
and the intelligence to make use of il.
And it has brought out much more. though
not yet so successfully. II has brought out our
moral consciousness and all the spiritual long
ings that accompany it. and which earth can
never fully satisfy. On the other hand it
makes US feel the pull OF the physical and to
tend to overvalue it.
Europe is lighting to-day because we rate
so highly the Importance of physical things
We individually and collectively want TO get
and keep as much as possible OF material
wealth in order to secure physical comfort.
That is the meaning OF Germany's bid for
world power. mad as It is
What power could anybody have over any.
body else but for the physical? What use
would there be for governments but for the
physical? What would lust of territory and
commercial predominance amount TO but for
the physical?
Suppose that at stroke all necessity for
feeding and clothing people could be made To
disappear from the earth; suppose no Quivering
flesh could be torn by shot and shell or in
tured in any way by material means Kaiserism
and everything It stands for would be swept
from the globe. Nobody would have a woro
to say to 1t or pay the slightest heed to it.
But. as l have already shown, something
else might disappear, too, and that would be
the main dynamic of our moral energies. Not
entirely admit. for what is gained is gained
man is man. and would not be man without
idealism; and all our ideallsm. l contend. has
been born OF pains and struggles. Take
the urgency for these away. while allowing
conditions otherwise to remain much as they
are, and. judging from all the indications OF
the past. tendency would be 10 let so and
sink down 10 sordid and uninspiring levels.
Then, welcome each rebuff,
That turns eaTth's smoOthness rough.
Each sting that bids nor sit stand but go!
Be our joys three-parts pain!
Strive. and hold cheap the strain;
Learn. nor account the pangi dare, never
grudge the throe!
But--here is the main point I wish TO I'm
press upon my readers-nothing that touches
the physical only touches the real man or any
thing that is his. If we could get this well
into our minds il would set US free from most
OF cur fears and breads. not 10 speak OF hope
less sorrow and blind despair l CO not say it
would deliver US utterly from suffering, either
bodily or mental.
That Is not 10 be expected while We are
jewellers in the flesh. but / do say that II
would take Us right out of the paralyzng
dominion OF terror-and only think what that
would mean Those were wise words OF old.
Our light afiicuon. which is but for a mo-
meat WOrketh for Us more and more exceed