Iron County news. [volume] (Hurley, Wis.) 1913-1950, 1917-08-18
PAIN is OUR FRIEND
Physical Suffering a Blessing In
Disguise For Mankind.
A DANGER WARNING TO HEAD.

Menaced, and II Enables Man to
Maintain His Proud Position at the
Highest Pinnacle of Creation.
OF all organized beings man possesses
the greatest capacity for suffering pain.
This Is the price he pays for the supe.
riority of organization that makes him
the king Of nature DR. Lawrence Ir-
well writes Oh The Meaning and Use
Of Pain" and bids US gard all this
susceptibility to suffering and even the
suffering itself as blessing in dis
guise. 1t is pain, he assures US. that
enables US to maintain our proud posi-
ton at the top Of creation.
Pain keeps US alive, signals the ap-
proach Of countless dangers, thus ena-
bling us 10 avoid them, and IS spur
10 wise action IN the process OF human
adjustment" helping to endow us with
courage, devotion, sympathy and count
less other virtues. 1t is kindness In a
mask, and It's abolition might mean the
loss not only Of that suffering which
has ever been the nursery Of virtue,
but even OF life itself Dr. Irwell says:
If the touch OF redhot body did
not cause instant pain any one might
be fatally burned before he was aware
Of the danger. If hunger produced no
pain one might not care to eat. II 1t
were not painful to look directly at
the sun at noon blindness would affiI:
those who examined 1t with the naked
eye at that time.
Serving as 1t does the self conserva-
tion Of the organism, pain is a most
useful danger signal the cutlery of in
jured and life threatened organic ele-
ment which has no language apart
from that cry. That may he the rea-
son why pain has short and bad
memory. 1t indicates disOrgs MIA ton,
imminent OF actual, while conscious
memory implies functioning organiza-
ton definitely organized associate
whose associations are dismember-
ments and therefore not rememberable.
NO one has ever recalled a pain as
he actually felt 1t. He can, OF course.
recollect that he suffered It, that 1t
was excruciating at the time and all
circumstances OF his suffering but to
remember 1t as 1t was in feeling would
be to revive 1t SO wildly as to refeel 1t
to have ID again Being disOrganized,
there Is nothing with which 1t is CON
nected with organized associations, and
therefore when It has passed its pang
is lost to memory"
IL the function Of pain is self con-
servation by giving warning Of menace
TO life. Or. Irweil asks. why does 1t not
cease It's function when the warning is
futile? Death takes many forms, and
almost all OF them are painful. Why
might not matters have been SO beneyO-
lently ordained that when the newt
able end began the unavaiing pain al
ways ended? The writer replies:
The obvious answer is that by that
method the function OF pain would
have been annulled 1t signals danger
and destruction. and what greater dan
ger and destruction TO an organism
can there be than its decay and death?
That the organism no longer does any
thing to preserve its existence when
warned is not the monitors affair, it's
warming which is a warning TO pre-
pare TO so out of existence. The warn
ing becomes In most instances less urg-
ent. duller. more faint az gradually In
creasiug decay feels neither desire nor
power to attend TO its call.
considering what pain has done as
spur 10 wise action I'm the process of
human adjustment to surrounding men
and things. how 1t has helped to In
graft courage. patience, self sacrifice.
devotion. sympathy aud charity upon
human nature, its seeming cruelty be
ing in reality masked kindness. 1t Is
impossible to assert that Its abolition
would be benefit and that men could
be strong and thrive without Ii. Sor-
rows and sufferingS have been the nurs-
cries OF virtue affections good teach
ers minds have been chastened, dis
ciphned, purified and more or less per
fected by trials and pains - Literary
Digest.