Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-10-01
GREAT SOULS
FEAR NOTHING
If You Fear Pain Too Much
You Reject Hap
piness
BY Beatrice Fairfax

she chattered all the way,
But left me none the wiser
For all she had to say.
walked a mile with Sorrow?
And ne'er a word said she;
But oh! the things l learned from
When Sorrow walked with me.
Robert Browning Hamilton.
Arc you afraid to suffer? If you
fear pain too much to endure it.
you refuse to pay the price of real
happiness. Sorrow and JOY have
this in common-they are intense
they lift humanity out of dullness
The very largest happiness takes In
tragedy itself. And the most fright
full tragedy brings something akin
to joy in the sympathy with life
which is part of pain.
When Keats wrote Welcome JOY
and Welcome Sorrow" he was eX-
pressing the fact that the great souls
fear nothing.
For everything life gives us we
have to pay. Think of the SUI
preme sacrifices motherhood de-
mands. And yet what woman who
comes back from the gates of death
with her child in her arms feels that
the price is too much?
Sacrifice is the thread of melody
which runs through all of life. None
of us have everything. 1t is neces-
sary to choose wisely-to have a
sense of vames-to know what YOU
are willing to give up in order that
other things may be added to you.
To dare splendidly is not to the blind
to the need of paying a heavy price
it is to see the penalty and TO
realize that the penalty is not too
great
Life offers to each of us his de-
sire. We have to be brave enough
to take it. If riches and ease and
social position mean much to a
man, do you suppose he could throw
them aside and go to look for q
lost continent? But if finding a
new world was n mans real desire
do you suppose the knowledge that
he must suffer hardships and face
death would deter him?
We all hope to come safely out OF
horrible undertakings. But only il
our desire to achieve is great are
we so completely brave that we
dare failure and destruction. And
if we greatly dare we go straight
toward achievement even where we
seem to fail.
1t is not easy to sacrifice peace
of mind. 1t is not pleasant to take
up burden of uncertainty and ter
ror; but unless that is endurable we
fail to possess the strength which
wins life's great prizes.
Sorrow brings strength and SYM
pathy and understanding. The man
who can endure sorrow has con-
quered himself-the conquest of life
lies just ahead. Sorrow and suffer
ing are not too great a price to pay
for success.
Peace of mind is glorious thing
it means quiet, comfort, steady
nerves and rest. But only the man
who is ready to sacrifice his peace
of mind can hope to achieve greatly.
Growth always hurts. The very
unrest which drives man to the de-
sire for growth lacerates him.
Ambition puts an ache of longing
into the heart.
But all sufferings can be endured
save only one. The loss of peace of
mind and comfort and friends and
happiness are all endurable. There
is only one price that is too big 10
pay for achievement-self respect
The right to look yourself square in
the eye and call yourself a free man
or woman-the right to take your
place with honest men and women
is the one thing to which. you must
endurable heart hunger of feeling
yourself an outcast and weakling.
Selling your soul to the devil is
this-in its simplest terms: Failing
your own ideas of decency-giving
up your right to right itself.
If you want to achieve, yuo must
look the thing squarely in the face
and argue it out with yourself like
this: TT won't be easy. Nothing
worth while ever is. I'll have to
fight and struggle every day and all
the time. / will be driven when |
want to lie down and rest. I will
be tortured when I want to be quiet
and calm. / will have to sacrifice
all my little desires. I will have to
go on when I am weary and hungry.
I will have"to be misjudged. 1t won't
be easy. 1t, will mean suffering
o.. yes, it will mean all
that. But it is my biggest posi-
bility. l must go after it,"
When first the X-ray came into
use and the lead screens to protect
the hand of the operator had not
been invented a man over in Bos-
ton entered on X-ray research work,
He felt that here lay great chance
to help humanity. The action of the
little understood ray began destroy
ing his fingers.
He made himself strange padded
gloves and went on. He could en-
dure the burning away of his hands
no suffering was too great to pay
as price for the knowledge his soul
demanded and for the help to hui
manity his spirit felt driven to give.
He could never have endured the
personal fear that would have saved
his flesh at the cost of his work.
Extreme? Yes. But his indomita Bile
courage to suffer and sacrifice
brought him what he greatly de-
sired. How much would you suffer
for your hearts desire?" You get
what you want of life - If YOU
WANT IT ENOUGH!