Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1924-01-03
By MARGARET BOYD

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'Yet in her sorrow pleased that one
who had suffered was near her."
-EvangeIine.
The word sympathy comes from
words that mean to suffer, and there
can be genuine sympathy only where
there has been similar suffering-ex-
cept on the part of those rare souls
who have genius for sympathy.
Specialists say that when a tuber-
culosis victim is hemorrhaging, there
is nothing better for him than the
company of another victim who has
hemorrhaged and recovered. If the
latter assures the sufferer that he
himself once suffered just as severely
or worse and got over it, the assur-
ance does more good than any medi-
cine that can be given. The sympa-
thy of one who has survived the same
suffering allays the victims terrors,
Gains his nerves and allows nature a
chance to exert her healing influence.
1t is much the same with all our
Ills, whether mental, physical or psy-
chical The presence of some one
else who has suffered the same sort
of i'll and survived it brings US cour-
age. Such presence assures us that
we are not singled out by fate for es-
pecial torment.
According to the oriental tale, a
young mother once came to Buddha,
carrying her dead baby in her arms.
She told him how the child had been
bitten by serpent, and how it had
grown pale and quiet soon afterward.
Her neighbors had told her the child
was dead but she refused to believe
them. She called upon the great
teacher to heal her child and to re-
store the color to his cheeks. Buddha,
to keep her from distraction, told her
that if she would bring him a meas
ure of black mustard seed from a
house where no father mother child
or slave hath died." things would be
we'll
The next day the woman returned
without the seed She told him she
had searched everywhere in vain.
Everywhere she went they had black
mustard seed, and all were willing to
give her a measure of it; but in every
house some one had died. Then
Buddha gently told her she. had found
Searching for what none finds-that
bitter balm
1 had to give thee. He thou lovedst
slept
Dead on thy bosom yesterday; today J.
weeps with thy woe;
The grief which all hearts share grows
less for one.
"The evil that men do lives after
them;
The good is oft Inferred with their
bones"
Julius Caesar.
It seems to us that good should be
stronger than evil; just as light is
stronger than darkness. Yet it is true,
as Antony here points out, that the
evil men do seems to outlast the good
they do.
We all know that if we put sound
apple in the center of a barrel of rot
ten apples, the sound one will not
make the rotten ones sound; but will
itself become rotten We know also
that if we put a rotten apple in the
center of a barrel of sound apples, it
will soon spread rot to all the apples
in the barrel. 1t is usually the same
with schools and communities; one
evil child or evil person will soon
spread evil throughout the school OF
community, whereas one good child or
good person will ordinarily have little
effect on either
A man may do thousand and one
good deeds and single evil deed
If so, his community will give more
weight to the one evil deed than to
his thousand good deeds.
Long ago the Bible pointed out that
the sins of the father should be Wis
tied upon his children to the third and
fourth generations. Medical science
has proved that this is true of the
disease of the father, for certain dis
eases are inherited to the third and
fourth generations, weakening all the
descendants Of the diseased ancestor.
What is true OF disease is no doubt
true of many other evils, and Maeter-
linck spoke truly when he said
"There is not a gesture, thought, q
sin. tear, an atom of acquired con
seriousness that is lost in the depths
of the earth; and at the most insig-
nificant of our acts, our ancestors
arise, not in their tombs, where they
move not, but in ourselves, where they
always live"
Two things save the situation from
pessimism: we struggle toward good
and not all good that man does is
inferred with his bones.
Human beings do much that is evil
but they try to be good, just as 8
plant tries always to get to the light
and away from the darkness. What
progress the race has made has been
due to the good that was not inferred
with the bones of the doors. A Naz
arene carpenter and Hindu prince
for example, did good that has fur
nished inspiration for countless mil
| lions since their time. And although
one good man in a community has lit.
tie influence, a group of good men
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