THE FUNCTIONS OF PAIN

vail the higher race-consciousness i$ coming to birth.

THE problem of pain may be said to be solved in so far as it can be shown, the world bdng what it is, that pain perforais a valuable and lifeward function in the race-life. It is unquestionable that, in respect of large areas of pain, this can be shown. It is obvions, for example, that, in a multitude of cases, pain has a purifjdng influence, acting on life as *' a refiner's fire " ; the " cleansing fires '* of pain is no baseless pœtical hyperbole. Again, in the economy of the body, individual and social, pain has a protective value, and serves as a danger-signal ; it is the way in which we become consdous of a struggle which begins, as it were automatically, wherever health is threatened by devîtaUàng agencies. A man's life is never in such real danger as when an attack upon his health-reserves is made so insidiously and so subtly that, for some reason or other, it does not ascend into consciousness as pain ; his sentinels are either slain, or drugged, or asleep, and the enemy is past them into the citadel.

Further, on the h5rpothesis of social soUdarity, the innocent must often and necessarily çufïer with the guilty ; an unmerited pain, in this case, being the sign of the conmiunity of life, the obverse side of the fact that " no man liveth unto himself * ' ; that we should sufier inevitably through the weaknesses of some one is^ as it were,

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the price we hâve to pay for the equally inévitable advantage which accrues to us through the strength of others who are bound with us " in the bundle of Ufe."

There are some who, answering a wider law than that which opérâtes in the material universe, take upon themselves an apparently voluntary pain ; an act which satisfies in the highest d^ee the pragmatical test, for out of such is the Kingdom of Heaven. In their case, pain works as the hberator of latent powers ; the spear-thrust is followed by the life-stream flowing from the " riven side/' and the death of one (not necessarily physical) is the way whereby ail enter into a fuller life. There is also the further fact at which the f amiliar words hint, of rising on ' ' the steppingstones of our dead selves/' or of being " made perfect through the things which He suffered." In this case, pain is the index of the ascent of spiritual life against the wdght and pressure of material circumstance. The infinité in man rises against and through the gravity of the imposed condition of finitude.

Thèse and such considérations cover large areas of the mortal expérience of pain, to some extent explain it — that is to say, demonstrate its Ufeward function, show it to be good — and to that extent solve the problem. There remains, however, a residuum of pain which apparently serves no useful purpose — accidents, épidémies, disasters, and the hke, which destroy valuable Uves

186 PRACTICAL COUNSELS

and plunge f amilies and whole communities into dismay, if not despair; hère the crux of the problem lies. It remains a mystery, some day perhaps to be made plain, but in the meantime challenging us to find the right practice of life in respect to it.

Carpenter helps us to that right practice partly by throwing Ught upon the problem itself, and partly by suggesting a healthy, calm, balanced attitude towards it, so far as it is insoluble ; for, whatever the right practice may be, clearly the wrong practice is futile anger and misérable complaining.

The coimsel of Piety is that we should " trust where we cannot trace," and believe that ail is under the govemance of an AU-wise Providence ; that there is a hidden purpose in seemingly purposeless pain — for example, it may be corrective chastening or testing discipline ; as such, it must be endured. " Beloved, we are in God's Hand ; I feel He laid the fetter ; let it Ue."

From the practical point of view, this is not bad advice ; it tends, however, to produce, in spite of much patient heroism, a type of morbid and mawkish sentimentalism, due probably to the assumption that behind every accident or misfortune there is a divine particular purpose with a definite individual référence. Some people take pride in being the victims of God's uncomfortable attentions.

The counsel of Common Sensé is somewhat as

PRACTICAL COUNSELS 187

follows: problems are not cverything, there is Life also ; it were a pity to be so occupied with the former as to miss the zest and glory of the latter ; we are set amid hazards and hardships, but what man worth his sait would ask for anything else ? What healthy man wants an easy, sheltered life? We ask for risk and venture. We want an arena worthy of our virtues of courage and endurance. We want to prove our soûl. We want to dwell in danger. The risks and périls of the world are predsely what go to make it the best of ail possible worlds for the fashioning of brave, reUant, masterful men. To assert this in action is the life of faith.

Carpenter's counsel, which is closely aUied to this last, though somewhat less vigorous, more oriental (let us say) than Nietzschean, is thus given in a récent article on the ' ' Mystery of Pain ' ' in the English Review}

It often seems extremely hard on peo|d6 that they should suâer, as they do in some cases, considérable pain over a long séries of years, and in a seemingly useless way. . . . It seems purely négative and wasteful. . . . The subject is a puzzling one. . . . It may be, however, that ont of this seeming impasse the human soûl — which nltimately overcomes aU obstacles — is destined to find its way. Faced by the problem of useless pain — of pain pure and simple, unrelieved apparently by any compensation of pleasure or proût — it may be that the soûl is destined to leam the art of passing it by, of ignoring it, of leaving pain lying and travelling beyond. . . . Such an art

* July 1914.