ailments. Pain is the only proof of their existence. The theft of it would destroy them by sheer inanition. "Non," cries Pierre de Coulevain, " car le douleur donne à la vie une saveur incontestable. La preuve est que nous exagérons à plaisir notre mal et celui des autres. De plus, nous avons l'instinct que le souffrance nous grandit et nous enoblit. On ne se vante pas d'avoir été plus heureux que celui-ci ou celui-là, mais on se vante d'avoir souffert davantage... mais je suis obligé de reconnaître qu'elle est le sel de la vie." It is possible that through higher development, through the refinement of delicate specialization, we may some day grow to the point where the coarseness of pain may be no longer required. When life will become sufficiently intense through its joys; when we may be so exquisitely attuned that, like wind-harps, a mere breath may set quivering golden vibrations that will give us the immense sense of life for which we yearn. There may come a time when the silent glories of— "The incomparable pomp of eve" will awake as enormous a response as now we achieve only through the thunders and horrors of war. There may come a beautiful day when the dreaming passion of the nightingale's voice through the dewy darkness will give us all the heartache we require. When the sweetness and colour of roses will arouse that ecstasy that is as delicious as pain. When that time comes, we may at last put aside all noise and clamour, all garish, savage means of assuring ourselves that we live, and once more walk in the Gardens of Paradise in the cool of the day, innocent and content, sure of being alive at last through mere perfection of delight. A ENVOY PHYSICIAN, visiting an asylum, met in a corridor one of the patients galloping rapidly to and fro upon a walking-stick. "That's a fine horse you have there," remarked the doctor soothingly. The dignified elderly rider reined in his wooden steed for a moment and replied, with a shade of contempt: "This is n't a horse, you know. If it were a horse, I could dismount. This is a hobby." |