the passage to a higher state of perfection. Spinoza's definition is singularly inconsistent with his own acknowledgment, that the Man of Sorrows was the embodiment of the wisdom and perfection of God. If suffering were really a passage to a lower state of perfection, then we should have this singular anomaly,—that he who was always passing to a lower state came out at last at the highest. Through suffering, says the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, Christ was made perfect. And what is true of Christ, in regard to the helpful effects of suffering, is true in some degree of others. As far as my own experience goes, it is this the noblest men and the sweetest women I have known have been those who have suffered most. On the other hand, we do sometimes meet with monstrosities who have never suffered-who have never had a single ache or twinge of body, mind, or spirit, since they were born. There are some persons, no doubt, who have little trouble of their own, but are yet pained by the grief of others. They remind one of what Coleridge says of Genevieve in his exquisite poem : "Few sorrows hath she of her own, But there are others who, having no troubles of their own, wilfully blind their eyes and close their hearts against the sorrows that surround them. They decline to take their part in bearing the common burden of human woe. And what contemptible objects they are! They are far less human, in spite of their human form, than many a dog. Well does Mr Greg say in his 'Enigmas of Life,'-"I have seen on the same day brutes at the summit, and men at the foot, of the Great St Bernard, with regard to whom no one would hesitate to assign to the quadruped superiority in all that we call good." Dogs! it is a libel on many a dog to be mentioned in the same breath with these creatures that are ignorant of sorrow. If I were in trouble, I would confide my grief to the rock of flint rather than to them. There is one thing needful to make them men, and that one thing is suffering! Lastly, some amount of suffering appears necessary for the development in us of self-reliance, self-respect, and all that is implied in the expression "strength of character." And it is only saying the same thing in other words to maintain that, without suffering, we could not attain to the highest happiness of which we are capable. Just think, by way of illustration, at the advantages to be derived from the struggle for success in life, painful as that struggle must often of necessity be. We cannot be born successful, and it would be a great pity if we could. Good fortune and prosperity are worth most when they have been achieved in spite of hindrances and difficulties. The happiness that we have obtained by effort is far sweeter than that which we have inherited, or that which has come to us by chance: and the very effort we have made to acquire it has tended to our own self-development. To be born at the top of the tree, as it is called in common parlance, would be a tremendous misfortune for a man were it not that the name is a misnomer. There is no top of the tree for a finite being. Existence, or rather life, for the king no less than for the peasant, means progress; and therefore there is hope for a man, notwithstanding the fact of his having been born into a comfortable or exalted sphere. If progress were impossible for him, his lot. would be pitiable indeed. And what is true of individuals is true of races. It would have been a grievous disadvantage had they been created fully developed. The possibility of developing themselves is their grandest and noblest prerogative. John Stuart Mill argues in his Posthumous Essays' that this would be a better world if the whole human race were already in possession of everything which it seems desirable they should have. But surely it is infinitely better for races to struggle up to material prosperity and to spiritual perfection than to have been created incapable of progress. In the latter case they might have been comfortable and satisfied: but their comfort and satisfaction would have been no higher than a brute's. It would seem, then, that pain, difficulty, trial, grief in one word, suffering is absolutely essential to our highest development and our greatest good. Most truly therefore may suffering be represented as an angel, sent to earth from the throne. of God; and most truly may she be regarded as uttering the words Mr Greg ascribes to her : "I am one of those bright angels Passing earthwards, to and fro, Might I bring from the Almighty Child of earth, I come to prove thee, : |