 Introduction of The Privilege of Pain. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Beth Thomas. The Privilege of Pain by Carolyn Cain Mills Everett. Introduction. A very suggestive and intriguing title is The Privilege of Pain. Those who know a good deal about the subject will doubtless raise the eyebrow in credulity, while those who have lived in blissful ignorance will be curious if not wholly sympathetic. When I first heard the essay, since developed into this book, read before an audience of very thoughtful and discriminating women, I fancied, although it awakened the liveliest interest in all present, that there was not entire unanimity as to the essayist's point of view. Several invalids and semi-invalids wore an expression of modest pride in the eloquent plea that physical limitations had not succeeded in stemming the tide of mental and spiritual achievement in the long history of the world's progress. Robust ladies, equal to eight hours' work and if advisable eight hours' play out of the twenty-four, looked a trifle aggrieved as if the gift of perfect health had been underrated, and the laurels that had always surmounted their shining hair and glowing faces might be rested from them and placed on paler brows. They had no wish to shorten the list of the essayist's heroes heaven forbid, but they evidently wished to retire to their private libraries and compile a roll of honour from the merely healthy. However, there was no acrimony in the discussion that followed the reading of the paper, nor any desire to withhold honour where honour was so gloriously due. Those who disbelieved in the validity of pain, those who were convinced that mind is not only superior to but able to win complete triumph over matter, those who felt that laying hold of the great source of healing and power would enable them not only to deny but to defy pain, these naturally were not completely in accord with the writer. Myself, I have always thought that the happy waking after dreamless sleep, the exultation in the new day in its appointed task, the sense of vigour and ability to do whatever opportunity offered, the feeling that one could run and not be weary could walk and not faint, that these were the most precious things that the gods could vouchsafe to mankind, and yet what of the latent powers that wake into life when we look into the bright face of danger? Our bodies are not commonly the temples that God intended them to be, and yet often an unquenchable fire burns within, an inner flame that incites to effort and achievement turns the timid slave into the happy warrior. What if the strength born of overcoming should rescue dormant powers equal to those that exist where there is no effort, save that engendered by abounding vitality? After all, life is an obstacle race to most of us. Who knows whether the horse could make a spectacular jump had he not often been confronted by bar, gate, hurdle and hedge? I wonder how many great things have been carved, painted, written, conceived, invented, where the creative human being has never suffered but has been sheltered, lapped in ease the burden lifted from his shoulders? I wonder if the eye that is seldom wet with tears is ever truly capable of the highest vision? I think my own unregenerate watchword would be all for health and the world well lost. So I am by no means a special pleader even yet for the privilege of pain, but Mrs Everett's enthusiasm and the ardour of her conviction compels a new and more sympathetic understanding of her thesis. I have more often seen spiritual and intellectual exultation follow pain, but both were present in one woman, half poet, half saint, whose verses were written in intense suffering, as indeed were most of W. E. Henleys. With closed eyes and pale lips she once quoted to me, Angel of pain I think thy face will be in all the heavenly place, the earliest face that I shall see and swiftest face to smile on me. How is it possible for you to say it? I asked brokenly. Because, she answered, all dreams and all visions have come to me as well as all that I know of earth and heaven through pain. It opens windows in what would otherwise be blank walls. The blind, deaf, dumb, maimed, crippled, if so be it the soul is strong, seem to develop a splendid fighting spirit, unknown to those who apparently have complete command of all their powers. Take one sense away and the others spring full armoured into more active service. Rob them of a right hand and the underrated left becomes doubly skillful. These are soldiers in the army with banners and should be led and followed by acclaiming hosts. I have known hundreds of invalids more or less saintly but I have had personal friendship with only two completely joyous triumphant ones, Robert Louis Stevenson and Helen Keller. If one with God is a majority then two such conquering human creatures as these furnish inspiration for our generation. And Mrs Everett in her eager search has found hundreds of similar examples. For that reason I call this a unique, gallant, courageous, helpful little book, likely to give pluck and spirit to many readers handicapped by various ills. There is nothing patient, meek or resigned in its pages. No air of being crushed but still smiling. It simply radiates a plucky, chin-in-the-air atmosphere calculated to make an aching hand pick up its pen, brush, lump of clay or shovel and go to work. Not grimly and doggedly with lips set but glowing in triumph over the secret adversary. The magnificent company marshaled by Mrs Everett has an exhilarating effect upon hero or reader. As I listened to instance after instance of weakness gloriously transmitted into strength of personal grief and sorrow turned into joy for the whole world. A vast knowledge, spiritual and intellectual amassed bit by bit in the very grip of physical suffering I remembered the poetic pronouncement in Revelation. He that hath an ear let him hear what the spirit saith unto the churches. To him that over cometh will I give to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of God. Kate Douglas Wigan, New York, May 1920. End of introduction. Chapter 1 of The Privilege of Pain This is a LibriVox recording. Our LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Cassie The Privilege of Pain by Carolyn Kane Mills Everett Chapter 1 Health and Strength Several years ago one of the New York papers published an interview with a well-known physician on the advisability of women being drafted for war. He expressed himself in favor of their receiving military training although he casually remarked A good man he would undoubtedly perish but he argued if we blot out the individual equation and judge from the standpoint of race would their perishing be regrettable? He thinks not. For objectors must remember he continues that mental and moral man gets his strength and efficiency only from the physical man a sick man just as a sick race is the one that goes to the wall. This outrageous statement was published at the very height of the world war when men with their arms, legs, eyes men permanently shattered in health men who will hide all their lives behind masks were crawling home in hordes and the worst of it is that practically everybody agrees with his verdict we offer these heroes who have sacrificed their splendid young bodies on the altar of humanity a few fine phrases about glory and honor yet are smugly content to allow them to be crushed by our degrading conviction that the heights of achievement are no longer for them now if the sick race could exist at all it might go to the wall as the doctor prophesies but when he narrows his contention to the individual when he declares that a sick man goes to the wall he is venturing a statement which only a surprising ignorance can excuse for what is more surprising than for an educated man a physician to put forward a claim which can be refuted by anyone who has even a superficial knowledge of the past everyone I have questioned has been able to recall at least one invalid who has attained a celebrity for instance, all but the unlettered are familiar with the fact that both Keats and Robert Louis Stevenson were diseased the vast majority, however even of cultivated people seem to realize what an extraordinarily large percentage of the greatest men and women have been physically handicapped it is the joyous mission of this book to prove to all invalids but more especially to those living victims of the Great War that Keats and Stevenson far from representing isolated instances of achievement despite bodily infirmities are but members of a gallant army some of whom have reached even greater heights in spite of more painful disabilities the relation of insanity to genius has not escaped the notice of scholars who have already exhaustively dealt with it I intend therefore to confine myself to those giants of the past who have suffered either from disease mutilation or constitutional debility if I have cited a few who have been afflicted with attacks of insanity I have selected only those whose best work was done after recovering from such seizures and have carefully excluded all who have had to pay with their intellect the price of a too stupendous vision I wish furthermore to impress upon you that of all the illustrious men and women I shall enumerate there is not one whose fullest development is not coincident with ill health or reached after joining the ranks of the physically unfit if we scrutinize more closely this heterogeneous assemblage we shall discover that it is composed of representatives of the most varied forms of human endeavor Saint and philosopher poet and scientist author and statesman musician and artist and what is really astonishing some of the greatest soldiers and one at least of the greatest sailors are among them by Caroline Kim Mills Everett of all vocations the profession of arms is the one for which it might be supposed that a perfect physique is the most essential yet Alexander Caesar Alfred the Great John of Bohemia Torstenzen LeGrand Condé and his great rival Turin Luxembourg Napoleon General Wolfe and finally Lord Nelson are proofs to die contrary Alexander the Great singular even among men of action for the splendor of his imagination was an epileptic so also was Julius Caesar the latter was often attacked by his malady on the very field of battle Alfred so justly caught the great was stricken in his 20th year by a mysterious disease which cost him intense pain and from which he was never afterwards free the extent and diversity of his activities are however almost incredible he excelled as a soldier politician and administrator he was also a scholar and the revival of learning which took place under his reign was due solely to his efforts King John of Bohemia stands out as the most romantic and chivalrous figure of the Middle Ages he dazzled his contemporaries by his exploits and his reputation for valor has never been exceeded he was overtaken by blindness at the age of 43 but strapped to his horse continued to lead his armies to battle for six years this blind hero successfully resisted all the attacks of the Emperor Louise and his allies his heroic death at the battle of Chrissie was a fitting conclusion to a gallant life according to Camden the ostrich feathers in the model Ishtyn born ever since by the Prince of Wales originally formed the crest of King John and were first assumed by the Black Prince as a token of the admiration with which his antagonist inspired him Cunday, known to history as Le Grand Cunday was so delicate in childhood that he was not expected to reach maturity and his nervous system was at no time to be trifled with during his innumerable campaigns he was a constant martyr to fevers and other maladies but these seldom interfered with his entire energy or his capacity for work he had also the power of arousing the enthusiasm of his followers they said of him in the midst of misfortune Cunday always maintains the character of a hero Turin is one of the captains whose campaigns Napoleon recommended all soldiers to read and reread physical infirmities and an impediment in his speech hampered his career in youth however by devoting himself to bodily exercises he succeeded in a measure in overcoming his weaknesses but to the end he never possessed a normal physique Count Torstensen the brilliant Swedish feud martial celebrated after Gustavus Adolphus as the hero of the Thirty Years War and compared to Napoleon for the rapidity with which he was able to move his troops had frequently to lead his army from a letter as his infirmities would not permit him to mount a horse he is considered by experts to have been a greater man than his opponent, Tilly although the latter, strangely enough has a more widespread reputation a propose Luxembourg and Willem III although the latter should be included among the statesmen I will quote a passage from McCauley in such an age 1694 bodily vigor is the most indispensable qualification for a warrior at the battle of London two poor sickly beings who in a rude state of society would have been considered too puny to bear part in combats were the souls of two great armies and further on it is probable that the two among the 120,000 soldiers that fought at near Wyndon were the hunchbacked dwarf Luxembourg who urged forward the fiery onset of France and the asthmatic skeleton Willem III who covered the slow retreat of England Napoleon was an epileptic and Lord Nelson at the height of his efficiency had lost an arm and an eye and what is even more remarkable was so it is said sick every time he went to sea or whenever the weather was exceptionally rough General Wolfe although only 32 years old was already a man of shattered health when he undertook his famous expedition against Quebec in spite of disheartening failures and the torture of an internal malady he finally won the decisive victory which rested Quebec from the French during the battle he was twice wounded but refused to leave the field until a third bullet pierced his lawn he survived only long enough to give a final order for cutting off the retreat and breathed his lost murmuring now God be praised I will die in peace let us consider for a moment what made these men preeminent it was not courage Caesar and Napoleon were no braver than thousands of their followers nor was it the capacity for endurance what then was the secret of their power I answer unhesitatingly imagination no leader has been without it and the greatest leaders are the men who have had it to a superlative degree Napoleon recognized his mysterious sway for it was he who said imagination rules the world now imagination is the very quality we find most frequently allied to ill health I beg to call your attention that with the exception of Le Grand Condé and possibly Napoleon not one of these men would have passed his medical it is certainly curious that the profession of arms the most physically exacting of all professions is the only one whose greatest examples have without exception been tainted with disease End of Chapter 2 Recording by Cassie Chapter 3 of The Privilege of Pain This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Cassie The Privilege of Pain by Caroline Cain Mills Everett Chapter 3 of ill health and its relation to genius The physical conditions which accompany and affect what we call genius are obscure and have hitherto attracted little but empirical notice it is impossible not to see that absolutely normal man or woman as we describe normality is very rarely indeed an inventor or a seer or even a person of remarkable mental energy the bulk of what are called entirely healthy people add nothing to the sum of human achievement and it is not the average Navi who makes a Darwin nor a typical daughter of the Plough who develops into an Elizabeth Barrett Browning the more closely we study with extremely slender resources of evidence the lives of great men of imagination and action since the beginning of the world the more clearly we ought to recognize that a reduction of all types to one solid uniformity of what is called health would have the effect of depriving humanity of precisely those individuals who have added most to the beauty and variety of human existence when the physical conditions of men of the highest celebrity in the past are touched upon it is usual to pass them over with indifference or else to account for them the result of disease the peculiarities of Pascal or of Pope or of Michelangelo are either denied or it is presumed that they were the result of purely morbid factors against which their genius, their rectitude or their common sense more or less successfully contended it is admitted that Tassel has a hypersensitive constitution which cruelty tortured into melancholia but it is taken for granted that he would have been a greater poet if he had taken plenty of outdoor exercise these are the conclusions of Mr. Edmund Goss and they are even more radical than mine it is however true that in sickness the perceptions physical, mental and spiritual become super normally acute and this extreme sensitiveness to impression is one of the attributes of genius it follows therefore that imagination is simulated by suffering but not that suffering creates genius or is even inseparably allied to it the most universal concomitant of genius is the power of concentration and there is nothing that so fosters that quality as ill health by forcing us to limit our activities our human context it automatically eliminates everything that is not the basic essential of each individual we may dream of an absolutely balanced man when equally supreme in mind, body and spirit but I do not believe it possible for such a being to exist it seems to be a law that we must purchase and develop one faculty at the expense of another only by excessive application to one restricted form of activity can we excel in it genius is not eccentric it is concentric the all run man is the mediocre man to perfect even a rose you must mutilate the bush of all the great men of imagination Leonardo da Vinci and Gerta seem to have been the most super abundantly healthy this was certainly true of Leonardo in his youth but I cannot have feeling that when he painted Mona Lisa's smile Pain, the great teacher was not unknown to him however I may be mistaken and if so he is the most complete man in the whole history of art science or literature for he joined the advantages of health without forfeiting the hypersensitiveness of suffering there is no doubt however about Gerta he kept his splendid physique to the last and Gerta was unquestionably a very great man his gigantic intellect is curiously simulating no one else of whom I know with the exception of Leonardo has had such a multiple outlook on life that amazing eye of his dissected as well as comprehended all that arrested upon and arrested upon almost everything tangible but the very universality of Gerta's genius is one of his limitations he gives so much and yet there it is he knows no half-lights he never leaves one to those shadowy regions where the soul is in travail he knows nothing of that mysterious tract which lies beyond the last odd post of the intellect his imagination even in his wealthiest flights is curiously earthbound I feel that he was too healthy End of Chapter 3 Recording by Cassie Chapter 4 of the Privilege of Pain This is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org The Privilege of Pain by Caroline Cain Mills Everett Chapter 4 Among the poets they learn in suffering but they teach in song Horace was a man of feeble health Milton was blind Pope deformed George Herbert to whom we owe so many of our most beautiful hymns and anthems was consumptive John Dunn had an enormous influence on English literature although according to Mr. Edmund Goss his influence was mostly malign he was praised by Dryden, paraphrased by Pope and then completely forgotten for a century his versification is often harsh but behind that fantastic garb of language there is an earnest and vigorous mind and imagination that harbors fire within its cloudy folds and an insight into the mysteries of spiritual life which is often startling Dunn excels in brief flashes of wooden beauty and in sudden daring phrases that have the full perfume of poetry in them Isaac Walton was his admiring friend and first biographer Dunn was constantly ill during the years of his greatest creative activity yet this is what he once said speaking of his illnesses the adanti Jew and my other friends have by my frequent fevers is that I am so much the oftener at the gate of heaven and by the solitude and close imprisonment they reduce me to I am so much the oftener at my prayers in which you and my other dear friends are not forgotten it was owing to ill health that courage first took opium under the guise of a patent medicine William Calper early showed a tendency to melancholia but it was not until he was almost 30 that the prospects of having to appear at the bar of the house of lords preliminary to taking up the position of clerk and mere formality drove him completely insane he attempted suicide and was sent to an asylum where he spent 18 months at the age of 42 he had another attack from which it took him almost three years to recover completely nevertheless we find him three years later making his first appearance as an author with all the hymns written in conjunction with a friend this was followed by a collection of poems sadly received one critic declaring that Mr. Calper was certainly a good pious man but without one spark of poetic fire it was not until 1785 when he was already 54 years old and had been twice declared insane that he published the book that was to make him famous it is entitled The Task, Tersinium or a view of schools and the history of John Gilpin Calper is among the poets who are epic makers he brought a new spirit into English verse with him begins the enthusiasm for humanity that was afterwards to become so marked in the poetry of Burns Shelley, Wordsworth and Byron Keats suffered from consumption and it is interesting to note that the progress of his disease coincided with the expansion of his genius Chatterton is the most astounding and precocious figure in the whole history of letters he was only 17 years and 9 months old when starvation drove him to commit suicide but the best of his numerous productions both in prose and verse require no allowance to be made for the immaturity of their author Chatterton's audience has never been a large one for the reason that with a few exceptions are written in 15th century English among the discriminating however he holds a very high place his genius and tragic death are commemorated by Wordsworth in resolution and independence by Coleridge and Amanati on the death of Chatterton by D. G. Rosetti in five English poets and Keats dedicated Endymion to his memory I have hesitated as to whether I had a right to include Chatterton among my examples because I can find no record of his having suffered from actual disease on the other hand he was so abnormal that I feel that I have no right to ignore him from his earliest years he was subject to fits of abstraction during which he would sit for hours in seeming stupor from which it was almost impossible to wake him for a time he was even considered in intellect Thomas Hood was a chronic invalid his most famous poem The Bridge of Sighs was written on his deathbed Byron and Swinburne were also physically handicapped W. E. Henley was not only a poet but a trenchant, critic and a successful editor a physical infirmity forced him at the age of 25 to become an inmate of an Edinburgh hospital for poems in irregular rhythm describing with poignant force his experiences as a patient sent to the Cornhill magazine that once aroused the interest of Leslie Steven the editor and induced him to visit the young poet and to take Robert Louis Stevenson with him this meeting in the hospital and the friendship which ensued between Stevenson and Henley were famous in the literary gossip of the last century Henley's reputation will rest on his poetry and the best of his poems will retain a permanent place in English literature as a literary editor he displayed a gift for discovering men of promise and views and reviews is a volume of notable criticism Sidney Lanier one of the most original and talented of American poets was consumptive and Francis Thompson, author of The Hound of Heaven was famous under acute pain the 16th century was the heyday of poets princes regarded them as the chief ornament of their courts and disputed among themselves the honor of their company Ron Sard's life therefore was exceptionally fortunate he enjoyed the favor of the three sons of Catherine de Medici more especially of Charles the 9th after whose premature death the poet retired from Paris he is celebrated as the chief of an association of poets who call themselves the play-yard his own generation bestowed upon him the title of Prince of Poets Ron Sard became deaf at 18 and so he became a man of letters instead of a diplomatist his infirmity is probably responsible for a certain premature agedness a trying to quote temper sweetness which characterizes the school of poetry he founded Joaquin du Belet was destined for the army and his poetry would most probably have been lost to the world if he had not been attacked by a serious illness which seemed likely to prove fatal it was during the idle days of his convalescence that he first read the Greek and Latin poets he was also a member of the play-yard and some of his isolated pieces excelled those of Ron Sard in airy lightness of touch Molière is the greatest name in his literature the facts as to his youth and early manhood are so wrapped in uncertainty that it is impossible to say when the frailty of his health first became manifest when he emerges from obscurity we find him already subject to attacks of illness and forced to limit himself to a milk diet his best work however was still undone Tartuffe was not written until 1664 when Molière was already 42 years old and the miss anthro was performed a year later although it had probably long been latent he first showed unmistakable symptoms of consumption in 1667 in spite of the ravages of disease and the continual strain of an impossible domestic situation he produced the bourgeois gentilium three years later followed by le fou au berry de Scapin la malade imaginelle was written shortly before his death and it was while acting the title role that he ruptured a blood vessel he died a few hours afterwards alone except for the casual presence of two sisters of charity Scarron poet dramatist and novelist lived 20 years in a state of miserable deformity and pain his head and body were twisted his legs useless he bore his sufferings with invincible courage scarron was a prominent figure in the and fashionable society of his day his work however is very unequal that the roman burlesque is a novel of real merit no competent critic can deny it was republished during the 19th century not only in the original french but in an english translation scarron is also of interest as the first husband of the lady who as madame de manton became the wife of louis the 14th wallow was the youngest of 15 children he is said to have had but one passion the hatred of stupid books he was the first critic to demonstrate the poetical possibilities of the french language his two masterpieces are la poetique le trin after much depreciation wallow's critical work has been rehabilitated and his judgments have been substantially adopted by his successives he suffered all his life from constitutional debility shiller was a leading spirit of his age yet from his 32nd year every one of his nerves was an avenue of pain nevinson however considered it possible the disease served in some way to increase shiller's eager activity and fan his intellect into keener flame carlaw also writes of the poet that in the midst of his infirmities he suffered with unabated zeal in the great business of his life his frame might be impaired but his spirit retained its fire unextinguished shiller wrote some of his noblest and greatest plays during the periods of his most acute suffering when he died it was found that all his vital organs were deranged heinrich heiner another immortal spent eight years of his agitated strongly life on what he called a maptris grave suffering seemed to have affected what might be called a spiritual purification of heiner's nature and to have brought out all the good side of his character whereas adversity in earlier days had only emphasized his cynicism though crippled and wracked with constant pain his intellectual and creative powers were no whip dimmed his greatest poems were written during these years of suffering from which he found relief only in his life pietra suffered from epilepsy and alfieri one of the greatest of the italian tragic poets was a martyr to pain so likewise was leopardy arthur of some immortal odes the latter was furthermore deformed he was said of him that pain and love are the two full poetry of his existence camoan the greatest of portuguese poets lost his right eye attempting to board an enemy's ship an incredible hardship he died in a public alms house worn out by disease there are hardly any women poets which is rather curious as it is almost the only career that requires neither training nor paraphernalia yet among this handful we find four three of them being of real importance namely mrs browning christina risetti and emily dickinson mrs browning was a chronic invalid and wrote her greatest poems from the portuguese while actually on her back mr edmund gaugh says of christina risetti all we really know about her say that she was a great saint was that she was a great poet she was also a great sufferer the most curious event of american literary history was the sudden rise of emily dickinson into a posthumous fame this strange woman who shun publicity with a morbid terror and never left her father's house for any house or town nevertheless bequeathed to the world poems which for life and fire are unexcelled she was an invalid in 1863 she writes i was ill since september and since april in boston for a physician's care he does not let me go yet i work in my prison and make guests for myself carlo her dog did not come because he would die in jail and the mountains i could not hold now so i brought but the gods francis ridley havergill wrote some of her most beautiful hymns on a sick bed end of chapter 4 chapter 5 of the privilege of pain this is the liber vox recording all liber vox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit libervox.org the privilege of pain by caroline cain mills everett chapter 5 novelists the first name i find on my list of novelists who have been subject to ill health is that of servantes he did not start life an invalid far from it he seems to have been a youth of unusual vigor but when only 23 years old he was severely wounded and lost his left hand in battle for the greater glory of the right as he gallantly exclaimed after that he spent five years in slavery and he escaped from the moors only to languish at various times in a spanish prison hardship and privations doubtless and also his old wounds had completely shattered his health when he finally sat down to create his immortal donkey hote the first part was published when he was 58 years old the last when he was 69 when fielding wrote tom jones he had been for years a martyr to gout and other diseases given predicted for this work a dire eternity exceeding that of the house of austria it is curious that this book which bubbles over with the joy of life was written at a time when fielding was plunged into the deepest melancholy swift separate from labyrinthian vertigo laurence stern creator of tristrom shandy was consumptive as he says of himself from the first hour i drew breath into this that i can hardly breathe at all stern no longer young was increasingly suffering during the years he brought forth the numerous volumes of his unique book so walter scott was not only lame from infancy but is an inspiring example of what can be accomplished under conditions of extreme physical suffering when he was 46 years old began a series of agonizing attacks of cramps of the stomach which recurred frequent intervals for two years but his activity and capacity for work remained unbroken he made his initial attempt at play writing when he was recovering from this first seizure before the year was out he had completed rob roy within six months it was followed by the heart of middle othian which filled volumes of the second series of tales of my landlord and has remained one of the most popular among his novels the bride of memore and the legend of mantros were dictated to immanuel sees through fits of suffering so acute that he could not suppress cries of agony when laid law begged him to stop dictating he only answered nay really only see that the doors are fast i would fain keep all the cry as well as all the wool to ourselves but to give over work that can only be when i am woollen madame de la faillette lost her healthy year after making novel la princess de cleve was published she lived 15 years afterwards a tant de serre as saint berb says qui trainant le mesurable vie jusqu'à la dernier goutte d'ouille la princesse de cleve does not only intrinsically a work of real merit which is still read with pleasure but is important because it is the first novel of sentiment the first novel in the sense we moderns use the word that was ever written lasage was a handsome engaging youth but it was not until he was 39 years old that he made his first success with the diable bordeaux already his deafness was rapidly increasing and he was 67 years old and had long been completely deaf when the last volume of the masterpiece gilblas appeared bovinard was a soldier until he had both of his legs frozen during a winter campaign this injury from which he never recovered forced him to leave the army an attack of small pox completed the ruin of his health and then sport the letter secluded life devoted to literary pursuits it is mainly as a novelist that bovinard occupies a place in French literature although his other works were held in high esteem by his contemporaries Edmond and Jules de Gantour are names famous in French literary history learning something from Flaubert and teaching almost everything to Zola they invented a new kind of novel and their works are the result of a new vision of the world a novel of the Gantours is made up of an infinite number of details set side by side every detail equally prominent French critics have complained that the language of the Gantours is no longer the French of the past and this is true it is their distinction the finest of their inventions that in order to render new sensations a new vision of things they invented a new language Mr. Arthur Simons their journal is a gold mine from which present day writers still carry away unacknowledged nuggets Monsieur Paul Bourget said of them life produced itself to a series of epileptic attacks preceded and followed by a blank Dostoyevsky is considered by many critics the greatest of the great Russian novelist his health was completely shattered by his spending four years in a Siberian prison as a political offender this terrible experience however served to create recollections of a dead house and buried alive in Siberia Anton Chekhov the Russian novelist and short story writer was only a little over 20 when he began to suffer from attacks of blood spitting although he believed that these came from his throat they were undoubtedly due to consumption it was also a martyr to digest the effects Chekhov possessed to an unusual degree the nervous energy which so frequently accompanies disease he was a remarkably prolific author so much so that in one of his letters he prophesied that he will soon have written enough to fill a library with his own works the dirtier was however not his only pursuit he also practiced medicine although he refused to receive any remuneration for his services he was public spirited and realistic and organized an association for the relief of Siberian prisoners his books enjoy an immense vogue and have been translated into every language whatever may be the future of English fiction Charlotte Bronte's novels will always command attention by reason of their intensity and individuality she suffered from permanent bodily weakness with various complications some critics consider Emily Bronte superior to her sister Wuthering Heights is a thing apart passionate unforgettable this remarkable book was written while it's all that was dying of consumption that superwoman known to fame as George Elliott suffered all her life from frequent attacks of illness in spite of her physical limitations she was capable of the most prolonged and intense application her numerous novels dating from her 36th year are only a part of her widespread intellectual activities Jacob send the great Danish novelist unfortunately too little known in this country was like so many others caught off from his chosen or destined profession and driven into literature by ill health during the worst phases of his sufferings he produced books that in their way have never been surpassed I must mention here though she belongs to no category that extraordinary child Marie Lajkertseff who dying of consumption at 24 left behind her several pictures of great promise two of them are in the Luxembourg gallery I believe and our journal a remarkable production which created a sensation 30 years ago which has lately been republished Robert Louis Stevenson's life is so well known that need only recall him to your memory Henry James was so delicate that he was forced to remain a spectator of the Civil War in which his younger brothers fought Mr. Edmund Goss writes the following description of a visit to Henry James when the 3032 years old stretched on a sofa and apologizing for not rising to greet me his appearance gave me a little shock for I had not thought of him as an invalid he hurriedly and rather evasively declared that he was not bad but that a muscular weakness of the spine obliged him as he said to assume a horizontal posture during some hours of every day in order to bear an almost unbroken routine of evening engagements it is recorded that in one winter he dined out 107 times what amazing acidity his health gradually grew stronger but for many years it seriously handicapped his activity I should like to linger a moment with Lefcadieu Hearn he is known to the world at large as the foremost interpreter of the old and new Japan he married a Japanese wife and this gave him a peculiar insight into the customs as well as the psychology of his adopted countrymen his books show a unique understanding of the oriental mind and their literary art is exquisite he not only suffered from ill health but in addition lost the sight of one eye in early youth and ever after went in fear of total blindness yet far from regretting his afflictions this is what he said about them the owner of pure horse health never purchased the power of discerning the half lights in its separation of the spiritual from the physical portion of existence severe sickness is often invaluable to the sufferer in the revelation it bestows of the psychological undercurrents of human existence from the intuitive recognition of the terrible but at the same time glorious fact that the highest life can only be reached by subordinating physical to spiritual influences separating the immaterial from the material self therein lies all the history of asceticism and self suppression as the most efficacious measure of developing religious and intellectual power that is what experience had taught one who was certainly not a religionist in the chapter five chapter six of the privilege of pain this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by John Brandon the privilege of pain by Carolyn Cain Mills Everett chapter six physical perfection and its relation to civilization I am persuaded that it is impossible to banish suffering from the world all we have so far accomplished is to exchange one form of suffering for another take the case of women for example and the elements to which they are subject primitive woman was virtually free from these she suffered little at childbirth today the operation of even the normal female functions has become a serious matter science with all its strides has not been able to cope successfully with the increasing burden which the conditions of modern life impose on woman's physique I have chosen women as an illustration because they themselves would be the first to insist that they have profited more than men from the advance of thought and the perfecting of a social system that is largely their own creation well compare this flower of the ages as we see her in shops offices, ballrooms or even colleges with an Australian bush woman and we will find that neither in health, strength nor endurance can she rival her savage sister the woman of the bush is capable of following her master all day with a baby on her back of stopping for a brief period to produce another and of resuming her progress unimpeded by her additional burden it is well to realize that civilization which has bestowed such incalculable benefits upon mankind has done so largely at the expense of its physical welfare moreover as men and more particularly women rise in the intellectual scale they risk the sacrifice not only of a robust but of a normal body but what of it wisdom is better than strength and a wise man is better than a strong man nor must we forget that while civilization has undoubtedly undermined our physique it has also abolished the circumstances which made strength and endurance the supreme necessities of the battle of life to be able to follow her male with a child on her back to say nothing of the interesting interlude is not a quality that would add either to the lormant or efficiency of the woman of today let me hear sight for celebrated women who differing from each other in every other particular suffered in common from ill health the first in order of time is madame who was for many years the center of one of the most brilliant of the 18th century salons her correspondence with Voltaire La Duchesse Chausile and Horace Walpole is immortal and has been frequently republished many of her letters to Voltaire and all of those to madame de Chausile and Horace Walpole were dictated when she was over 67 years of age broken in health and totally blind Rachel was the daughter of poor Jew peddler and from the age of four she roamed the streets singing patriotic songs a famous singing teacher hurt her and impressed by the crude power of the little creature offered to teach her gratuitously it is almost unbelievable to read of the excitement the small plain Jewess created she still lives in hundreds of books and is an integral part of the history of her period if we can judge from contemporary praises Rachel is the greatest actress of whom there is any record she suffered from continual ill health and died of consumption in her 37th year Grace Darling was the daughter of a lighthouse keeper and with her father braved almost certain death and attempting to save the survivors of the wreck of the Forfershire by well nigh superhuman efforts they succeeded in rescuing a great number this gallant exploit made them both famous Grace Darling had always been delicate and died of consumption four years later working gal immortal nurse and one of the most influential women in history had at the time of her greatest activity a body so weak that it was a wonder how a woman in such delicate health was able to perform so much of what Sydney Herbert called a man's work during many years of important achievement she was all together bedridden working incessantly organizing she was a power throughout the British Empire her influence has spread over the world to her we owe the first idea of training nurses it is really curious that physical fitness should have become an ideal only after it had ceased to be the indispensable requirement of our environment Piano moving is perhaps the sole occupation today it is the only qualification an intelligence of no account whatsoever yet few of us aspire to become piano movers the body is a most delicate machine and only in exceptional cases can it be kept through life in perfect condition without an immense expenditure of time and trouble now a perfect body should only be considered desirable and enables us to rise to greater heights of achievement countless people however regard health and vigor not merely as the means but as the goal itself they tend and exercise their bodies at the expense of every other form of activity the disproportionate amount of time energy and aspiration that is wasted in attempting to perfect and preserve that which is deeply doomed to destruction is incredible a child building a castle on the sand is engaged in a more durable occupation with the child while erecting its tunnel and torrided fortress is at least attempting to realize some haunting dream of the heights the depths the mystery and magnificence of life what matter the tide the vision is indestructible the Greeks regarded a beautiful body as an end in itself because their civilization by permitting its unveiling allowed it to act as an inspiration to others the nude however has no recognized place among us and although it still serves to create beauty it does so under restricted and abnormal conditions to be a model is not a title to fame nor the ideal of our most enlightened contemporaries I hope that I approved conclusively that a splendid body is no longer a necessary means of enabling us to rise to the greatest heights either of ambition or of service why therefore should we so morbidly covet philosophers Escalus Agamemnon line 186 among the British philosophers who were physical sufferers we find the great Francis Bacon who from childhood was always weak and delicate John Locke became world famous of his still celebrated essay concerning human understanding he was also of political importance having occupied for years the position of confidential advisor to the great Earl of Shaftesbury Professor Campbell says of him quote Locke is apt to be forgotten now because in his own generation he so well discharged the intellectual mission of initiating criticism of human knowledge and of diffusing the spirit of free inquiry and universal toleration which has since profoundly affected the civilized world he has not bequeathed an imposing system hardly even a striking discovery in metaphysics but he is a signal example in the Anglo-Saxon world of the love of attainable truth for the sake of truth and goodness Socrates made none but both are memorable in the record of human progress end quote Robert Boyle the natural philosopher was the seventh son and fourteenth child of the great Earl of Cork his scientific work procured him extraordinary reputation among his contemporaries it was he who quote first enunciated the law that the volume of gas varies adversely as the pressure which among English speaking people is still called by his name end quote great as were his attainments they were almost overshadowed by the saintliness of his character the liveliness of his wit and the incomparable charm of his manner Boyle was a man of the most feeble health this is what Evelyn says of him quote Robert Hooke the experimental philosopher was both deformed and diseased he was not a great man and his scientific achievements would have been quote more striking if they had been less varied he would have been more educated he would have been more educated he would have been more striking if they had been less varied nevertheless he was renowned in his day and his contribution of real importance for although quote he perfected little he originated much I mention him and shall mention several others who have been forgotten by all but scholars because I wish to show how large an army stands behind its illustrious chiefs besides if we contemplate only the giant luminaries of the firmament of fame we shall become discouraged they paralyze us by the very intensity of the admiration they evoke lesser men on the contrary for the reason that they are nearer our own orbit are more likely to stir us into emulation Herbert Spencer's achievements are too well known to he was exceedingly delicate and at his best only able to work three hours a day Descartes the foremost French philosopher had a feeble and somewhat abnormal body quote yet he considered it I am quoting Mr. Edmund Gauss well suited to his own purposes and was convinced that the Cartesian philosophy would not have been improved philosopher's digestion might by developing the fuse of a plow boy end quote Nicholas Malbranche the great French Cartesian philosopher was the tenth child of his parents although deformed and constitutionally feeble he was one of the most sought after men of his day from all countries of the world but more especially from England be it said in her writers and philosophers flocked to his door the German princes voyaged to Paris expressly to see him the philosopher Berkeley was probably the cause of his death by forcing himself on Malbranche when the letter had been ordered absolute quiet his influence has been variously estimated Spinoza is undoubtedly one of his disciples Mr. Emile Faguet says of him Malbranche is one of the most beautiful metaphysicians that I have met if you think of me I find more great savants and more vast spirits but I find my branch more great philosophers in degrees less than the Cartesian speaking of his character he writes he never knew the spirit is no longer good is no longer seducing Blaise Pascal the great French religious philosopher still holds a position of immense importance in the history of literature as well as philosophy his provincial letters are the first example of polite controversial irony since Lucien and they have continued to be the best example of it during more than two centuries in which style has been sedulously practiced and in which they have furnished a model to generation after generation his pensades published after his death is quote still a favorite exploring ground to persons who take an interest in their problems end quote in philosophy his position is this quote he seized firmly and fully the central idea of the difference between reason and religion but unlike most men since his day who not contented with a mere concordant have let religion go and contented themselves with the reason end quote Pascal though equally dissatisfied quote held fast to religion and continued to fight out the questions of difference with reason end quote from the age of 18 Pascal never passed a single day without pain nevertheless in the worst of his sufferings he was wanted to say quote do not pity me sickness is the natural condition of Christians in sickness we are as we ought always to be in the suffering of pains in the privation of goods and of all the pleasures of the senses exempt from all passions which work in us during the whole course of our life without ambition without avarice in the continual expectation of death end quote Voltaire suffered frequent attacks of illness it was said of him that quote he was born dying end quote Comte the French positive philosopher accomplished the bulk of his work after recovering from an attack of insanity during which he threw himself into the sin perhaps it is too soon to judge the ultimate value of his system of philosophy it has had impassioned adherents as well as scornful critics his main thesis seems to be quote that the improvement of social conditions can only be effected by moral development and never by any political mechanism or any violence in the way of an artificial redistribution of wealth end quote in other words he preached that a moral transformation must precede any real advance yet he was not a Christian an enemy defined Comteism as Catholicism without Christianity Henri Frederick Amiel Swiss philosopher and critic whose chief work the journal in time published after his death obtained for him European reputation was a valetudinarian Amiel wrote but little but all he accomplished has the quality of exquisite sensitiveness the great Kant was a wretched little creature barely five feet high with a concave chest and a deformed right shoulder his constitution was of the frailest though by taking extraordinary precautions he escaped serious illness end of chapter 7 recording by Linda Johnson this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by John Brandon The Privilege of Pain by Carolyn Cain Mills Everett Chapter 8 Astronomers and Mathematicians Johann Kepler the great German astronomer was a contemporary of Tycho Brahe and Galileo of whom he was in correspondence Kepler's contributions to science were of the utmost importance it was he who established the two cardinal principles of modern astronomy the laws of elliptical orbits and of equal areas he also enunciated important truths relating to gravity in spite of the backward condition of mechanical knowledge he attempted to explain the planetary evolutions by a theory of vortices closely resembling that afterwards adopted by Dakar he also prepared the way for the discovery of the infinitesimal calculus his literary remains were purchased by Catherine II of Russia and were only published during the latter half of the 19th century it is impossible to consider without astonishment the colossal amount of work accomplished by Kepler despite his great physical disabilities when only four years old an attack of smallpox had left him with crippled hands and eyesight permanently impaired his constitution already enfeebled by premature birth had to withstand successive shocks of illness flamestead the great British astronomer was obliged to leave school in consequence of a romantic affection of the joints it was to solace his enforced idleness that he took up the study of astronomy the extent and quality of his performance is almost unbelievable when one considers his severe physical suffering Nicholas Saunderson lost his sight before he was 12 months old yet he became professor of mathematics at Cambridge he was an eminent authority in his day an original and efficient teacher and the author of a book on algebra his knowledge of optics was remarkable he had distinct ideas of perspective of the projection of the sphere and of the forms assumed by plane or solid figures D. Ellen Baer was not only a mathematician but also a philosopher of the highest order he was made a member of the French Academy at the age of 24 he was so frail that his life was continually disfared of and he remained a valetudinarian to the end End of Chapter 8 Recording by John Brandon Chapter 9 of The Privilege of Pain This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by John Brandon The Privilege of Pain by Carolyn Cain Mills Everett Chapter 9 Statesmen and Politicians We now come to the Statesmen and Politicians Robert Cecil First Earl of Salisbury Secretary of State under Queen Elizabeth and Lord Treasurer under James I was the Statesman who all his life wielded immense power to the undoubted benefit of his country yet in person he was in strange contrast to his rivals at court he was deformed and sickly Elizabeth styled him her pygmy his enemies vilified him as Rhineck, Crookedback and Spleyfoot In Bacon's essay of deformity he paints his cousin to the life John Somers Lord Keeper under William & Mary was in some respects I am quoting McCauley the greatest man of his age equally imminent as a jurist as a politician and as a writer his humanity was the more remarkable because he received from nature a body such as is generally found united to a peevish and irritable mind his life was one long malady his nerves were weak his complexion livid his face prematurely wrinkled William III I have already mentioned and now comes a name to conjure with the great Lord Clive founder of the British Empire at 18 he went out to India and shortly afterwards the effect of the climate on his health began to show itself in those fits of depression during one of which he ended his life we see in his end a radical suffering of chronic disease which opium failed to abate William Pitt Earl of Chatham one of the greatest statesmen England ever had suffered from hereditary gout the attacks continued from boyhood with increasing intensity to the close of his life he was for two years mentally unbalanced yet after that he returned to Parliament and directed for eight years all the power of his eloquence in favor of the American colonies Dr. Johnson said Walpole was a minister given by the king to the people but Pitt was a minister given by the people to the king whatever we may think of Marat as a man we cannot deny that he occupies a large place in the history of his time yet he was always delicate so much so that after the completion of one of his books he lay in a stupor during thirteen days in 1788 he was attacked by a terrible malady from which he suffered during the whole of his revolutionary career Pitt the younger was a sickly child and although he grew into a healthy his constitution was early broken by gout owing to an accident in early childhood Talleyrand was blamed for life at the time this seemed a great misfortune for owing to his disability he forfeited his right of primogenitor and the profession of arms was closed to him no Frenchman of his age did so much to repair the ravages wrought by fanatics and autocrats Henry Fawcett the English politician and economist was accidentally blinded at the age of twenty five the effect of his blindness was as the event proved the reverse of calamitous by concentrating his energies it brought his powers to earlier maturity than would otherwise have been possible and it had a mellowing influence on his character which in youth had been rough and canny and inclined to harshness Gladstone appointed him postmaster general in 1880 and not England alone but the world as well is deeply indebted to him for the reforms he inaugurated he instituted the parcel post postal orders six penny telegrams including of small savings by means of stamps and increased facilities for life insurance and annuities Kavanaugh was an Irish politician and a member of the privy council of Ireland he had only the rudiments of legs and arms but in spite of these physical defects he had a remarkable career he learned to ride in the most fearless fashion strapped to a special saddle carrying his horse with the stumps of his arms he also fished shot, drew and wrote various mechanical devices supplementing his limited physical capacities End of Chapter 9 Recording by John Brandon Recording by Phil Shempf The Privilege of Pain by Caroline Cain Mills Everett The Freedom of Ill Health One of the greatest advantages of invalidism is that it frees us from petty obligations unworthy pleasures and meaningless conventions The Blessed Freedom of Ill Health is something few people appreciate neither have they learned to make full use of its unearned legal resources nor have they learned to make full use of its unearned leisure yet we are always clamoring for time in America apparently it can be found only in the sick room How many people do we not know who are so busy making what they are pleased to call a living that they never find time to live As a matter of fact only the small minority of the inefficient are obliged to sacrifice all possibility of leisure and exigency of obtaining a livelihood The majority which include men and women of every class and of every vocation plumbers and captains of industry stenographers as well as debutantes are occupied in accumulating superfluities By superfluities I do not mean everything which is not normally necessary for the existence of the body but everything that is not essential to the perfect expansion of the perfect individuality The tendency of the day is to pour all mankind into the same mold to fetter great and small to the one ideal of obvious achievement we have degraded success by popularizing it we are suppressing individuality instead of fostering it and unless a change comes before long and the individual is again able to liberate himself and to germinate we shall perish as other civilizations have perished without leaving more than a scratch on the page of history for nations are ultimately judged not by their numbers their riches or their power but solely by the glory of the individuals they have produced think of the empires which have so completely vanished that but for a few broken stones we could not even guess the sights of their vast cities and compare these nations either to the Jews or Greeks who during their flowering gave birth to men who have conferred immortality on their respective races suffering quickens individuality by removing the pressure of circumstance, custom and occupation moreover in the sick room the intellect as well as the soul has not only the liberty but the time to mature it always surprises me to hear people complain of insomnia why should they consider it a misfortune to live precious hours instead of spending them in unconsciousness by sleeping even as much as five hours instead of nine we gain twenty one hours a week think of it almost three working days the reason the average person is so exhausted by lying awake a few hours longer that he is accustomed to do is because he turns and twists in his bed bemoaning his sad fate until he has worked himself into a fever stay awake, enjoy the night it is quite as wonderful as the day taste the charm of the silence as it steals by degrees over your weary spirit be grateful for these hours they are a gift from fate read, write think, meditate and when morning comes you will wake more refreshed after two hours sleep than you used to after nine Napoleon and other great men never slept more End of Chapter 10 The Freedom of Ill Health Chapter 11 of The Privilege of Pain This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org The Privilege of Pain by Caroline Cain Mills Everett Chapter 11 Artists, the great painters and sculptors seem to have been strangely healthy and normal I say that they seem to have been so because of the extreme difficulty of getting any accurate information on the subject it sounds incredible but I read a long life of Petrarch in which everything was mentioned but his health and only discovered quite accidentally that he had been an epileptic I am therefore convinced that there are many examples I might cite if I could only unearth the truth yet even so I have been able to figure it out four artists who were physically handicapped Navaret called the Spanish Titian and celebrated under the name El Muro was dumb they say that Quercino squinted so badly that he could focus only one eye Antoine Vauteau suffered all his life from tuberculosis which no doubt accounts for a certain wistful gaiety which characterizes his work Vauteau's position in French art is of unique importance he became the founder as the culmination of a new school which marked a revolt against the pompous classicism of the preceding period the vitality of his art was due for a combination of a poet's imagination with a power of seizing reality in his treatment of landscape background and the atmospheric conditions surrounding his figures we find the germ of Impressionism from the middle of the 18th century until about 1875 Vauteau's work fell into disrepute it was chiefly owing to the efforts of the brothers de Goncourt that a reaction set in to the summit of fame he died in his 37th year Audrey Beardsley flashed into fame with black and white drawings of extraordinary originality and beauty his peculiar technique has been widely imitated but never approached after 20 years his reputation has not yet reached its zenith Aubrey Beardsley during the whole of his meteoric career suffered from consumption he died at the age of 26 end of chapter 11 chapter 12 musicians one would expect deafness to be an insuperable obstacle to a musician yet Beethoven produced a large part of his work well handicapped by it and some of his greatest compositions when his deafness had become complete Mozart was delicate and subject to fevers his last work and his best was written just before his death it was said of Handel he was never greater than when warned by palsy of the approach of death and struggling with distress and suffering he sat down to compose the great works which have made his name immortal in music Schubert was barely 5 feet 1 and walked with a strange shuffling gate his eyesight was so defective that he slept in his spectacles he suffered from digestive trouble and died young Beethoven having been an invalid the greater part of his short life Mendelssohn was very frail and delicate Carl Maria von Weber was not only ravaged by disease but also deformed and lame Paganini the most extraordinary violinist the world has ever heard suffered from ticis of the larynx and was constantly ill the case of Robert Schumann is very curious he was studying to be a pianist when, in attempting to strengthen his fingers he accidentally paralyzed his right hand to this apparent misfortune we owe one of the greatest composers End of Chapter 12 Chapter 13 of The Privilege of Pain This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org The Privilege of Pain by Caroline Cain Mills Everett Chapter 13 Three Physicians A Naturalist and a Chemist Physician, heal thyself might have been said to Sir William Harvey the famous discoverer of the circulation of the blood and to Albert von Holler the great Swiss doctor who is considered the father of modern physiology to Louis Pasteur the world is indebted for the introductions of methods which have already worked wonders and bid fair to render possible the preventive treatment of all infectious disease his most sensational discovery was the cure of hydrophobia which he accomplished despite the fact that the special microbe causing this dread disease had not yet been isolated Pasteur's motto was Travailler Travailler Toujour On his deathbed he turned to his devoted pupils and exclaimed Où en êtes-vous? Que faites-vous? and ended by repeating Il faut travailler he once said in the field of observation chance only favors those who are prepared this great benefactor of the human race though loaded with honors he remained to the last simple and affectionate as a child Pasteur was subject to fits of apoplexy and it is curious that some of his most important discoveries were made immediately after such attacks Darwin from the age of 30 was a great sufferer his daughter writes no one indeed except my mother knows the full amount of suffering he endured or the full amount of his wonderful patients after Darwin however once said to a friend if I had not been so great an invalid I should not have done nearly so much work as I have accomplished Dr. Trudeau who worked such miracles for the cure of consumption was himself consumptive End of Chapter 13 Recording by Linda Johnson Chapter 14 Inventors Sir Richard Arkwright inventor of the spinning Jenny though a man of great personal strength suffered from wretched health James Watt the inventor of the steam engine was continually ailing until he approached old age he had a prodigious memory and as an inventive genius he has never been surpassed ill health and failing eyesight forced Joseph Niepsey to retire from the army at the age of 28 it was during this tune leisure that the idea of obtaining sun pictures first suggested itself to him in 1826 he learnt that Doug Gehr was working on the same lines and three years later they cooperated in order to perfect what was however Niepsey's discovery End of Chapter 14 Recording by Linda Johnson Chapter 15 of The Privilege of Pain This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org The Privilege of Pain by Caroline Cain Mills Everett Chapter 15 Historians and Men of Letters Aristides, Sir named Theodosius was a Greek Retorician and Sophist he was so celebrated that in many places statues were erected during his lifetime to commemorate his talents he suffered for many years from a mysterious disease which was however a positive benefit to his studies as they were prescribed as part of his cure Pliny the Younger was far from robust he suffered from weakness of the eyes, throat and chest he himself speaks of his delicate frame it has been said of Erasmus that he was the first man of letters since the fall of the Roman Empire he occupied during his lifetime the position of supreme pontiff to an elect public which the ardors of the Renaissance had called into being his admirers were to be found in every country and among all ranks presents were continually sent to him by great and small we hear of a donation of two hundred florins from Pope Clement XII and of a contribution of comfeets and sweet meats from the nuns of Cologne from England in particular he obtained constant supplies of money quote I receive daily he writes letters from the most remote parts from kings and princes, prelates learning and even from persons of whose existence I have never heard end quote his position as regards the reformation has been for centuries a subject of passionate contention it was said of him quote Erasmus laid an egg and Luther hatched it end quote this however is only partly true as a matter of fact one passion the passion for learning when he found that Luther's revolt aroused a new fanaticism that of evangelism he recoiled from the violence of the new preachers quote is it for this, he exclaimed that we have shaken off bishops and popes that we may come under the yoke of such madmen as Otto and Farrell end quote Erasmus's works are too numerous to enumerate separately his greatest contribution is undoubtedly his Greek testament Erasmus spent the greater part of his life in agony for twenty years he was unable to sit down either to read, write or even to take his meals he could eat but little and only of the most delicate meats he could neither eat nor bear the smell of fish my heart, he said is Catholic but my stomach is Lutheran nevertheless his various biographers exclaim at the amount of work he accomplished one of them writes through the winter of 1514 to 1515 Erasmus worked with the strength of ten in Venice he did the work of two men Montaigne was never strong but after a few years at the court of Paris his health gave way completely and he retired to his castle resolved to devote the rest of his life to study and contemplation we undoubtedly owe his immortal essays to his invalidism the same is true of Montaigne he was a soldier until a fall from his horse compelled him to retire into private life this fortunate accident is directly responsible for his memoirs which are not only delightful reading but of the greatest historical value Fennelon the famous tutor to the Duke of Burgundy had an enormous influence not only on his own but on the succeeding generations his treatise on the education of girls guided French opinion on the subject for almost two centuries this book brought him literary glory together with the position of tutor to the grandson and heir of Louis XIV during the eight years at court he published the fables the dialogues of the dead and finally tell meck these books were intended primarily for the instruction of his pupils they became however universally popular Fennelon was banished from Paris as a result of a doctrinal difference with Boursouet Pope Innocent XIII while upholding the latter gave this verdict quote Fennelon errs by loving God too much and Boursouet by loving his neighbor too little end quote excessively delicate from childhood Fennelon's health grew more and more feeble while archbishop of Cambrai to which city he had retired after his disgrace we read that he was forced to make his bed his retreat from Wentz to say his offices and administer his diocese Jean-Jacques Rousseau French philosopher occupied during three years of his youth the position of footmen in various houses from his own account he made an uncommonly bad one impertinent, mean untruthful and dishonest Rousseau had a most despicable character and although he never lacked patrons quarreled with each in turn Rousseau leapt into fame in 1749 when he was 37 years old by reason of an article extolling the savage over the civilized state his two most celebrated books are Le Contro social and La Nouvelle Éloire and La Nouvelle Éloise only the indulgence of his contemporaries would have granted him the title of philosopher but as a man of letters he occupies a place unrivaled in literary history his fame great as it was during his lifetime reached to vertiginous heights after his death Rousseau's health was execrable and like Voltaire it was said of him that he was born dying it might have been better for Lord Chesterfield if he had not dabbled with medicine he would perhaps not have been so often his own patient or entrusted his health to the care of empirics even before reaching middle age his debilitated constitution had given him repeated warning of what he had to expect when he wrote the renowned letters to his son he was a deaf solitary sick man who had to resort almost habitually to drugs to help him to endure his sufferings Boswell's life of Samuel Johnson is so universally familiar that I need only remind you that Dr. Johnson was scruffulous and half blind Horace Walpole occupied a curiously large place in their literary as well as the social life of the 18th century despite his prolific pen the only one of his books which achieved popular success during his lifetime was The Castle of Otranto it was translated into both French and Italian and has been frequently republished it is a strange book and I doubt if it will ever again be read with pleasure whatever significance it has for us lies in the fact that it forms the starting point of the great romantic revival Walpole's diary published after his death is of the utmost historical importance it is however chiefly by his letters that he will be remembered for he is undoubtedly the greatest of the English letter writers Walpole suffered all his life from frequent attacks of gout which at times completely crippled him Winkleman the famous German archaeologist was the son of a poor shoemaker he became librarian to Cardinal Passioni in 1754 and while occupying this position he gave to the world a succession of admirable books it was from him that scholars first obtained accurate information as to the treasures excavated at Pompeii his greatest contribution to European literature is the history of ancient art it is a delightful book written with a free and impassioned pen and marked an epic by quote indicating the spirit in which the study of Greek art should be approached and the methods by which investigators might hope to obtain solid results end quote he was a great friend of Goethe and many if not all of their letters have been preserved Winkleman was so delicate that he could never partake of anything but a little bread and wine his gentle, blameless life was cut short by the hand of a murderer who killed him for the sake of a few ancient coins the gift of the Empress Maria Teresa Herder one of the most influential writers Germany has produced was exceedingly delicate so also was our own Washington Irving which perhaps accounts for the extreme sensitiveness of the latter's impressions Thierry the eminent French historian ransacked the archives with such unremitting zeal that on the eve of beginning to write his history he became totally blind quote but he never lost heart and in making friends with darkness end quote he returned to his work and by means of dictation was able to finish the masterpiece that was to prove the foundation of a new school of history Thierry said if, as I believe the progress of science is to be numbered among the glories of our land I should again take the road that brought me to this pass blind and suffering without any respite or hope of recovery I can still witness to one point that coming from me admits of no doubt that there is something in the world of higher value than material enjoyment nay, even than bodily health and that is devotion to science end quote thus was the road discovered which was to be followed by Prescott, Cismondi Macaulay and many others including Professor Reink Charles Lamb had a mental breakdown at the age of nineteen and Mary Lamb suffered from frequent attacks of insanity Sir W. F. P. Napier's health was permanently injured during a campaign which carried hostilities into Spain this obliged him to retire from the army at the age of thirty-four this unwelcome leisure was an inestimable benefit not only to himself but to the world as it permitted him to become the greatest military historian that England has ever produced Carlisle became a chronic invalid in his twenty-fourth year the precise nature of his ailment it is impossible to ascertain but he declared that a rat was continually gnawing at the pit of his stomach a most remarkable example of achievement in the face of terrible physical disabilities is presented by the historian Francis Parkman he was unable to open his eyes except in the dark so that all his information had to be read loud to him while he made notes with his eyes shut by means of a machine he had invented as a guide to his hand for years he suffered so intensely that half an hour's application exhausted him the superb works he left behind composed despite such incredible physical obstacles have been a splendid legacy to his country Prescott the eminent American historian suffered while at Harvard an accident which changed the course of his life a hard piece of bread thrown at random he was unable struck his left eye and destroyed the site nevertheless he graduated honorably but when he entered his father's office as a student of law the uninjured eye showed dangerous symptoms of inflammation he was urged therefore to travel and it was at the azures where he had to spend much of his time in a darkened room and enabled him to compose and retain in memory long passages for subsequent dictation his secretary gives this picture of him while writing the history of the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella seated in a study lined on two sides with books and darkened by screens of blue muslin which required readjustment with every cloud that passed across the sky Prescott trained his memory until he was able to retain 60 pages of printed matter turning and returning them as he walked or drove after 50 his remaining eye showed serious symptoms of infeblement and his general health also gave cause for alarm nevertheless he gallantly set to work on his history of Philip II the third volume was however not through the press before an attack of apoplexy put an end to his life Alfred Enger English divine and man of letters chiefly remembered for his sympathetic writings on Charles Lamb and Thomas Hood was often speechless with prostration from headaches and sickness Enger was no more than a charming writer I only insert him because his handicap is one of the most difficult to overcome Singe, the remarkable Irish dramatist was delicate and died young End of Chapter 15 Recording by Linda Johnson Chapter 16 of The Privilege of Pain This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org The Privilege of Pain by Caroline Kane Mills Everett Chapter 16 Protestant Reformers Luther stands out as the most powerful figure of the Reformation Protestant churches of every denomination owe to him their inception Not so much on points of dogma as because the success of his revolt made theirs possible Luther was afflicted with epilepsy and at times from other disabilities the exact nature of which he was unable to ascertain Like so many other renowned invillids we are struck with the amount of work he accomplished During the last 10 years of his life he suffered from continuous ill health yet he spent them in incessant labor He was preaching with vehemence in fervor on February 19th 1546 when suddenly he said quietly This and much more is to be said about the gospel but I am too weak and will close here 4 days later he was dead Calvin suffered constant bodily pain yet he was a man of incessant activity and of supreme courage at one time not only the council but the people of Geneva revolted against his authority a riot was imminent Calvin at once set out alone for the council chamber where he was greeted with yells and threats of death advancing slowly into their midst he bared his breath saying If you will have blood strike here not an arm moved and turning his back on his enemies he slowly mounted the stairs to the tribune John Knox began his career as a Catholic priest and we have so little knowledge of his early life that we are ignorant as to what occasion the startling change in his views after his ascension to the ranks of Protestantism he had at first no idea of preaching but confined himself to instructing his friends children his friends however recognized his capacity and on his refusing to run where God had not called him they planned a solemn appeal to Knox from the pulpit to accept the public office in charge of preaching at the close of this exhortation Knox burst into tears and shut himself in his chamber in heaviness for many days the call had at last found a leader of men yet it was an invitation to danger and to death shortly afterwards St. Andrews was attacked by the French fleet Knox was among the prisoners taken he was thrown into a galley in the middle of an iron and subject to the lash when he was finally released he was a man almost 45 years old and completely broken in health by reason of hardships and cruelty to which he'd been subjected yet his career was only beginning to Knox more than to any other man Scotland owes her religion and individuality he was of great political importance and one of the most powerful enemies of Maria Stewart as an historian he occupies an important place in Scotland as a remarkable book it was said of him he neither flattered nor feared any flesh he was an inspired preacher Elizabeth's very critical ambassador wrote from Edenborough that this one man was able in one hour to put more life in us than 500 trumpets Richard Baxter was diseased from head to foot nevertheless he became celebrated as the most imminent of the English Protestant schoolman he was also of political importance and he was about the restoration of Charles II End of Chapter 16 Chapter 15 of The Privilege of Pain this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by John Brandon The Privilege of Pain by Carolyn Cain Mills Everett Chapter 15 The Saints When we look into God's face we do not feel his hand health is a form of capital and like any other capital may be either well or ill invested moreover we can squander it foolishly or convert it into the supreme ablation and to most of us life itself is a less difficult sacrifice the tragedy of war is not so much the toll of the dead as the lists of the disabled few of us are given the chance of dying for others but to all of us is offered the privilege of spending ourselves for humanity either individually or collectively countless parents fathers as well as mothers purchase with their own lives and health life, vigor and opportunity for their children the instinct of sacrifice is to a greater or less degree universal to parenthood and although I do not wish to belittle their offering I think it even more admirable when placed on a less obvious altar numberless people are daily overspending their physical resources in the service of mankind by the furtherance of knowledge the improvement of material conditions by widening the door of opportunity or carrying the message of the spirit into teeming slum and arid desert others give themselves with equal prodigicality in a more limited and less glorious field of their personal contacts not merely to their homes their dependents and friends but to all who come even casually within the radius of their fellowship it seems to me difficult to live at the height of our possibilities more especially if our activities are purely selfless without being at times tempted to withdraw our health account the soldier is only one of a great host whose bodies have been sacrificed in the performance of an imperative duty health is often purchased at the price of ignominious refusal it is therefore not surprising that a large proportion of the saints were men and women with ruined bodies that have been rapturously spent in the service of God and man I will mention only a few of the most renowned Saint Jerome one of the greatest of the early Christian fathers lived an unregenerate life until a severe illness induced a complete change in him and he resolved to renounce everything to kept him back from God his greatest temptation was the study of the literature and pagan Rome and he determined from thence forth to devote all his vast scholarship to the holy scriptures and to Christianity to him we owe the first translation of the Bible into Latin commonly known as the Vulgate very few men have ever wielded greater power over the minds of men than Saint Augustine he is today a living force yet he struggled all his life against consumption he lived however to be 76 Saint Bernard of Clairvaux the most famous monk and preacher of the Middle Ages was a martyr to so many physical infirmities that at first sight he appeared like one near unto death all this suffering however never quelled his ardent spirit or his over mastering zeal for purging the world of sin it was Saint Bernard who said nothing can work me damage but myself the harm I sustain I carry about with me and I am never a real sufferer but by my own fault Saint Francis of Assisi was a gay dissipated youth when a severe illness put a stop to his pleasures and gave him time to reflect so that he became dissatisfied with his mode of life on his recovery he set out on a military expedition but at the end of the first days March he fell ill and had to return to Assisi this disappointment brought on another spiritual crisis and shortly afterwards he went on a pilgrimage to Rome before everything he was an ascetic and a mystic an ascetic who though gentle to others wore out his body in south denial so much so that when he came to die he begged pardon of brother ass the body for having unduly ill treated it Saint Catherine of Siena was not only a very great saint but one of the greatest women that ever lived the daughter of a poor dire who learned to read when she was 20 and to write when she was 27 or 8 she dictated books and letters celebrated not only for their spiritual fragrance and literary value but also for their great historical importance no Empress ever wielded greater power than this extraordinary woman towards the end of her life her court consisted of pilgrims who flocked daily by the thousands to visit her the miracle of her personality had its effect on all who approached her a young libertine belonging to one of the most aristocratic families of Siena after one interview with this dire's daughter abandoned his former life and became her humble follower until the day of her death she converted a notorious robber who for years terrorized the vicinity of Siena and had almost paralyzed his commerce as a proof of the sincerity of his repentance he gave her his stronghold together with all the spoils he had accumulated the abandonment of Avignon as the seat of the papal court undoubtedly changed not only the map but also the history of Europe and it was solely owing to St. Catherine's passionate insistence that Pope Gregory XI returned to Rome despite his own reluctance and the opposition of his cardinals during her short life she was continually ill and during the period of her greatest activity she was dying St. Ignatius Lyola one of the most remarkable and influential personages in the history of the Catholic Church led the adventurous life of a courtier and a soldier until he received a wound at the Siege of Pamplona according to an old chronicler this was the occasion of his conversion to God a cannonball hit his legs shattering one serious illness followed the most painful operation and for weeks his life was disparate of it was on the bed of torment which he eventually left lame for life and constitutionally enfeebled that grace came to him the saint himself said when he returned from the valley of the shadow I have seen God face to face and my soul has been saved from that time onward he devoted himself to a spiritual life wandering far and accomplishing much chief among his achievements was the founding of the Order of Jesuits I must mention here a very remarkable fact that has however nothing to do with my thesis in his will he bequeathed to the Order he founded this legacy that all men should speak ill of it it is also curious that he who benefited by illness should have said a sound mind in a sound body is the most useful instrument with which to serve God Saint Teresa of Jesus the great Spanish saint whose personality and writings have never lost their influence was always extremely delicate and during the period of her greatest accomplishments not only ill but old with Saint Teresa closes my list of those gallant souls who apparently unfit for the battle of life have nevertheless left their mark on history and civilization and I wish to remind you again that I have mentioned no one whose height of achievement has not been coincident with ill health or reached after the suffering of some serious physical disability neither have I thought it proper to cite any of the numerous instances of handicapped genius among our living contemporaries I am certain that many other names might be presented to your consideration if it were not for my own ignorance as well as the extreme difficulty of getting any reliable data on the subject End of chapter 15 Recording by John Brandon