I cannot
understand why we are so oblivious to the sufferings of illness while we
are well unless it be a provision of nature to keep us from that
suffering through sympathy which we would surely undergo if we really
had any vivid feeling for the sick. On this earth each one has to do his
own suffering--the King in the palace of the royal family and the baby
in the hut of the miner. All who are well go their way rejoicing, even
having no momentary realization of the state of mind of the disabled
associate. It may be that this has not always been so, for we inherit a
salutation among our other traits which implies a desire to be informed
as to the physical condition of the body of the person addressed. Two
men of affairs meet. One says:
"HOW ARE YE?"
The other responds: "How are ye? Are you going to be at the meeting
to-night?" etc., the conversation being now under full headway. The
words indicate that, at one time, they carried a meaning which they have
lost. Yet we are not worse than our fathers before us, and are not
exceeded in the milk of human kindness. It may be that the old form was
such a cumbrous piece of hypocrisy that latter-day people have thrown it
off in disgust.
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