Cecidit autem ignis Domini,
et voravit holocaustum
It will perhaps be said, and truly felt, that the following is a morbidbook. No doubt the subject is a morbid one, because the bookdeliberately gives a picture of a diseased spirit. But a pathologicaltreatise, dealing with cancer or paralysis, is not necessarily morbid,though it may be studied in a morbid mood. We have learnt of lateyears, to our gain and profit, to think and speak of bodily ailments asnatural phenomena, not to slur over them and hide them away in atticsand bedrooms. We no longer think of insanity as demoniacal possession,and we no longer immure people with diseased brains in the secludedapartments of lovely houses. But we still tend to think of thesufferings of the heart and soul as if they were unreal, imaginary,hypochondriacal things, which could be cured by a little resolution andby intercourse with cheerful society; and by this foolish and secretivereticence we lose both sympathy and help. Mrs. Proctor, the friend ofCarlyle and Lamb, a brilliant and somewhat stoical lady, is recorded tohave said to a youthful relative of a sickly habit, with sternemphasis, "Never tell people how you are! They don't want to know." Upto a certain point this is shrewd and wholesome advice. One doesundoubtedly keep some kinds of suffering in check by resolutelyminimising them. But there is a significance in suffering too. It isnot all a clumsy error, a well-meaning blunder. It is a deliberate partof the constitution of the world.
Why should we wish to conceal the fact that we have suffered, that wesuffer, that we are likely to suffer to the end? There are abundance ofpeople in like case; the very confession of the fact may help others toendure, because one of the darkest miseries of suffering is thehorrible sense of isolation that it brings. And if this book casts theleast ray upon the sad problem—a ray of the light that I have learnedto recognise is truly there—I shall be more than content. There is nomorbidity in suffering, or in confessing that one suffers. Morbidityonly begins when one acquiesces in suffering as being incurable andinevitable; and the motive of this book is to show that it is at oncecurative and curable, a very tender part of a wholly loving andFatherly design.
A. C. B.
Magdalene College, Cambridge,
July 14, 1907.
I had intended to allow the records that follow—the records of apilgrimage sorely beset and hampered by sorrow and distress—to speakfor themselves. Let me only say that one who makes public a record sointimate and outspoken incurs, as a rule, a certain responsibility. Hehas to consider in the first place, or at least he cannot helpinstinctively considering, what the wishes of the writer would havebeen on the subject. I do not mean that one who has to decide such apoint is bound to be entirely guided by that. He must weigh thepossible value of the record to other spirits against what he thinksthat the writer himself would have personally desired. A far moreimportant consideration is what living people who play a part in suchrecords feel about their publication. But I cannot help thinking thatour whole standard in