134 FROM AN EASY CHAIR 



diminution of pain by the knowledge obtained. There 

 are others who are constitutionally incapable of con- 

 trolling their emotion in this matter. They hear dread- 

 ful stories of cruelty, and are so upset that they are 

 incapable of ascertaining whether the stories are true or 

 not. They are quite unfit to weigh the question as to 

 whether the pain given in the case they hear of may or 

 may not be a necessary step towards avoiding far greater 

 pain in the future for thousands of human beings and 

 sentient animals. Far be it from me to think harshly of 

 these tender-hearted people, though their mistaken out- 

 cry may tend to stop the discovery of pain-saving and 

 life-saving knowledge. I feel more sympathy with them 

 than with those (happily rare) individuals who are really 

 indifferent to seeing or giving bodily pain to men or to 

 animals. 



There is reason to hope that careful and well-con- 

 sidered statement of the facts will eventually enable 

 many of those who are mentally unhinged by descrip- 

 tions of pain and bloodshed to recognise that they have 

 been deceived, partly by their own fancies and partly by 

 the false statements of professional agitators. Unfor- 

 tunately, there are always present in human society in- 

 dividuals who find it to their advantage to excite the 

 minds of their more emotional fellow-citizens by tales 

 of horror. The lust of such power the power to lead 

 or urge a large body of men driven by emotional excite- 

 ment into violent action has led from time to time to 

 exaggeration, misrepresentation, and elaborate plot and 

 perjury directed against a group of innocent or worthy 

 people, whose proceedings were mysterious or misunder- 

 stood by the community at large. Thus, from time to 

 time, the crowd has been infuriated and led to the 

 murder of the Jews by agitators, who started the base- 

 less story that the Jews had slain a Christian child, and 

 used its blood at their feast of the Passover. Titus 

 Gates and Lord George Gordon made use of the un- 



