368 LESSONS FEOM NATURE. [CHAP. XII. 



objection ; in so far as it relates to the wide diffusion of suf 

 fering, it may be answered in answering that which follows. 

 Third objec- The third objection, then, that to God s goodness, 

 death. made partly on account of the pain and death 

 diffused through the world, and partly on account of the 

 seeming un worthiness of some natural products, may now be 

 considered. 



As regards the sufferings of living men and women, a belief 

 in the immortality of the soul (which, as we shall see, follows 

 as one of the consequences of the propositions the truth of 

 which is supported in this and in the preceding chapters) suf 

 ficiently does away with the force of the objection in their 

 regard. Granted a Deus unus et remunerator together with 

 this immortality, and it becomes readily conceivable that the 

 sufferings of this life may be hereafter looked upon by us as 

 truly blessings in disguise. Indeed, paradoxical as the ques 

 tion may sound, it may be asked, Could we, even apart from 

 these beliefs, afford to lose pain and suffering altogether ? 

 All that is most admirable and beautiful in human life and 

 character would be lost were there no opportunities or occa 

 sions for generous self-denial, loving pity, tender compassion, 

 and ardent philanthropic effort. 



The difficulty then lies in the sufferings of the brute 



sufferings of creation, and this is a difficulty now felt very 



widely and with extreme acuteness by those who 



possess the tenderest hearts and natures the most worthy of 



our esteem and regard. 



Nevertheless, I believe that the difficulty felt is mainly 

 owing to a misconception, namely, to that inverted anthro 

 pomorphism (treated of in Chap. VII.) which makes men 

 and women so generally attribute experiences like their 

 own to brute animals. But even in men and women suffer 

 ing depends mainly on the mental state of the sufferer. 

 Only during consciousness does it exist at all, and only in 

 the most highly-organized men does it reach its acme. 

 Savages seem generally to Lave far less sensitiveness to 

 pain than have cultivated and refined human beings. The 



