THE CALL OF THE LAND 



rough sports like football are to be encour- 

 aged, for instance, for the reason that they 

 harden youth to contemn all ordinary forms 

 of pain and both to witness and to bear 

 without flinching pain too great to be con- 

 temned. As noted already, the fear of pain 

 may become morbid and hence a positive 

 new source of pain. A dread of pain which 

 is in itself good may go too far, be too 

 strongly developed. Many people's horror 

 of war is morally pathological. We need 

 schooling in pain and in the calm vision of 

 pain in order to aid men against pain. Peo- 

 ple who faint at the sight of blood are of no 

 value in case of accident. With equal readi- 

 ness most would add that those neuroses so 

 common, especially among women, which 

 lead the subjects of them to anticipate pain, 

 to sense it afar off, to have horror even over 

 the thought of it when the pain itself does 

 not exist, are to be discouraged. "Sufficient 

 unto the day is the evil thereof." 



But the problem arises: Is there not dan- 

 ger that by the cultivation of contempt for 

 pain and by the repression of hypersensitive* 



366 



