CHAP. XIV.] ASPECTS OF PAIN. 451 



Not purged nor healed, behind remained still, 

 And fest'ring sore, did ranckle yet within, 



Close creeping 'twixt the marrow and the skin ; 

 Which to extirpe, he laid him privily 

 Down in a darksome lowly place far in, 



Whereas he meant his corrosives to apply, 



And with streight diet tame his stubborn malady. 



In ashes and sackcloth he did array 



His daintie corse, proud humours to abate 



And dieted with fasting every day 



The swelling of his wounds to mitigate ; 



And made him pray both early and eke late. 



And ever as superfluous flesh did rot, 



Amendment ready still at hand did wayt, 



To pluck it out with pincers fiery whott 



That soon in him was left no one corrupted iott. 



Here we see the advantage of allegory. In real life the 

 poor man, instead of having Patience and Amendment as his 

 good friends standing by his side, would have to conjure them 

 up inside of him, and to apply the pincers with his own 

 hand. But setting allegory aside, we can find here no exalta- 

 tion of pain in itself. The pain is a necessary concomitant 

 of the extirpation of evil habits from a conscious being. 

 Amendment is the aim and end of the discipline, and the 

 sole reason that he has to heat his pincers fiery whott is that 

 the evil which he has to extirpe has crept close betwixt the 

 marrow and the skin, and requires the actual cautery to 

 prevent its creeping further. 



Again, in the Collect for the first Sunday in Lent, we 

 pray for " grace to use such abstinence," that, our flesh being- 

 subdued to the spirit, we may ever obey " the godly motions " 

 of Christ. Abstinence is to be used only as a help towards 

 the subjugation of our lower nature, and the opening up of 

 our higher nature to divine influence. 



I have said nothing of the aspect of penal suffering as 

 a satisfaction either of justice from the point of view of a 

 ruler, or of vengeance from the point of view of an aggrieved 

 person. 



