Precept and Practice – DECEMBER 28 – Sorrow and Selfishness

There are doubtless cases not infrequent, in which the mind is unduly overpowered by affliction;  in which the tranquillity of the reason is wholly overset, and the energy of the will utterly prostrated.   Here, beyond controversy, is a state of mind morally wrong:  for God never absolves us from our duties, however he may sadden them.   But to rebuke the feelings of grief in such a case is to cast the censure in the wrong place:  it is not that the sorrow is excessive, but that other emotions are defective in their strength.   Nor is the distinction merely verbal and trivial.   For, the natural effect of such misplaced blame surely is, that the sufferer will endeavour simply to abate the intensity of his sorrow, to extrude from his mind the emotions which are charged with guilty excess:  his aim will be purely negative, not to think so fixedly, not to feel so profoundly, respecting the bereavement which has fallen upon his life.

And this aim is directed to an end both undesirable and impracticable.   It is undesirable;  for to touch the working of the affections with partial torpor, to benumb the tenderness without adding to the energy of the mind, to deaden the susceptibility of memory without quickening the vividness of hope, would surely be no improvement to the character;  it would be a mere deduction from the amount of mind:  and sorrow is at least better than dullness of soul.   It is moreover impracticable;  for our nature affords us no means of exerting a negative and destructive action upon our own characters.   One class of feelings can be extinguished only by the creation of another;  one sentiment banished only by inviting the antagonism of another; one interest supplanted only by the stronger occupancy of another.   So long as this is unperceived, the over-grieving heart will seek in vain to discipline itself.   Thinking of its sorrow as too much, instead of its sense of duty as too little, it fails to meet pointedly its own remedy.

(James Martineau)

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From the Introduction to Precept and Practice

The kindly welcome given to my other little books, ‘Being and Doing’ and ‘Character and Conduct,’ must be my excuse for adding another collection of extracts to the number now in circulation.

The quotations are gathered from the books of many earnest thinkers, and deal with Life in all its length and breadth, with ourselves, our characters, our plain unvarnished faults and weaknesses, our often untoward circumstances, and with all that drags us down;-  with our purposes, our religion, our love and friendships, and with all that uplifts us;-  with our relation to others, our influence and responsibilities, and finally with those stages of our journey which bring us to the Road’s Last Turn and to the Silent Land.

CONSTANCE  M. WHISHAW