a » ee = HF BS = of Painless- Brat is << OF PR MCD ', OCT 24 1939 7 A, LGei¢n of yes ¢ ‘ BL 262 .B3 1926 Ballard’ Frank; 18743-1934. The mystery of painlessness SEE CABED. Gy ee, pe aera THE MYSTERY OF PAINLESSNESS ; ae <7 ye te e yy THE MYSTERY,” OF PAINLESSNESS An Appeal to Facts FRANK BALLARD, D.D., M.A., B.Sc. Author of “The Miracles of Unbelief,” etc. With Foreword by S. PARKES CADMAN, D.D. New York CuHIcaco Fleming H. Revell Company Lonpon AND EDINBURGH Copyright, McmMxxv1, by FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY New York: 158 Fifth Avenue Chicago: 17 North Wabash Ave. London: 21 Paternoster Square Edinburgh: 99 George Street FOREWORD HAVE read this manuscript with interest and pleasure. The author, Rev. Frank Ballard, is known to me as a gifted and accomplished writer, especially in apologetics. He has done splendid work on these lines for many years. The freshness, not to say originality, of his views and their clear and forcible statements are helpful, indeed. The problem with which he deals in this book comes before me in some form or other nearly every day, and I am grate- ful to have seen his wise treatment of it. | S. Parkes CapMAN. Brooklyn, N.Y. [5 ] II. III, CONTENTS Tue PROBLEM OF SUFFERING . " . 9 Tue Marve. or Dairy Lire . ; . 380 “SHEARFULLY AND WONDERFULLY Mapr” 58 Tue Divine SECRET . A ry ; ia i! [7] 3 ; a Da Pov kitimee teat I THE PROBLEM OF SUFFERING ROM time immemorial, long before the tragedies occurred which under- lie the book of Job, and caused the per- plexed lamentations of the Psalmists, humanity has been bewildered and sad- dened by the mystery of pain. The ter- rible amount of suffering among men, women and children has not only become more tragic in our days by reason of fuller information, but has continually bewildered thoughtful minds and over- whelmed tender hearts by its cruel in- tensity and inexplicable occurrence. It has thus become the favorite theme of all opponents of the Christian faith, as well as the hardest problem for sincere be- lievers. Sir Leslie Stephen, eminent man of letters, whose ability and probity no [9] THE MYSTERY OF PAINLESSNESS one ever questioned, declared that the sight of the world’s tragedy made him an agnostic. Haeckel’s bitter words doubt- less found an echo in the minds of great numbers, when, in his later work, The Wonders of Life, he wrote: “As we do not seek to have our emotions gratified by poetic fictions, we are bound to point out that reason cannot detect the shadow of a proof of the existence and action of a conscious Providence, or loving Father in Heaven. Every year we read with horror the statistics of thousands of deaths from ship- wreck and railway accidents, earthquakes and landslips, wars and epidemics.” So that he went on to endorse Scho- penhauer’s pessimistic estimate, which speaks of “this miserable world; this cockpit of tortured and suffering beings, who can only survive by destroying each other, in which the capacity for pain grows with knowledge, and so reaches its height in man. To the palpable sophistry [10] THE PROBLEM OF SUFFERING of Leibnitz we oppose a strict and honest proof that this world is the worst of all possible.” Even the great Huxley, despite his usual fair and judicious attitude, was led to write that “Since thousands of times a minute, were our ears only sharp enough, we should hear the sighs and groans of pain like those heard by Dante at the gate of hell, the world cannot be governed by what we call benevolence.” A few years later the plausible super- ficialities and dogmatisms of God and My Neighbor, written by Robert Blatch- ford—an English journalist, whose opin- ions were held in high esteem by the newspaper readers of Britain—troubled many Christian believers. But there can be no question that in regard to the mys- tery of pain he only wrote what very many felt and could not understand: “The world is full of sorrow, of pain, of hatred and crime, of strife and war. If God [11] { THE MYSTERY OF PAINLESSNESS is a tender, loving, all-knowing, and_all- powerful Heavenly Father, why did He build the world on cruel lines? Why does He per- mit evil and pain to continue? Why does He not give the world peace, and health, and happiness? ” | Or, again, consider the case of Sir Francis Younghusband—orientalist, trav- eler and administrator—a man whose ability and sincerity are equally unques- tionable, who also, in his pathetic volume, Within, writes on this vexed theme. His experience is impressively summarized by H. G. Wells: “Tt is the confession of a man who lived with a complete confidence in Providence until he was already well advanced in years. He went through battles and campaigns; he filled posts of great honor and responsibility ; he saw much of the life of men, without altogether losing his faith. The loss of a child, an Indian famine, could shake it, but not overthrow it. ‘Then, coming back one day from some races in France, he was knocked down by an automobile, and [ 12 | THE PROBLEM OF SUFFERING hurt very cruelly. He suffered terribly, both in body and mind. His sufferings caused much suffering also to others. He did his utmost to see the hand of a loving Providence in his and their disaster, and the torment it inflicted; but being a man of sterling honesty and a fine es- sential simplicity of mind, he confessed at last that he could not do so. His confidence in the benevolent intervention of God was altogether destroyed. His book tells of this shattering, and how laboriously he reconstructed his re- ligion upon less confident lines.” Such experiences might only too easily be reiterated. So that the summary of Dr. Peake, one of the ablest Biblical scholars now living, in the preface to his volume on The Problem of Suffering in the Old Testament, is all too true—‘I am only one of many, for whom the problem of pain constitutes the most powerful ob- jection to a theism otherwise adequate to our deepest needs.” All who have left youth behind them, and are facing life’s conflicts and difficulties with clear minds [13] THE MYSTERY OF PAINLESSNESS and tender hearts, must sympathize with such an attitude. The very name of can- cer—not to mention other dire diseases— makes one shudder with harrowing memo- ries, if not also with depressing anxieties concerning living loved ones. There is, mercifully, another side to all this. Not merely in discounting the ex- aggerations and correcting the false state- ments of such one-sided estimates as those we have quoted, but also in the wonderful preventive as well as palliative work of modern medicine and surgery. We are, indeed, comforted today with such hopes as the world has never before known, thanks to the inestimable devotion of such men as Pasteur, Lister, Osler, Ross, Rog- ers, and a host of others whose work in the realm of medical science is known the world over, through whom diseases are being both overcome and prevented, while the public health is established to an un- precedented extent. Typhoid fever, scar- let fever, smallpox, diphtheria, are being [14] THE PROBLEM OF SUFFERING reduced to a minimum. Plague is now seldom heard of, and even for lepers hope has blossomed into wonderful fruitage, in numberless cases of real and permanent recovery. It is, however, really necessary, in passing, to point out that all this im- provement is in direct and palpable con- tradiction to the modern and mischievous craze which calls itself Christian Science. For this cult is as practically dangerous as it is theoretically absurd. ‘To teach that the human body is a myth, and that all pain is a delusion—as is most definitely done in Mrs. Eddy’s incoherent manual— is doctrine only fit for the inmates of an asylum. While practically this fanati- cism would stop all these noble servants of mankind in their beneficent work, would shut up all our hospitals, put an end to all our medical missions, and let loose among our populations all types of infection, as well as block the path of still greater improvement by the muddled metaphysics of an unintelligible book [15 ] THE MYSTERY OF PAINLESSNESS which pours scorn on all real medical science. Meanwhile, it is absolutely certain that only on such methods of develop- ing hygiene and medical care as are represented by such famous men as Sir George Newman, Sir Arthur News- holme, Dr. Saleeby, and many others of like character and devotion, do all human hopes for the elimination of dis- ease and the further reduction of the mystery of pain, depend. Already the span of life through their efforts is so lengthened that the child born today has the fair prospect of twelve years more of healthy life than his grandfather had when he arrived. Indeed, all the future is brightening in the way so forcefully referred to by Sir E. Ray Lankester in his Romanes Lecture; and if only the counsels of the New Health Society, so earnestly recommended by Sir W. Ar- buthnot Lane, a foremost authority on the diseases of children, are adopted, human [ 16 ] THE PROBLEM OF SUFFERING suffering will be reduced to a minimum hitherto unknown, Many painful questions, however, still remain, and some of our most distressing problems seem unanswerable. But it is itself a problem why, amid all who are thus troubled—either sadly and patiently as 1s the genuine Christian, or bitterly and blatantly as are some disbelievers— scarcely any take, apparently, the least notice of, let alone do justice to, another and far greater mystery, compared with which the whole mystery of pain is but as a shrimp-pool by the side of the ocean. After close acquaintance with the Ilt- erature of disbelief for half a century, I cannot recall one single case in which any fair or worthy reference has been made to the undeniable and immeasurable mystery of painlessness, through which humanity continues not only to exist, but to do al- most all its work, and enter into all the enjoyments of which human life is capa- ble. But this greater mystery of pain- [17] THE MYSTERY OF PAINLESSNESS lessness is none the less real, ceaseless, unquestionable, measureless, and inexpli- cable. It not only gives the lie direct to the agnostic suggestion that this world is “built on cruel lines,” but it affords an actual basis for all that faith and patience and hope which the Christian Gospel so earnestly urges. It is open to demonstra- tion just in the degree in which we are pre- pared to study and appreciate the human body, in the light of all that modern scien- tific knowledge which is ever becoming more meticulous and exact. It is by no means easy to condense into a few pages what is really matter for a lifetime’s study; but at least an outline may be drawn which only needs truthful and accurate expan- sion to make it an overwhelming confirma- tion of the One Hundred and Thirty-ninth Psalm, and an unmistakable, invaluable buttress of humble Christian belief. First, as to the great world of life below the human level. When Haeckel quoted Schopenhauer with such approval, to the [18 ] THE PROBLEM OF SUFFERING effect that this world was merely a ‘“cock- pit of tortured and suffering beings, who can only survive by destroying each other,” 1t needed but the careful observa- tion of an hour, anywhere, to demonstrate the utter falsity of such a gibe. Tenny- son’s well-known lines about nature’s be- ing “red in tooth and claw with ravine,” and so shrieking against the Divine benefi- cence, have been far too often quoted. For they are so utterly one-sided as to il- lustrate what he himself elsewhere said, that “a lie which is half a truth,” is “a harder matter to fight,” than a downright lie. It would be easy also to show how, in other moods and words, Huxley answers his own pessimism. But it must suffice here to appreciate a testimony which can neither be gainsaid nor underestimated. It was Charles Darwin who wrote, con- cerning that very struggle for existence which has appalled so many lesser men: “When we reflect on this struggle, we may console ourselves with the full belief that the [19 ] THE MYSTERY OF PAINLESSNESS war of nature is not incessant, that no fear is felt, that death is generally swift, and that the vigorous, the healthy, and the happy, survive and multiply.” How emphatically this testimony is en- dorsed by such competent witnesses as Dr. Alfred Russel Wallace—who “hit on” the theory of the survival of the fittest simultaneously with Darwin—and many others, must be here omitted, though it is definite and unmistakable. For the mo- ment we will confine our attention to human beings—although what is pointed out applies equally, mutatis mutandis, to the whole living world, and overwhelming illustrations thereof could easily be sup- plied. But it will be more than enough to appreciate the truth as it relates to men, women, and children. Such appreciation, however, will require much closer ac- quaintance with the actual facts of every day’s life than is customary. For it is only through the genuine, careful, honest, and thorough study of these facts, that [ 20 ] THE PROBLEM OF SUFFERING the right standpoint can be attained for the just comparison of the two great mys- teries of painlessness and pain, amidst which our life’s brief hour is spent. In proportion to the clear thoroughness of such appreciation of the commonest daily actualities of our own existence, will be the irresistible and overwhelming con- clusion reached above. Eiven this, that when the mystery of pain is taken at its worst—to be quite sure, let us say its aw- ful worst—it is but a trifle, when put into fair comparison with that ceaseless and unmeasured mystery of painlessness which the overwhelming majority of some 1,800,000,000 of human beings on this planet, at any given moment, exemplify. It is confessedly a tremendous avowal, to estimate human pain as a comparative trifle. Far too tremendous to be hastily made or easily accepted. Certainly it is not here hastily made, but only after more than half a century of such oppor- tunities and duties as only come to med- [ 21 ] THE MYSTERY OF PAINLESSNESS ical men, and to Christian ministers who are faithful to the calls of a pastorate either in town or country. In the light of many such experiences, it seems heartless to appear to underrate the extent and in- tensity of human suffering, and incredible that there can be any greater mystery. And yet if it be true—as will here be shown—that the mystery of painlessness does indeed exceed that of human pain, enormously and immeasurably, as surely as in any great city the number of healthy working people exceeds the number of in- valids, it is all the present answer that need be given by a reasonable faith, to such diatribes of disbelief as are quoted above. It is, indeed, quite sufficient in itself to justify and confirm the strong avowal of the late Sir Henry Thompson, so long prominently associated with the Royal College of Surgeons and London University, who set himself the task of twenty years’ investigation—“solely for the purpose of seeking truth for my own [ 22 ] THE PROBLEM OF SUFFERING personal needs and enlightenment’’—in facing all the facts of life, amid all the special opportunities that came necessar- ily to a widely-known expert surgeon. Here is his deliberate and openly avowed conclusion : “T was now assured, by evidence which I could not resist, that all which man—with his limited knowledge and experience—has learned to re- gard as due to Supreme Power and Wisdom, although immeasurably beyond his comprehen- sion, is also associated with the exercise of an absolutely beneficent influence over all living things, of every grade, which exist within its range.” That is, at all events, a firm natural foundation for a faith which would be as intelligent and honest as humble and sincere, The well-worn assumptions of agnosti- cism that if God were really the loving Heavenly Father whom Jesus Christ re- veals, there would be either no pain at all, or else only the wicked would be ill, while [ 28 ] THE MYSTERY OF PAINLESSNESS all good people would be healthy, have been shown again and again to be as irra- tional in philosophy as contrary to Chris- tian faith. While in regard to the much more difficult and often harrowing query, as to the exact incidence and tragic in- tensity of some cases of individual suffer- ing, we are still in the same position as the prophets and psalmists of old. The pleading of Jeremiah (12:1); the bewil- derment of the psalmist (Ps. 73: 1-14, etc.) ; and the anguished entreaty of the apostle (2 Cor. 12:8); all repeat them- selves in our modern experience, their wider range causing even deeper perplex- ity. With our present faculties, and in this life only, numberless cases of poign- ant but undeserved suffering must ever remain inexplicable. Eivery one with an observant eye and a tender heart will have chastening memories of instances which seemed to be cruelly contrary to all that human judgment would have expected or awarded. Why such a noble and high- [ 24 ] THE PROBLEM OF SUFFERING souled patriot as William Ewart Glad- stone, or such a saintly and devoted woman as Catherine Booth, or such a lofty and inspiring character as Sir Henry Jones, should be subjected to the horrors of cancer, we shall never know this side of the grave. But if our faith re- mains, we can wait with patience for the revelations of the other side. The ques- tion of questions is whether we can retain such faith, in face of all the painful hap- penings which thus trouble us, and which are continually so gruesomely tabulated by the clever and irrepressible rationalist press. That is confessedly the crux of Christian theism. Me And this, in plain terms, is the answer. If on rational principles faith is shaken by the mystery of pain, upon the very same principles it is restored, established, and made unshakably triumphant, by the i greater mystery of painlessness. If God_ is rightly credited with all that dark side of human existence which is not definitely [ 25 ] } aS THE MYSTERY OF PAINLESSNESS due to moral evil, then certainly, in all honesty, He must also be regarded as the ultimate source of all that bright and happy side of human being which is mani- festly not man’s own creation. When, thereafter, these two estimates are fairly compared, it becomes plain that the bright side exceeds the dark, as truly as the light and heat of the mid-day sun exceed the cold illumination of the moon. But more than that. If we were here considering the whole mystery of good, as against that of evil, such a comparison would be enormously enhanced. For in spite of all the ancient theological depress- ing estimates of human nature, from Au- gustine through Calvin to this hour, and all the deplorable and degrading publica- tions of humanity’s worst doings in our daily press, the amount of good cease- lessly energizing in mankind immeasur- ably exceeds that of evil in our midst. There are also valid reasons for believing that such excess is going to grow from [ 26 | THE PROBLEM OF SUFFERING more to more with every succeeding gen- eration, until wars shall be no more than. tragic memories, and modern society shall actually embody the lofty ideals of the Lord’s Prayer. Here, however, for the moment, we will close our eyes to all but physical facts, and base our inferences on these alone. We will take as a typical case the daily life of an average normal healthy man, who is not ruining his body by vicious habits, and note carefully, as much as our space per- mits, what it really involves. Of the many mistranslations in the Authorized Version of the Bible, the reference in Phil. 3:21 to “this vile body” is one of the worst. For no falser estimate is con- ceivable. Its most frequent use occurs, unfortunately, just where it is most out of place, namely, in the funeral service in the Anglican Prayer Book. But whenever and wherever such a misrepresentation 1s uttered in public, the reader ought to fol- low it up with the plain reading of Psalm [ 27 ] THE MYSTERY OF PAINLESSNESS 139, which is both more true and more sig- nificant now than when it was written, some two millenniums and a half ago. And it should be emphasized by the un- mistakable protest of the apostle—“Do you not know that your bodies are part of Christ’s body?—Do you not know that the body of every one of you is a temple of the Holy Spirit, whom you have from God?—Glorify God therefore in your body.” Alas, that it did not avail to prevent the cruel follies of asceticism in following ages. In the light of the New Testament, the proper name for such malpractices is not Christian self- discipline, but pagan self-delusion. We will here accept thankfully the high estimate of psalmist and apostle, and proceed to appreciate it, as we needs must do, in the fuller light and more exact knowledge which modern science has brought us. With just one caveat. All that here fol- lows relates to the body of aman. But the [ 28 ] THE PROBLEM OF SUFFERING most wonderful thing in physical creation is the body of a woman. The crowning mystery of mysteries, far too marvelous and holy for superficial description at the moment, is that process of gestation which some pious fanatics have even sought to besmirch with evil, by applying to it— under the strange spell of bibliolatry— the remorseful wail of a murderous adul- terer in Psalm 51:5. The witness of the New Testament is happily plain enough to the contrary, and there was never any need whatever for the Romish device of the immaculate conception to protect a woman from moral evil in passing through her hour of holy anguish. Moreover, even the throes of childbirth become, as Jesus said (John 16:21), but a transient trifle compared with the following years of painless bodily peace, enriched with the added incomparable spiritual joys of motherhood, which in the vast majority of cases ensue. [ 29 ] II THE MARVEL OF DAILY LIFE ET us now consider what really happens in the lesser marvel of the daily life of an average normal man. When justice is done to it, we shall find that it is simply overwhelming, alike in the detail of its mystery and the benefi- cence of its totality. Out of every hun- dred persons met in an ordinary day’s intercourse, it is more than probable that at least ninety of them have never given a moment’s thought to their bodies all day long—with just the exception of satisfy- ing a healthy appetite at- meal times. And even then, ninety and nine out of every hundred hungry mortals never spend a moment in asking whence the appetite comes, or how it is that food satisfies and sends them away comforted. [ 30 ] THE MARVEL OF DAILY LIFE In a word, through all the hours of the day they have never known that they had a body at all. That is the blessed pain- lessness which we call health—a boon, it is often truly said, which can only be fully appreciated when it is lost. In good health no man knows, at any given mo- ment, where any part of his body really is. It is the special business of toothache, or lumbago, or gout, or stomach-ache, to inform him where certain portions of his body are, in order that he may pay them a little more attention, or repent of the injustice which he has done them. But with the average man, the ordinary blessed unconsciousness of his body, the painless- ness which sets him free to use all his thoughts and energies in the multitudi- nous directions of a day’s work, whether with hand or brain, is naturally and uni- versally forgotten. So that it becomes necessary to shake oneself into attention, and ask plainly what is actually taking place in this our [ 31 ] THE MYSTERY OF PAINLESSNESS marvelous microcosm, whereby all the day’s activities become possible. Com- mon experience says—nothing; daily business says—never mind; current con- vention says—it doesn’t matter; Godless superficiality says—there is nothing worth noticing. But these inanities are not good enough. Let us look more carefully at what is going on. Part, at least, of all the marvelous happenings we can appre- ciate, if we will. The whole truth—even in summary—as to all the physiological intricacies of even one hour’s healthy life cannot be told, either here or anywhere. But it will suffice for our present pur- pose to take just a brief and partial, though careful, glance at unquestionable facts which relate only to the main ele- ments of the case, in the ordinary daily life of any and every man or woman who “enjoys good health.” The structure of the human body is scientifically divided into distinct systems, such as bony, muscular, vascular, respira- [ 82 ] THE MARVEL OF DAILY LIFE tory, digestive, excretory, etc. But for the sake of the general reader, we will be content to state the facts popularly, albeit none the less accurately. Take the case of an average business man. Let us fol- low him throughout the day. After a good night’s rest, he rises refreshed, en- joys his breakfast, and sallies forth to his office. There he applies himself at once, without bodily pain or hindrance, to all the intricacies of modern commerce, uses his brains, and calls upon those around him to do the same. With a luncheon interval, this continues until evening, when he goes home tired, to seek rest or recreation, there or elsewhere, until once more he loses consciousness in sleep. It all seems very simple—so easy that it not only goes on without thought, but may be taken for granted again on the morrow, nay, for an endless succession of morrows, so that journeys may be planned and holi- days arranged, without any query as to whether they will be possible. But mean- [ 33 ] THE MYSTERY OF PAINLESSNESS while, all the time, what has really been going on inside him? (1) If a man is to stand upright, let alone walk, or run, or work, there must be a strong and firm, though also light and flexible, bony skeleton, as the foundation of the whole frame. The fact that the whole vast army of vertebrate animals shares with man this wonderful posses- sion, does not in the least mitigate, but rather increase, the marvel of its sym- metry and utility. ‘Thus our business man has some two hundred and fifty bones, marvelously tied together by liga- ments, whereby the thirty-three vertebrez of the spine, sixty-four bones of the up- per limbs, sixty-two of the lower limbs, with twenty-four ribs, and twenty-two skull-bones, are all united to subserve one organic whole, in a fashion which, if fully considered, would more than occupy all these pages, and would alone justify their main contention. We are compelled to omit the rest; but it seems positively [ 34 ] THE MARVEL OF DAILY LIFE necessary to think a moment more about this human spine, which is seldom or never thought about, until some form of spinal disease or accident reminds us of its existence. Yet a moment’s scrutiny suffices to supply much more than mere information. The spine, be it remem- bered, has to be the mainstay of the whole structure. Therefore it must be a firm, strong unity. But it must also be light, or the whole would be too heavy for loco- motion. It must also be flexible, or no bending of the body would be possible. It must also be hollow, for somehow, throughout its whole length, there has to go that spinal cord from which the whole nervous system emanates for the control of the muscles. And this cord must be, by reason of its indescribable delicacy, protected from all injury. How is all this managed? By the tying together of thirty-three bones, all unlike and queer-shaped, but so firmly joined that they form a graceful curve, [ 35 ] THE MYSTERY OF PAINLESSNESS as beautiful as useful. Nor is that all. If it were, every step would mean con- cussion of the brain. In between all these vertebree are delicate but wonderfully useful cushions of cartilage, which pre- vent any undue jolt, and so make walk- ing a pleasurable possibility. Whilst from out these same vertebre, all down its length, issue those marvelous nerve- threads upon which every motion of every limb depends. ‘Thus, then, in full dis- charge of all its functions, this wondrous structure holds together all the rest of the body—and the man knows nothing of it. No thought of a backbone ever occurs to him, in all his goings to and fro, or in all the swinging of his limbs which the day’s duty or pleasure may involve. In all its continual intricate movements, no pain is caused, nor even consciousness of motion. (2) But bones, however remarkable in shape, and marvelously tied together, could do nothing without sets of muscles so attached to them by tendons as to make [ 36 ] THE MARVEL OF DAILY LIFE possible all the ever-varying motions of the body. Of these muscular bands there are at least five hundred, many of which are simultaneously at work all through the day; and yet, unless rheumatism or lumbago should come in as a reminder, the man knows nothing about it. How much this means in regard to manual labor in general, and some kinds of it, such as the work of stevedores or miners, in particular, must be left to the reader’s own thoughtful estimate. Suppose, now, we turn from work to recreations, whether at home or in the open air, and ask how it comes to pass that these are so painlessly enjoyable. For this is certain, that if each individual in the crowds which fill our theatres and ball grounds, were reminded by pain of the exact locality of a tooth, or an ear, or a toe, these places would all empty them- selves more quickly than they filled. Does any imitator of Paderewski ever consider how it is that he can practise for [ 87 ] THE MYSTERY OF PAINLESSNESS hours at a stretch? Or any admirer of Kreisler ask how that combined motion of fingers, wrist, and forearm is possible, and often so long maintained? Probably not. Yet it were all impossible, but for the marvelous conjuncture of twenty lit- tle bones in each hand, securely bound up with eight more in the wrist, and three more above them. So then, we have fifty- six small bones, and six larger ones, in continual, complex, rapid, codrdinated motion, and yet no pain, no friction, no inflammation. How is that brought about? On the next sea voyage, watch the engines, and ask the engineer why he keeps dodging about and putting his hand on this and that and the other part of his machine, and he will smile at your ignorance in being unaware that “she may get hot.” Then what does he do to prevent such a hindrance? He lubricates all the parts that rub together, so that friction may at least be reduced to a minimum. ‘Then ask him further why he [ 38 ] THE MARVEL OF DAILY LIFE does not get the engine to lubricate itself ? He will now wonder whether you are sane. And yet—it is precisely that, no less, that the artist’s arms and hands and fingers are always doing painlessly, thanks to the indescribably wonderful synovial glands which first manufacture the human lubricating oil, and then apply it where it is most needed, without any fee or reminder—and equally without any thanks, At a recent remarkable exhibition of piano playing, I carefully calculated that during the recital there had been not less than two million commands issued from the virtuoso’s brain to his fingers, all obeyed without murmuring, and at the end without his exhaustion. So painless was all this mechanical execution, that neither he nor his listeners thought any- thing of it. They rightly admired his skill, but thought nothing of the means whereby alone it was possible. But the fortune of a Rockefeller awaits the man [ 39 | THE MYSTERY OF PAINLESSNESS who can invent, for any machine of hu- man construction, such self-lubrication as every day’s work and every night’s con- cert, everywhere and always, exhibit. Or again. Sixty thousand human be- ings congregate to witness a football game. Does any one of them, least of all the players themselves, spend one sin- gle moment in asking how it comes to pass that men can so wildly dash about, and so violently kick, or strangely twist their bodies, without putting all their limbs out of joint? Probably not. And yet—if only by some benevolent power they could be compelled for once to study fairly the ball-and-socket joint of the shoulder and the hip, they would truly hold their breath at every match they afterwards watched. Still, in most cases, indeed al- most all cases, their anxiety would be un- necessary. For the joint which is most of all in use, is most of all protected. Not only is the hip joint which permits all the continual kicking wonderfully self- [ 40 ] THE MARVEL OF DAILY LIFE lubricated, but the head of the femur, or thigh bone, is actually tied in to its con- taining cup, so that there may be the maximum amount of painless freedom with the minimum of risk of losing the leg after some mighty kick. Verily, if the players were logical they would close every game with the Doxology. And the spectators would join in, if they also were reasonable. For much as they enjoy their shouting, it is necessary to remind them that that too is all muscu- lar. And surely the muscles which rule the vocal cords are not less but more won- derful, for being so much more delicate. When excitement carries the crowd away, we read that they “shouted themselves hoarse.” But the papers which report that never pause to ask how it is that all men and women and children everywhere in all their speaking or singing, are not afflicted with the pain and hindrance of hoarseness.