The Good Book_ A Secular Bible - A. C. Grayling [49]
24. Anguish that only intellect can know, and reason, reflecting on the sorrow of things.
25. Anguish is a form of suffering unknown to brutes in their natural state.
Chapter 12
1. The crowd of miserable wretches whose one aim in life is to fill their purses,
2. But never their heads! offers a singular instance of self-inflicted suffering.
3. Their wealth becomes a punishment by being an end in itself and a substitute for life.
4. They hasten about, travelling restlessly. No sooner do they arrive somewhere than they anxiously seek to know what amusements it offers, just like beggars asking where they can receive a dole!
5. But all this only increases the measure of suffering in human life, out of all proportion to its pleasures;
6. And the pains of life are made worse for man by the fact that death is something real to him.
7. The brute flies from death instinctively without knowing what it is,
8. And therefore without ever contemplating it as man does, who has the prospect of it always before him.
9. The brute is more content with mere existence than is a human; the plant is wholly so; and humans find satisfaction in life just in proportion as they are dull and obtuse.
10. Accordingly, the life of the brute has far less sorrow in it, but also less joy, when compared with a human life;
11. And while this may be traced to the brute’s freedom from the torments of care and anxiety, it is also because the illusion of hope is unknown to it.
12. There is thus one respect in which brutes show greater wisdom than humans: their quiet, placid enjoyment of the present moment.
13. This contributes to the delight we take in our domestic pets. They are the present moment personified, and make us feel the value of every hour that is free from troubles,
14. A fact which we, with our thoughts and preoccupations, always ignore.
15. But humans, those selfish and heartless creatures, misuse this quality of the brute,
16. And work it to such an extent that they allow the brute absolutely nothing more than mere, bare life.
17. The bird which can wander over half of the world, they shut in a cage, there to die a slow death in longing and crying for freedom;
18. For in a cage it does not sing from pleasure, but despair.
19. And when I see how humans misuse their dogs, their most loyal friends; how they tie up these intelligent animals with chains,
20. I feel acute sympathy with the brute, and indignation against their owners.
21. Yet even the brutes suffer in nature, from disease or accident, and from the ravages of the beasts of prey.
22. We are forced to ask, Why does all this torment and agony exist, among brutes and among humankind?
23. Alas: the truth is that we suffer, and carry the burden of existence, and there is no remedy other than illusion.
24. The conviction that the world and humanity had better not have been,
25. Is of a kind to fill us with indulgence towards one another.
26. From this point of view, we might well consider that the proper way to address each other is, ‘my fellow-sufferer, my companion in miseries’.
27. This may sound strange, but it is in keeping with the facts; it puts others in a right light;
28. And it reminds us of that which is after all the most necessary thing in life:
29. Tolerance, patience, regard, and love of neighbour, of which everyone stands in need, and which, therefore, we each owe to our fellows.
Chapter 13
1. Wife! Yes, I do write to you less often than I ought, because, though I am always wretched,
2. Yet when I write to you or read a letter from you, I am in such floods of tears that I cannot endure it.
3. Oh, that I had clung less to life! I should at least never have known real sorrow, or not so much of it.
4. Yet if I have any hope of recovering any position ever again, I was not utterly wrong to do so:
5. If these miseries are to be permanent, I only wish, my dear, to see you as soon as possible and to die in your arms,
6. For the good we have striven to do has been