THE    CURE   FOR   INCURABLES.  9

common  good  (including  his  own),  and  yet  has
scruples  about  sacrificing  for  the  same  object  a
few  days  of  agonized  existence,  is  like  a  man  who
lavishes  his  grain,  but  treasures  up  the  worthless
husks.
But  this  is  not  all.  Among  the  talents  which
men  thus  devote  to  the  public  good  are  included
health  and  strength  ;  and  these,  it  need  hardly  be
said,  are  potentialities  of  life.  Statistics  seem  to
show  that  the  best  chance  of  reaching  old  age  is
by  living,  as  it  were,  in  cotton-wool,  and  by  exert-
ing one's  brain  only  just  so  much  as  may  be
necessary  either  to  earn  one's  bread,  or  to  keep
the  mind  from  preying  on  itself.  Every  one  who
does  more  than  this  diminishes  the  value  of  his
life,  and  is  what  I  may  call  a  slow  suicide.
Indeed,  it  would  be  easy  to  make  a  goodly  series
of  classes  and  conditions  of  men,  from  sportsmen
to  martyrs,  who  have  acted  in  a  way  which  would
be  regarded  by  any  insurer  as  opposed  to  long
life,  and  who,  therefore, — if  the  hackneyed,  but
most  inexact  phrase  has  any  meaning, — have  taken
measures  "  to  quit  their  post  without  awaiting
their  commander's  bidding."  Of  course,  it  may
be  said  that  the  martyrs,  when  they  die,  are  obey-
ing a  Divine  summons,  as  they  have  hastened
their  end  from  noble  motives ;  but  it  may  fairly
be  asked  whether  we  have  a  right  to  censure  the


10  STONES    OF   STUMBLING.
motives  of  a  man  who  declines  to  prolong
wantonly  the  suffering  of  himself  and  his  family ;
in  other  words,  who  provideth  for  his  own,  and
also  for  those  of  his  own  house.
