Triumph in Adversity
Two famous figures, one from the sciences and one from the arts, who turned suffering to advantage.
1871
Two famous figures, one from the sciences and one from the arts, who turned suffering to advantage.
1871
Samuel Smiles gives two striking examples of great Englishmen who have brought much good out of their sufferings, one in the field of science, the other in the arts.
MUCH of the best and most useful work done by men and women has been done amidst affliction — sometimes as a relief from it, sometimes from a sense of duty overpowering personal sorrow.
“If I had not been so great an invalid,” said Dr Darwin to a friend, “I should not have done nearly so much work as I have been able to accomplish.”*
So Dr Donne, speaking of his illnesses, once said: “This advantage you and my other friends have by my frequent fevers is, that I am so much the oftener at the gates of Heaven; and by the solitude and close imprisonment they reduce me to, I am so much the oftener at my prayers, in which you and my other dear friends are not forgotten.”**
Character, in its highest forms, is disciplined by trial, and “made perfect through suffering.”*** Even from the deepest sorrow, the patient and thoughtful mind will gather richer wisdom than pleasure ever yielded.
Charles Darwin (1809-1882) is famous as the author of ‘Origin of Species’, which popularised his Theory of Evolution. Stress began to affect him seriously from the late 1830s onwards, revealing itself in headaches and skin, stomach and heart symptoms of various kinds which stubbornly refused to go away.
** John Donne (1573-1631) is best known today for his sacred and secular poetry. He nearly died of a bout of fever in late November and early December 1623, while he was Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral in London. The experience led directly to his ‘Devotions upon Emergent Occasions’ (1624) and the famous line ‘Never send to know for whom the bell tolls’.
*** See Hebrews 2:10.
1. What is the author aiming to achieve in writing this?
2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that strike you. How do they help the author communicate his ideas more effectively?
3. What impression does this passage make on you? How might you put that impression into words?
Based on The English Critic (1939) by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn, Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University, USA.
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
According to Smiles, in what ways can personal sorrow bring benefits?
Suffering people often lose themselves in work.
Express the ideas below in a single sentence, using different words as much as possible. Do not be satisfied with the first answer you think of; think of several, and choose the best.
Some people experience great suffering. They achieve amazing things.