PDF version - Geae

In the heavenly workshop where souls are forged, genius and glory are not sufficient to render them
truly beautiful. To give them the last sublime touch, sorrow is always necessary. Certain obscure existences
become as holy and sacred as those of the celebrated martyrs, because of their continued sufferings. It was not
because by some one great moment, or some circumstance of a tragic death, that they were lifted above
themselves, to the admiration of the centuries, but because their whole lives were a constant immolation; and
this long defile of sorrowful hours which prepared them for ultimate ascension forced the admiration of the
spirits themselves; and these touching spectacles inspire the great spirits with a willingness to be born again,
and to suffer and die again for all they love, and by a new sacrifice to reach still greater heights of glory.
* * *
Physical suffering is often an effort of nature which seeks to save us from excess. Without it we would
abuse our organs to the point of untimely destruction. When a serious malady attacks us, it often becomes a
benefit by causing us to realize and to detest the vices which have caused it. Sometimes we must suffer to
understand the laws of health. To weak souls, sickness comes to teach patience, wisdom, and self-control. To
strong souls if offers ideal compensations, in leaving the mind free for flights of aspiration, to the point of
forgetting physical suffering. Suffering is no less efficacious for society collective than for the individual.
Through it were formed the first human groups. Through the menace of wild beasts, of hunger and floods, men
were constrained to band themselves together, and through their common lives, their common sufferings,
through their intelligence and labor, came forth civilization, the arts, sciences, and industries. Again, we can
say that physical suffering results often from the disproportion between our corporeal weakness and the
colossal forces which surround us. We can only assimilate for ourselves an infinitesimal portion of these
forces, but they act upon us constantly, striving to enlarge the sphere of our activity and the power of our
sensations. The action on the physical organs reflects on the etheric form, and renders it more impressionable.
Suffering, by its chemical action, has a useful result, but this result varies infinitely according to the
state of individual development. In refining our material body, it gives greater force to the interior, more
facility for detaching itself from earthly things. Others, more evolved, are affected morally. Sorrow is like a
wing lent by the Over Soul to the flesh, to enable it to soar to the heights.
* * *
The first movement of unhappy man is that of revolt under the blows of fate. But later, when the soul
has climbed to heights where it contemplates the way it has trod, the moving defile of its existences, it is with
tender joy that it recalls the trials and tribulations which enabled it to attain to an understanding of truth.
If, in the hours of trial, we know how to watch the mysterious action of sorrow in ourselves, we would
better comprehend its sublime work of education and perfectionment. Sorrow always strikes our most
sensitive point – the hand which directs the chisel is that of an incomparable artist. It never wearies until all the
angles of our characters are rounded and polished. To that end it returns to its work as often as is necessary.
Under the repeated strokes of the hammer, conceit, egotism, apathy, indifference, anger and cruelty, all must
fall one by one.
For each one of us sorrow has its different methods, varied as the individual, but for all it acts
efficiently, in a manner to develop delicacy, feeling, and sympathy, and to give birth to qualities which slept in
the depths of the being, or to some new nobility never before acquired. And the more the soul responds and
grows under sorrow, the more spiritualizing become the effects of sorrow.
The wicked require innumerable trials, as a tree must bear many flowers before yielding fruit. But the
more the nature is perfected, the more admirable become the fruits. To gross souls come violent physical
suffering; to the selfish and mercenary, loss of fortune; to the pessimists, torment of mind; for delicate souls,
hidden sorrows and heart wound; and to great thinkers, subtle and profound grieves which send forth sublime
cries from the source of genius.
Astonishing, as it may seem at first, sorrow is but a means of infinite power to attract us to it, and at
the same time to bring us more rapidly to spiritual happiness, which alone is durable. So it is, then, God’s love
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