Palingenesis

“ So firmly indeed was the Palingenesia believed by men of learning, that it was frequently insisted on by divines as a proof of the immortality of the soul and the resurrection of the body. Some trick must have been practised by the chemical wonder-workers which duped the spectators. ”

“ We are told how, "in order to demonstrate what epidemic diseases really are, and what they are not, and to put an end to errors which have so long and so universally prevailed on this subject, errors which he believes to be the source of incalculable misery and of certain death to millions of the human race, Dr Maclean, with an energy scarcely to be paralleled, has devoted thirty years—a large portion of the active life of man. ”

“ Of whom Mr Pancks had taken the prevalent disease, he could no more have told than if he had unconsciously taken a fever. Bred at first, as many physical diseases are, in the wickedness of men, and then disseminated in their ignorance, these epidemics, after a period, get communicated to many sufferers who are neither ignorant nor wicked. Mr Pancks might, or might not, have caught the illness himself from a subject of this class; but in this category he appeared before Clennam, and the infection he threw off was all the more virulent. ”

“ The same writer is convinced of the existence of a whole hierarchy of bad demons, who have their seat from the moon downwards, and are ever on the watch to do some mischief to nature and human life. He even tells of his own personal acquaintance with some of them, and as the scope of the present work does not allow of a systematic exposition of the then prevalent belief in spirits, the narrative of Palingenius may be given as one instance out of many. ”

“ Mona shrugged her shoulders.
"More things go to making a good physiology lecturer than you imagine,—a great many more," she added impressively.
Doris's face flushed.
"Not vivisection!" she exclaimed.
"Yes, vivisection. It may be that our modern science has gone off on an entirely wrong tack; it may be, as a young doctor said to me at Borrowness the other day, that we cannot logically stop short now of vivisecting human beings; but, as things are at present, I do not see how any man can conscientiously take an important lectureship on physiology, unless he does original work. ”

“ Ryan, hold forth last evening. Did you hear him, Mr. Hastings?"
"I did not," answered Pliny, laconically, remembering how far removed from a temperance lecture was the scene in which he had mingled the evening before. He was spared the trouble of further answer by his father's next remark.
"It is a remarkable recent conversion if Pliny has become interested in the temperance question," he said, eyeing him curiously. "I really don't know but total abstinence is a good idea for weak-minded young men who can not control themselves." ”

“ How little we can tell in life what actions or omissions will throw their light or shadow over our whole future!
"What right have we," he said musingly at last, "to say what is normal and what is not? How can we presume to make one ideal of virtue the standard for all? Look round the world boldly—not through the medium of tinted glass—and choose at random a dozen types. If there be a God at all, it is awful to think of His catholicity!"
Mona looked up with a smile.
"Forgive me, Miss Maclean," he said. ”

“ Any sickness that is serious is believed to be brought about by ghosts or spirits; common complaints such as fever and ague are taken as coming in the course of nature. To say that savages are never ill without supposing a super-natural cause is not true of Melanesians; they make up their minds as the sickness comes whether it is natural or not, and the more important the individual who is sick, the more likely his sickness is to be ascribed to the anger of a ghost whom he has offended, or to witchcraft. ”

“ It is asserted that the dwindling of organs from disuse is due to the successive survivals in posterity of individuals in which the organs have varied in the direction of decrease. Where now are the facts supporting this assertion? Not one has been assigned or can be assigned. Not a single case can be named in which panmixia is a proved cause of diminution. Even had the deductive argument for panmixia been as valid as we have found it to be invalid, there would still have been required, in pursuance of scientific method, some verifying inductive evidence. ”

“ Romanes and others have pointed out this weakness in his theory, but he does not notice it, and goes on calmly throughout the essay to assume that mere panmixia must cause progressive degeneration to an unlimited extent; whereas all it can do is to effect a reduction to the average of the total population on which selection has been previously worked. ”

“ I didn’t mince matters [174] with him; he is not one that will bear it; he knows all that I do, and is as clear-headed as usual; he knows certain things that must not be done. For instance, his daughter Ruth is, on no account, to be allowed to put her head inside the door. He was peremptory about that and must be obeyed, though there is no earthly fear of infection for some days yet; but I have given my word of honor that it shall be as he says. The trouble is, they will be left in the lurch. There isn’t a small-pox nurse in the city that I know of. ”

“ But you must not expect much benefit from excessive penitence. When he was amongst us, our Father Anthony used to say, 'Excessive fasting produces weakness, and weakness begets idleness. There are some monks who ruin their body by fasts improperly prolonged. Of them it may be said that they plunge a dagger into their own breast, and deliver themselves up unresistingly into the power of the devil.' So said the holy man, Anthony. I am but a foolish old man, but, by the grace of God, I have remembered what our father told us."
Paphnutius thanked Palemon and promised to think over his advice. ”

“ For those dead women-folk, especially her mother and the whole row of maiden aunts and grand-aunts, could not but be anxious about the child, knowing that little Pansie would be far safer under a tuft of dandelions than if left alone, as she soon must be, in this difficult and deceitful world. ”

“ He did not stop to question the strangeness of his state of mind, nor why that bit of soiled, torn paper should possess so fearful a power over him. He did not even realize at the moment that it was connected with this bewilderment, he only knew that the foundation upon which he had been building for years seemed suddenly to have been torn from under him by invisible hands, and left his feet sinking slowly down on nothing; and his inmost soul took suddenly up that solemn question with which he had never before troubled his logical brain: "I can not help asking myself why I was made?" ”

“ However, this evening Phanis doesn't see them.
He's in such a state that he remembers a thousand and one things. They come to mind all at the same time: the games he played, the courses he had last year, a fruit he cut and ate when he was little; a nest he'd found... Everything coming and going in his head, like ants in a nest. His head is buzzing.
His eyelids are burning and swollen. He really wants to sleep.
At last sleep came. This time it was deeper. Phanis will have slept for at least five or six hours. He felt in his sleep that he was cold, but he couldn't get up. ”

“ And the Senior Surgeon growled as he always did when things went against his liking. "You were a case in a thousand—in a lifetime. Because it happened once—here in this hospital—is no reason for believing that it will ever happen again."
"Oh yes, it is!" persisted Margaret MacLean. "There is just as much reason for believing as for not believing. Every one of those children, in the ward now might—yes, they might—be a case in a thousand; and no one has any right to take that thousandth of a chance away from them." ”

“ It would simply substantiate the truth of our contention that in the malingerer we see a type of individual who is far from normal, and in whom malingering as well as frank mental disease is not at all a rare phenomenon. ”

“ Little Pansie was the one earthly creature that inherited a drop of the Dolliver blood. The Doctor's only child, poor Bessie's offspring, had died the better part of a hundred years before, and his grandchildren, a numerous and dimly remembered brood, had vanished along his weary track in their youth, maturity, or incipient age, till, hardly knowing how it had all happened, he found himself tottering onward with an infant's small fingers in his nerveless grasp. ”

“ Nor is the degeneration stopped by the uninterrupted crossing of individuals in sexual propagation, but only slightly retarded. The number of individuals with weaker determinants must, despite this fact, go on increasing from generation to generation, so that soon every determinant that still happens to be endowed with exceptional vigor will be confronted by a decided overplus of weaker determinants, and by continued crossing therefore will become more and more impoverished. Panmixia is the indispensable precondition of the whole process ”

“ As we acquire more real insight into the workings of the human mind we are prone to become more tolerant towards the human weaknesses, and in our study of the malingerer it is the type of individual, his mental make-up, which interests us most, rather than the malingered symptoms. It is for this reason that today the number of authorities is indeed small who do not look upon malingering per se as a morbid phenomenon, as an abortive attempt at adjustment by an individual who is quite incapable of adequately coping with the vicissitudes of life. ”

“ It is only such old saints as you and I who have any right to get out of tone, when things do not go just to suit us.”
He laughed a little, then he said:
“Now, Marion, you know she has tried you very much, and without cause.”
“As to that, I suppose if you and I could see into her heart, she thinks she has sore cause. I would not make too much of it, if I were you; and I would make nothing at all of the part which has to do with me. She will feel differently before very long. She is young.”
Then Dr. Dennis’ thoughts went back to his daughter. ”

“ But just then Lora rose and went out.
"Ian Maclean, what is it?"
"Mary, my kinswoman, he is not alone."
"Not alone?"
"I have seen the other"
She knew now what he meant. He had seen the shadow-self, the phantasm of the living that, ere death, is often seen alongside the one who shall soon die. Mrs. Maclean knew well that this shadowy second-self simulated the real self, and that even all the actions of the body were reproduced with a grotesque verisimilitude. But she was also aware how, sometimes, one may learn from the mien of the phantasm what is hidden in the aspect of the doomed. ”

“ Pansie, however, fled onward with outstretched arms, half in fear, half in fun, plying her round little legs with wonderful promptitude, as if to escape Time or Death, in the person of Grandsir Dolliver, and happily avoiding the ominous pitfall that lies in every person's path, till, hearing a groan from her pursuer, she looked over her shoulder, and saw that poor grandpapa had stumbled over one of the many hillocks. ”

“ To be a Malincourt is at once to have a curse and a blessing hung round your neck. The Malincourts were originally of French extraction—descendants of the haute noblesse of old France—cursed with the devil's own pride and passionate self-will, and blessed with looks and brains and charm above the average. They never bend; they break sooner. And I think you've got the lot, Sara—the full inheritance. ”

“ Dr Maclean is spoken of as "one of those extraordinary men who is capable of concentrating all the faculties of his mind, and of devoting the best years of his life, to the accomplishment of one great and benevolent object." ”

“ In fact, he dwelt on a sort of pedestal, from the hight of which he looked calmly and excusingly down on weaker mortals. This, until to-night: now he realized, in a confused, blundering sort of way, that his pedestal had crumbled, or that he had tumbled from its hight, or at least that something new and strange had happened. For instance, what had become of his powers of discernment? Here was this miserable doctor, who had been one of the thorns of his life, whom he had looked down upon as a canting hypocrite. ”

“ Half-way to the bottom, however, the Doctor heard the impatient and authoritative tones of little Pansie,—Queen Pansie, as she might fairly have been styled, in reference to her position in the household,—calling amain for grandpapa and breakfast. He was startled into such perilous activity by the summons, that his heels slid on the stairs, the slippers were shuffled off his feet, and he saved himself from a tumble only by quickening his pace, and coming down at almost a run. ”

“ One of the evil consequences of this ignorance, which particularly oppresses the laboring class, is the artificial development of panaritia; the more frequently these occur, the more necessary it is to employ speedy and safe means for their extermination. ”

“ Four older'n me and just Allee younger. The bishop said he thought all of yours were grown up. Are they?"
"We—ll, none of them are very small now. Pansy is the youngest, and she is nearly fourteen."
"Pansy! Of all names! I s'pose she is as big as an elephant, ain't she?"
"She is rather large for her age," acknowledged the surprised minister, hardly knowing how to [Pg 143] receive these candid remarks of his youthful hostess.
"All the Pansies I ever knew were," sighed Peace. "I don't see why people will name their biggest children Pansy." ”

“ William Penn, writing to James Logan of some emigrants in 1709, says: “Herewith comes the Palatines, whom use with tenderness and love, and fix them so that they may send over an agreeable character; for they are a sober people, divers Mennonists, and will neither swear nor light. See that Guy has used them well.” [35] Thomas Chalkley, writing from Holland the same year, says: “There is a great people which they call Mennonists who are very near to truth, and the fields are white unto harvest among that people spiritually speaking.” ”