H. B. C.
U. U. Club.
Permit me to offer to H. B. C.'s consideration the case of Mutius Scævola, who, failing in his attempt to kill Porsenna in his own camp, and being taken before the king, thrust his right hand into the fire, and held it there until burnt; at the same time declaring that he knew three hundred men who would not flinch from doing the same thing. To a certain extent, I am inclined to think with Alfred Gatty (Vol. ix., p. 246.), "that an exalted state of feeling may be attained;" which, though it will not render the religious or political martyr insensible to pain, it will yet nerve him to go through his martyrdom without demonstration of extreme suffering.
This ability to endure pain may be accounted for in either of the following ways:
1. An exalted state of feeling; instance Joan of Arc.
2. Fortitude; instance Mutius Scævola.
3. Nervous insensibility; which carries the vanquished American Indian through the most exquisite tortures, and enables him to fall asleep on the least respite of his agony.
Should these three be united in one individual, it is needless to say that he could undergo any bodily pain without a murmur.
John P. Stilwell.