D*****r
发帖数: 6791 | 1 by Mark Twain from Fables of Man （1908）
Little Bessie was nearly three years old. She was a good child, and not
shallow, not frivolous, but meditative and thoughtful, and much given to
thinking out the reasons of things and trying to make them harmonise with
results. One day she said --
"Mamma, why is there so much pain and sorrow and suffering? What is it all
for?"
It was an easy question, and mamma had no difficulty in answering it:
"It is for our good, my child. In His wisdom and mercy the Lord sends us
these afflictions to discipline us and make us better."
"Is it He that sends them?"
"Yes."
"Does He send all of them, mamma?"
"Yes, dear, all of them. None of them comes by accident; He alone sends them
, and always out of love for us, and to make us better."
"Isn't it strange!"
"Strange? Why, no, I have never thought of it in that way. I have not heard
any one call it strange before. It has always seemed natural and right to me
, and wise and most kindly and merciful."
"Who first thought of it like that, mamma? Was it you?"
"Oh, no, child, I was taught it."
"Who taught you so, mamma?"
"Why, really, I don't know -- I can't remember. My mother, I suppose; or the
preacher. But it's a thing that everybody knows."
"Well, anyway, it does seem strange. Did He give Billy Norris the typhus?"
"Yes."
"What for?"
"Why, to discipline him and make him good."
"But he died, mamma, and so it couldn't make him good."
"Well, then, I suppose it was for some other reason. We know it was a good
reason, whatever it was."
"What do you think it was, mamma?"
"Oh, you ask so many questions! I think; it was to discipline his parents."
"Well, then, it wasn't fair, mamma. Why should his life be taken away for
their sake, when he wasn't doing anything?"
"Oh, I don't know! I only know it was for a good and wise and merciful
reason."
"What reason, mamma?"
"I think -- I think -- well, it was a judgment; it was to punish them for
some sin they had committed."
"But he was the one that was punished, mamma. Was that right?"
"Certainly, certainly. He does nothing that isn't right and wise and
merciful. You can't understand these things now, dear, but when you are
grown up you will understand them, and then you will see that they are just
and wise."
After a pause:
"Did He make the roof fall in on the stranger that was trying to save the
crippled old woman from the fire, mamma?"
"Yes, my child. Wait! Don't ask me why, because I don't know. I only know it
was to discipline some one, or be a judgment upon somebody, or to show His
power."
"That drunken man that stuck a pitchfork into Mrs. Welch's baby when -- "
"Never mind about it, you needn't go into particulars; it was as to
discipline the child -- that much is certain, anyway."
"Mamma, Mr. Burgess said in his sermon that billions of little creatures are
sent into us to give us cholera, and typhoid, and lockjaw, and more than a
thousand other sicknesses and -- mamma, does He send them?"
"Oh, certainly, child, certainly. Of course."
"What for?"
"Oh, to discipline us! haven't I told you so, over and over again?"
"It's awful cruel, mamma! And silly! and if I -- "
"Hush, oh hush! do you want to bring the lightning?"
"You know the lightning did come last week, mamma, and struck the new church
, and burnt it down. Was it to discipline the church?"
(Wearily). "Oh, I suppose so."
"But it killed a hog that wasn't doing anything. Was it to discipline the
hog, mamma?"
"Dear child, don't you want to run out and play a while? If you would like
to -- "
"Mama, only think! Mr. Hollister says there isn't a bird or fish or reptile
or any other animal that hasn't got an enemy that Providence has sent to
bite it and chase it and pester it, and kill it, and suck; its blood and
discipline it and make it good and religious. Is that true, mother --
because if it is true, why did Mr. Hollister laugh at it?"
"That Hollister is a scandalous person, and I don't want you to listen to
anything he says."
"Why, mamma, he is very interesting, and I think he tries to be good. He
says the wasps catch spiders and cram them down into their nests in the
ground -- alive, mamma! -- and there they live and suffer days and days and
days, and the hungry little wasps chewing their legs and gnawing into their
bellies all the time, to make them good and religious and praise God for His
infinite mercies. I think Mr. Hollister is just lovely, and ever so kind;
for when I asked him if he would treat a spider like that, he said he hoped
to be damned if he would; and then he -- "
"My child! oh, do for goodness' sake -- "
"And mamma, he says the spider is appointed to catch the fly, and drive her
fangs into his bowels, and suck and suck and suck his blood, to discipline
him and make him a Christian; and whenever the fly buzzes his wings with the
pain and misery of it, you can see by the spider's grateful eye that she is
thanking the Giver of All Good for -- well, she's saving grace, as he says;
and also, he -- "
"Oh, aren't you ever going to get tired chattering! If you want to go out
and play -- "
"Mama, he says himself that all troubles and pains and miseries and rotten
diseases and horrors and villainies are sent to us in mercy and kindness to
discipline us; and he says it is the duty of every father and mother to help
Providence, every way they can; and says they can't do it by just scolding
and whipping, for that won't answer, it is weak and no good -- Providence's
way is best, and it is every parent's duty and every person's duty to help
discipline everybody, and cripple them and kill them, and starve them, and
freeze them, and rot them with diseases, and lead them into murder and theft
and dishonor and disgrace; and he says Providence's invention for
disciplining us and the animals is the very brightest idea that ever was,
and not even an idiot could get up anything shinier. Mamma, brother Eddie
needs disciplining, right away: and I know where you can get the smallpox
for him, and the itch, and the diphtheria, and bone-rot, and heart disease,
and consumption, and -- Dear mamma, have you fainted! I will run and bring
help! Now this comes of staying in town this hot weather." |
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