The sensation of pain does not, probably, reach its
maximum till the whole organism is fully developed in the adult
individual. "This," he added, with that characteristic touch which made
him kin to all oppressed people, "is rather comforting in view of the
sufferings of so many infants needlessly sacrificed through the terrible
defects of our vicious social system."
To Wallace pain was the birth-cry of a soul's advance--the stamp of rank
in nature is capacity for pain. Pain, he held, was always strictly
subordinated to the law of utility, and was never developed beyond what
was actually needed for the protection and advance of life. This brings
the sensitive soul immense relief. Our susceptibility to the higher
agonies is a condition of our advance in life's pageant.
Take another instance. Amongst his numerous correspondents there were
not a few who decided not to take life, for food, or science, or in war.
One young man who went out with the assistance of Wallace to Trinidad
and Brazil to become a naturalist, and to whom he wrote many letters[70]
of direction and encouragement, gave up the work of collecting--to
Wallace's sincere disappointment--and came home because he felt that it
was wrong to take the lives of such wondrous and beautiful birds and
insects. Another correspondent, who had joined the Navy, wrote a number
of long letters to Wallace setting forth his conscientious objections to
killing, arrived at after reading Wallace's books; and although Wallace
endeavoured from prudential considerations to restrain him from giving
up his position, he nevertheless wholly sympathised with him and in the
end warmly defended him when it was necessary to do so.
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