The Sources of Consolation in Human Life (Classic Reprint)

Book excerpt: Excerpt from The Sources of Consolation in Human Life Experiences of thwarted hope, fruitless effort, bereavement, betrayal, sickness, fear, perplexity, collapsing wretchedness, distraction, and despair, are so numerous and so constant as to compose one of the elemental aspects of the history of our race. The correspondent call for ministra tions of solace, courage, and cheer is so emphatic that unnumbered attempts have naturally been made to answer it. A host of books have been published with this object in view. But the majority of them have been mere compilations, sentimental and superficial, without intellectual penetration, and without moral and religious vitality or charm. This species of literature, as a rule, has much of professional phraseology, mechanical commonplace, and traditional cant, with little of that interpretative knowledge and living sympathy which alone are laden with a divinely human helpfulness. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.