He
talked with other young men who believed they were fighting for the same
cause. And then--it must have been shortly before he was wounded--he
wrote you that appeal.
ASHER. The letter I read to you!
DR. JONATHAN. The fact that in his own home, in the shops which bore his
name, no attempt had been made to meet the new issues for which he was
going into battle, weighed upon him. Then came the shell that shattered
his body. But the probabilities are that he was struck down,
unconscious, at the very moment when the conflict in his mind was most
acute. He was thinking of you, of the difference you and he had had, he
was lonely, he was afraid for the bravest men feel fear. To him the
bursting of the shell was the bursting of the conflict within him. I
won't go into the professional side of the matter, the influence of the
mental state on the physical--but after the wound healed, whenever
anything occurred to remind him of the conflict,--a letter from you, the
sight of the strikers this afternoon at the shops, meeting you once more,
a repetition came of what happened when the shell struck him. Certain
glands fail in their functions, the heart threatens to stop and put an
end to life. If my theory is correct, what I have given him may tide
over that danger, but only on one condition can he continue to live and
become a useful member of society.
Pages:
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124