What are these two gaunt figures, and
why are they permitted to be our constant
followers?

It is we who permit them, we who order
them, as we permit and order the action of our
bodies; and we do so as unconsciously. But
by scientific experiment and investigation we
have learned much about our physical life, and
it would seem as if we can obtain at least as
much result with regard to our inner life by
adopting similar methods.

Pain arouses, softens, breaks, and destroys.
Regarded from a sufficiently removed standpoint,
it appears as medicine, as a knife, as a
weapon, as a poison, in turn. It is an implement,
a thing which is used, evidently. What
we desire to discover is, who is the user; what
part of ourselves is it that demands the
presence of this thing so hateful to the rest?

Medicine is used by the physician, the knife
by the surgeon; but the weapon of destruction
is used by the enemy, the hater.

Is it, then, that we do not only use means,
or desire to use means, for the benefit of our
souls, but that also we wage warfare within