ch directs
reaction into new and smoother channels. But the pain is present whether
a permanent adaptation is being attained or not. It is present in
progressive dissolution and in hopeless and exhausting struggles far
more than in education or in profitable correction. Toothache and
sea-sickness, birth-pangs and melancholia are not useful ills. The
intenser the pain the more probable its uselessness. Only in vanishing
is it a sign of progress; in occurring it is an omen of defeat, just as
disease is an omen of death, although, for those diseased already,
medicine and convalescence may be approaches to health again. Where a
man's nature is out of gear and his instincts are inordinate, suffering
may be a sign that a dangerous peace, in which impulse was carrying him
ignorantly into paths without issue, is giving place to a peace with
security in which his reconstructed character may respond without
friction to the world, and enable him to gather a clearer experience and
enjoy a purer vitality. The utility of pain is thus apparent only, and
due to empirical haste in collating events that have no regular nor
inward relation; and even this imputed utility pain has only in
proportion to the worthlessness of those who need it.

[Sidenote: Perfect function no unconscious.]

A second current prejudice which may deserve notice suggests that an
organ, when its function is perfect, becomes unconscious, so that if
adaptation were complete life would disappear. The well-learned routine
of any mechanical art passes into habit, and habit into unconscious
operation. The virtuoso is not aware how he manipulates his instrument;
what was conscious labour in the beginning has become instinct and
miracle in the end. Thus it might appear that to eliminate friction and
difficulty would be to eliminate consciousness, and therefore value,
from the world. Life would thus be involved in a contradiction and moral
effort in an absurdity; for while the constant aim of practice is
perfection and that of labour ease, and both are without meaning or
standard unless directed to the attainment of these ends, yet such
attainment, if it were actual, would be worthless, so that what alone
justifies effort would lack justification and would in fact be incapable
of existence. The good musician must strive to play perfectly, but,
alas, we are told, if he succeeded he would have become an automaton.
The good man must aspire to holiness, but, alas, if he reache