Perhaps
you are afraid of "disturbing" him. You say there is no comfort for his
present cause of affliction. It is perfectly reasonable. The
distinction is this, if he is obliged to act, do not "disturb" him with
another subject of thought just yet; help him to do what he wants to do:
but, if he _has_ done this, or if nothing _can_ be done, then "disturb"
him by all means. You will relieve, more effectually, unreasonable
suffering from reasonable causes by telling him "the news," showing him
"the baby," or giving him something new to think of or to look at than
by all the logic in the world.
It has been very justly said that the sick are like children in this,
that there is no _proportion_ in events to them. Now it is your business
as their visitor to restore this right proportion for them--to shew them
what the rest of the world is doing. How can they find it out otherwise?
You will find them far more open to conviction than children in this.
And you will find that their unreasonable intensity of suffering from
unkindness, from want of sympathy, &c., will disappear with their
freshened interest in the big world's events.
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