"They were great sinners," said Amroth, "and the sorrows they made and
flung so carelessly about them, beat back upon them now in a surge of
pain. These men were strangely affected, each of them, by the smallest
sight or sound of suffering--a tortured animal, a crying child; and yet
they were utterly ruthless of the pain that they did not see. It was a
lack, no doubt, of the imagination of which I spoke, and which makes all
the difference. And now they have to contemplate the pain which they
could not imagine; and they have to learn submission and humility. It is
a terrible business in a way--the loneliness of it! There used to be an
old saying that the strongest man was the man that was most alone. But
it was just because these men practised loneliness on earth that they
have to suffer so. They used others as counters in a game, they had
neither friend nor beloved, except for their own pleasure. They depended
upon no one, needed no one, desired no one. But there are many others
here who did the same on a small scale--selfish fathers and mothers who
made homes miserable; boys who were bullies at school and tyrants in the
world, in offices, and places of authority.
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