Some of our sweetest solaces never could have been known but for the afflictions which bring them. What tender friendships gather around us when we are sick! What hearts beat for us and sympathize with us, and would, if they could, take themselves the pain that racks us! We should never know what tenderness and pity and kindness there is in the world, if our trials did not bring them out. Many of our calamities attach us more to our fellow-men, and make us think better of the world than we did before.
– Ichabod Spencer –