The Irony of Appreciation for Life Through Hardship

Why do humans receive clarity about life through hardship?

"let this stand as a direction from the experience of the most miserable of all conditions in this world: that we may always find in it something to comfort ourselves from, and to set, in the description of good and evil, on the credit side of the account." (Defoe 50)

 "'(Boerhaave) [...] declared that he had lately had a kind of experimental Certainty of the distinction between Corporeal and Thinking Substances, which mere Reason and Philosophy cannot afford, and Opportunities of contemplating the wonderful and inexplicable Union of Soul and Body, which nothing but long Sickness can give. [...]'" (Smith 19)

I am not surprised that Crusoe would abandon his plantation in Brazil to seek out more fortunes after all he had survived. There is a direct parallel with him leaving this time to his initial departure from England. He clearly is still discontent with a sedentary lifestyle and is ever at the whim of his desire for adventure. Crusoe seems to be most alive when faced with peril but doesn't truly begin to understand life until he is marooned on the island. Crusoe can't stay in one place long enough to reflect on his life until he no longer has a choice. In the midst of his wreck he is able to realize his fortune in surviving. He declares there is always some good to take comfort in no matter the situation. It is a tragic irony that in order to appreciate life, he had to nearly lose it.

Smith quotes Samuel Johnson's reflection on the revelations Herman Boerhaave received through his own dire circumstances. Through his ailment, Boerhaave is able to contemplate the differences between the body and soul in a way that he could not when they were whole. In health he was trapped in the contemporary notion that the soul was inherit to the flesh. However, as his flesh failed him he understood that his soul thrived. Like Crusoe, Boerhaave discovers a beauty of life that required the ugly of life, the sickness.

Is suffering necessary for gaining wisdom and insight? It certainly can have a more lasting impact on development of character and understanding. I don't have a complete answer now but I enjoyed the irony of the two passages that captured this aspect of our lives.