‘One day when I was twenty-three or twenty-four this sentence seemed to form in my head, without my willing it, much as sentences form when we are half-asleep, ‘Hammer* your thoughts into unity’. For days I could think of nothing else and for years I tested all I did by that sentence [...]”* William Butler Yeats, Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature (*cited in Frank Tuohy, Yeats, 1976, p.51 )

*hammer images "Thor's Hammer is a symbol of the struggle against chaos and evil. It's the weapon used by Thor against giants, monsters, and other trollish folk who threaten the common good. It seems particularly appropriate in these troubled times" (http://www.ragweedforge.com/ThorsHammer.html). See especially http://www.mackaos.com.au/Articles/Mjol.html

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Compassion

[a. F. compassion (14th c. in Littré), ad. late L. compassi{omac}n-em (Tertullian, Jerome), n. of action f. compati (ppl. stem compass-) to suffer together with, feel pity, f. com- together with + pati to suffer.]

{dag}1. Suffering together with another, participation in suffering; fellow-feeling, sympathy. Obs.

1340 Ayenb. 148 Huanne on leme is zik o{th}er y-wonded. hou moche zor{ygh}e he{th} {th}e herte and grat compassion y-uel{th}. 1398 TREVISA Barth. De P.R. V. i. (1495) 100 The membres ben so sette togyders that..euery hath compassyon of other. 1561 EDEN Arte de Nauig. Pref., Such a mutuall compassion of parte to parte..by one common sence existent in them all. 1625 GILL Sacr. Philos. iv. 63 That it was onely by a vegetable or animall soule, which suffered by compassion with the body.

2. The feeling or emotion, when a person is moved by the suffering or distress of another, and by the desire to relieve it; pity that inclines one to spare or to succour. Const. on (of obs.).

(The compassion of sense 1 was between equals or fellow-sufferers; this is shown towards a person in distress by one who is free from it, who is, in this respect, his superior.)

c1340 HAMPOLE Prose Tr. 36 {Th}ou may thynke of synnes and of wrechidnes of thyne euencristene..with pete and of compassione of thaym. 1535 COVERDALE Joel ii. 12 The Lorde..is..longe sufferynge & of greate compassion. 1591 SHAKES. 1 Hen. VI, IV. i. 56 Mou'd with compassion of my Countries wracke. 1632 LITHGOW Trav. IX. (1682) 386 In Compassion whereof the worthy Gentleman doubled his Wages. 1676 HOBBES Iliad I. 23 You on me compassion may show. 1770 Junius' Lett. xxxvi. 170 You have every claim to compassion that can arise from misery and distress. 1823 SOUTHEY Hist. Penins. War I. 352 In compassion to her grief, and in answer to her prayers. 1876 MOZLEY Univ. Serm. vii. 148 Compassion..gives the person who feels it pleasure even in the very act of ministering to and succouring pain.

{dag}b. with plural. Obs. or arch.

1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 262 All the compassyons & mercyes that thou shewed to the people. 1611 BIBLE Lam. iii. 22 His compassions faile not. 1787 WHITAKER Mary Q. Scots Vind. in H. Campbell Love-Lett. Mary (1824) 263 All the little jealousies of the rival will surely melt away in the compassions of the woman.

c. to have compassion: to have pity, take pity. So {dag}to take compassion (upon, of).

1382 WYCLIF Heb. x. 34 For whi and to boundun men {ygh}e hadden compassioun. c1385 CHAUCER L.G.W. 390 Prol., And han of pore folk compassioun. 1483 CAXTON Cato Civ, I haue grete ruthe and compassion on you. 1590 MARLOWE Edw. II, Wks. (Rtldg.) 210/2 Thy heart..Could not but take compassion of my state! 1611 BIBLE Ex. ii. 6 She had compassion on him. 1647 W. BROWNE Polex. I. 164, I..besought him not so to have compassion of a daughter whom he had made miserable. 1714 MANDEVILLE Fab. Bees (1725) I. 290 Humanity bids us have compassion with the sufferings of others. 1841 LANE Arab. Nts. I. 104 Have compassion on the mighty whom love hath abased.

{dag}3. Sorrowful emotion, sorrow, grief. Obs.

c1340 Cursor M. 23945 heading (Fairf.), Compassioun of our lauedi for {th}e passioun of hir sone. 1488 CAXTON Chast. Goddes Chyld. 7 Teres of compascyon, teres of compunccion, teres of loue and of deuocyon. 1590 SPENSER F.Q. I. iii. 6 Her hart gan melt in great compassion; And drizling teares did shed for pure affection.

DRAFT ADDITIONS SEPTEMBER 2002

compassion, n.

* compassion fatigue orig. U.S., apathy or indifference towards the suffering of others or to charitable causes acting on their behalf, typically attributed to numbingly frequent appeals for assistance, esp. donations; (hence) a diminishing public response to frequent charitable appeals.

1968 A. W. FARMER in Minutes Comm. World Service (Lutheran World Federation) 64 You have been hearing and perhaps using, as I have, the phrase ‘*Compassion Fatigue’. We are just tired out with all the repeated appeals to do good. 1987 Listener 29 Oct. 19/2 What the refugee workers call ‘compassion fatigue’ has set in. Back in the 1970s, when the boat people were on the front pages, the world was eager to help. But now the boat people are old news. 1995 S. NYE Best of ‘Men behaving Badly’ (2000) 161/2 Deborah. Anything to help Dorothy? Gary. No, thanks, I'll shoulder the burden of caring for her. Deborah. Oh, well, maybe later, when compassion fatigue sets in. 2000 Big Issue 4 Sept. 25/2 In a culture exhausted by compassion fatigue, shock is now used more cautiously.

Oxford English Dictionary