Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1841-1853, 1845-05-15
HazIitt's TabIe-TaIks
A BRILLIANT ESSAY FROM THE NEW NUMBER o
WILEY AND PUTNAM's LIBRARY CHOICE READING.
ON THE FEAR OF DEATH.
~And our littl. life is rounded with a sleeps


WILEY AND PUrNAM's LIBRARY OF CHOICE READING
ON THE FEAR OF DEATH.
"And our little life is rounded with a sleep"
Perhaps the best cure for the fear Of death is
feet that life has beginning as well as an end.
There was a time when we were not /; this gives us
concern-why then should it trouble US that time
will come when we shall cease to be have no
wish to have been alive hundred years ago, or IN
the reign of Queen Anne; why should regret and
Law it SO much to heart that shall not be alive hum
dred years hence in the reign of cannot tell wbomi
When Bickerstaff wrote his Essays knew moth
inc of the subjects of them nay, much LATER and but
the other day. it were, in the beginning OF the reign
of George III, when Goldsmith, Johnson, Burke,
used to meet at the Globe when Garrick was in his
glory and Reynolds was over head and with his
portraits, and Sterne brought out the volumes of
TristTam Shandy year by year, 1t was without con-
sulting ne l had not the slightest intmation OF
what was going on the debates in the House of
Commons on the American war, or the hiring at Bun
kers Hill, disturbed not me ; yet thought this no
evil neither ate, drank, merry, yet did
not complain | had not then looked out into this
breathing world, yet was well and the world did
quite well without me as I did without it Why
then should make all this outcry about parting with
1t, and being no worse off than was before There
Is nothing IN the recollection that at certain time
we were not come into the world, that "the gorge
rises at'-why should revolt at the idea that we
must one day go out of it To die Is only to be as
remorse or regret or repugnance in contemplating this
last idea. 1t rather relief and disburthening of
the mind 1t seems to have been holiday-time with
Us then we were not called to appear upon the stage
of life to robes tatters, to laugh or cry, be
hooted apPlauded we had lain Perdu all this while
snug, out of harms way and had slept out our thou
sands of centuries without wanting to be walked up
peace and free from in long homage, sleep
deeper and calmer than that of infancy wrapped in
the softest and finest dust And the worst that we
dread is after short, fretful, feversh being after
vain hopes and idle fears, to sink to final repose
again, and forget the troubled dream of life . .
Ye armed men, knightstemplars, that sleep In the
stone asles of that old Temple Church, where all is
silent above and where deeper silence reigns below
(no broken by the peang organ) are We not content
ed where ye lie! Or would YOU come out of your
long homes to 90 to the Holy War! Or do you COM
plain that pain longer visits you, that sickness has
done is worst that you have paid the last debt to
tire, that you hear no more of the thickenng phalanx
Of the foe your ladys waning love, and that while
this ball of earth rolls its eternal round no sound
shall pierce through to disturb your lasting
pose, fixed the marble your tombS, breathless
the grave that holds you And thou, oh thou, tc
whom my heart turns, and win turn while 1t has feel
ing left who didst love in vain, and whose first was
thy last sigh, wilt not thou too rest in peace Cor wilt
thou cry to me complaining from thy clay-cod bed
when that sad heart is longer sad, and that
is Dead which thou vert only called into the world tc
feel!
i
preexlstng state, that exctes longing like the
prospect of posthumous existence. We are satisfied
to have begun life when we did we have no amb
ton to have out our journey sooner; and fee
that we have quite enough to do to battle our way
through. We cannot say
The well remember Of King Nine,
OF old Assaracus and Inachus Divine,
neither have we any wish we are contented to read
OF them IN story, and to stand and gaze at the vas
of time that separates from them. twas early
days then the world not lcel-airea enough fol-
we have no inclination to have been up and stir
ring. We do not consider the six thousand years o.
the world before were born as so much time los
TO us; perfectly Indifferent about the matter
We do not grieve and lament that we did not happier
to be in time to the grand mask and pageant o
human life going in all that period though We
are mortified at being obliged to quit station be
fore the rest of the procession passes.
1t may be suggested In explanation of this differ
ence, that we know from various records and tradi
tons what happened in the time of Queen Anne, o.
In the regns Of the Assyrian mcnarchs but tina
we have no means Of ascertaining what is to HAPPIER
hereafter except by awaiting the event. and that
eagerness and curiosity sharpened proportion
as IN the dark about it. This is not at all tn
case; for that rate should be constantly wshn.
to make voyage of discovery to Greenland to tn
Moon, neither of which have, in general the leas
desire to do. Neither, IN TRUTH have we any parti
cular soctude to pry into the secrets of turty, bu
not 90 much that we care TO be alive hundred or
thousand years hence, any than have bee
alive hundred thousand years ago but tn
thing lies here that we would all of us wish the pre-
to last forever. We would be as w
are, and would have the world remain Just as it is
to please orr fancy.
"The present eye catches the present Object
TO have and to hold while it may /; and we abhor o
any terms, to have it torn from us, and nothing left
Its 1t IS the pang Of parting the unloosng GU
grasp, the breaking assunder strong tie, tn
leaving cherished purpose unful6lled that ere
ates the repugnance to go, and makes calamity Of
long life," as it often is.
sOh thou strong heart
There's such covenant 'twixi the world and thee,
Ye're 10th to break -
The love of life them is an habitual attachment nc
an abstract principle. Simply to De does not conter
mans natural desire y long to be in a certai
time, place, and circumstance. We would niue
rather be now son this bank and shoal of time " tina
have our choice of any future period, than take
for instance This shows that our attachment is NJ
confined either to being to tceH-being but that
have an inveterate prejudice in favor Of our immed
ate existence, such as it is. The mountaneer wi
not leave his rock, the savage his hut neithe
are willing TO give up our present mode of lif.
with all its advantages and disadvantages, for an
other that could be substituted for it. No man would
1 think, exchange his existence with any other mar
however fortunate We had as lief not be- as moi
ourselves. Taere are some persons OF that reach {
soul that they would like to live hundred and fit
wears hence to see what height Of empire Americ
will have grown up in that period, or whether th
English CoDstitution viii last 50 long These Al
points beyond me- But confess should ike to Sc