The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1863-09-24
PACIFIC
Commercial Advertiser.
The PainIessness Of Death.

All who have thought upon the subject, know
how nearly pleasure and pain are allied 70 each
other. Ii appears as ii they were two adjoining
spheres or elements, and that you cannot over
step the domain of the one without entering the
opposite state. 1t is this proximity Of opposites
that will explain many of those remarkable occur
rences which are recorded in histories and bio
g~raphies. Martyrs roasting at the fire, criminals
under the rack, and soldiers mangled upon the
battlefield, have all shouted in ecstacy, and never
were go happy il their lives. George Fox relates
in his journal how that, on a certain Time "heh
he had been beaten in a most horrible manner
and thrown into a sinking prison. ne was so
happy that he sat up In the dungeon ana sang
for ioy. Just think < of that,-a Quaker singing
when n brutal Iopulace thought they had killed
him and yet this is nothing more than what
would have happened to any OF US in similar cir
which the Greater has fixed to our susceptibility
OF Observation-Disclosures, deliriumr pleasure, death,
and all is over.
A still better conception may be formed Of the
painlessness of death by comparing II with what
Homer calls
Death, halfbro,her, sleep :"
for the phenomen. in one Gus bear q close analogy
10 the other. Va. sleep whenever the circulation
of the blood in thS. brain is 50 low as not to stimu-
late the gray mat. IT which overlays the invOlu-
tions and conyolltions. If one particular part
be excited and not the others, we dream ; dream
ing is, therefore, n partial wakeiulness. If the
circulation be entirely withdrawn, the sleep IS
profound, and if the brain be full of blood, we
are thoroughly awake. i have now been awake
for about thirteen hours, in the course Of another
three hours 1 shall retire To rest; Il slight change
will take place in tile circulation, and sleep will
ensue and when sufficient excitability has accu-
INFLATED To sustain another days toll, | shall
awake again. Now, | I'm not only unconscious
OF the time when / 80 to sleep. hut may be- burnt
To- death without ever waking at all. This often
happens to people in Gases of fire, or 10 those
sleeping upon lime kilns, when the limbs are
burnt from the body without the sleeper ever
being conscious of what Is taking place. As
therefore Il person cannot go To sleep in pain. no
more can they die il. pain the one event being
rs impossible as the other, and for the same
reaSOn.
We may remark further, that this painlessness
of death is the result of physical causes, and
altogether independent of moral qualifications.
Shakespeare, who is always true To nature. repre-
sents the death Of Boosting, cheating, guzzling
old Fll-raf as calm and peaceful.
Nay, sure he's not in HE'LL says Dame
Quickly I. he's IN Arthur's bosom, If ever u man
went To Arthur's BOSOM. y made a finer end,
went away an il had been any christOm
child a parted even just between twelve and
one cen at turning OF the tide for after | saw
him tumble with the sheets, and play with
and smile at his fingers ends, / knew
there was hut one way for his nose was as sharp
as II pen. and a babbled Of green fields" Henry
V. Scene I'LL.
y still more positive proof of the painlessness
Of death may, If you seek it, be found in the
experience of those who, after being rendered
and apparently dead, have been resus-
Of these cases we have an abundance.
Some have been hung, others drowned, and others
for the want Of air but the exp rience
much the same in every instance. There was
Dne keen sensation of pain, one moment of vivid
as though the whole life had been
succeeded bya series of pleasing sensa-
.iOns but the consciousness of existence was
isyer lost, and the person who had been hung
amidst the yells and infamy of a public execu-
Jon, or engulphed in the boiling surges of the
was, until restored TO our actual life, sur
ranquil bliss the whole of the suffering encoun-
cred being scarcely more than the extracting of
tooth. We have abundant testimony that is
be case even when the muscular contortions
night lead Us To infer tie Contrary; for. as u per-
On IN convulsive fits is perfectly free from pain.
D the spasmOdlc contortiOns sometimes observed
a dying people are TO Indication of the con-
'ious sensations of the subject they are the
resources of nature to retain her vitality.
d the last moments Of cur existence. nature deals
entity with US, and Kys no burden upon the
'ul as it makes its cit from the BODY. We !
uncOnscIously ilso existence. and found
ind friends around, WI. rejOiced at our advent.
I'd 9 mothers arms AID heart ready to receive 9
: and rs we make AYR exit from the stage of l
e, its cares and trOrbles, which have often 8
.essed heavily upon, IRE gently removed we I
ss onward To our new home, and angel friends. 9
Dre kind and beneficent than we of earth can r
er be, wait our spiritual birth, and rejoice that II
other immortal is added TO their number. t
DR.. John MI. 4