Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1876-02-19
The Fear or Death in Ancient and
Modern Fumes.

In comparing The grouI-ds for fearing death
IN ancient and il modern Times, II may be
said roughly that the phySic terrOrS of
death are constant. while the moral terriers
are variable. Not. indeed, that the mere
physical terrOrS nave been, strictly speaking
unchanged. For II l. prOoaOle that the
anCients, being used to hardship and suffer
ing, were less sensitive - The sting of death
than we are On the other hand, il is certain
that The progress of medicine, incluting the
use OF aneSthetics, has done something
toward extracting that sting. and Will in
time 90 much more. No doubt our medical
improvements often Increase the immediate
fear of death which is felt by the dying:
IL the dying suffered more, their In mus
would be distracted, and they would shrink
less from the final relief But, 8 any rate.
those medical Improvements Lead 40 mill
gate the apprehension which the mere pain
OF dying excites in the world at large. And
IL Is enough for my purpose tu at this nain Of
dying can hardly he worse with us than n
was with our fOrefatbers; the balance, IL
balance there Is, is probably In our IA vor.
death seem to be greater in our time than in
mat OF the great classical writers. To prove
this assertion would not be easy; but schoI-
ars VIII hardly dispute 1t. IL is remarkable
that Bacon, when maintaining the paradox
that the fear OF death is the wea keSt of emo.
lions, chooses all his examples from among
the pagans. lie mentions, among other in
stances, the dying jest of Vespasian: VI p1ItO
Deus no. 1t would be unfair 10 Judge of the
ancient Indifference to death from this ex-
eeptional utterance; Just as, on the other
ern alarm at death from the case OF Johnson
VINO, when the surgeon made slight scarid-
cations In his swollen leg, exclaimed,
deeper! deeper! want length of life: and
you are afraid OF giving me pain, which do
not value" Yet it is hard not to think that
these opposite frames OF mind exhibit the
death, though they exhibit them "wrIt
large" The best of the ancients knew, as
We do not know, bow TO obey the maxim of
tie great poet of stOiciSln, and TO take neg
alive view of death as The mere end of life
the goal In the course OF nature; if innrm or
suffering, they could even go the Length OF
Dryden's rendering OF that maxim
And count il stures privilege TO die"
Hence they managed To take death easily
through thinking of il as matter of course
and thinking but little of IL even thus; while
with us, on the other hand, death is lust what
Byron called 1.-THE doom We dread, vet
dwell upon"-and ii is life which now win
dies into being The accident of our existence;
Ed1lfi ctdHtbTe Ce la mort or rather dc Eeserite
In truth, the ancients (or, more properly,
the Greek and Roman free citizens), i'm seek
Ing JOTfeEl d1RiHitgi. morris teTgOTe cdreHfela,
acted by anticipation on my friends rule,
not 10 regret the inevitable; and To this I'M
TegretfulnesS, this dislike OF breaking their
wings against the bars of their cage they
owed much of that light hearted joyouSneSs
which formed real side OF their character,
though a less impOI tant side than We are ant
TO think. IL Is observed by Leasing that. i'm
comparing the views entertained by differ
ent ages or races concerning death. their art
proves a saler guide than their literature.
Perhaps We may explain the grounds of this
judgment by saying that literature is able,
and is therefore expected, 10 give a diOrama
OF what IL depicts, while art can give only
panorama. Thus, in describing death, wri-
ters, especially poets, have 10 ring the
changes OF eVer-Vary1ng yet mOnOtOlOus de-
tails concerning tie divers modes and stages,
and the uneHhllarating appendAges of ying.
On The other hand, painter or sculptor
is in the stTictest manner bound to the
unities of space and time. Thus. If he seeks
TO represent death ia The abstract, he can
view Off His representation must $50 far
as IL goeS) include every thing, and yet must
include nothing that needs 10 be explained,
SD that he must confne himself to the essen
tial and constant features OF death, as dis
tiDguisbed from those which are accidental
and which vary in individual cases. WHAT
then, are the essential ideas OF death that
are embodied in ancient and in modern art?
To this Leasing replies that ancient art gene
rally symboilzes death by emblems OF repose
and ACKNOWLEDGEMENT art by a skeleton
IL is true that he deprecates and denounces
this tendency OF modern art. Being himself
on the side OF the angels, he would have
agreed with Colerfdge that a good mans
surest friends should be s'him self, MS Maker
and the angel Death" And as an angel
rather than as a skeleton, he would fSfn have
seen death typtned. Still, IN dealing with
things, not as he wished them TO be- but as
they are, he emphaticalIy declares that AN
clent art and ancient thought represented
death more favorably than modern art or
modern thought. Hence it appears that his
authority In this matter, being given with
reluctance, should carry all the more weight.
and that this authority is distinctly on the
side OF the view for which we have been con-
tendlng.-l Fortni9htty RetTes0.