St. Landry democrat., 1879-03-08

tual plainness of speech about it among
the latter may contribute toward lessen~
ing the fear of it among them. But
there is an obvious and deeply pathetic
explanation of their calmness in the pre-
spect of it for themselves or for those
dearest to them. The hardness and
baroness of life lessons its hold upon
them; sometimes even makes them feel
it not an inheritance to be coveted for
their childscn. The dull resignation
with which they often say the little ones
are "better of" when they die, tells a
grieyous story of tie struggle for mere
existence: while the simplicity Of their
faith in the unseen is equally striking
in it's cheerful beauty. ;5oth habits of
mind tend to diminish the fear of death
itself, as we'll as the unwilliDgness to
speak Of it which belongs to more COM
plicated states of feeling and more lux
urious habits of life.''
1t oftimes happens, as in the case OF
DR.. Johnston, that the man who has the
most morbid fear of death while in stlong
bodily health, who has fought against
the horror Of it till he has suffered far
more than hundred times its actual
terror during his lifetime, will pass
through it with the utmost serenity
when at last it really comes. Hence it
does not follow necessarily that what is
needed to correct the excess OF panic
with which death is contemplated, must
be something adequate to sustain the
soul when it actually comes. for those
who have most to sustain them in the
| final crisis constantly suffer most in the
premature contemplation of that crisis !;
while those, again, who have no morbid
fear of death till it is close at hand, may
| be the least able to face it when il
comes"
| As regards the psinlessness of the
natural process of dying-it is clearly to
be expected. All suffering, even faint
LESS, which is often the worst sort CT
suffering, is the struggle OF the principl
of life against some physical disease
failure which endangers life; and 50 long
as life is strong the struggle may be ter
rible. But when life GIBBS, the power to
suffer physically must ebb with it.
AS the coming of life is gradual and
unconscious, SO analogy would apparently
be in favor of the last great change being
gradual and unconscious, too; and what
analogy suggests, observation appears to
confirm Even in the case of violent
deaths, it may be fairly said that the
pain suffered is not due to death, but to
the vitality of full health, since the SUI
feriug rom acts of violence which are
the most nearly fatal, is usually less than
the suffering from those which, though
dangerous, do not appear to undermine
equally the vital strength. It is not the
man who suffers in being disembodied
and the suffering grows less, not greater
as the life in the body dwindles.
"While life is sweet, we must needs
shrink, more or less, from what at least
looks like its untimely termination.
it were not for the conventional assccia
tion of sorrow with death already referred
to, few, perhaps, would be selfish enough
OF wish to detain the aged from rest, and
to themselves the prospect is rarely I'M
welcome; but for the young in their
spring time, or the middle>aged in their
vigor, death necessarily involves loss
which is not the less real, and need not
be the less keenly felt because it may be
regarded as overbalanced by the gain.
But the truth is brought home to us
again and again, that we have not light
enough TO choose by. In the dimness we
can family discern that life has other
kinds Of completeness besides length o
days.
1t is not growing like, tree
In bulk doth make man better be
Or standing long an OAK, three hundred ye sr,
10 TALL !og at last: dry, bald and sere.
| A lily of day
| Is fairer far in May
Although it fall and die that night.
! 1t was the plant and flower of light.
In small proportions we just beauties see.
And in short measure life may perfect be.
AS the years 60 on there gathers spe-
cia4 radiance of eternal youth around
some of the figures from whom all our
hopes in this world have been most
sharply severed. There are lives so
rounded and crowned by their completed
deeds of love, that death seems to have
appeared in the fullness of their prime,
only to consecrate them forever; others
stand apart from human ties in solitude
" hich makes time seem of little conse.
quence, and the grave not unfamiliar
country. In all these cases we may even
now see a fitness in what. according to
mere reckoning of time, would be called
unreasonable. And if we can catch
| glimpses of these things from without,
there are no doubt many inward dramas
which refuse to square themselves with
the external framework of human life.
The consequences of a Laugh,
| Toronto Mail.