The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-09-20
THE PHILOSOPHER CONCENTRATES DEATH


speaker proceeded. There are men who act as
though they would like to hold on forever, defy
the laws of nature and hang around this gay and
gray old earth until every riddle of science be
solved and every philosophical snarl is untangled
There men. and lots of them, I apprehend.
who pronounce death sentence upon every
human being except themselves. They 60 on
snarling and growing, grasping and boarding,
until nature, tired of waiting for them to lift
their eyes from the sordid to the better and
brighter things, jams their hats still further
down over their eyes. puts a stop to their
traficking, and packs them off in way that
shows patience exhausted. These are mem
''Well. hold on minute, can't your interposed
the Grumbler. ''You run on like you were
wound up for year. I'd like to ask you a
question. You are so smooth, and pretend to
adjust all of life's contradictions SO nicely-Td
like to ask you how you, a philosopher, would
like to die, not years hence, when you shall have
shifted into the lean and slippered pantaloon, or
into second childishn ess, sans teeth, sans eyes,
sans everything but how would you like to
shuttle off this mortal coil to night or at twenty
three minutes past in the morningl Now, let's
have categorical answer"
swell, to confess the truth, shouldn't like it
at ALL 1t is natural to die, but it is not natural
to want to die, and no healthy, mentally we'll
balanced man wants to die. Nature has made
life precious, and it is well that it is so. The
more man is lifted above the brute. the longer
he wants to live. Indeed, there are few animals
but will fight and fight desperately, in defense
of that volatile essence called life. They
probably don't reason it out as you and would,
but with some kind of instinct they all, each &C
cording to strength, make a stubborn fight Cor
existence But that isn't it--or at least prefer
now to talk OF the other phase of this question:
The Grumbler muttered something about
lodging, as usual" but said no more 'It is
the business of philosophers" he continued
modestly but significantly, ito reconcile life-lov
ing man to the idea of some time letting loose of
his grip on mundane existence and of floating
out confidently, or resignedly at least on that
great unsailed ocean whose further shore has
never greeted the hungry eyes of mortal navi-
gator. To do this one must reason partly by
speculation, by intuition and by his best ideas
of eternal justice and compensation"
A look of serenity stole into the eyes of The
Philosopher.
''It is pleasing fancy" he continued, "com-
mon to humanity from the remotest times, and
INDUCED in by men of every degree of intelli-
gence, from the Eskimo to the Caucasian, that
this life does not embrace all, but that after the
short eclipse called death, another ard better
existence is in store. The happy hunting
grounds is a tradition as dear to the heart of the
North American savage in its rude conceptions
as heaven is to the true believer. The Indian
In fancy, the glorifed plains, and the
birds, and fat game that delight his senses
in land that man never looked
upon, and in his heart, that scarcely feels an
emotion of pity or sympathy. he commits the
body of his fellow-w arrior to the earth, con-
fdent in the belief that his horse and firearms
will follow him, and that he will enter upon the
enjoyment Of an existence somewhere under the
eye of the Manitou, where the rude enjoyments
of savage life will end never more. Savagery
it seems to me, in this direction, at least is not
as barbarous as it might be- It won't do to
argue that the Indian is unfit to enjoy eternal
pleasure, for few of US are. 1 apprehend," and
again the speakers glance took in The Grumbler
Il am not ready to subscribe to the belief that
a brave man throws away his life when he might
have saved it by the exercise of discretion A
man sometimes takes his life in his hand with
much the same idea that he would lay hold of a
stone to repel mad-dog If he succeeds in hitting
the savage beast and in putting it out OF exist
ence the stone has done good service and may
not be needed again. So, too, man or aggrega.
ton of men may take life at it's
flower and scatter its precious petals
broadcast, never to be collected again, and
still be justifi ed, and even glori6ed in the act.
can conceive how a locomotive engineer could
stay by his machine after having done all that
possible to check it, and yet die glorious
death; hero as much as though he had fallen
in charge upon an enemy. When he sees the
engine, which he has come to regard as being
possessed of instinct, if not of reasoning, begin
to totter OF to stumble in that blind, fearful
fashion that for moment betokens wreck, a
crash, and DEATH his natural impulse is to stand
by her. his thought, if he thinks at all, being
that his very presence there will be of good
The man has desperately short time to rea-
son out his duty at such moment. The sudden
transition from smoothly-glding errand to the
jar and rumble that his mind only too we'll
understands is appalling; so that if he elect to
stay at his old post of duty with his hand on
the throttle, and his eyes vainly searching for
the track that holds him no longer, / fear that
it would be uncharitable to say of
him, when dead, that he should have
jumped and saved himself. Many man,
under the same conditions, would not Jump. be-
cause fear had deprived him of the power to do
so, had his Judgment stad by it's machine and
done its duty in warning him.
"But death is not so bad as some would picture
it. While nobody wants to die when life is in
it's bloom, few would care to face the idea of
being sentenced to live forever under the condi.
tons imposed by nature and don't see how we
can find fault with nature without impeaching
our very right to live even in our best
estate. 1t is just as natural to die