The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-02-27
THE EGOrIsM OF THE DYING.
"seIf Complete. Itself in Death"


From the New York Sun.
NJ. Egger discusses in the last issue Of
La Revue Philosophique the self Of the
dying" He refers 20 the fact that persons
who have unarrowiy escaped death by
drowning commonly report that between
the moment of falling into the water and
that of losing Consciousness they have re-
viewed with wonderful rapidity the events
OF their past lives Like things have been
lOld or persons suddenly exposed TO great
danger IN other WAYS, ana N. Egger quotes
some curious facts brought out at recent
meeting or the Alpine cluD al Lurlcn.
FrOI- Helm, a member OF the club, who
nlmself had a narrow escape from death
IN mountain climbing, summed up the con-
clusions drawn from evidence furnished
Dy many such cases. He found that the
cllmDer, seemingly about TO be dashed TO
pieces, IN fall. has this order OF exper-
fence after losing his foothold:
FIRST, a sense of extreme bliss: second,
anesthesia of touch and Of pain sensation,
win sight and hearing normal; third, ex-
IRENE rapidity of thought and imagination;
fourth, in many cases a rapid succession
OF visions presenting the whole course OF
the past life. Prof Helm took an hour to
Felate what he had experienced IN the rev
seconds OF his own fall. He found himself,
as ne Tell, rapidly revolving possible meth
COS OF lesSening the threatened harm, and
speculatlng on the possible consequences.
1hen came in innumerable images all the
facts Of his past life.
NJ. Egger sees some exaggeration in the
general conclusions and in the particular
statemet as to Prof. Helms own case. But
allowing for this he finds nothing abnor-
mai IN the experiences Of these Alpine
climbers. Probably no civilized adult, he
declares, can approach death in his senses
without lively feeling of his own indi-
Vlduality. With children and with those
adult children that we call savages, there
is probably no such strong consciousness
OF self in the presence of death. The civ
ilized adult feels that death is the end of
self, the brusque arrest of that series of
conscious states conserved in the memory.
The idea that the series is about to close
calls up vivid idea of what it was, and
according to circumstances that idea is
sententious and abstract or it consists of
rapid succession of visions, joyous or
sad He that dies gently, with time for
preparation and 10 think of posterity, is
likely to pronounce testamentary words.
Il have loved war too much," were the
admonitory. dying words of Louis XIV to
his infant successor. Dufaure, the great
pleader said on his death bed, speaking
OF the law student about him: Say to
these young men that | have been man
of the second order all my life, and in all
things, even at the bar" The autobio-
graphies of old men are, as it were, leisure
reviews of their lives at the approach of
death. Such, too. are their speeches on
anniversary occasions. PaSteur, on such
an occasion three years ago, besought his
hearers and pupils to act so that at the
end Of life they might say; i have done
tours self. Remarkable as he was in
tellectually, he was more remarkable for
doing what he Willed to do. He gave HIM
self in fuller measure than most men.
But If the man that contemplateS with
serenity the somewhat distant approach of
death habitually lives in his own past and
talks or writes of it, perhaps philosoph-
icaly, the man faced with sudden death
is apt to find his powers of thought some
what numbed, when the succession of Wis
ions rapidly showing his past takes the
place of conscious recollection. These Wis
ions are not innumerable or simultane-
Gus, but many and rapid. This is the phe-
nomena noted by persons who supposed
themselves to be drowning. 1t is the ex
IRENE egotism of the dying. Sometimes
the conditions do not admit such visions.
Men of sanguine temperaments often fail
to recognize the APPROACH of death, and
are planning for the future when others
would be reviewing the past. The soldier
meeting instant death in the attack is too
busy with the foe to think of his own past.
But the man that sees sudden death at
hand and inevitable. has the surging up
of self so frequently reported as the ex-
perience of those that suppose themselves
dying. This may come to the soldier NOR
tally wounded and left to die in peace
on the battlefield, or, to the Alpine climb
err who loses his footing on an icy crag.
That these ante-mortem visions are pc
culiar to the adult mind is proved by the
experiences of children. A boy of years
who fell. apparently to death, in Alpine
climbing, said that his one concern was
lest he should lose beautiful pocket
Another child of like age fell asleep while
fishing and tumbled into a stream. He
opened his eyes, to see brilliant shells on
the bottom of the stream and to think
them wonderfully like silver coins. His
first sense of ear came when the seaweed
brushed his face. He had no visions OF
his past. The child, in truth had no such
continuous self as the adult. He lives in
the present and in the future, whereas,
the old man whose life work is done lives
in the past, acquires nothing new, but
recalls and recounts, does not read but
E Ie l Goes not earn puI saves self
man that has outlived his activities Self
forms itself through life and completes
itself in death The idea of death brings
this creation of a long lifetime in lively
fashion before the mind, to be reflected
perhaps, in well-turned phrases or if
death comes suddenly, then in huddled
visions.