Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1899-12-12
DEATH LOSING IFs TERRORs.
The Change Which Has Taken Place
in the View of 1t.
(Fortnightly Review.)

Death as a motive Is moribund. Per-
haps the most distinctive note Of the
modern spirit IS the practical disappear
ance OF the thought of death as an in
iuence directly bearing upon practical
life. We insure our lives, ii is true, but
having done so, think no more Of the
matter, except in the spirit OF William
Micawber, when he signed promlssory
note. There are no skeletons at our
feasts nowadays, or, at worst, they are
living ones. Death has lost its terrors,
and it Is often regarded as the last and
best friend.
one of the main causes Of this remark
able change i'm sentiment is the improve
ment in modern sanitation and hygiene,
and the increased average duration OF
life. In the Middle Ages nothing was SO
uncertain as life. Duels and private wars,
feuds and bandits, plaques and pesti-
lences, made men uncertain OF their lives
from hour to hour. When mems position
In life depended upon the strength OF
their right arm, they ceased 10 be effec-
tive when they became stale" as ath-
letes. Thus old age for men early
In the forties. The average age was
younger yet death came more frequent
ly, so that his visits were the more
and more unwelcome. When any day
might be ones last, IL was natural TO be
always thinking what came after death.
Nowadays death comes later. with more
warnings OF his approach, and takes US
less by surprise. We are more willing to
go, less eager 70 stay
That increase I'm the average age OF
men has wider results than would APP
pear at first sight The forties In a mans
life are the decade OF iislliusion, and a
society in which the tone Is mainly given
bxrt ~ :
to be practical and pessimistic. Now,
the tendency OF modern life IL 10 put
power into mems hands mainly after
they have reached the age Of 40. Mr..
Cation has noticed In his Hereditary
Genius that men DO not get into bio
graphical dictionaries till after the age
OF 49, 1t is only In the present generation
that the cumulative effect OF the In
crea sed age OF tho men OF influence has
had time to show itself and the result
has been what 10 known as the fin de
steele tone. Part of this tone is charac-
terized by the dying OF death. More and
mora death tends TO remove the Oldest,
and the gaps II causes seem more ma
tural and normal. Often. too. medical
science protracts life at the cost Of extra
suffering, go that death comes at last
more as a release, and frequently causes
more relief than grief to those who re-
main.
Thus. on all sides death IL losing its
terrors. We are dying moro frequently
when our LIES work Is done, and II seems
more natural to die. We live so hur-
riedly that the final ceaslng TO be is
getting TO be regarded as the summum
bonum. The favorlte text on tombs Is
getting to be, God giveth His beloved
sleep" The sentiment expressed on Pro-
| fessor Huxley's tcmbstone-"lt Is well,
even IL the sleep BIO endless"-expresses
| general feeling. I4fe Is becoming so
complicated that any one man seems
| less important and significant In this
| life. SO II Is harder TO imagine him having
any more sisnificant function In any
other. And when the Joys and fears Of q
future life become dim, death as u mo-
tive disappears.
IL Is not as IL any marked revolution Of
| feeling with regard 10 continued life In
| the future existed; that remains the great
Perhaps Il always was. What people
think about 1t. when they DO think about
IL. depends on their temperament. Bu,
| the point. am making 10. that they d.
| not think about II at all, and the whole
subject is ceasing to havo practical effec'
| on the life or man.
There are signs Of this evsrswhsrs- ~