The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1899-08-17
LOSING ITS TERRORS.

Place ia the World In the view OF
Death-Causes that Have Worked
tho Change.
Fortnightly Review: Death as q mo-
tive is morIbund. Perhaps the most
distinctive note Of the modern spirit Is
the practical disappearance Of the
thought Of death as an influence direct
ly bearing upon practical life. We in
sure our lives, It is true. but having
done 80, think no more Of the matter
except In the spirit Of William Mlcaw-
Der, when he signed a promissory note
There are no skeletons at our feasts
nowadays, or at worst. they are living
ones. Death has lost It's terrors, and II
is often regarded as the last and best
friend.
One Of the main causes Of this re-
markable change in sentiment - the
Improvement 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 pestllence, made men un-
\ certain OF their lives from hour to hour.
When mems position in life depended
upon the strength Of their right arm
they ceased to be effective when they
became stale" as athletes. Thus old
age was younger, yet death came more
| frequently, SO that his visits were the
more and more unwelc0me. When any
| day might be ones last, It 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 to stay.
That Increase In the average age OF
men has wider results than would APP
pear at first sight. The forties in a
and q society In which the tone Is
mainly given by men Of forty and up
wards Is sure to be practical and pessl-
| mlstic. Now the tendency OF modern
| life is to put power into mems hands
mainly after they have reached the age
of forty. Mr.. Gallon has noticed in his
Hereditary Genius. that men do not get
| into the biographical dictionaries until
after the age Of forty. Ii IS only In the
present generation that the cumulative
| effect of the increased age Of the men
Of influence has had time to show Itself,
and the result has been what Is known
as the I'm de steele tone. Part Of this
tone is characterized by the dying Of
death. More and more death tends to
remove the Oldest, and the gaps It
causes seem more natural and normal.
Often, too, medical science protracts
life at the cost Of extra suffering, so
that death comes at last more as re-
lease. and frequently causes more re-
| lief than grief to those who remain.
Thus on all sides death Is losing Its
| terrors. We are dying more frequently
when our llfe's work Is done. and 1t
seems more natural to die. We live so
hurriedly that the final ceasing to be Is
getting to be regarded as the summum
bonum. The favorite text on tombs Is
getting to be-"God giveth his beloved
Sleep" The sentiment expressed on
Prof. Huxley's tombstone. 1T is we'll
even II the sleep be endless" expresses
q general feeling. Life Is becoming so
complicated that any one man seems
less important and significant in this
life. so It is harder to imagine him
in any other. And when the Joys and
fears OF a future life become dim, death
Us a motive disappears.
II Is not as II any marked revolution
Of feeling with regard to continued life
In the future existed; that remains the
great Perhaps 1t always was. What
people think about It, when they do
think about It, depends on their temper
nment. But the point l am making is,
that they do not think about It at all;
and the whole subject is ceasing to
have practical effect on the life Of man.
There are signs OF this everywhere.
The increasing popularity Of cremation
is one Of them. Still more significant
is the disappearance Of He'll from popu-
lar theology. That Is all very WELL"
sold the Scotch Calvinist, when he heard
Dean Stanley, but gle me my Hell"
But few will be found to re.echo his
cry. And with the disappearance Of
Hell the dlvergences Of the various
creeds lose much Of their significance;
and so we have liberation, which so Of
ten wears the garb Of indifference.
The most significant of all, however,
is the attitude Of the church in all its
branches. The old idea OF the clergy
man was Of the man who prepared US
for another life. This is being grudu-
ally changed to a conception OF him as
social regeneration. Acts Of corporal
charity are taking precedence Of the
sacrAments Other-worldllness is Civ
ing way to wOrldllness OF another sort.
At the root Of half the socialism OF the
hAg 10 NAAN AAAhAhuk hAAak Llllh llAG 10 LlH
only one with which men have practIc-
ally to do. While Heaven and He'll
could act as compromising balances, the
inequalities Of mems lives could be re-
garded with something approaching
equanlmlty: It would all be made right
in another world. But now this
thought falls in efficacy. and as a con-
sequence we are socialists now.
What further effect the dying OF
death may have upon the tone OF civil
llzatiOn would be hazardous to predict.
Generally speaking, the loss OF belief In
personal Immortality may influence the
character In two opposite directions.
Either there VIII be a clutehIng after
the goods Of this world for oneself, and
feverlsh activity Of enjoyment Of them:
or, with the higher and better mind,
there will be increased social activity
and a striving to make things better all
round. There are signs Of both tenden-
cies In contemporary life. The spread
Of the decadent spirit marks one form
OF the tendency. The wide interest in
social schemes and regeneration may
be regarded as move In the other d.
rectIon. How far either OF these Is
consciously based upon what ! cnil the
dying Of death, or may be traced to 9TH
er influences, is u question not easy Of
a