Arizona republican., 1899-10-22
THE DYING OF DEATH.
The Great Change Which has Taken I
Place in Mans Views.

{
Place in Mans Views.
Death as a motive is moribund. Per
hans the most distinctive note of the
modern spirit is the practical disap-
pearance of the thought of death as an
influence directly bearing upon practi-
! cal life. We insure Our lives, it is true
but having done so, think no more of
J the matter except in the spirit of VIII
/ liam Micawber when he signed a
/ promissory note There are no skele-
! tons at our feasts nowadays, or at
worst, they are living ones. Death has
{ lost it's terrors, and it is often regard
! ed as the last and best friend.
1 One of the main causes of this re
/ marka bic change in sentiment is the
I Improvement in modern sanitation
and hygiene and the increased average
! duration of life. In the middle ages
nothing was so uncertain as death.
/ Duels and private wars, feuds and
bandits, plaques and pestilences, 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 to be effective
when they became stale as athletes.
Thus old age began for men early in
the forties. The average age was
younger. yet death came more fire.
quently, so that his visits were the
more and more unwelcone. When
any day might be ones last. it was
natural to be always thinking what
, came after death. Nowadays death
comes later, with more warning of his
approach. and takes US less by sur
prise. We are more willing to 60 less
eager to stay.
That increase in the average age of
men has wider results than would ap-
pear at first sight. The forties in
mans life are the decade of disillusion.
and society in which the tone is
mainly given by men Of 40 and upward
is sure to be practical and pessirnistic
Now the tendency OF modern life is to
put power into mems hands mainly af-
ter they have reached the age of 40
Mr.. Cation has noticed in his ''Hered-
itary Geniu-" hat men do not get in
to the biographical dictionaries till af-
ter the age of 40. 1t is only in the
present generation that the cumulative
effect of the increased age of men of
influence has had time to show itself,
and the result has been what is known
as the fin 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 gap it caus-
es seem more natural and normal. Of
ten, too. medical science protracts life
at the cost of extra suffering and that
death comes at last more as a release
and frequently causes more relief than
grief to those who remain.
Thus on all sides death is losing its
terrOrs. We are dying more frequent
ly when our life's work is done. and it
seems more natural to die. We live so
hurriedly that the final ceasing to be
is getting to be regarded as the sum-
mum bonun. The favorite text on
tombs is getting to be-"God giveth
His beloved sleep" This sentiment ez-
pressed on Professor Huxley's tomb
stone. 1T is well, even if the sleep be
endless" expresses a 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 having any more sig
nificant function in any other. And
when the JOYS and fears of a future
life become dim, death as motive dis
appears.
1t is not as if any marked revolution
of feeling with regard to continued life
in the future existed; that remains the
question. Perhaps it ALWAYS was What
think about it, depends on their tenn
permanent. But the point I am making
is that they do not think about il at
all; and the whole subject is ceasine
to have practical effect on the life of
man.
There are signs of it everywhere. |
The increasing popularity of cremation |
is one OF them. Still more significant |
is the disappearance of hell from pop |
ular theology. That is all very WE'LL !
said the Scotch ,Calvinist when he |
heard Dean Stanley, but give me my !
hell But few will be found to re- /
echo his cry. And with the disappear |
ance of hell the divergences of the va |
rious creeds lose much of their signif- |
canoe; and so we have liberation. !
which so often wears the garb of indif- !
ference.
The most significant of all. however,
is the attitude of the church in all its /
branches. The idea of the clergyman |
was of the man who prepared us for
another life. This is being gradually
changed to a conception of him as a /
social Regeneration. Acts of corporal !
charity are taking precedence of the /
sacraments. Other worldiness is Civ
ing way to worldIiness of another sort.
At the root of half the socialism of the
day is the thought that this life is the
only one with which men have practi-
cally to do. While heaven and hell
could act as compensating balances.
the inequalities of mems lives could be
regarded with something approaching
it would be made right in
another world. But now this thought