Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1901-04-13


DEATH AND IAfA1ORTALITY.
In his lecture on Death and Immor-
tally" at tina Grand Opera House before
the Independent Religious Society M. NJ.
Mangasarian said among other things:
The mission of philosophy is 10 free
the mind from fear-th the fear of ghosts
and shadows of death and the hereafter.
To the Hellenic mind death was "a sleep
from which there may or there may nor
nc an awakening. Leasing has shown
that the Greeks never represented death
as skeleton. but as youth with the
inverted torch. The figure of mother
Folding in her arms her two infants.
the twins of her affection-death and
sleep-showed how more rational the
Greeks We're IN their conception of death
than the ancient Egyptians. who enl-
falmed their ancestors ard made horri-
BILE munmies of the dead. The Greeks
who could make the marble dance. who
would intoxicate the stone into the most
:avishng expression, knew also how to
steal the sting from death and TO throw
ever the mouth of the grave CULVER
ing rainbow
How beautifully the heroes in Homer
die. The dew does not fall more softly.
ror is the caress of the zephyr more
gentle The Roman philosophers re-
garded death as law of nature ana it
was not until the advent of Christianity
that death was considered as penalty
for sin.
The most fashionable subject in the
Yulp!ts of the middle ages was that of
,oeath; the frightful specter cast so
deep gloom that the people believed il
was Impossible 10 enjoy life tho the sun
was bright and the birds sang merrily.
tho the heart swelled with love and hope
tinted the horizon. The sepuleher be-
came "A school, the tomb temple, with
the result that this life which is real
they considered as unreal. and the flu
ture, which at best Is imaginary, APP
peured to them as the only reality
Feudal barons and high born ladies
Withdrew from active life, gave away
all their possessions and impatiently
awaited the end of the world.
II believe that death in the majority
of cases is not only painless, but also
pleasurable BY a wise economy ma
ture has associated pleasure with every
necessary function of the body. We not
y
take pleasure in eating. we not only fall
asleep when fatigued, but also enjoy do
ing so. In the same way. death being
necessary to the continuation and inn
provement of life, nature has, no doubt,
endowed it with a certain relish and
SAVIOR which we would be just as unwill-
ing to miss as any other pleasure of the
senses. Nature has hidden from the
living the exquisite pleasure of dying
to support life, Pascal used to say that
one reason why people feared death was
that they died alone, and the only way
to have company in death Is to live a
large life, a life of glorious memories
and pleasant associations to accompany
us to our last resting place. The old
forms of burial have also done much to
make death fearful-corruption decay
Dnd the crawling worms have been a
part OF the system OF disposal OF the
dead which cremation will do away
with.
Instead of pertaining and preserving
the dead like the Egyptians, or commit
ting them to the dark earth like the
moderns. let us follow the example OF
the Greeks and deliver them to the puri-
flying flames. Mounting upon the
wings of the soaring flames, the ele-
ments which compose the body rise to
the azure fields Of the sky, commingling
with the life-giving currents and be-
coming again an integral part of the
powers that make for life. beauty and