Amador ledger., 1902-12-05
THE FEAR OF DEATH
IT SHOULD FIND NO LcpGMENT IN
ANY RATIONAL MIND.

let This Dread of Meeting the In
evitabIe is So Universal That Oux
Entire Social Fabric Is Largely
Built Upon 1t.
Do we dread death on the same
principle that half a flock of sheep
leap through a certain hole in a fence
because the other half has done so?
For unless the fear be traditionary
and hereditary it is hard to account
for it,
Death is a change, occupying a mo-
mept. from one form of life to another.
Whether it come In the course of ma
ture or by accident or design, it is sell
dom painful; never probably so painful
as a bout of the toothache. 1t brings
US from a condition of bondage and
uncertainty at best to one of freedom
and security. But often it is a change
from slavery, both physical and moral,
to emancipation comparatively perfect,
or, If we hold the materialist view, to
everlasting unconsciousness. The spir-
itual state is emancipated from the
inertia Of matter and the tyranny of
space; therefore thought will be pres
ence, and mans surroundings as to
both thing and person will be inevi-
tably such as are most desirable to
him. The evil will be emancipated
from the opposition of the good, and
the good will not be grieved and ham,
pered by the Vaccinations of the evil.
The whole chapter of accidents which
here looms so large will there be elm
mated. Time, which now makes US
long for the arrival of an appointed
hour and now dread it's too speedy
coming. will be no more. But we shall
measure life by it's intensity and by its
opportunitic' In other words, we shall
be the maAe.s :, our own times and
seasons.
Death takes us from a world of eff
fects to one of causes. The soul is
made of will and thought, and, as we
may daily perceive, it is only the OBJ
struction of material conditions that
prevents us from Immediately accom-
plishing our desires and beholding the
realization of our thoughts. Again,
death is inevitable to all and to any
one who chooses is at any moment at
tainable. By what logic can our fear
of it be defended?
Yet we fear it so much and so uni
versally that our entire social fabric is
built largely upon that fear. Our law
makes death the supreme penalty. Our
funerals are occasions of mourning,
and the medical profession, one of the
most numerous extant, spends it's ex-
istence in combating death. We seek
eagerly all nostrums or elixirs that
promise us continuance of life. We
ascribe supreme merit to the soldier
who risks his life for his country or to
the individual who sacrifices it for 9th
ers. We laud the stoicism which af-
fects to despise death, but which bases
the virtue of that despising upon the
acknowledged terror of the event. Our
humanitarians spend sympathy and
money in attempting to prolong the
miserable condition of the poor and
diseased. We shudder to hear of a vast
natural calamity like that of Marti-
nique or of avoidable accidents such as
are furnished daily by railways and
other instruments of civilization. And
all the while it is the survivors who
suffer, if any one does, though they,
too, are soon comforted by time or the
insurance companies. The dead man,
the man who has entered upon the new
and spiritual life, whom we absurdly
pity, is free, and his troubles are over.
Suicides, it is true, are said to in
crease with civilization. But few
philosophical suicides occur The ma
jority are induced by dread of life
overcoming dread Of death. 1t may be
doubted if suicide be ever the act of a
man at once perfectly brave and thor
oughly sane. The value Of this life
and it is real value-is in the disci-
pline and experience it gives. which it
Is our honest and sensible duty to i'm
prove to the utmost and to the last.
Life may be interesting and arduous;
it may be disappointing and irksome.
1t is very seldom if ever uniformly and
positively agreeable. Fear, on the 9TH
er hand, is one of the worst and basest
of evils, and fear of death the most
irrational. 1t must have originated in
sheer ignorance and thoughtlessness.
1t ought to vanish before our modern
enlightenment and sagacity, and with
its disappearance will appear social
changes that cannot but be revolution
ary and salutary.-Julian Hawthorne
in Brandur Magazine.