Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1902-11-01
THE FEAR OF DEATH
IT SHOULD FIND NO LODGMENT IN
ANY RATIONAL MIND.

Yet This Dread of Meeting the In
evitable Is So Universal Tint Our
Entire Social Fabric Is Largely
Built Upon 1t.
Do we dread death on the same
principle that half a flock of sheep
because the other half has done so?
For unless the fear be Evolutionary
and hereditary it is hard to account
for ii.
Death is a change, occupying a mo-
ment, 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 Il condition of bondage and
uncertainty at best to one of freedom
and security. But often it is Il change
from slavery, both physical and moral,
| to emancipation comparatively perfect
or, if we hold the materialist view, &c
everlasting Inconsistencies. The Spir-
! itual state is emancipated from the
/ inertia of matter and the tyranny of
space; therefore thought will be pres.
ence, and Il mans surroundings us &c
both thing and person will be inevi-
tably such as are most desirable &c
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
| In -ol Of ON rod
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
opportunities. In other words, we shall
be the makers of 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, 1t is only the OBJ
struction of material conditions that
prevents us from Immediately accom-
pIishing 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 ana 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 its eX
| istcncc 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
crs. 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 Il vast
natural calamity like that of Marti
! niQuc 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 9ny 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
airy and salutary.-Julian Hawthorne
in Brandur Magazine.