Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1903-03-05
THE FEAR OF DEATH.
1t Should Find no Lodgment in Any
Rational Mind.

Do we dread death on the same
principle that half a flock of sheep
leap through Il certain hole in fence
because the other half has done so?
For unless the fear be traditionary
and hereditary il is hard to account
for it.
Death is n change. occupying 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 aud
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,
o.. if we hold the materialst view. to
everlasting unconSCiouSneSS. The spir-
its,al state is emanciDated from the
inertia of matter and the tyranny Of
space: therefore thought will be pres
Aaee.. 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 chanter 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 its too speedy
coming. viii be no more. But we shall
measure life by its 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 W"
may daily perceive, it is only the OBJ
struction OF material conditions that
prevents us from Immediately accom-
plishing our desires and beholding the
realza tion 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 uDon 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-
istcnce in combating death. We seek
eagerly all nostrums or eliXifs that
promise us continuance of life. we
ascribe supreme merit 10 the soldier
who risks his life for his country or to
the individual who sacrifices it for oth-
ers We laud the stoicism which af-
fccts to dcSpise death, but which bases
the virtue of that despising upon the
acknowledged terror of that event. Our
humanitarians spend sympathy ana
money in attempting to prolonS tn
miserable condition of the poor and
diseased. We shudder to hear of vast
natural calamity like that of MART :
nioue or of avoidable accidents such as
are furnished daily by railways ana
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. il is true, are said to III
crease With civilization. But Few
philosophical suicides occur. The ma
| iority are induced by dread of life
overcoming dread of death. 1t may De
| 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 a real value--is in the discl-