Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-04-26


fears assailing those that believe in future
life: but the assertion of the great moralst
can be said to be false in its generality from
two points of view.
In the first place, dying.-that is to say. the
suffering attending death.-rnay have become
a matter of indifference to certain number
of stoics: in the second. what preoccuples.
grieves but also may be desired by. the Christian
in dying is ultimately death itself. or, rather.
its consequences. vts.. the certain immortal
life succeeding it with Gods definite judg-
ment. Besides if it is true that owing to the
assumed terrors of the called agony. the
dread of diving hauntS human imagination. 1t
still remains to be proved that the assumption
is based upon fact and not mere superstition.
However this may be. it is certainly matter
of import for every mortal to know what we
feel. what we think. when we die
A few moments with the dying will dispel
all the apprehensions raised by these ques-
tions For they that know best will agree
that there are few things in life less painful
than its close. Indeed that the last moments
of life. at least. are free from fear and pain.
is attested by those whose mind has to the
end preserved rational cognizance of the
state of the body.
What They Say
IF l had only the strength to hold pen, y
murmured W. Hunter a few minutes before
his death. Il would use it to express how easy
it is to die
presence little while before his death, that
death was an awful thing. g. do not feel it so.
he said. The Hand that took care of me
when came into the world will take care of
me when l 60 out of it.
If this be dying" said Lady Glenorchv,
it is the easiest thing imaginable"
81 thought that dying had been more diff
cult said Louis XIV.
The same words have SO often been spoken
under similar circumstances that pages could
be filled with instances which are varied only
by the name of the speaker.
Even more than such last utterances certain
extraordinary and inexplicable phenomena
usually exhibited in agony speak of the peace
of mind Of the dying. The features assume a
kind of TRANSPORTATION. the voice undergoes
peculiar change. and. what is more wonder
full. mental powers are revealed such as never
before were observed in the person. Thus. En-
peror Hadrian. on the point to relinqulsh his
life. suddenly turned poet and how sweet are
his tenderv sad verses in which he bids fare
we'll to life.
Revival of Memory
A LSO. an unusual enhancement of the mem
\ ory has been observed in the moments
preceding death. Alfieri recited verses of
life: and Goethe tells of man dying at an
advanced age, who on his death bed unex-
pectedly began to speak Greek. He recited
passages from Homer and Sophocles. without
thought of them in the last fifty years of his
life
Others again exhibited in the hour of death
quite an extraordinary enhancement of their
musical talent. A young musician, cited by
Lauvergne. all during his agony sang and COM
posed. Finally his tremulous voice assumed a
| majestic tone. and in dying he composed a
stabdt mater describing the Virgins sublime
| sorrow.
And how grand, according to legend. was
Beethoven end! On his death bed he recoy-
cred the hearing and speech he had lost before
called his prayers to God.
In antiquity cases are mentioned OF dying
persons who predicted the time of their own
death. and could tell about things of another
world into which death permitted them to
enter.
1t is further to be observed that the men
tally deranged have often been to re-
cover their mental balance at death. Brierre
de Boismont mentions in which the
consciousness was thus restored after disease
of fifty-two years duration; and another of
a young idiot who. few minutes before his
death. suddenly awakened from his uncOn-
sciousness. History tells that Joan of CASTLE
shortly before her end still enjoyed few easy
hours. as though death had been the awakening
from a fifty-year dream life.
In early times they tried to find an explana-
ton Cicero inferred from the power of the
DIVING tO foreteIl the fiit,ire the immOrta lty of