The Robesonian. [volume] (Lumberton, N.C.) 1870-current, 1908-10-01
FEAR OF DEATH.

"A AlOCOpnlC DISCUSSION Oh CRS
Subject Which Reaches Ba-
cons Conclusion That Death
is a Friend of Ours"
Washington Herald.
Is it not we'll that, sometimes,
in the rush and BUSINESS Of life
we should pause awhile and
forgetting purposely the bicker-
ings Of politics, the growth of
commerce, the Wrangles between
the nations, come to the contem-
plation of things nearer home
nearer to our own souls? To
what end doth it all tend?
Mostly when man asks such a
question Of himself it is asked
definitely and, perhaps, a
thought hopelessly. 1t is most
often the expression of pessi-
mistic mood, when things have
gone wrong; the past seeming to
have been a failure and the fu-
ture to hold out no fair pros
poets.
1t may be asked hopefully, too,
and the answer fronted bravely
if, indeed, it require anything
like courage to face the inevita-
BILE truth that the end is death
and rest, the much desired. And
that is the spirit in which it shall
profit a man to question himself,
for then one may come to realize
that in spite of our daily work
and our ambitions we are all
tending-and these things that
we do and feel, too-to the one
great end.
There is a most beautiful essay
on this subject by Hilaire Belloc
in which he says:
Men living in cities have
often wondered how it was that
the men in the open who knew
horses and the earth, or ships
and the salt water, risk so much
and for what reward? 1t is an
error in the very question they
ask, rather than in the logical
puzzle they approach that falsi-
fes their wonder. There is nc
reward. To die in battle, tc
break ones neck at a hedge, tc
sink or to be swamped, are not
rewards. But action demands
an end; there is a fruit to things
and everything we do (here, al
least, and within the bonds o1
time) may not exceed the little
} limits of a naturewhich it neither
: made, or for itself acquired, bu
was granted.
3 That is the hopeful view of it
( expressing a philosophy finer b.
far than that of Omar the Tent
D maker, who would nullify all &C
3 ton, render hopeless all desir
n and effort by insisting on a re
e morseless and rather ironic fat
s that juggles with human souls a
t if for support. Far removed i
o Mr.. Belloc's philosophic courag
e from that which regards us-t
S whom each sunlit morning mean
O so wonderful a glory, as
S ''But helpless pieces of the Game H
:, plays
It Upon this checker-board of Nights ar
e Days;
n Hither and Thither moves, and checl
" and Stays;
d And one by one back in the ClOs'
y lays"
d It is not true, that death is
o thing to be feared. All past e2
It perience goes to prove this;
It has been the theme of the inspil
# ed writer's of all ages who see i
e death only the natural end
% toll, as the sleep at night time
o but the natural ending of tn
W day.
J. Stevenson thought much abol
- this matter, and death was ve1
l. near him, jogging the elbow {
,e his writing arm, and he cou1
ID say:
s Passing bells are ringing q
a he world over. All the wor
], over, and every hour, some OF
,e is parting company with all h
aches and ectasies. For US al
the trap is is laid. But we a
le so fond OF life that we have ]
a leisure to entertain the terror
ID death. 1t is a honeymoon wi
is US all through, and none of Il
es longest. Small blame to us if v
ID give our whole hearts to til
m glowing bride of ours, to the a
n petites, to the hungry curiosity
at the mind, the pleasure of the ey
st in nature, and the pride of O
Ig own nimble bodies. "
No, there can really be no su
thing as fear of death-it is
e. inevitable, too surely from t
a very beginning have we be
&C. walking toward it as the goal
ed tended, and we have the wo
s. of the poets for it that the end
ed good. To quote Mr.. Belloc aga
on ''They are all agreed. WI
lis did Sleep and Death do to t
.e. body of Sarpedon? They took
ne home. And every one who d
'ut in all the epics is better for t
dying. Some complain of
afterWard. | will admit, but tn
ly- are hard to please. Rowla
ed took it as the end of the bait
Re- and there was a Scandinavian
let low, caught on the northes
he coast, l think, who in dyi
ac- thanked God for all the joy
2 a had had in mis- life-as you he