Year: 1879

10aA bAdAuICcS VI Sytt Cu dDOuL II among
the latter may contribute toward lessen>
ing the fear of it among them. But
there is an obvious and deeply pathetic
explanation of their calmness in the pro-
spect of it for themselves or for those
dearest to them. The hardness and
baroness of lie lessons its hold upon
them; sometimes even makes them feel
it not an inheritance to be coveted for
their children. The dull resignation
with which they often say the little ones
are "better of" when they die, tells a
grieYOus story Of tie struggle for mere
existence; while the simplicity Of their
faith in the unseen is equally striking
IN its cheerful beauty. Both habits OF
mind tend to diminish the fear of death
itself, as well as the unwillinguess to
speak of it which belongs to more com
plicated states of feeling and more lux
urious habits of life'


1t oftimes happens, as in the case Of
DR.. Johnston, that the man who has the
most morbid fear of death while in strong
bodily health, who has fought against
the horror Of it till he has suffered far
more than a hundred times its actual
terror during his lifetime, will pass
through it with the utmost serenity
when at last it really comes. Hence it
does not follow necessarily that what is
needed to correct the excess of panic
with which death is contemplated, must
be something adequate to sustain the
soul when it actually comes, for those
who have most to sustain them in the
final crisis constantly suffer most in the
premature contemplation Of that crisis :;
while those, again, who have no morbid
fear Of death till it is close At hand, may
be the least able to face it when ii
comes"


As regards the painlessness of the
natural process of dying-it is clearly to
be expected. All suffering, even faint
LESS, which is often the worst sort Of
suffering, is the struggle OF the principlr
of life against some physical disease 0
failure which endangers life; and 50 long
as life Is strong the struggle may be ter
rible. But when life ebbs, the power to
suffer physically must ebb with it


As the comiug of life is gradual and
unconscious, SO analogy would apparently
be in favor of the last great change being
gradual and unconscious, too; and what
analogy suggests, observation appears to
confirm Even in the case of violent
deaths, it may be fairly said that the
pain suffered Is not due to death, but to
the vitality of full health, since the su
tering rom acts of violence which are
the most nearly fatal, is usually less than
the suffering from those which, though
dangerous, do not appear 10 undermine
equally the vital strength. It is not the
man who suffers in being disembOdied
and the suffering grows less, not greater
ae the life in the body dwindles.


While life is sweet, we must need.
shrink, more or less, from what at least
looks like its Untimely termination.
it were not for the conventional assoc 6.
tion of sorrow with death already referred
to, few, perhaps, would be selfish enougI
OF wish to detain the aged from rest, anC
to themselves the prospect is rarely un
welcome; but for the young in thei
spring time, or the middle~aged in thei
vigOr, death necessarily involves a los


which is not the less real, and need no


be the less keenly felt because it may b


regarded as ove1balanced by the gain


But the truth is brought home 10 u


again and again, that we have not Iigh
enough to choose by. In the dimness W
can family discern that lite has otde
kinds of completeness besides length {
days.


= 1t is not growing like a tree


( In bulk doth make man better be


Or standing long an oas, three hundred ye A.


To fall a log at last. dry, bald and sere.
lily of a day


Is fairer far in May


Although 1t fall and die that night.
J ! 1t was The plant and flower of light.
, | In small proportions we Just beauties see.


And in snort measure life may perfect be.
AS the years go on there gathers a spt
cial radiance of eternal youth aroun


some of the figures from whom ali OF
hopes in this world have been mo-
y sharp y severed. There are lives {
rounded and crowned by their complete
deeds of love, that death seems to hay
= appeared il the fullness of their prim


only TO consecrate them forever; ethe
;. stand aPartfrom human ties in solitul


which makes time seem of little cons


quence, and the grave a not untsmili
- country. In ali these cases we may ev,


now see q fitness in what. scCoriing
y mere reckoning of time, would be CALI


easonabie. And If we can cat
d glimpses of these thing rom withor
n there are no doubt many inward dram
n which refuse to square themselves WI
= the exJeruql framework Of human lie.