36 LIFE: ITS NATURE, ORIGIN AND MAINTENANCE 



pilgrimage.' David, to whom, before the advent of the modern statis- 

 tician, we owe the idea that seventy years is to be regarded as the 

 normal period of life,* is himself merely stated to have ' died in a good 

 old age.' The periods recorded for the Kings show a considerable 

 falling-off as compared with the Patriarchs ; but not a few were cut off by 

 violent deaths, and many lived lives which were not ideal. Amongst 

 eminent Greeks and Romans few very long lives are recorded, and the 

 same is true of historical persons in mediaeval and modern history. It 

 is a long life that lasts much beyond eighty; three such linked together 

 carry us far back into history. Mankind is in this respect more favoured 

 than most mammals, although a few of these surpass the period of man's 

 existence.! Strange that the brevity of human life should be a favourite 

 theme of preacher and poet when the actual term of his ' erring 

 pilgrimage ' is greater than that of most of his fellow-creatures ! 



The modern applications of the principles of preventive medicine and 

 hygiene are no doubt operating to lengthen the average life. But even 



if the ravages of disease could be altogether eliminated, 

 The end of life. ... . ,, , ,, ,, , , , 



it is certain that at any rate the fixed cells of our body 



must eventually grow old and ultimately cease to function ; when this 

 happens to cells which are essential to the life of the organism, general 

 death must result. This will always remain the universal law, from 

 which there is no escape. ' All that lives must die, passing through 

 nature to eternity ! ' 



Such natural death unaccelerated by disease is not death by disease 

 as unnatural as death by accident ? should be a quiet, painless phe- 

 nomenon, unattended by violent change. As Dastre expresses it, 'The 

 need of death should appear at the end of life, just as the need of sleep 

 appears at the end of the day.' The change has been led gradually up 

 to by an orderly succession of phases, and is itself the last manifestation 

 of life. Were we all certain of a quiet passing were we sure that there 

 would be ' no moaning of. the bar when we go out to sea ' we could 

 anticipate the coming of death after a ripe old age without apprehension. 

 And if ever the time shall arrive when man will have learned to regard 

 this change as a simple physiological process, as natural as the oncoming 

 of sleep, the approach of the fatal shears will be as generally welcomed 

 as it is now abhorred. Such a day is still distant ; we can hardly say 

 that its dawning is visible. Let us at least hope that, in the manner 

 depicted by Diirer in his well-known etching, the sunshine which science 

 irradiates may eventually put to flight the melancholy which hovers, bat- 

 like, over the termination of our lives, and which even the anticipation of 

 a future happier existence has not hitherto succeeded in dispersing. 



* The expectation of life of a healthy man of fifty is still reckoned at about twenty 

 years. 



f ' Hominis sevum cseterorum animalium omnium superat praeter admodum 

 paucoruin. ' Francis Bacon, Historic/, vita et mortis, 1637. ^ 



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UNWIN BROTHERS, LIMITED, THE GRESHAM PRESS, WOKING AND LONDON. 



