EXPERIENCES OF A SURGEON. 485 



grief of the females. I looked at the group what a contrast be- 

 tween the living and the dead ! She lay before them as if in pro- 

 found and happy sleep, her features perceptibly changing and as- 

 suming their original beauty of expression, as the smile that had 

 played over them was gradually waning, and as the muscles lost 

 their irritability; whilst they were weeping and sorrowing in all the 

 attitudes of a first affliction, wringing their hands, and addressing her 

 with vehement words of endearment. 



After these occurrences, it was my lot to see death in various 

 shapes ; from the calm preparation, the hope and confidence of un- 

 shrinking innocence, to the frantic terror and fierce impenitence of 

 guilt and materialism. By a beautiful and beneficent dispensation of 

 Providence, it, however, but rarely happened that parties were at all 

 conscious of the immediate approach of dissolution ; and I am not 

 aware that in any instance, which came under my personal notice, 

 any sign was exhibited that the moment of extinction was antici- 

 pated. 



It is this merciful ordinance that robs the death-bed of its terrors ; 

 as I am disposed to believe, that no moral courage would enable a 

 man to resign his existence without a struggle, not so much perhaps 

 from fear as to his eternal doom, as from that awe and mysterious 

 dread which clings to all of us when we contemplate the idea of 

 throwing off our " mortal coil,' 7 and being launched into a new, an 

 unknown, and an inconceivable mode of life. Had it been the will 

 of our Creator to have explained in what manner the soul, when 

 separated from its earthly temple, should 'exist whether it should 

 remain a tenant of our present sphere, or whether it should wing its 

 way to other realms, to have told us something as to its nature and 

 its capabilities, there would have been some data on which the aching 

 mind could have reposed. In wisdom all this is entirely hidden 

 from us : that we shall in His own good time be called before Him, 

 and have to answer for the " talent" which has been entrusted to us 

 during our mortal sojourn, He has declared ; but beyond this all is 

 mysterious, inscrutable, and uncertain. It has therefore pleased Him 

 to divide us by a gulf of unconsciousness from that instant of time 

 which is destined to launch us into eternity, and to abstract our 

 minds from dwelling too closely upon the prospect of momentary 

 death. 



It may be urged that there are numerous instances on record, 

 where men have ascended the scaffold, and laid their heads on the 

 block, with cheerfulness or indifference. The secrets of a condemned 

 cell would tell another story; nor is it intended to deny that super- 

 stition, enthusiasm, despair, may have given to some of these ex- 

 amples an unnatural courage, to face the grisly king with apparent 

 boldness. But could the workings of a human heart have been laid 

 bare, it would have been found throbbing in their bosoms with feel- 

 ings which no outward bravado could have belied. Even were it 

 granted that this so-styled heroism was real, how few amongst the 

 thousands who have fallen victims to their follies, their ambition, or 

 their crimes, have shown it ! They are isolated and remarkable in- 

 M.M. No. 5. 3 11 



