CHAPTER XV 



SUICIDE OR HYPNOSIS? 



YOU do not imitate the unfamiliar; you 

 do not counterfeit a thing of which you 

 know nothing: that is obvious. The simu- 

 lation of death, therefore, implies a certain 

 knowledge of death. 



Well, has the insect, or rather, has any 

 kind of animal, a presentiment that its life 

 cannot last for ever? Does the perturbing 

 problem of an end occur to its dense brain? 

 I have associated a great deal with animals, 

 I have lived on intimate terms with them 

 and I have never observed anything to justify 

 me in saying yes. The animal, with its 

 humbler destiny, is spared that apprehension 

 of the hour of death which constitutes at 

 once our torment and our greatness. 



Like the child still in the limbo of uncon- 

 sciousness, it enjoys the present without ta- 

 king thought of the future; free from the bit- 

 terness of a prospective ending, it lives in the 

 blissful calm of ignorance. It is ours alone 

 to foresee the briefness of our days; it is ours 

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