VARIOUS WAYS OF REGARDING DEATH. 309 



organic unity with a real objective existence. The 

 ancients were thinking of spiritual elements, of 

 principles, of entities. To the Romans, who may be 

 said to have held that there are three souls, death 

 was produced by their separation from the body. 

 The first, the breath, the spiritus, mounting towards 

 celestial regions (aslra petif) ; the second, the shade, 

 remaining on the surface of the earth and wandering 

 around the tombs ; the third, the manes, descending 

 to the lower regions. The belief of the Hindoos was 

 slightly different The body returned to the earth, 

 the breath to the winds, the fire of the glance to the 

 sun, and the ethereal soul to the world of the pure. 

 Such were the ideas of mortal dispersion formed by 

 ancient humanity. 



Modern science takes a more objective point of 

 view. It asks by what facts, by what observable 

 events death is indicated. Generally speaking, we 

 may say that these facts interrupt an interior state 

 of things which was life and to which they put an 

 end Thus death is defined by life. It is the 

 cessation of the events and of the phenomena which 

 characterize life. We must, therefore, know what 

 life is to understand the meaning of death. How 

 wise was Confucius when he said to his disciple, 

 Li-Kou : " If we do not know life, how can we 

 know death ? " According to biology there are two 

 kinds of death because there are two kinds of life ; 

 elementary life and death correspond just as general 

 life and death do, and this is where scientific opinion 

 diverges from commonly received opinion. 



What cares the man who reasons as most human 

 beings do, about this life of the anatomical elements 

 of his body, the existence and the silent activity of 



