EUTHANASIA. 471 



antique people whose records I have scanned were, in some 

 sense, married. Mr. Parr was so little of a celibat, that, 

 arrived at the age of one hundred and five, they made him 

 undergo penance at church, as we already know, to atone for 

 a youthful indiscretion ; setting him up as an example to be 

 avoided by other young men. 



Thus it seems that, fearfully and wonderfully made, the 

 chances of dying from the effects of mere old age the con- 

 dition of euthanasia are so much against us as well-nigh to 

 bar the hope. On the most favourable computation, it only 

 happens to one in a thousand ; and out of that thousand, the 

 one can only belong to some seventy-seven or seventy-eight. 



Is euthanasia death without disease coming when life 

 has been prolonged to the uttermost, a result to be desired ? 

 Perhaps not. The optimist, believing all things to be for the 

 best, must fain believe not. 



When hearing fails, and taste flags, and sight grows dim ; 

 when memory of things past mingles, wavering, with visioned 

 thoughts of the change to come ; when the lifelong-palpitat- 

 ing heart pauses in its beat as if worn and weary, is it not 

 better then that the silver string should be cut in twain, and 

 the pitcher broken at the well ? 



