vii THE STAGES OF LIFE AND DEATH 319 



about death, Comparetti points out that Epicurus regards it 

 merely as a terrifying thought or reflection from which we must 

 free ourselves, and calls to mind the principle which he enunciated 

 in the Chief Principles, the summary of his teaching, the one 

 which has been expressed by Diogenes Laertius in these words: 

 " Death has nothing to do with us, since that which is destroyed 

 does not feel and that which does not feel has nothing to do with 

 us." In the letters to Meneceus (by Diogenes Laertius) the 

 philosopher declares and explains this principle, saying : " Every 

 good and every evil is a matter of sensation ; death, therefore, 

 which suppresses the senses, suppresses with them both good and 

 evil for man." Hence the philosopher, arguing along these 

 lines, ends by formulating his maxim in these more concise terms : 

 " Death has nothing to do with us, because when we exist, it does 

 not; when it exists, we do not." 



" To philosophise is to learn to die," wrote Montaigne about 

 eighteen centuries after Epicurus; unfortunately, however, the 

 methods which he proposes in his Essais to enable us to grow 

 accustomed to the idea of death and to conquer fear of it seem a 

 mockery. When he says to those who are afraid to die: "La 

 mort ne devrait pas vous affliger ni vif ni mort ; vif, par ce que 

 vous estes ; mort, par ce que vous n'estes plus," he is repeating 

 the maxim of Epicurus almost word for word ; this, however, is an 

 elegant sophism better suited to an orator than a philosopher. It 

 is just the prevision or doubt of non-existence, " la pensee du 

 neant" which torments us during our life-time and prevents our 

 full and constant enjoyment of existence, i.e. of life. 



The really heroic remedy for the fear of death is religion. 

 Buddha's moral teaching exhorts man to forget death altogether 

 and to believe himself immortal, so long as he devotes himself to 

 the acquisition of wisdom and virtue. All religions owe their 

 millions of converts to the doctrine of immortality or at least of 

 the survival of the soul after the dissolution of the body, which 

 removes the fear of death, and even, in the case of their most 

 fervent disciples, replaces it by the desire for death, which they 

 look upon as a deliverance, opening the door to a better and 

 higher life. 



Let us glance at Domenichino's picture of St. Jerome (Fig. 

 128), who has reached the last moment of his long life and is 

 about to receive the Viaticum. His emaciated countenance 

 wears the calm expression of one who puts off his mortal vesture 

 with no regret ; but on the other hand there is the melancholic 

 languor of one who, while he has no doubt of the better life 

 awaiting him, is uncertain whether he has written, disputed, 

 fought and suffered enough to deserve it ! Sublime mediaeval 

 asceticism, with a faith in an imaginary life beyond so fervid 

 that it prevented the recognition of the value of real life ! 



