INTRODUCTION. XXXIX 



If we now consider, that sleep retrenches about one- 

 third of the whole duration of animal life ; that nine 

 months of it are first lost in gestation ; and that the ex- 

 tinction of our senses is the inheritance of old age ; it 

 will be seen how great is the difference between, the 

 whole duration of animal, and of organic life. 



It has been remarked by Bichat, that the idea of death 

 is painful to us only because it terminates our animal 

 life, or those functions which put us in relation with sur- 

 rounding objects. This is the privation which plants 

 terror and dismay on the borders of the tomb. It is 

 not the pain of death that we fear, for many dying per- 

 sons would willingly commute death for an uninter- 

 rupted series of bodily suffering. But if it were possi- 

 ble for a man to exist whose death would only effect 

 the functions of organic life, as the circulation, diges- 

 tion, and secretions, allowing the exercise of the senses 

 and the mind to continue, this man would view with 

 indifference the extinction of organic life, because he 

 knows that the happiness of living is not attached to it,, 

 and that he would remain after this partial death, still 

 in a condition to appreciate all the delightful ties of ex- 

 istence. 



