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order to keep the earth from being over. stocked wit?t 

 human inhabitants ; since, if every person were now 

 to live and generate for nine hundred years, mankind 

 would be increased to such a degree, that there would 

 be no room for subsistence: so that the plan of pro- 

 vidence would be altered; which is seen not to pro- 

 duce life, without providing a proper supply ! 



But to whatever extent life may be prolonged, or 

 however some may have delayed the effects of age, 

 death is the certain goal to which we are all hasten, 

 ing. All the causes of decay, which have been men. 

 tioned, contribute to bring on this dreadful dissolu- 

 tion. IIo v wever, nature approaches to this awful 

 period, by slow and imperceptible degrees, life is 

 consuming day after day, and some one of our fa^ 

 cullies, or vital principles, is every hour dying before 

 the rest : so that death is only the last shade in the 

 picture : and it is probable, that man suffers a great- 

 er change in going from youth to age, than from age 

 into the grave. When we first begin to live, our lives 

 may scarcely be said to be our own : as the child 

 grows, life increases in the same proportion, and 

 is at its height in the prime, of manhood. But as 

 soon as the body begins to decrease, life decreases 

 also ; for as the human frame diminishes, and its 

 juices circulate in smaller quantity, life diminishes and 

 circulates with less vigour ; so that as we begin to 

 live by degrees, we begin to die in the same manner. 

 Why then should we fear death, if our lives have 

 been such as not to make eternity dreadful? Why 

 should we fear that moment which is prepared by a 

 thousand other moments of the same kind, the first 

 pangs of sickness being probably greater than the 

 last struggles of departure. Death, in most persons, 

 is as calmly endured, as the disorder that brings it 

 on. If we enquire, from those, whose business it is 

 to attend the sick, and the dying, we shall find, that, 

 except in a very few acute cases, where the patient 

 dies in agonies, the greatest number die quietly, and 

 seemingly without pain. And even the agonies of 

 Q 4 



