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tlie former, rather terrify the spectators, than tor- 

 taent the patient, for how many have we seen, who 

 have been accidentally relieved from this extremity* 

 and yet had no memory of what they then endured ? 

 In fact, they had ceased to live, during that time 

 when they ceased to have sensation ; and their pains 

 were only those of which they had an idea. 



The greatest number of mankind die, therefore^ 

 without sensation : and of those few that still pre- 

 serve their faculties to the last moment, there is scarce 

 one that dors not also preserve the hopes of still 

 out-living his disorder. Nature, for the happiness of 

 man, has rendered this sentiment stronger than his 

 reason. A person dying of an incurable disorder^ 

 which he must know to be so by frequent examples 

 of his case ; which he perceives to be so, by the 

 inquietude of all around him ; by the tears of his 

 friends, and the departure, or the face of the physu 

 cian, is, nevertheless, still in hopes of getting over 

 it. His interest is so great, that he only attends to 

 his own representations; the judgment of others is 

 considered as a hasty conclusion; and while death 

 every moment makes new inroads upon his constitu- 

 tion, and destroys life in some part ; hope still seems 

 10 escape the universal ruin, and is the last that sub. 

 ctitfi to the blow. 



Death, therefore, is r.ot the terrible thing which 

 we suppose it to be. It is a spectre which frights us 

 at a distance, but which disappears when we come 'to 

 approach it more closely. Our ideas of its terrors are 

 conceived in prejudice, and dressed up by fancy ; 

 we regard it not only as the greatest misfortune, but 

 as also an evil accompanied with the most excruciating 

 -tortures : we have even increased our apprehensions, 

 by reasoning on the extent of our sufferings. It must 

 be dreadful, say some, since it is sufficient to separate 

 the soul from the body ; it must be long, since our 

 sufferings are proportioned to the succession of our 

 ideas ; and these being painful, must succeed each 

 other with extreme rapidity. In this manner false 



