624 DECLINE OF THE SYSTEM. 



tion of the blood in the lungs, cannot survive 

 the interruption of this function ; and on the 

 heart ceasing to throb, death may then be con- 

 sidered as complete in every part of the system. 

 It is an important consideration, with reference 

 to final causes, that generally long before the 

 commencement of this 



" Last scene of all, 

 That ends this strange eventful history," 



the power of feeling has wholly ceased, and the 

 physical struggle is carried on by the vital powers 

 alone, in the absence of all consciousness of the 

 sentient being, whose death may be said to pre- 

 cede, for some time, that of the body. In this, 

 as well as in the gradual decline of the sensorial 

 faculties, and the consequent diminution both of 

 mental and of physical sensibility in advanced 

 age, we cannot fail to recognise the wise ordi- 

 nances of a superintending and beneficent pro- 

 vidence, kindly smoothing the path along which 

 we descend the vale of life, spreading a narcotic 

 mantle over the bed of death, and giving to the 

 last moments of departing sensation the tran- 

 quillity of approaching sleep. 



