ANIMALS. 69 



tends to his own representations ; the judgment 

 of others is considered as a hasty conclusion ; 

 and while death every moment makes new in- 

 roads upon his constitution, and destroys life in 

 some part, hope still seems to escape the univer- 

 sal ruin, and is the last that submits to the blow. 



Cast your eyes upon a sick man, who has a 

 hundred times told you that he felt himself dying, 

 that he was convinced he could not recover, and 

 that he was ready to expire ; examine what passes 

 on his visage when, through zeal or indiscretion, 

 any one comes to tell him that his end is at hand : 

 You will see him change like one who is told an 

 unexpected piece of news. He now appears not 

 to have thoroughly believed what he had been 

 telling you himself; he doubted much, and his 

 fears were greater than his hopes ; but he still 

 had some feeble expectations of living, and would 

 not have seen the approaches of death, unless he 

 had been alarmed by the mistaken assiduity of his 

 attendants. 



Death, therefore, is not that 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 in- 

 creased 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 suf- 



