436 DECLINE OF THE SYSTEM. 



paired, while the judgment remains in full vigour. The 

 next faculties which usually suffer from the effects of age are 

 the external senses, and the failure of sight and of hearing 

 still farther contrihutes to the decline of the intellectual 

 powers, hy withdrawing the occasions for their exercise. 

 The actual demolition of the fabric commences whenever 

 there is a considerable failure in the functions of assimilation: 

 but the more immediate cause of the rapid extinction of life 

 is usually the impediment which the loss of the sensorial 

 power, necessary for maintaining the movements of the chest, 

 creates to resj)iration. The heart, whose pulsations gave the 

 first indications of life in the embryo, generally retains its 

 vitality longer than any other organ; but its powers being 

 dependent on the constant oxidation of the blood in the 

 lungs, cannot survive the interruption of this function; and 

 on the heart ceasing to throb, death may then be considered 

 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 sti-ange eventful history," 



the power of feeling has wholly ceased, and the physical 

 struggle is carried on by the vital powers alone, in the ab- 

 sence of all consciousness of the sentient being, whose death 

 may be said to precede, for some time, that of the body. In 

 this, as well as in the gradual decline of the sensorial facul- 

 ties, and the consequent diminution both of mental and of 

 physical sensibility in advanced age, we cannot fail to re- 

 cognise the wise ordinances of a superintending and bene- 

 ficent providence, 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 de- 

 parting sensation the tranquillity of approaching sleep. 



