THE FEAR OF DEATH. 



237 



from the stomach blunt the fancy of the opposite. It is observable, 

 likewise, that the feeling of pity is often associated with organic 

 weakness, while strong, healthy, and vigorous men are less inclined 

 to it. It is only possible if we are able to realize a lively representa- 

 tion of physical or moral weakness; but men whose entirely health- 

 ful and vigorous organization deA^elops feelings of well-being and 

 strength can form only the poorest conceptions of those conditions 

 of feebleness that are in contradiction to the preponderant system 

 of sensations. 



These principles explain why the young, well, and vigorous man 

 concerns himself very little about death, although he knows to a 

 certainty that it is inevitable. In a sound body the organs send 

 unprecise and indefinite sensations to the brain, which, however, 

 all together give that feeling of vigor and physical well-being that 

 might be called the general sensation of organic life. According 

 with the psychological phenomenon we have described, this condi- 

 tion of organic sensibility is diametrically opposed to the production 

 of vivid images of death. The thought of death is therefore vague, 

 feeble, and without consistency in the larger number of minds; and 

 it is not competent to call out very strong feelings or excite a terror 

 that will arouse the instincts of preservation that are slumbering in 

 the depths of the consciousness. 



The same principle explains why it is that old people generally 

 are the ones who are most afraid of death and do not like to have 

 it spoken of in their presence. Everybody has observed how wor- 

 ried aged persons are and how they protest if sickness or deceased 

 persons are mentioned; that they are extraordinarily pleased when 

 they read in the papers the accounts that are given occasionally of 

 some centenarian living in some remote district; and what extraor- 

 dinary precautions they take to preserve their health. We might 

 believe that old men are preoccupied with death so much because 

 they feel it near; but other facts demonstrate that the abstract num- 

 ber of probabilities of dying is not an element of the fear of death. 

 Men in some occupations, as sailors or miners, are continually ex- 

 posed to the danger of death; but they, especially the youth among 

 them, do not take sufficient thought of it to be disturbed or sad- 

 dened by it. The greater vividness of old men's conceptions of 

 death is most likely a result of the advancing weakness of their 

 organs and physical sensations. 



Man has to face not only the abstract thought of death: he 

 often finds himself confronting the real danger of it. What are 

 his conduct and feelings then? A number of curious facts indicate 

 that violent deaths, provided they are not too slow, are easy and free 

 from pain; it might be said that death excites hardly any horror 



