386 HISTORY OF 



the dying person has shown that very reflection which presnp, 

 poses an absence of the greatest pain ; and, consequently, that 

 pang which ends life cannot even be so great as those which have 

 preceded. Thus, when Charles XII. was shot at the siege of 

 Jt'rederickshall, he was seen to clap his hand on the hilt of his 

 sword ; and although the blow was great enough to terminate 

 one of the boldest and bravest lives in the world, yet it was not 

 painful enough to destroy reflection. He perceived himself at- 

 tacked ; he reflected that he ought to defend himself : and his 

 body obeyed the impulse of his mind, even in the last extremity. 

 Thus it is the prejudice of persons in health, and not the body 

 in pain, that makes us suffer from the approach of death ; we 

 have all our lives contracted a habit of making out excessive 

 pleasures and pains ; and nothing but repeated experience shows 

 us how seldom the one can be suffered, or the other enjoyed to 

 the utmost. 



If there be any thing necessary to confirm what we have said 

 concerning the gradual cessation of life, or the insensible ap- 

 proaches of our end, nothing can more effectually prove it than the 

 imcertainty of the signs of death. If we consult what Winslow 

 or Bruhier have said upon this subject, we shall be convinced, 

 that between life and death the shade is so very undistinguisha- 

 ble, that even all the powers of art can scarcely determine where 

 the one ends, and the other begins. The colour of the vis- 

 age, the warmth of the body, the suppleness of the joints, are 

 but uncertain signs of life still subsisting ; while on the contrary, 

 the paleness of the complexion, the coldness of the body, the 

 stiffness of the extremities, the cessation of all motion, and the 

 total insensibility of the parts, are but uncertain marks of death 

 begun. In the same manner, also, with regard to the pulse and 

 the breathing, these motions are often so kept under, that it is 

 impossible to perceive them. By approaciiing a looking-glass 

 to the mouth of the person supposed to be dead, people often 

 expect to find whether he breathes or not. But this is a very 

 uncertain experiment ; the glass is frequently sullied by the va- 

 pour of the dead man's body ; and often the person is still alive 

 although the glass is no way tarnished. In the same manner, 

 neither burning nor scarifying, neither noises in the ears nor 

 pungent spirits applied to the nostrils, give certain signs of the 

 discontinuance of life ; and there are many instances of persons 



