DEATH AND IMMORTALITY 177 



those they have loved. For the sake of discussion, 

 it may be assumed that these desires are really very 

 widespread, although there is some evidence that a 

 considerable part of the population of Christianized 

 countries is little or not at all concerned with such 

 questions. It seems safe to believe that there is 

 among those people who think at all a rough rela- 

 tionship between the wish for life in this world and 

 life hereafter, in the sense that a strong desire for a 

 future life is commonly associated with a strong 

 attachment to this life. Persons whose grasp on life 

 is weakened, as by disease, or by profound disap- 

 pointment, are almost certain to experience a con- 

 comitant decline of interest in a future life. This 

 parallelism is significant. It points, I think, to the 

 grounding of the desire for a future life in the instinct 

 of self-preservation. This instinct is fundamental 

 and organic. It reflects in consciousness the property 

 possessed by every living cell, which causes it to defy 

 and to antagonize insults and injuries, great or 

 small, which impinge upon it. The most hopeless 

 melancholic or hypocondriac, inclined to suicidal 

 thoughts and acts, will struggle vigorously to avoid 

 drowning on suddenly falling into the water. And 

 similarly we cling to life and dread to die, though 

 decrepit and racked with pain. Maecenas wrote : 



" Make me weake of hand, 

 Scarce on my legges to stand, 

 Shake my loose teeth with pain, 

 Tis wele so life remain." 



