DEATH. 31 



pressure then falls irretrievably, the capillary circulation 

 ceases, and the tissues, no longer nourished from the blood, 

 gradually die, not all at one instant, but one after another, 

 according as their individual respiratory or other needs are 

 great or little. 



While death is the natural end of life, it is not its 

 aim we should not live to die, but live prepared to die. 

 Life has its duties and its legitimate pleasures, and we 

 better play our part by attending to the fulfilment of the one 

 and the enjoyment of the other, than by concentrating a 

 morbid and paralyzing attention on the inevitable, with the 

 too frequent result of producing indifference to the work 

 which lies at hand for each. Our organs and faculties are 

 not talents which we may justifiably leave unemployed; each 

 is bound to do his best with them, and so to live that he 

 may most utilize them. An active, vigorous, dutiful, un- 

 selfish life is a good preparation for death; when that time, 

 at which we must pass from the realm controlled by physi- 

 ological laws, approaches, when the hands tremble and the 

 eyes grow dim, when "the grasshopper shall be a burden 

 and desire - shall fail," then, surely, the consciousness of 

 having " quitted us like men" in the employment of our 

 faculties while they were ours to use, will be no mean conso- 

 latior 



