A happy (to call it so) and easy death is at least as much a
physiological result as a pyschological one. The foundation of it
really begins before birth, and is thence directly or indirectly
shaped and affected, even constituted, (the base stomachic) by every
thing from that minute till the time of its occurrence. And yet here
is something (Whittier's "Burning Driftwood") of an opposite coloring:
I know the solemn monotone
Of waters calling unto me;
I know from whence the airs have blown,
That whisper of the Eternal Sea;
As low my fires of driftwood burn,
I hear that sea's deep sounds increase,
And, fair in sunset light, discern
Its mirage-lifted Isles of Peace.
Like an invisible breeze after a long and sultry day, death sometimes
sets in at last, soothingly and refreshingly, almost vitally. In not
a few cases the termination even appears to be a sort of ecstasy. Of
course there are painful deaths, but I do not believe such is at all
the general rule. Of the many hundreds I myself saw die in the fields
and hospitals during the secession war the cases of mark' d suffering
or agony _in extremis_ were very rare. (It is a curious suggestion
of immortality that the mental and emotional powers remain to their
clearest through all, while the senses of pain and flesh volition are
blunted or even gone.)
Then to give the following, and cease before the thought gets
threadbare:
Now, land and life, finale, and farewell!
Now Voyager depart! (much, much for thee is yet in store;)
Often enough hast thou adventur'd o'er the seas,
Cautiously cruising, studying the charts,
Duly again to port and hawser's tie returning.
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