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Intro To Novel

This document discusses different perspectives on death and how people face death. It notes that while people fear death, certain passions can overcome that fear, such as revenge, love, honor, grief, and fear. It also observes that great leaders and philosophers faced death with strength and composure. The document argues that focusing on a purpose or goal in life can help one accept death more easily. Overall, it examines how people confront and make sense of their mortality.

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fiza imran
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22 views

Intro To Novel

This document discusses different perspectives on death and how people face death. It notes that while people fear death, certain passions can overcome that fear, such as revenge, love, honor, grief, and fear. It also observes that great leaders and philosophers faced death with strength and composure. The document argues that focusing on a purpose or goal in life can help one accept death more easily. Overall, it examines how people confront and make sense of their mortality.

Uploaded by

fiza imran
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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OF DEATH

Men fear death, as children fear to go in the dark; and as that


natural fear in children, is increased with tales, so is the other. Cer-
tainly, the contemplation of death, as the wages of sin, and passage
to another world, is holy and religious; but the fear of it, as a tribute
due unto nature, is weak. Yet in religious meditations, there is some-
times mixture of vanity, and of superstition. You shall read, in some
of the friars’ books of mortification, that a man should think with
himself, what the pain is, if he have but his finger’s end pressed, or
tortured, and thereby imagine, what the pains of death are, when
the whole body is corrupted, and dissolved; when many times death
passeth, with less pain than the torture of a limb; for the most vital
parts, are not the quickest of sense. And by him that spake only as a
philosopher, and natural man, it was well said, Pompa mortis magis
terret, quam mors ipsa. Groans, and convulsions, and a discolored
face, and friends weeping, and blacks, and obsequies, and the like,
show death terrible. It is worthy the observing, that there is no pas-
sion in the mind of man, so weak, but it mates, and masters, the
fear of death; and therefore, death is no such terrible enemy, when a
man hath so many attendants about him, that can win the combat of
him. Revenge triumphs over death; love slights it; honor aspireth to
it; grief flieth to it; fear preoccupateth it; nay, we read, after Otho the
emperor had slain himself, pity (which is the tenderest of affections)
provoked many to die, out of mere compassion to their sovereign,
and as the truest sort of followers. Nay, Seneca adds niceness and
satiety: Cogita quamdiu eadem feceris; mori velle, non tantum fortis

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6 Bacon’s Essays

aut miser, sed etiam fastidiosus potest. A man would die, though he
were neither valiant, nor miserable, only upon a weariness to do the
same thing so oft, over and over. It is no less worthy, to observe, how
little alteration in good spirits, the approaches of death make; for
they appear to be the same men, till the last instant. Augustus Caesar
died in a compliment; Livia, conjugii nostri memor, vive et vale. Ti-
berius in dissimulation; as Tacitus saith of him, Jam Tiberium vires
et corpus, non dissimulatio, deserebant. Vespasian in a jest, sitting
upon the stool; Ut puto deus fio. Galba with a sentence; Feri, si ex
re sit populi Romani; holding forth his neck. Septimius Severus in
despatch; Adeste si quid mihi restat agendum. And the like. Certain-
ly the Stoics bestowed too much cost upon death, and by their great
preparations, made it appear more fearful. Better saith he qui finem
vitae extremum inter munera ponat naturae. It is as natural to die, as
to be born; and to a little infant, perhaps, the one is as painful, as the
other. He that dies in an earnest pursuit, is like one that is wounded
in hot blood; who, for the time, scarce feels the hurt; and therefore
a mind fixed, and bent upon somewhat that is good, doth avert the
dolors of death. But, above all, believe it, the sweetest canticle is,
Nunc dimittis; when a man hath obtained worthy ends, and expec-
tations. Death hath this also; that it openeth the gate to good fame,
and extinguisheth envy. -Extinctus amabitur idem.

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