ESSAY I. 407 future 'happiness; and therefore when they die, they know or fear they must be exposed to thepunishment which is prepared for criminals in another world. Their aversion therefore to death, and the fear of it, even though they are in ,a miserable state, arises not so much from any sense Of present happiness, which they are loath to lose, as from a fear or suspicion of taking a dreadful leap in the dark into greater misery. There are some of our English poets who have said very pertinent things on this occasion, and I have read the citations of them on this subject. " Distrust and darkness of a future state Makepoor mankind so fearful of their fate. Death:in itself is nothing: But we fear To be we:know not what, weknownot where." And another-thus: " Aye ; but to die, and go we knownot whither: forthis warm body'to become itkneaded clod, and the delighted spirit To bathe in fiery floods, or to reside In thrilling ice ;* or to be worse than worst Of those we fancy howling in long torment,; This is too humble The weariest and most loathed worldly life That pain, age, penury and imprisonment Can lay on nature, it is a paradise To what we fear of death." Again, in another place, the game writersays, " If by thesleep of death we couldbut end The heart-ache,.and the thousand natural shocks Thatflesh is heir to ; 'tis a consummation Devoutly to bewish'd. Oh! who could bear the.whips and scorns of .time, Tit' oppressor's wrongs, thepoor man's-contumely, The insolence of office, andthe spurns That patient merit of th' unworthy takes, With all the long calamities of life, When he himself might his quietus make With a bare bodkin? Who would bear such burdens, And groan and sweat under aweary life, But that thedread of something after death, That undiscover'd country fromwhose border No traveller returns, puzzles the will, And makes us rather bear those ills we have, Than fly to others which are all unknown ?"} And it'is very evident daily that multitudes wouldput an end to their own life itonce, if they were sure they couldput an end to their souls and all their nature, and send themselves into * The poet supposes these torments in the future state. f This author, as we see told by the critics, was as well skilled in describing human nature as any writer whatsoever : aad it is only In this view that I have cited his lines.
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