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. Certainly,
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 sometimes
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.”[54] Groans and convulsions, and a discolored face, and
friends weeping, and blacks[55] and obsequies, and the like, show death
terrible. It is worthy the observing, that there is no passion 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.[56] Nay, Seneca[57] adds niceness and satiety:
“Cogita quamdiu eadem feceris; mori velle, non tantum fortis, aut
miser, sed etiam fastidiosus potest.”[58] 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 Cæsar
died in a compliment: “Livia, conjugii nostri memor, vive et vale.”[59]
Tiberius in dissimulation, as Tacitus saith of him, “Jam Tiberium
vires et corpus, non dissimulatio, deserebant:”[60] Vespasian in a
jest, sitting upon the stool,[61] “Ut puto Deus fio;”[62] Galba with
a sentence, “Feri, si ex re sit populi Romani,”[63] holding forth
his neck; Septimus Severus in dispatch, “Adeste, si quid mihi restat
agendum,”[64] and the like. Certainly, the Stoics[65] bestowed too much
cost upon death, and by their great preparations made it appear more
fearful. Better, saith he, “qui finem vitæ extremum inter munera ponit
naturæ.”[66] 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,”[67]
when a man hath obtained worthy ends and expectations. Death hath this
also, that it openeth the gate to good fame, and extinguisheth envy:
“Extinctus amabitur idem.”[68]