rendered this of
less value, and embodied something beyond it to the imagination; so
that the rough soldier, the infatuated lover, the valorous knight, etc.,
could afford to throw away the present venture, and take a leap into the
arms of futurity, which the modern sceptic shrinks back from, with all
his boasted reason and vain philosophy, weaker than a woman! I cannot
help thinking so myself; but I have endeavoured to explain this point
before, and will not enlarge farther on it here.

A life of action and danger moderates the dread of death. It not only
gives us fortitude to bear pain, but teaches us at every step the
precarious tenure on which we hold our present being. Sedentary and
studious men are the most apprehensive on this score. Dr. Johnson was
an instance in point. A few years seemed to him soon over, compared with
those sweeping contemplations on time and infinity with which he had
been used to pose himself. In the _still-life_ of a man of letters there
was no obvious reason for a change. He might sit in an arm-chair and
pour out cups of tea to all eternity. Would it had been possible for him
to do so! The most rational cure after all for the inordinate fear of
death is to set a just value on life. If we merely wish to continue on
the scene to indulge our headstrong humours and tormenting passions,
we had better begone at once; and if we only cherish a fondness for
existence according to the good we derive from it, the pang we feel at
parting with it will not be very severe!

NOTES to ESSAY XVII

(1) All men think all men mortal but themselves.
--YOUNG.

(2) I remember once, In particular, having this feeling in reading
Schiller's _Don Carlos_, where there is a description of death, in a
degree that almost stifled me.

(3) It has been usual to raise a very unjust clamour against the
enormous salaries of public singers, actors, and so on. This matter
seems reducible to a moral equation. They are paid out of money raised
by voluntary contributions in the strictest sense; and if they did not
bring certain sums into the treasury, the managers would not engage
them. These sums are exactly in proportion to the number of Individuals
to whom their performance gives an extraordinary degree of pleasure. The
talents of a singer, actor, etc., are therefore worth just as much as
they will fetch.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Table-Talk, by William Hazlitt

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