r
peculiar refinement of thinking.

It would seem that the Romans had even an aversion to mention death in
express terms, for they disguised its very name by some periphrasis,
such as _discessit e vita_, "he has departed from life;" and they did
not say that their friend had _died_, but that he had _lived_; _vixit_!
In the old Latin chronicles, and even in the _Foedera_ and other
documents of the middle ages, we find the same delicacy about using the
fatal word _Death_, especially when applied to kings and great people.
"_Transire a Saeculo--Vitam suam mutare--Si quid de eo humanitus
contigerit, &c._" I am indebted to Mr. Merivale for this remark. Even
among a people less refined, the obtrusive idea of death has been
studiously avoided: we are told that when the Emperor of Morocco
inquires after any one who has recently died, it is against etiquette to
mention the word "death;" the answer is "his destiny is closed!" But
this tenderness is only reserved for "the elect" of the Mussulmen. A
Jew's death is at once plainly expressed: "He is dead, sir! asking your
pardon for mentioning such a contemptible wretch!" _i.e._ a Jew! A
Christian's is described by "The infidel is dead!" or, "The cuckold is
dead."

The ancient artists have so rarely attempted to personify Death, that we
have not discovered a single revolting image of this nature in all the
works of antiquity.[137]--To conceal its deformity to the eye, as well
as to elude its suggestion to the mind, seems to have been an universal
feeling, and it accorded with a fundamental principle of ancient art;
that of never permitting violent passion to produce in its
representation distortion of form. This may be observed in the Laocoon,
where the mouth only opens sufficiently to indicate the suppressed agony
of superior humanity, without expressing the loud cry of vulgar
suffering. Pausanias considered as a personification of death a female
figure, whose teeth and nails, long and crooked, were engraven on a
coffin of cedar, which enclosed the body of Cypselus; this female was
unquestionably only one of the _Parcae_, or the Fates, "watchful to cut
the thread of life." Hesiod describes Atropos indeed as having sharp
teeth and long nails, waiting to tear and devour the dead; but this
image was of a barbarous era. Catullus ventured to personify the Sister
Destinies as three Crones; "but in general," Winkelmann observes, "they
are portrayed as beautiful virgins, with winged heads