most similar to this state, which were exhibited in the Sleep of Death, afforded on all occasions, and under all circumstances, a certain and infallible criterion, that the same Principle was at once wholly and radically annihilated. It is marvellous-most marvellous, that the decisions and practices of mankind on this point should have been so fixed-so peremptory and invariable in every age and nation of the world. No doubts-no difficulties-no suspicions were ever excited on the truth of their conclusion and the wisdom of their practice. It was never suggested, among the reflexions of mankind, that states so similar to each other in appearance might not possibly in all cases be totally opposite in their naturethat visible exhibitions of Life were possibly not necessarily connected with the existence. of vital action, in the internal mechanism of the frame, and much less with the existence of the vital Principle-that the senses superficially exerted, or exerted, or unassisted by other guides, may possibly not on all occasions, be certain and infallible judges of the presence of Vitality. In a word, it was never suggested, among the the reflections of mankind, that faint exhibitions of Life, imperceptible even to the senses, are possibly not altogether incompatible with its presence in the System, at least in a weaker state; when it is known that in a condition most similar to this, where the signs of life are almost, though not altogether imperceptible to the senses, the process of vita ity is proceeding in its strongest and most efficient form. As these conditions of Death and Sleep, seem in many most striking and impressive cases, where Youth and Beauty display their charms, to differ only in degrees, it is indeed, I must again repeat, most wonderful, that no deductions were formed, which might lead men to conjecture, that the means of recovery from these states might possibly differ only in degree likewise, and consist merely in demanding more strenuous and more continued exertions for the re-appearance of the vital actions. We know so little about the nature or the mode, by which Sleep steals over the Frame, and confines it within the spells of its power, or of the operation, by which the act of dropping into Death produces insensibility to outward objects, that no adept in the secrets of Physiology will venture to distinguish between the different processes, by by which these similar effects and appearances are produced, or to predict, as from a tripod, on the final consequences, by which in all cases they must be necessarily attended. We may safely affirm that this train of reflections, obvious and almost inevitable as it may appear, was never fully excited in the minds of men, from the beginning of the world to the present moment. In our own times, even when some important facts, relating to the subject have become familiar to our knowledge, this view of the question may be considered as altogether new, if we regard the conclusions and the consequences, with which it is involved. In delivering this opinion I mean to state, that never at any period, even in our own times, have reflections of this nature,been so fully and efficiently familiar to the understandings of men, as to operate with due force on the practices of the people and the Institutions of Society. It is true indeed, that practices have been adopted in our own times, which coincide with the spirit of these observations, though it is probable, that they were not derived from this source; and it is certain, that they have not advanced beyond the limits of partial and peculiar case, nor have they at all opened into those general consequences, to which this train of reasoning directly con ducts the understanding. The absence of apparent motion and sensation, as it appears to the eye of the ordi nary observer, however careless and ignorant he may be, still continues to be regarded in our familiar practice, as an infallible criterion of the total and absolute annihilation of Life; and on this conclusion, as I have before observed, through every part of our Globe, barbarous and civilized, do we commit our fellow creatures to their graves, without any efforts of reflexion, or any compunctions of remorse. We have been in vain taught by the most brilliant experiments and the most Public declaration of the doctrine, that the absence of apparent motion and sensation, afford no criterion whatever of the annihilation of Life: The familiar practices of the people and of their teachers,still continue to be the same in the present times, as in all the past, and to be regulated by a maxim directly opposite to this acknowledged fact, just as if it had been utterly unknown among the inventions of men. N Description from the Poets, of the lovely countenance assumed by the young and beautiful after Death, as if sleeping Contrast with the appearance after Death from a violent cause, with reflections thereon relating to the applications of the Resuscitative Process.—Suggestion, that the fact of the countenance assuming its former features after its distortion from, the struggles of Death, may perhaps indicate the recovery of the person from the previous Disorder. The Poets, who are supposed to have confounded and perverted our reason so much by their language and their conceptions, are not such bad Philosophers as many have imagined; and they may be often summoned to our assistance in the discussions of Science, if we attend only to the force of their impressions, and omit not to draw inferences and to form conclusions for ourselves. We all remember that our great Bard has described a case of Violent Death, in all its terrors, after the following manner. "But see, his face is black and full of blood, (A. 3. S. 2.) |