Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 66, No. 410, December 1849Various
History
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 66, No. 410, December 1849
Various
England -- Periodicals; Scotland -- Periodicals
have had any reason even dimly to foresee his own sudden death, there
would have been a new feature in his act of intemperance--a feature of
presumption and irreverence, as in one that by possibility felt himself
drawing near to the presence of God. But this is no part of the case
supposed. And the only new element in the man's act is not any element
of extra immorality, but simply of extra misfortune.
The other remark has reference to the meaning of the word _sudden_.
And it is a strong illustration of the duty which for ever calls us
to the stern valuation of words--that very possibly Cæsar and the
Christian church do not differ in the way supposed; that is, do not
differ by any difference of doctrine as between Pagan and Christian
views of the moral temper appropriate to death, but that they are
contemplating different cases. Both contemplate a violent death; a
[Greek: Biathanatos]--death that is [Greek: Biaios]: but the difference
is--that the Roman by the word "sudden" means an _unlingering_ death:
whereas the Christian litany by "sudden" means a death _without
warning_, consequently without any available summons to religious
preparation. The poor mutineer, who kneels down to gather into his
heart the bullets from twelve firelocks of his pitying comrades, dies
by a most sudden death in Cæsar's sense: one shock, one mighty spasm,
one (possibly _not_ one) groan, and all is over. But, in the sense
of the Litany, his death is far from sudden; his offence originally,
his imprisonment, his trial, the interval between his sentence and
its execution, having all furnished him with separate warnings of his
fate--having all summoned him to meet it with solemn preparation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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