In young adults this instinct of self-preservation, which is closely connected with an instinctive fear of death, is not fully developed. It often takes some special circumstance to awaken it, such as a dangerous illness, an accident, or the perils of war. Young people who while in good health believe their lives to be in danger, often take it to heart so as to make themselves really ill. Relating his impressions during the siege of Sebastopol, Tolstoi, who at that time was only twenty-six years of age, writes as follows: “Notwithstanding the distractions offered by various and urgent duties, the instinct of self-preservation, and the longing to quit this horrible place of death was present in the hearts of all. This desire was equally strong in all; in those mortally wounded, and in the volunteer rushing with all his might into the centre of the fray to open a path for the horse of the general, in the general himself as he directed and controlled his men. The officer of marines, in the middle of a battalion in action, crushed so that he could hardly breathe, felt it equally with the wounded man carried on a stretcher by four soldiers until, further progress being impossible, he had been set down just under the Nicolai battery, or the artilleryman who had served his gun for sixteen years.” In the normal course of life, however, the young do not show an instinctive clinging to life in any marked degree. They often risk their lives for trifling reasons, and commit all sorts of indiscretions hurtful to life or health without a thought of the consequences. They may be inspired by the highest motives, but they are equally ready to fritter strength away in the gratification of the lowest appetites. Youth is the age of disinterested sacrifice, but also of indulgence in all kinds of excesses, alcoholic, sexual and others. Youths seem to think that they will always attach the same value to life, and that between death at thirty years of age and death at sixty, there is a difference only of time. As their love of life is indifferently developed, young people are often extremely exacting, the pleasure they enjoy being but moderate, whilst the suffering provoked in them by the slightest annoyance is intense. They consequently become epicureans in the lowest sense of the word, or else abandon themselves to exaggerated pessimism.