Tokarsky,[149] another Russian writer, a few years ago published a treatise on the fear of death, and tried to show how little reason there was for it. The writer was a physician for the insane, and knew himself to be afflicted with an incurable and fatal disease. His observations on the fear of death were probably based on his own feelings. Judging from the evidence of a number of persons who had been in mortal danger, Tokarsky declared that death had no terror, and that it was unnecessary to fear it. Tokarsky’s theory was supported in recent years by Finot[150] whose arguments in its favour were similar to those of his predecessor. He held that man himself created the fear of death, and that the prospect of an unknown future played a considerable part in it. “Beyond that which we see,” says Finot, “there is always something that we cannot see, and it is the invisible that we fear.”[151] The idea that death is generally attended by pain seems to Finot quite erroneous, and he comes to the conclusion that “our ignorances and prejudices are responsible for the creation of this superstition, so terrible to contemplate, so far removed from the truth.”[152] Instances which have occurred of people threatened with death and suddenly restored to life, give proofs, according to Finot, that death, far from being painful, is attended by pleasant sensations. With regard to this, Heim, a Swiss savant, says that tourists who have had serious falls while mountaineering, and have been so near to death that they experienced all the premonitory symptoms, felt above all a sensation of ecstasy. It cannot be denied that some forms of death are pleasant, but it is no less certain that in many other cases, and these too the majority—the sensation of approaching death is, on the contrary, extremely painful. This question, however, is not necessarily connected with the fear of death that may come to those who are not yet about to die. But it is precisely the latter mode of fear that is so important a factor in human life. Men who are dying of starvation do not feel painfully hungry at the moment of death. The actual pain of hunger lasts only for a limited period, probably, in the case of man, only about twenty hours, after which it is succeeded by a condition of lassitude and general weakness, which however is different from painful hunger. The fear of death is similar, for in certain cases it does not last up to the end of life. The pain of thirst, on the other hand, is much more persistent, lasting up to the end.