thirty or forty, Who would have thought it? they say of him. He was so strong and healthy; and now he is dead! Yes, indeed, he is dead; although neither he himself nor any one else expected it. How many old people are there to whom one dares not speak of death for fear of annoying them? And the older they get the more confidence they have of living for a long time. Even the oldest think they have still a year of life left; and nothing will persuade them that the year they have begun may be the last for them. “It is true,” says St. Jerome, “that there is no one so old who does not promise himself another year of life.”[1] If he says of himself: I must soon die; I feel it in my limbs; it is all over with me; I have already one foot in the grave, he does so only to hear what others have to say about the matter, and to give them a chance of flattering him with the hope of a long life. Why should you talk of dying? they say to him. You are still, thank God! strong and hearty, old as you are, and you have a good appetite; you may live to be a hundred, etc. That was just what he was wanting. And thus it happens that he, too, dies unexpectedly, like the others. Finally, there are those who die after a long and tedious illness. But the most of those even die when they least expect it. For show me, if you can, one sick person who, no matter how bad he is, does not at least hope for another day of life? And we know too, by experience, that one effect of a slow consuming fever is that the patient will not be persuaded that his illness is dangerous; he imagines himself to be quite strong, although death is in his eyes, until at last, while he is eating or drinking, or as often happens, expressing a desire to go somewhere for a change, he breathes his last. How many sick people are not deceived by their own children, domes tics, and friends, who are unwilling to speak a word to them of any danger of death for fear of troubling them? Every one who visits them tries to encourage them; you must hope for the best, is the word; there have been many far worse who have pulled through all right; you must not be anxious; the doctor is a clever man, and he will surely be able to help you; and so on. Is it not so, my dear brethren? And how often are sick people only too ready to believe such flattering suggestions, since they have a natural love of life and fear of death, and thus put off receiving the last sacraments until they are at the last gasp? I have al-
- ↑ Illud egregie dictum est; nullum tam senem esse, et sic decrepitæ ætatis, ut nom se adhuc uno plus anno vivere suspicetur.
