Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Over the teacups / by Oliver Wendell Holmes. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.
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![acquaintance ! It is very grand to die in harness, but it is very pleasant to have the tight straps un- buckled and the heavy collar lifted from the neck and shoulders. It is natural enough to cling to life. We are used to atmospheric existence, and can hardly conceive of ourselves except as breathing creatures. We have never tried any other mode of being, or, if we have, we have forgotten all about it, whatever Wordsworth's grand ode may tell us we remember. Heaven itself must be an experiment to every human soul which shall find itself there. It may take time for an earth- born saint to become acclimated to the celestial ether, — that is, if time can be said to exist for a disem- bodied spirit. We are all sentenced to capital pun- ishment for the crime of living, and though the con- demned cell of our earthly existence is but a narrow and bare dwelling-place, we have adjusted ourselves to it, and made it tolerably comfortable for the little while we are to be confined in it. The prisoner of Chillon regained [his] freedom with a sigh, and a tender-hearted mortal might be pardoned for looking back, like the poor lady who was driven from her dwelling-place by fire and brimstone, at the home he was leaving for the undiscovered country. On the other hand, a good many persons, not suici- dal in their tendencies, get more of life than they want. One of our wealthy citizens said, on hearing that a friend had dropped off from apoplexy, that it made his mouth water to hear of such a case. It was an odd expression, but I have no doubt that the fine old gentleman to whom it was attributed made use of it. He had had enough of his gout and other infirmi-](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21019708_0045.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
