On Death in Bacon's Essays

Bacon's point of view in On Death is: In fact, death itself is not terrible, because you didn't know when you really died, and when you did, you weren't dead. Bacon quoted a sentence in the article: everything that comes with death is more frightening than death. This also illustrates his view on death.

Attached to the original text:

Second discussion on death

Adults are as afraid of death as children are of going into the dark; Children's natural fear is increased by stories, and so is adults' fear of death. Of course, it is pious and religious to wait and see death as the bottom salary of sin and the way to another world; But it is foolish to fear death as our due contribution to nature.

However, sometimes there is falsehood and superstition in religious meditation. In some kind of ascetic self-discipline book, you can see a kind of words that a person should think for himself, if one of his fingers is crushed or punished, what is his pain; From this, we can think about the pain of death that makes people rot and collapse. In fact, it is less painful to die many times than to be tortured by one limb: because the most vital organ in the human body is not the most sensitive organ. The ancient man who spoke only as a philosopher on earth and one of the world put it very well: "Everything that comes with death is more frightening than death". Groans and spasms, discolored faces, friends crying, ink sticks and funerals, and so on all seem to be terrible.

It is worth noting that all kinds of feelings in people's hearts, no matter how weak, can't overcome the horror of death; Since a person has so many attendants around him, he can defeat death, which shows that death is not such a terrible enemy. Revenge is better than death; Love despises it; The heart of honor hopes for it; Go to it with a sad heart; The heart of terror is in advance; Not particularly so, we also read in the book that the pity (the softest of feelings) caused many people to die after Otto the Great committed suicide. They died for the sake of sympathy for their monarch and to be the most loyal courtiers. In addition, Seneca added two things: demanding and boredom. He said, "Imagine how long you have been doing the same thing! Not only the brave and the poor want to die, but those who are tired and bored also want to die. " Although a person is neither brave nor poor, he will die in order to be tired of doing the same thing repeatedly.

It is also noteworthy that the arrival of death has caused little change in the hearts of heroes, because these people seem to remain the same at the last moment. When augustus the Great died, he was still praising his queen: "Farewell, Livia, please don't forget our married life for the rest of your life". Tiberias was still faking until he died, as the historian Tesitas said: "Tiberias' physical strength is declining, but he is still faking." When Vaspar died, he told jokes. He sat on a stool and said, "I think I'm becoming a god." Garba said in his last words, "Cut it! If this is beneficial to the Roman people. " As he spoke, he stretched his neck and died Septimius Severus died a happy death. He said, "If there is anything else I should do, please come quickly.". And so on.

those gallery philosophers put the value of death too high, and because they are too prepared for death, they make it look even more terrible to die in people. He made the final settlement of his life one of the natural blessings. The man who said this sentence is much more right. Death and life are the same as nature; Maybe life and death are generally painful in a baby. A person who dies in a passionate act is like a person who is injured when the blood is hot, and he does not feel pain at that time; Therefore, a firm and single-minded mind can avoid the pain of death. But, above all, please believe that the sweetest song is "Please let your servant go now" sung after a person has achieved some valuable purpose and hope. Death has this; It is it that opens the door to fame and extinguishes jealousy. People who are envied at birth will be loved after death.