Such are the exhortations, which the spirit of the doctrine maintained in these discussions, would suggest, and such too would be the feelings of the miserable creature, who should remain "in a state of consciousness, "tho' deprived of all power of expressing it," which Dr. Ferriar supposes to be possible, for at least twelve hours after the signs of Death have been stamped upon the frame.If this wretched being retained the same sen-' sation, which possessed the German Lady, (p. 201) who in her state of Death tried to cry, but found, that the soul was without power to act upon the body, he might consider the officious folly and the rugged treatment of servants, as the greatest blessing, which could befall him in so tremendous a condition. He might hope, that this rugged action would co-operate with the internal struggles for his own recovery, and rescue him from the impending doom of being buried alive. What would be the agony of his mind, when the Physician, who was appointed for his preservation, conceiving it to be his province to determine when officiousness becomes torture, should repress these rugged cares; and with what horror would he hear

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the last mandate of his Humane Guardian, Disturb him not! Let him pass peaceably.

If the Resuscitative Process should be ever generally cultivated in cases of Natural Death, as it is in the accident of Drowning, and if the Art should prove equally successful on both these occasions, that is, if this Art should sometimes effect a recovery in different kinds of the Disorder of Death, just as other remedies sometimes succeed in other Diseases; we may venture to affirm, that important consequences will arise, of which we have formed at present no adequate idea. A new state of mind will be produced at a fearful moment * pregnant

* Dr. Ferriar in the following passages almost acknowledges, that the painful ceremonies or agonies of a Death bed, destroy the Patient. We may well concieve that such a scene would often destroy a person in a debilitated state, who might otherwise have been saved. "While the senses remain perfect, "the patient ought to direct his own conduct, both in "his devotional exercises,and in the last interchange of "affection with his friends. The powers of the mind, "after being forcibly exerted on those objects, common"ly sink into complete debility, and respiration be"coming weaker every moment, the patient is render"ed apparently insensible to every thing around him."

pregnant with the issues of Life and Death. The dying, who shall be assured, that remedies, which have been frequently successful, will be applied for their recovery after Death, will always have some hope even in the most desperate states of their Disorder, and they will depart under the consolation, that the period of Death may be only another stage, and perhaps in some cases even a salutary stage in the course of their Malady. A new era will arise even at the confines of the grave, and the sinking frame will no longer be condemned to struggle with the mental depression, which the fears of Death commonly create, and which always aggravates when it does exist,-sometimes even to a fatal end, the malignity of the Malady. the cultivation of the Resuscitative Art, thus systematically applied, a new source of comfort will be unfolded, about which, such anxious and earnest aspirations have been formed, the last good of our earthly condition-the blessing of EUTHANASIA.

By

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I shall not delienate on the present occasion, the Good Death of the good man, in his Religious character, with all the hopes

and consolations, which illuminate even the darkness of the grave with the bright prospects of another and a better world. This momentous topic belongs to a more solemn occasion, and a vein of argument, connected with higher objects of meditation. Holy Dying can only be the product of Holy Living, and the devotional exercise of the pious man, on the bed of Death, is not the agitated and fearful ceremony, assumed at a moment of peril, but is a repetition of that calm thongh now more fervent feeling, whichhas ever attended him on the bed of sleep, through the course of a virtuous and a religious life.

The EUTHANASIA, to which the present argument directs our attention, is connected with our temporal state, and with those endearing associations, which belong to our Mortal existence. Man will still cling to that anxious being, which he has so fondly cherished through life, and he will still cast a longing and a lingering look on those objects, loving and beloved, which have been so precious to his existence. Under the assurance that the resourses of Art will be applied for his recovery, even when the breath of Life shall appear to have departed, an evil of the most

agonizing

agonizing kind will be removed at our last moments-an evil,which no fortitude of mind can sustain, even in its strongest state, and which must certainly in many cases accelerate the catastrophe, in the eventful Tragedy of the Life of Man.

These agonizing sorrows in our last scene. are the lamentations of Children-of Father of Mother-of Husband-of Wife-of Brother and Sister, around the bed of the dying, All these horrors will then be banished from the bed of Death, or they will be calmed and softened by consolations and hopes. The violence of grief will be then suspended or alleviated, till all the Resuscitative Arts have been adopted and exhausted in vain. The dying man departs with the hope of Life, and the howl of despair is not raised, till he can hear it no more.*

*While I venture to make these observations on the perverted mode, in which according to my conceptions, a certain portion of the Medical Art continues to be practised; I am fully impressed with the indisputable fact, that the Professors of this Art are ranked among the most enlightened men of the day, and that no order performs with more exemplary diligence and

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