ABSTRACT
The animal lives without any real knowledge of death; for this reason, the individual animal immediately enjoys of the species complete lack of a transitory character, being conscious of it as endless. In human beings, the terrifying certainty of death necessarily found its place with the faculty of reason. All religions and philosophical systems are principally directed toward this end, are therefore in the first instance the antidote to the certainty of death brought forth by its own means by reflecting reason. In the language of nature, death means annihilation. All proofs of survival after death can also be applied just as well in partem ante, where they then demonstrate existence before life, in which assumption Hindus and Buddhists therefore prove to be quite consistent. And finally, even death by natural causes, from old age, euthanasia are gradual vanishings and driftings out of existence in an unnoticeable manner.
