Glimmer's Picture-Dream [pp. 399-405]

GLIMMER'S PICTURE- DREAM.
deprecating, half- reproachful glance, he
took no notice of it. Placing his feet
on the front round of his chair, and em bracing his knees with his clasped hands
-his favorite attitude when about to en ter upon any subject which he deemed
of more than ordinary importance- he
sat, slowly swaying his head backward
' and forward, with an air of profound re flection.
"This is the point," he said, after a
moment's silence, speaking in a low tone,
and without lifting his eyes: "If a man
find himself in imminent peril of death
(without his own complicity or procure ment, mind you), and has it in his power
to save his life by making an effort, is he
to be held chargeable with the guilt of
suicide in case he declines to make that
effort? That is the question-purely an
abstract and hypothetical one, you will
remember-on which I want your judg ment."
The exaggerated solemnity of Glim mer's manner and voice, as he stated
this preposterous case of conscience,
appealed so forcibly to my sense of the
ludicrous, that I experienced no small
difficulty in restraining my laughter. I
could not help thinking of the argument
of the two clowns in Hamlet, on the thesis, "Is she to be buried in Christian
burial that willfully seeks her own salvation?" and, for an instant, a parody on
the sage conclusion, "Argal, he that is
not guilty of his own death, shorteneth
not his own life," was on the tip of my
tongue. I am very glad now that I did
not yield to the temptation to indulge in
any such pleasantry.
As soon as I felt that I had recovered
sufficient command of my facial muscles
to trust myself to speak without danger
of an explosion, I replied with suitable
gravity, suggesting, as an analogy calculated to throw some light upon the
question, the case of a man who stands
by, and sees a murder done which he
could have prevented if he had chosen.
"I don't know," said Glimmer, after
an interval of thoughtful silence, "what
it would be before an earthly tribunal.
I can't say whether an indictment could
be framed upon it as murder, or man slaughter, or homicide, at common law
or under the criminal statutes. But I've
no doubt whatever that, inforo conscien tiae, the spectator in the case you sup pose would be guilty of murder, as par ticepbs crimninis, on the legal principle
that he who has it in his power to pre vent an act, and does not, consents to
it."
"Does not the same principle furnish
a solution of your question of casuis try?" I asked.
He uttered a sound between a sigh
and a groan, and said he didn't "see
clearly how he could get round that way
of putting it." Then, after sitting a few
minutes with his head in his hands, he
looked up, and abruptly added:
"I think I promised you, some even ings since, to explain my reason for in sisting that Thackeray and Dickens pass ed away at about five o'clock in the
morning."
I nodded assent, and he proceeded:
"You have heard of the old-womanish
tradition, that dying men find it easier
to shake off the bondage of the flesh at
the going out of the tide. Medical experience proves, that, in chronic diseases, the greater number of deaths occur just before dawn. This is eminently
true of brain diseases, and of all those
related cases where death results from
an exhaustion of the vital power, through
over-work, excessive excitement, or nervous prostration. It is at the hour I have
named that the life-force is at its lowest
ebb, and succumbs most readily to the
assault of epilepsy, or paralysis, or of
the fatal lethargy that comes in those
vividly beautiful picture - dreams, for
which medical science has as yet found
no name, and of which it has taken no
sufficient cognizance. Nine - tenths of
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