ong the causes which thus tend to make us cowards may be
numbered the spread of luxury and the doctrines of a gloomy theology,
which by proclaiming the eternal damnation and excruciating torments of
the vast majority of mankind has added incalculably to the dread and
horror of death. The growth of humaner sentiments, which seldom fails to
effect a corresponding amelioration in the character even of the gods, has
indeed led many Protestant divines of late years to temper the rigour of
the divine justice with a large infusion of mercy by relegating the fires
of hell to a decent obscurity or even extinguishing them altogether. But
these lurid flames appear to blaze as fiercely as ever in the more
conservative theology of the Catholic Church.(378)

(M108) It would be easy to accumulate evidence of the indifference or
apathy exhibited in presence of death by races whom we commonly brand as
lower. A few examples must here suffice. Speaking of the natives of India
an English writer observes: "We place the highest value on life, while
they, being blessed with a comfortable fatalism, which assumes that each
man's destiny is written on his forehead in invisible characters, and
being besides untroubled with any doubts or thoughts as to the nature of
their reception in the next world, take matters of life and death a great
deal more unconcernedly, and, compared with our ideas, they may be said to
present an almost apathetic indifference on these subjects."(379) To the
same effect another English writer remarks that "the absence of that fear
of death, which is so powerful in the hearts of civilised men, is the most
remarkable trait in the Hindu character."(380) Among the natives of Annam,
according to a Catholic missionary, "the subject of death has nothing
alarming for anybody. In presence of a sick man people will speak of his
approaching end and of his funeral as readily as of anything else. Hence
we never need to take the least verbal precaution in warning the sick to
prepare themselves to receive the last sacraments. Som