CHAPTER XIII
DEATH

DURING the war the title of a lecture or a book
that attracted the greatest number was the
title which spoke of death or after-death condi-
tions. Why ? It is true that several thousands
of young, vigorous lives were being hurled into
the Hereafter. But—and this always seems to
me a big u but"—hundreds go daily when there
is no war, and the one certain thing to all of us,
young or old, rich or poor, is that we must
inevitably pass the portal of death one day.
Had we never thought of death till the war ?
Had we never faced the possibility which is a
certainty; or had we pushed it from us as
something we might possibly avoid if we ignored
it sufficiently ?

Be this as it may, it was very marked how
-child-like was the determination to find out
something of death conditions during the
war, yes, child-like in its simplicity as if the
thought of it had only just occurred. Since
the war and some of its effects are passing,