THE NOTE-BOOKS OF SAMUEL BUTLER

The whole life of some people is a kind of partial death a long, lingering death-bed, so to speak, of stagnation and nonentity on which death is but the seal, or solemn signing, as the abnegation of all further act and deed on the part of the signer. Death robs these people of even that little strength which they appeared to have and gives them nothing but repose.