“Death is not to be feared” (by J.L. Lagrange)

A few days ago we dedicated an entry to Joseph Louis Lagrange, on the 210th anniversary of his death. And a few days before dying, he left us a very serene reflection on death.

Lagrange had returned to France a few years before the outbreak of the revolution. And in the run-up to it, he went through a period of deep depression. The years of the Terror were very hard for him and, although his life was never in danger, he lost several friends to the guillotine, among them the chemist Lavoisier, of whose execution he wrote: “It took only a moment to bring down that head, and perhaps a hundred years will not be enough to produce one like it”.

Lagrange died on 10th April 1813; a few days earlier he had stated:

Death is not to be feared, and provided it comes without pain it is a last function which is neither painful nor unpleasant. Death is nothing more than the absolute repose of the body.