MORAL JUDGEMENT

Few people now believe that death

Leads either to Hell or to Heaven,

But there is a sense in which

The manner of a person's dying

Connotes with one or the other.

For instance, a painful death, sustained as

A result of injury or war, would suggest that

The person concerned went to Hell,

Whereas a painless death, attendant upon

Natural circumstances, would suggest the contrary -

Namely, that the person went to Heaven

Or, at any rate, was saved.

Think of the difference between the deaths

Of Adolf Hitler and Aldous Huxley,

And you get the impression that they died

According to the way they had lived -

The one through a bullet in the head,

The other with a shot of LSD.

So, although we have no reason to suppose

That Hitler is now roasting in Hell

Or Huxley freezing in Heaven,

Their contrary manners of dying

To some extent paralleled their respective lives,

Confirming a kind of moral judgement.

As a rule, 'the evil' die cruelly,

Whereas 'the good' die peacefully.

The former are damned, the latter saved -

If only from a painful death.