The section preceding supposed what life would be like were there no death. We came to the conclusion that without death, we would be in a horrible, torturous state. But what if we are not only apparent but true mortals? What if there is nothing beyond the grave for us? What if we die, and that’s that, for eternity--nothing beyond that ultimate veil but nonexistence?

This too is an anguishing proposition. Suppose now we are at the moment of death: we go unconscious, there is nothing--and we will never live or become conscious again.

Nothing will exist for us; there will no longer be any world; we will be the same as if we had never been born, never lived, to begin with. Should we truly enter such a state, though for the living world there is still something that exists, for us there would be nothing at all, not even any awareness of nonexistence. For eternity we sleep; everything we’ve done while living has come undone, at least for us--for us, nothing exists, nor would it mean anything to us that we once existed. Nothing would exist, and it would be the same whether we lived long, successfully, nobly, or in a vile manner; it would be the same as had we never been.