New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-05-14

nower of the larger law is 90 irressstio y
<hst raither the love Of life nor the iear o,
another world can avail anything !owsru
no, "hacLino it's operation. The existence
If this remark table regularity 10 famiiiar 20
whoever is convereant with moral e1a:i1 :.
tics. In the different countries ~. WIZ"
We have returnp, we find year ny yea
the same proportion OF persons Pu'
ting an end to their own exlstence,
90 that after making allowance 1or
the impossibility of collecting competens
ev;dence. we are able to predict, WITHIN a
verv ANAL limit of error, the NUMBER OF
voIHntarv deaths for each ensuing perleo'
snnnosinp. Of course, that the social clrcum-
Stances do not undergo any marked change'
Even in London, not Notwithstanding the vlcls-
eitudes incident to the largest ana m9e'
Injurious capital in the "orid' we nnu :
regularity greater than could nc eApeo.;4 81
by the most sanguine 0ellever ia eot .;sa
laws; since political excnement, meao nd t 10
the DEAFNESS of food, are all causes Oh SUI
eide and are all constantly chang'ng.
Nevertheless, in this vast metropolis aocuc
2iO persons every year make away wAln
themselves; the annual suicides oscilla1lng'
from the pressure Of temporary causes, ut
tween 266, the highest, and 2l3, the lowest.
In 1916, which was the gre at year OF exclte-
menr caused by the railway panic, the sui
cides in London were 700; III 1871 began
slight improve ment, and they fell to 2o6: 10
1913 they were 247; in lo49 they were 10,
and in 1850 they were 229
From the same authority we learn that
in what seems to be SO purely an ACCIDENTAL
thing as the dropping of misdirected letters
in the pOstotfice, the reign of unvaryihg
law prevails; the statistics OF the London
and Paris postal departments, for series
of years, showing that the annual average
of such letters undergOes little alteration.
From the study and observation we have
been able to give the surjact, we are IL
clined to ad )pJ the Buckle theory concern
ing suicide; that is, that the suicidal i'm
pulse il governed by immutable lave, into
which the element we call accident" never
enters. We believe that if the suicides IN
st. Louis during the last twenty years could
be collected and carefully compared, 1T
would be found-making proper allowance
for increase in pcpulation-thatt the annual
average ranged between narrow limits, and
rarely or never went outside either the high
est or the lowest point OF course, if this
principle of law is conceded in one branch of
human action the presumption ia that it ex-
tends to all, which is equivalent to accept
ing the doctrine Of philosophical necessity
and r. iecting the doctrine of free will. But
as facts are facts and figures will not lie,
statistics-which are rapidly becoming a
science-may yet drive Thoughtful and I'M
p1ejndiced men into the adoption OF neces-
sarian views; a gloomy refuge. yet the
darkest truth is better than the brightest
falsehood. The most thoroughly estab-
lished conclusion of modern science is that
the physical universe is controlled by mex
orable, unchanging and interchangeable law
law which has not been changed or sus-
pended since creations dawn, and will COZ
rules with unbending sceptre the physical
universe, why may it not exercise the same
sway over the moral worldl-St. Louis