The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1880-08-15

all, that certain occupations might
possibly pave the way. under IN
favorable circumstances OF health, to
thoughts OF suicide; we could have
widely guessed, for instance. that
newly-enlisted recruits, or lighthouse
keepers, or exiles. or public execu-
TONERS, lead lives In which the SELL
killing tendency might receive a
morbid development; out never, in
our senses, ould We have supposed
that village-schooling IL, indirectly.
the most fertile Of all the actual
origins of suicide. And yet it seems
to be go. And il it is not, what is?
We have all Of Us heard 60 much OF
the suppression Of crime by educa-
ton, that We have insensiblE acquired
the unreasoned belief that education
is the one natural cure for moral
evils. 30. perhaps, 1t ought to be.
And. to repeat the question, if it is
not, what can be7 But evidently, as
regards this particular evil, education
appears to be provocative
rather than q remedy, at least
in the form in which ne
have hitherto applied it. The books
which are now being published about
suicide on the continent are all de-
ploring, with conformation, the sim
ultaneity OF the spread OF the alphabet
and OF voluntary death, and are ask
ing, anxiously. what can be the cor
neIion between them. They seem
indeed to be almost expecting that II
We 60 on as We have begun, We shall
soon see suicide officially recognized
by governments as an inevitable re-
suit OF study like headaches and
spectaeles) and placsd naturally. all
over Europe, under the supervised OF
the inspectors OF schools"
1.-THE present conformation OF sui.
eide Is an altogether new one, pro-
duct OF the action Of education; it is
proper to our day, it is induced by
the particular conditions OF training
which are now, for the first time,
being applied in Europe. Tha. train
ing has served, thus far, to bring
about not only independence, but
also a certain destructiveness and
subvsrsiveness, in which suicide inds
q natural place. It seems ridiculous
for governments to have to confess
that they cannot persuade their peo-
pie not TO kill themselves with waste
full abundance; but there is the fact
they cannot"
Having stated 90 fully the causes,
what does the esssyist say OF the cure
of the enlarged tendency to suiciie2
Let him speak for himself:
"Antipashy to self-killing, on re-
ligious grounds, constitutes, all the
same, the only effective bar to it
which has thus far been discovered;
and that, ss We shall see presently,
it is precisely the diminution Of relig-
ious ansipathy which explains the
recent large extension OF suicide.
In suggesting that larger and more
general popular view might usefully
be taken OF the subisct as whole,
we strongly insist. at the same time,
On the practical usefulness and
healthy effects OF the purely religious
objections to self-nurder. They
alone have controlled it in the past;
they alone seem capable, 30 far as
we can at present Judge, OF holding
it in the future. No other regulating
force appears to be available. Human
advice is pewerless. All the piles OF
books which have been written about |
suicide; all the moral, philosophical,
legal, medicinal, statistical and de-
yotional treaties which have been
composed, in all languages, with |
respect to it have failed to exercise |
the faintest effect upon it; even laws
of barbarous severity have been in
sufficient to stop it."
1T is but natural that women |
should kill themselves less than their
husbands ard brothers, for they are
habitually better behaved and quIeter;
they have more religion, more obedi-
ence, more resignation, and stronger
sentiment OF duty. In other
terms, they possess precisely the die
positions of both temperament and
teaching which best withhold from
death. So, IS conse-
1uence, only one quarter Of the sui
,ides of Europe are committed by
them. Now this is fact OF interest
and Importance, not only in itself,
but still more in its, bearing on the
question as a whole, and other meaDs
for struggling against the
,ontsmporsneous rcawakening OF
''Ii suicide can be le.sens6 at all
which for the present seems a good
Ieal more than doubtiul) it will be by
Erecting reading rather than by at
aoking it; and it is too soon to try
hat yet. Meanwhile We must per-
uade ourselves that We are passing
trough 8 phase which, possibly, will
ure itself. The real point for the
nomsnt is, what can be done in the 8
nterval2 Religion will in no way
eIp, as it used to do, for, in Its great t
European sense, its power Is gone. G
catholicism is no logger ab to be
n oppressor, and it has not yet con-
snted to become q friend. So, as
q are in reality poWerless, We must
ithsr fold our hands and look on, or q
e must appeal to quacks. Now it 9
oes 90 happen that the biggest o
uacks OF our epoch are just now u
uniting about for patient; the self. y
Iade doctors who profess to cure all O.
,cial difficulties by morals without p
.IiRiou,' cannot, assuredly, desire a 81
alter chancs than this one. II, by g.
-esching pure lay morality they oil
N stop the growing propensity to q
icide, they will ave made q first 81
20 towards proving that there is a.
msthing in their physic. They U
I'VE q fair field for the attempt, for Isl