The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1880-08-15
SUICIDE.
SALT LAKE CITY, August IA, 80.
Editors Herald:

SALT LAKE CITY, August IA, 80.
Editors Herald:
In the notice, ia the HERALD Of
Sunday last, OF the article in Black
tOood on suicide, it was left for
another paper to consider Ihs causes
of the remarkable augmentation Of
the number OF suicides in our day,
and of the a7eilAbls deterrents ofselt-
killing.
What then are the great primary
causes of the modern revival OF sui
eide? The answer will be surprise.
il nothing more startling, to many
people, and tails is the most instruct
i've part OF the essay. The primary
causes Of the extraordinary increase
of suicide in this century are-ths de.
cline OF religion, and the modern sx-
tension OF scholastic education. read
ing, and political liberty. Under the
strong restraints OF a powerful rellk-
ious domination, and OF a correspond
ipgly severe civil legislation, Europe
had arrived at q minimum OF suicide.
A hundred years ago the self murders
in that quarter OF thu globe are eEti-
mated at 5000 or 5000 per snnum,
or one in $4,000 of the population.
But the nineteenth century has been
thrust into fever of self-murder.
Suicide resolves itself into two cate
gories-it happens either from sense
of religious duty, or from the atssncs
of religious sentiment. People kill
themselves either to please God, or to
please themselves, the former idea
prevailing in Asia, and the latter in
Europe. The suicides in Europe, in
nearly all cases, are perpetrated in
the determination of escaping from
present distress and OF attaining to q
degree OF at least negative happiness.
Here 1 May advantageously intro
duce the exact language OF the essay
itself: "WhateVer be the divsrgences
of accidental persenEl motives, We
cannot get away from the car.
dinal principle that people kill them
selves, necessarily, either because
they imagine they please their God
by doing 30, or because. recognizing
for the moment at all events, no God
at all, they think only Of their own
satisfaction. No intermediate state
is logically conceivable. This being
the law OF the case land that it iG 30
can scarcely be depied) it follows,
obligatorily, that 80 long as confidence
in q God who is supposed to forbid
suicide, remains In general force,
very few people will take the risk OF
voluntarily disobsying the iniunctions
of that God. But it also follows,
quite as obligatorily, that when the
trust in any God st all is becoming
every day more rare, when the num-
Der OF persons who respect any reli-
gious behests whatever ia psrpetuslly
diminishing, the disposition to act on
personal inclinations acquires nsW
power, and the iemptAtion to leave
the passions unchecked become more
difficult to resist. And this is esPe.
cially true as regards the poorer and
less disciplined layers et society,
which constitute everywhere the vast
majority. Such is the constant
theory. What is the present prac-
tice
Europeans, as a whole, have
good deal less faith now than they
possessed q century ago. Having
less faith, they have less obssr.
vance-that is to say, less obedience,
and consequently less patience. They
have acquired. in religious matters.
an independence of both thought and
action at which their fathers would
have gazsd with astonished fear. A
large and increasing number OF them
not only resist all authority IN reli-
gion, not only Tspudiate all guidance
in matters of doctrine, but 60 further |
still and reject all religion whatever.
We do not ask whether thsy are right |
or wrong; We are here considering |
suicide, not tenets; Nc ars concerned
exclusively with the fact itself IN its
bearing on suicide, and from that
limited point OF view, she result OF
their loss of faith is, that the God
who was said to prohibit suicide has
ceased to be God for them, and that
suicide, being no longer interdicted
by sny power they respect, has be-
come once more, in their eyes, q
permissible solution for the difficulties
Of life.
ave need not cucumber the quel-
ion with any specific applications Of
his general truth. 1t lies outside
1stionalities aud creedT; it il not
English and Protestant, any more
han it is Spanish and Catholic, or
German and freethinking. Il is
human and universal. Suicide is
because religion is dimin-
shine; and it is for this reason that
,ur special English form oil objection
o seltkilling, on the ground that it
J en- impiety, is 90 useful ami so
PRACTICAL"
The change that has taken place
n the religious aspects OF thought
uffices, by itself, to explain the
nodern growth Of suicide; the re-
noval OF religious hindrAncss in both
ighIy educated and loWly educated
Especially in the latter :
incontestsbly emancipaIing Europe
ON restraint in this matter OF sui.
ide, as in a good many Others. and :
leading a perpetuAliy augmented I
uantity OF US to pitch away our lives 7
il We were throwing halt pence to =
beggsr.
but this removal of religious y
indrsnces has not grown up by =
self. Il is in no way product OF :
Iontaneous generation. 1t has been, Il