The Arizona champion., 1890-10-11
THE ETHICS OF SUICIDE.
q nfyBterious Inconsistency-Tho Animal
 KIncdom-1Ioral Cowardicc.

VT OOlSlGGs
 q Mysterious Inconsistency-Tho Animal
 KlnGdom-Moral Cowardico.
 4 very mysterious inconsistency in human nature lies in the contrast be- tween life which makes self preservation its first love, and that utter contempt and intolerance of it which induces self de- struction. By all human laws, the man who takes another's life in defending his own is held guiltless of murder; his deed is accounted justiiable in recognition of the self saving instinct with which the creator has accompanied the gift of life to all his creatures. With the earliest consciousness of young animals this in stinct appears in timidity and shrinking from danger, real or imaginary; and down to the lowest order of beings, a wounded thing will exert its last strength to escape having its existence plotted out As for the human species, we have it on Scripture authority that ''all that a man hath will he give for his life"
 In view of this, who that is unaware of the facts would expect to so con stantly hear of men and women, and even children, finding life unbearable and ending all? What a surprising vio- lation of this innate principle it seems, when for this or that cause, and often for no cause that is evident, some choose death rather than life!
 Suicide is not entirely confined to the human species. There are numerous well authenticated instances of different animals deliberately killing themselves when circumstances rendered life no longer desirable. A recent traveller in the tropics tells of coming at various times upon the skeleton of a species of poisonous serpent within a circle of leaves of the prickly cactus, and later the riddle was solved by his seeing some monkeys engaged in surrounding sleep ing reptile with the spinous vegetation. Upon awaking and finding itself i'm prisoned and all its attempts to escape futile, the serpent presently took refuge in stinging its own body and dying at once. It is commonly reported that the same thing happens when a poisonous snake is hemmed in by fire, in a spasm of desperation at finding no chance of es- cape, it turns its means of self defense into means of self destruction.
 The animal kingdom is law unto itself. Not so with man. He is subject to the higher law of duty and accounta- bility; and no environment can be called hopeless to one who believes in gra- cious everything power and the better life to come. A portion of the alarming number of current suicides, it must be confessed, awaken only the sincerest pity in every susceptible and benevolent heart, and probably there are very many more cases of this kind, were the secret causes that have actuated the victims brought to light. Yet wherever human law is founded on the divine law, self destruction must necessarily be regarded as crime A mans buildings are not his own in the sense that he can set them on fire and burn them down with impu- nity; much less is his life-a possession which cannot be restored-so exclusively personal that he has the right to end it by violence in an hour of discourage ment or disgust.
 The yearly list of suicides in some of the countries of Europe is appalling to contemplate. The waters of the Seine give up their dead daily, and drowning Is but one among the common methods for shuffling off this mortal coil. Pas sion, impetuosity and, above all, inlidel- ity, are prominent factors in recruiting the army of suicides. Statistics of all nations show that occasionally there oc- CUTS what has been called an epidemic of suicide; though whether this is an illustration Of the force of example, or the result of some general impelling force, such as temperature during the exhausting heat of summer, remains an unsettled question. That the month of July has long been noted for the large number of its suicides favors the latter conclusion. Of direct causes among young people, affairs of the heart, love matters that have taken an unfortunate turn, must be reckoned the leading one. Very often, too, the circumstances at tending these cases are unspeakably pa- thetic. Next come losses of money and business, friends and health. Of crim- finals who have recourse to dagger, bull let or rope to evade just penalty, it is unnecessary to speak.
 There is moral cowardice in fleeing from the battle of life, which strikingly contrasts with the patient, heroic endur- Ance of multitudes of men and women in every land and in all sorts of hard conditions. To the tempted it might serve as tonic to read history on this point, or better, to recall events. Think, for example, of the crew of the Jean nette in their frozen fastnesses, and of Capt. DeLong and his men in the Lena Delta, dying of slow starvation, yet brave to the last. But what need to go beyond the streets of a city, with its views of pinched and haggard faces and toiling decrepitude, for heroes and hero ines that shall be forever nameless?- Lavinia s. Goodwin in Boston Globe.
 As Old as the Exodus.