The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1894-12-16


Their religious teaching, unlike that Of their
Asistic contemporaries. was strongly opposed to
self-destruction. So long as the Greeks re-
manned q virlle and independent people they
looked upon suicide as = heinous crime. The
only examples Of self-slsughter ever spoken Of
with respect or anything approaching COM
mendation were those of q purely patriotic
character, like the self-sscrince attributed TO
King Codrus and to Themlstocles. The primi-
tive view Of suicide came TO he abandoned,
however, after the sophists had begun to
preach the doctrine Of Individual liberty. They
taught that the gods were myths, that mans
reason was his only guide, and that he had alb
soluto freedom rs TO his own life and death.
With those who accepted this teaching, suicide
Lost It's old criminal character and was looked
upon not only as q legitimate but a. an hon.
orable mode OF quitting life. The 6toics made
suicide a dogma and preached the utter
worthlessness of life at every opportunity.
The Stoics led severe. moral and useful
lives, but when. from any cause. they
found life intolerablo or even displeasing, they
promptly Quilted IL. In this way died the
founder of the school,, Zeno. and his successor.
Cleanthes, together with others of Its most nota-
bic leaders. The Epicureans from q lower plat
form preached tho same freedom to terminate
life whom 1t ceased TO give pleasure. 1t was from
the Stoio and Epicurean school that what the
W. " sAho cCOA WOthe N"aA AsNaCh-
spread TO Rome, where IL found q congenial soil
In . deteriorating people. The teaching Of the
Stoics and Epicureans was adopted by some of
the greatest Roman scholars. and soon became
the fashion. Seneca, the tutor of Nero, was one
OF tho most &kdent and powerful advocates Of
suicide. His view of It was summed up In his
own wo =: Does life please you i-live on.
Docs It not please you Ego to whence you
came. No vast wound Is necessary; . nero
rup,tur~ wfl soruro ~ lfhartyv It Il eall
known that Seneca. his pupil Nero. and their
contemporary Ohio. together with many
other distinguished men of tho time. prac-
tised what they preached. Tho majority. how
ever, of the multitudinous suicides Of the Pc
ROD among the Greeks and Romans cannot DO
attributed to any teaching. Occurring as they
did among markedly degenerate peoples, who
were deteriorating with every generation. the
suicides, like similar acts to-day, were for the
most part duo 30 disgust Of life and an uncon-
trollable. insane impulse to self-destruction.
The Roman law. as laid down In the institutes
and digests of Justinian. held that suicide was
Justiaable, II IL arose from iridium Vita. or dis
gust of life; from grief at loss of friends;
when It was to escape the disgrace Of insolvency
or bodily suffering, and also when the act arose
from madness. the distinction being thus early
drawn between the suicide who is In the ordi-
nary sense responsible and the one who IL not
accountable for his act
1t appears that the Christian Church was.
from the first, opposed to suicide. It was not
however. for several centuries after the death
Of Christ that It did more than enter q remon-
STRANGE against the act, and that only whom It
occurred under certain circumstances But
whiles suicide was rare among tho early Chris
tians as compared with its frequency among
their pagan contemporaries, still, as persecution
fell upon them and their fervor increased. tho
....tn. D.. ~. lou. - h...- --.-
to meet death by martyrdom half way. and
even to deliberately destroy themselves. The
Council of Aries, A. ID. 452. condemned sui
eide under all conditions, and from this time
voluntary Christian martyrdom became much
less common. Nevertheless. the old spirit was
by no means quenched by this formal decision
Of the Church. which 1t was found necessary to
repeat and accentuate again and again. A type
OF suicide which for a long time found favor In
the eyes of the leaders of the early Christians
was what was called virgin suicide" that
is, suicide committed to preserve chastity. Dur
ing the first four or FIVE centuries of
the Christian era many suicides of this
kind took place, and were approved by most OF
the contemporary fathers of the Church. st.
Augustine, however. held that suicide for the
preservation OF chastity was unjustihablo and
sinful. Notwithstanding his teaching. the
Church went SO far as TO canonize Pelagia. who
tnTc" hcIscll lEOm tno nOubclOp 10 escape ner
would-be rayishers. Although some examples
of this act were met with in civil life, the greater
number occurred on such occasions as tho cap
ture of a city or when an army and its followers
were overcome. Thus, when Alaric, the Goth,
took Rome. great number Of Christian women
killed themselves THAI they might escape viola
ton at the hands of the conquerors. In his
famous +" City of Gods" st. Augustine refers TO
these suicides and condemns them; neyerthe-
l-. - 80 AA-- A.l
many OF the Christian leaders OF the time. DIR.
strahan expresses the opinion that suicides Of
this character do not occur frequently at the
present day.
II remains to add that, among tho ancient
Egyptians. suicide was. from the earliest times. q
common and honorable mode of death, but Il
seems TO have become exceptionally frequent
about tho beginning of tho Christian ora, when
the nation had reached . certain level of de-
terioration. That the Egyptians Of the so-called
New Empire looked upon suicide as justinable
under certain pl oyocations IL proved by the fact
that Rameses the Great put an end 70 his own
life in q most deliberate manner because he had
gone blind. The Tartars OF Central Asia, on the
other hand, 80 far as they have not been affected
by the Buddhist religion, have been, at all
times. particularly free from the suicidal in
stinct. Among the PersiAns. also. 1t was rare,
for the reason. probably. that Il was opposed TO
their religious teachings. Among the barbAric
peoples, Morse and Celtic, OF Northern and West
ern Europe. . recourse TO voluntary death was
very common. Their hardy warriors feared .
peaceful death from disease or old age above
all things, and seldom allowed such TO oyertAks
them. According to their belief . violent death,
whether met with In battle or At their own
hands, ushsred them forthwith into the pres
ence OF their God Odin in Valhalla.
as.
A feature OF this book is the careful distino-
tion drawn by the author between what he
terms rational, or quasi suicide. and Irrational.
or true suicide. Under the former term he
would place two categOries. The hrst OF these
is made up OF those who die for gain. and com