The San Francisco call., 1899-06-18

! but ham sandwich. Thus if suicide
be insanity so also is htgh lie lnsan-
| ity; and the only sane member of the
| human family is the ourang outang.
When aspiring suicides undertake to
give reasons for their aspiration they
| make a most fantastic mockery OF oil
vine philosophy, for not one person In
million and a half can explain the
motive of even the simplest actions or
his life. Hence every act or self
destruction is accompanied by some
thing in the nature of comedy and
causes the face of the world to assume
the grotesque expression of 'grinnlng
mouth underneath weeping eyes.
A tender hearted woman in this city
in giving way to the promptlngs OF the
June came to the conclusion she was
dying for man, and left behind her
verse declaring:
You l loved since first we met,
You | loved and love you yet.
You may hate, but | will never
Till heaven and earth shall bump together.
About the time that verse so pathetic
in it's simplicity was in process of COM
position a man who had resolved to
get off the earth set about finding an
explanation for his action and, manllke,
took TO philosophy instead of poetry, as
the ladies do. He wrote:
when the philosophy of the human
family has been learned and women re-
fuse to inspire a feeling of a masculine
heart, a man will think this: Woman's
object in life is to play man for
fool, and she never will leave him till
she finds a bigger fool"
Thus it is shown that in this act, as
in all others, the woman blames the
man and the man blameS the woman;
and each finds in the other a helpmeet
and a resource to account for all short
cOmingS Surely it would be a sad
world indeed if men and women did not
have one another to rely upon in time
of trial.
The reasons assigned for their ac-
tions by persons who are about to re-
move themselves out of reach Of trou-
BILE have no value at all. except as illus
trations of the truth that when people
give you nine reasons why they per
form a certain act, you may be sure
there is a tenth reason-not given
which is the dominant one of the lot.
Fortunately the subject has been stu
died by great men and their views are
more instructive than those of the
small fry.
In explaining the motives of Werther
and the causes which induced that
youth to close his bright career, Goethe
attributes self destruction in every case
to g sheer WEAKNESS of life caused by
the failure of repeated efforts to enjoy
it. Victor Hugo regarded it as the out
come of an incessant meditation upon
the conditions of existence. When a
man goes out every morning, says
Hugo, ito mediate upon life, he will
go out some evening and fling himself
into the river" Giacomo Leopard con-
sdered it the result of "a desire for hap
piness, not satisfied with pleasure" out
of which there comes a conviction that
life has not one sole fruit, but use
less misery all.
"Al satisfaction in life" said Goethe,
rs based upon the regular recurrence
of outward things. The alterations of
day and night, the seasons of the year.
of flowers and fruits, and of whatever
else returns from time to time, which
we can and ought TO enjoy; these are
the proper impeling powers of earthly
life. The more open we are to those
pleasures, the happier we are; but if
the variety of these things appear be-
fore us without our participating in it,
then there comes upon us the greatest
evil and the heaviest disease. and we
regard life as a disgusting burden. The
thought at least of suicide becomes
then inevitable
If these opinions on the subject are
not convincing, they have at any rate
a moral common to them all and are
therefore instructive. They teach the
three maxims: Be content with pleas
ure, do not think too much and keep in
the swim.
Among the factors that tend to wear
mess of life is the uncomfortable mourn
fulness of nature, for never was the
human soul ever quite so sad as the
world around it. 1t is not for nothing
we talk of the wailing of the winds,
the moaning of the seas the sighing%of
leaves and the dirges of the forests
Animate nature may be gay enough at
times with its variety of fighting, feed
ing, frolicking and mating, but inani-
mate nature appears to be always for
lorn. Even the infinite heaven seems
to have yearning for some hing it
cannot attain, or hasn't attained as
yet; and doubtless could we but hear.
it would be found the very music of the
spheres is set in minor key.
A disputant in one of the "Philo-
sophical Dialogues of Ernest Renan
attributes the mournfulness of nature
to an incessant yearning to evolve a
God. Nature, according to that specu,
lative philosopher, feels through her
universal frame the need of an intelli-
gence that is at once omnipotent and
benevolent and is forever TRYING to
give birth to him. Every force that
governs matter. from that which on
this earth has caused the worm to
mount through countless spirals up
ward to the dignity of man, to that
which moves in the throbbing and the
painting of the stars, tends each in it's
way to accomplish natures vast de-
sire.
Such a philosophy is just as helpful