The Halifax Comet. — 1893-10-14 (Halifax, West Yorkshire, England)

ABOUT SUICIDES.  HERB is no passion in the mind of man," says Lord Bacon, "HO weak but it matss and masters the fear of  death." Realising this, a man must put aside, first of all, the idea of anything noble in suioe . He is not facing his enemy in dying; he is flying to what he supposes to be a refuge. The truth enunciated by the philosopher also explains how suicide is looked upon with such apparent indifference by the Orientals. In them the fear of death is apparently mastered by every other passion. For many centuries suicide has been a fine art in China and Japan. A mandarin in China, if guilty of misconduct, is politely requested to dispatch himself. If he be of a rank which entitles him to the peacock feather, he is privileged to choke himself to death with gold leaf. This is supposed in those parts to be a particularly luxurious form of death. If the mandarin be entitled to wear only the red button, he must be contented with strangling himself with a silken cord. This is hard, but the regulations of caste are inexorable.  Similar processes existed in Japan from time immemorial, but that country is to-day genuinely progressive, and frowns down the notions that are not in harmony with Western civilisation. The Orientals take to death like ducks to water. They seem to be as sure of Paradise as our own repentant murderers. There is historical truth in the conception of Moore's "Veiled Prophet," who could command his followers to dash themselves to death and find them only too delighted to obey. Far different was the temper of the Roman soldiers, who, when hemmed in, would die on their swords —whose generals always chose death in preference to gracing an enemy's triumph. They diein grim despair. During the reign of Tiberius a law was passed peemitting criminals whe committed suicide to dispose of their property. If the State was put to the expense of killing them, it seized their possessions. This was certainly puttinga premium on self-destruction. The Athenians, at the height of their civi bastion, discouraged suicide, although not severely. The offending hand was buried apart from the body. Zeno, the founder of the Stoics, set his followers a precious example. At the age of ninety-eight he fell and put his thumb out of joint. This was a hint to him that he had lived long enough, so he went home and hanged himself. Aristotle, Epictetus, and Zoroaster are great names ranged against suicide. The first finely said: "Courage is the mean between fear and rashness; suicide is the sum of both." Epictetus "Act well your part • it is not for you to choose it." Zorolister ' • "The soldier must not desert his post. Life is the post of man." Pliny thought that pains in the head and stomach should excuse suicide. Homer is said to have hanged himself because he could not answer the "fisherman's riddle." Oath and Lucretius stabbed themselves. Terenoe drowned hiself because he lost one hundred and eight translated comedies. The writings of Labienus were  burned, and Labienus took the fire route for his own exit from earth. The wife of Brutus, the well-beloved Portia, swallowed burning coals. Herennlus, the Sicilian, beat out his brains, and lived long enough to eahtte them, if his biographers tell the truth. Eyepedoelee plunged into a crater. (He had an imitator in this century, by the way, in the person of an English nobleman.) Nero cut his throat. Petronius Arbiter opened his veins because he had displeased Nero. Democles scalded himself to death. Two Romans killed themselves to escape the eloquent invective of Cicero. There are those who claim, and apparently with justioe, that the essence of ancient thought on this subject lies in this sifyingof Seneca, himself a suicide: "The wise man lives as long as he ought, not as long as he can."  .4. 11404 pc A y