Year: 1872

In our own country, suicide seems to
be growing more and more common
every year, and is being INDUCED in on
all manner of occasions, and on all man
ner of pretexts. sUnrequited love,
long-continued illness, hopeless poverty,
and business disappointn1ents, appear to
be the leading incentives. Quite num-
Der of cases have recently transpired in
this and adjoining States, where men have
put an end to their lives merely because
attacked by the smallpox. In Iowa, Hi
nois and Wisconsin, the published sui
cides average about one a day, taking
our exchange list as a criterion. Even
this estimate may be far too moderate.


Certain philosophers have advanced the
opinion that no man of sane mind ever
committed suicide-that the crime itself
is proof sufficient of mental arrangement.
We differ with them. 1t would be full
as reasonable to account for all rash &C
tions on such score. Men who have
committed murder are constantly being
acquitted on grounds of temporary in
sanity, and generally with the approval
of the populace. Yet who, in their hearts,
do not consider such verdicts benevolent
| frauds on the good sense of the commu-
nifty? Why not attribute all crime and


iniquity to a diseased state of the mind
1t would seem that no man would COM


nit gross crime or a gross error, while


governed by well-balanced intel
lect. And yet these crimes and errors
are of constant occurrence, and their per-
petratOrs are as often men of intelligence
as otherwise When those who know
ingly do wrong are more numerous than
those who err through ignorance and
blindness, it will not do to shield suicide
or any other crime under a mantle of
charity. There are, no doubt, innumera-
BILE instances where men destroy their


own and the lives of others, under tie
promptings ofa unnatural impulse which
can scarcely be accounted for. 1t is also
| true that disposition to suicide is some


times inherited. Men often lose their
reason by everlasting the brain, and kill
themselves in the wild frenzy that fol-
lows, as was the ease with Hugh Miller,
the great geologist But far the greater
number of tragedies of this description
originate in a foolish despair that no brave
man should yield to-in trivial misfor-
tunes that would soon be forgotten if
borne with proper fortitude. Suicide is
generally preluded by moody despond-
ency, which could be dispelled by resO-
lutte effort, but which becomes more and
more overpowering the longer the victim
indulges it. Therefore, he who gives it
! full sway when he might successfully re-
sist it, must be held morally responsible
] for the consequences. He is a criminal


in the sight of Heaven.


Zeno, the stole, contended that it can
be no sin to end an existence that has
grown unenjoyable, and attested the sim


cerity of his arguments by dispatching
himself at the advanced age of ninety
eight. Nevertheless, divested of the
sophistries that surround it, no crime is


really so cowardly as selfmurder. Shak-


speare, in his matehless conception of Ham,


let, presents the probable thoughts of a


man meditating so desperate deed. And
yet he utterly ignores that higher heroism
which should teach us to bear with dig
nified resignation whatever Affections


Providence may see fit to impose, rather
than seek immunity from them by an act
of dishonor and adherence. Suicide is
selfish, shameful, inexcusable acknowl-


edgment of the lack of all the most adj
mirable qualities of the human charac.


ter. The true man will see the race OF


life through to the end, in defiance of ad-


versity and tribulation. To bear is to


conquer fate"- Chicago Journal.