The idea of fhedding man's blood then being fo heinous in its very nature, the horrors of death become grievously multiplied at the fight of a mangled body, which has fallen a prey to the stabs of fome merciless villain. But when we are moreover informed, who that cruel murderer was,-that those brains were voluntarily scattered by his own pistol, or that heart's blood was poured

or, according to the monkifh verfe, "Omnia quæque movent ad mortem, funt Deodanda." Yet the practice feems to be more moderate in our days; as it finds only that to be forfeited as Deodand, which immediately causes the death; as the wheel only, not the whole cart and horfes. The law in favour of the Deodand is pofitive, though we cannot now fully account for its origin with us. And though "the Mirror" (c. 1, 13.) feems to father the firft ordinance upon Glanville; yet the learned Fabian Philips, in his "Legal Rights of the Courts of Judicature," has stript me of all good opinion of that author. Fleta, indeed, gives us a "provifum eft, quod pro animabus antecefforum Regis, omniumque ❝ fidelium defunctorum tanquam precium fanguinis diftribuantur, & ideo Deodanda vocantur." UMFREVILLE'S Lex Coronatoria, vol. i. chap. Deod.

The paffage referred to above in Fleta, (feu Commentarius Juris Anglicani fic nuncupatus, sub Edvardo primo ab anonymo confcriptus) Lib. I. c. xxv. de Officio Coronatoris, is as follows: "Hu<< jufmodi autem, quæ pro mortis causâ reputantur, ut batellus cum onere & omni attillamento, carecta "cum onere & equis, & quicquid mobile fit in molendino, & hujufmodi, appreciari debent; & fe"cundum pretium villatæ liberari. Ex his autem provifum eft," &c. as above.

The ancients also had laws of the fame nature with the modern forfeitures of Deodands, to show their horror of fhedding man's blood., "Inanimate things (faid the laws of Athens) which have been "inftrumental in effecting any man's death, fhall be caft out of the territories.". -PETITI Leges Atticæ.

A beautiful statue, having by its fall from its pedestal crushed a man to death, was folemnly adjudged by a sentence given in the Prytaneum (where these matters were to be determined according to a law of Draco) to be caft out of Attica, and thrown into the fea. See PETITI Leges Atticæ, and the writers he quotes.

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The following paffage in Æfchines's Oration against Ctefiphon confirms the ufage of fuch a law as the above. "It would be a grievous thing in you, O Athenians, who are used to exterminate from your territories fuch pieces of wood, of stone or iron, things inanimate and fenfelefs, as have been "the accidental caufe of a man's death, by falling on him; for you, who cut off and bury that hand "separate from the reft of the body, which hath committed self-murder; for you to reward the "undeferving," &c.

Plato likewife, in his treatife "De Legibus," Lib. IX. appoints as follows. "If a beaft of burden, "or other animal, kill a man, (except in public fhows) let the relations of the deceased bring the "matter before the judges; and let the beast, being condemned, be flain without the borders of the "territory. If any thing inanimate (lightning or other weapon fent from heaven excepted) fhall "either by its own fall, or by a man's falling upon it, deprive him of life, let application be made to "the judge, and let the inanimate thing be exterminated, as in the cafe of animals."

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out by the point of his own fword, the bofom heaves with a complication of jarring paffions. Pity and deteftation, grief and abhorrence, alternately swell the heart, when the commiffion of fo defperate and unnatural a crime is announced. An equal mixture of forrow and indignation poffeffes the foul, on the reflection, that a rational being fhould fo far forget every domeftic and focial duty, as fuddenly to involve his deareft connexions in mifery and diftraction; should so far tranfgrefs that law of felf-preservation, which actuates the lowest animal, as willingly to plunge himself into difgrace, infamy, and death!

The communication of death at all, of fudden death in particular, to the family of the deceased, is ever an unwelcome and painful task. However, the dread of making the discovery is abundantly heightened, when the fatal event was occafioned by fome frightful accident, ftill more when by murder. But if the eyes of our departed friend were closed in perpetual darkness by the stroke of" felf"-murder, the fcene is inftantly changed; the death itself is no longer dwelt on, but only the "mode" of its accomplishment. “Had it happened "(we are ready to fay) in the courfe of nature, or even by the hands of "another, the sources of confolation might have been many, and we had been "content: but now all our difficulty confifts in keeping "the manner" of the "death a fecret from the widowed wife (widowed by fuch unnatural means) "and fatherlefs children." But why a fecret? Because the firft feelings of human nature rise fo powerfully against it, that we would fain fave the afflicted family the additional horror of the bloody-minded fcene. It is certain that death puts on its fouleft vifage in the form of fuicide; nay, fo horrid and unnatural does the very act itself appear, that it is fcarce believed to have been committed by a man in his fenfes. In pity, therefore, to himself, all pains are taken to denominate it an act of phrenfy; in compaffion to his fuffering family, the miferable confolation is usually afforded them, that he was infane and a madVain, therefore, is the opinion of those who maintain, that there is no law of nature against the commiffion of suicide; fince it is plain, that the first impulfes v of human feelings clearly point out, that there is fomething materially wrong and strangely unnatural in its perpetration: but these firft impreffions are neither to be overlooked nor neglected, being forcible and convincing arguments of its special and enormous guilt. For to what purpose are these shocks at a violent death.

man.

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death fo ftrongly implanted in the human breast, but to make men careful of that life, which otherwise they might often not think worth preserving A small share of bodily pain or mental inquietude might lead to a refolution of getting rid of life, were it not for the natural horror that is entertained of dying; which horror is like "the flaming fword, appointed to guard the tree "of life."

But it is objected, "What if I fhould fo far have overcome my natural "horrors of death, as to have less apprehenfions from them than from a dread "of living; to which propensity of my nature am I to submit? The propensity "towards self-destruction in this cafe being fuppofed to outweigh that towards self-preservation, must I not be faid to follow my natural feelings more directly and effectually by compaffing that felf-deftruction, to which they fo powerfully draw me, than by attending to those calls of felf-prefervation, "from which they actually diffuade me. It cannot, therefore, be afferted "with truth, that felf-preservation is, in all cafes, a natural propenfity, or "that the feelings of nature muft, at all times, be contradicted by the ftroke. "of fuicide." The fallacy of the argument seems to lie in this point; that it wants proof that any man (not difordered in his fenfes) ever was inclined to felf-murder by the mere propenfities of his nature, unbiased by external cir cumstances. A weariness of life must proceed from a number of accidental causes, which in the progrefs of existence have arisen to disturb and warp the mind from the natural bent of its inclinations. The defire of felf-deftruction. is, therefore, very improperly termed a "natural" feeling, acting in opposition to other natural feelings, viz. those of self-preservation. The real propenfities of human nature are not changeable, much less contradictory; but opinions. and habits of life, principles and practices may be fuperinduced on original feelings, which may tend to weaken, and at length to ftifle, the pure and. genuine impulfes of nature. Though, therefore, a man fhould have fo far overcome his natural horror of death, as to have fuperfeded all wishes of selfpreservation, and even to have coveted its contrary, self-destruction, yet it does not follow from thence, that he can be faid to be actuated by two different and oppofite principles of nature, of which he ought to yield to the strongest; but. only that he has ftifled his "real" natural propenfity towards felf-prefervation, by a variety of circumstances tending to infpire him with a disgust of life. It

is poffible alfo (and far from improbable) that, together with his natural feelings towards felf-preservation, he may have stifled his virtuous propenfities, his integrity and judgment, his principles of humanity, the exertion of his reason, the influence of his religion, and the fuggeftions of his confcience: which being the cafe, however he may be urged by his present feelings towards self-destruction, they will not be the genuine feelings of human nature, but the prejudices of folly, the propenfities of vice, and the corruptions of a. depraved and wicked imagination. A fin is no less a fin, because fome are able to overcome all the obstacles that nature has placed in the way of its perpetration.

Another objection concerns the extent or univerfality of the obligation towards felf-prefervation, as a law of our nature. "If self-preservation be a "natural duty, and not to be difpenfed with, how fhall we prevent men (fay. objectors) from being cowards, unjust or inhuman, to preserve their own. "lives; how shall we perfuade them ever to facrifice thofe lives for the good. "of their country, or to hazard them for the benefit of others, or even in "defence of their own intereft and property? There feems an end of every "magnanimous and difinterested fentiment, if every idea is to center in that "of self-preservation, as the first principle of human actions." That the idea of self-preservation is one of the first and strongest implanted. in all animals cannot be denied; but it does not follow from thence, or is meant to be afferted, that it is therefore to be the whole and fole guide of human actions./ Irrational animals are guided by instinct to preserve themselves, though even this instinct does not at all times operate without exception.. The hazards they will undergo in defence of their young, the fierceness with which the most timid of quadrupeds or of the feathered race feems inspired, when their helpless. offspring are in danger, plainly indicates, that fomething different from selfpreservation is then stirring within them, which provokes a spirit of resistance and boldness, very dangerous to their own fafety, and often deftructive of their own lives. But if this be the cafe with the brute creation, man, who has fo many fuperior principles and motives of action, is by the help of thofe to correct and regulate his natural propenfities towards felf-prefervation. His ideas on this matter are to be guided by thofe principles of reafon and religion, which: are to be the fovereign directors of all his conduct. These will, in most inftances,,

inftances, coincide and co-operate with his natural feelings and propenfitics towards life, but they will also in others lead him to the performance of duties and services that neceffarily endanger his perfonal fafety, and draw him into an hazard of lofing life itself. The performance of the duties being his just point in view, and not to be neglected, he is not answerable for confequences which he cannot obviate, even though they should bring destruction and death upon himfelf. But in all fuch cases it is to be remembered, that death comes an uninvited guest, being an unwelcome, though neceffary, attendant on some just or noble action; and that it comes alfo through the medium of external and unavoidable causes, and through the hands of others, not in confequence of a man's own inclinations or self-destroying purposes. The natural propensity towards felf-prefervation is not, therefore, hurt or destroyed by fuch a difinterested behaviour, but is only rendered fubfervient in fome cafes, and to a certain degree, (as it ought to be) to fuperior duties to the laws of focial union, of moral obligation and religious obedience [1].

CHA P. II.

The fimpleft deductions of reafon lead to the belief of a Divine Being, the Creator and Preferver of the Universe, on whom all creatures are dependent.-Nothing in the material, vegetable or animal world created in vain, or exifts now without its use.-Man, therefore, knows not the importance of his life, in the System of the universe, to fociety, to himself.—He is not acquainted with final effects.—The principle of life and death belongs not to him: he knows not why he was brought into life at fuch a particular period, or to perform fuch a particular part; but be evidently flies by fuicide from the part affigned him by his natural Governor.— Moral imputation implies a state of probation, and confequently of submission; but this is overturned by the impatience of fuicide.-It is offenfive to our moral Governor in all its principles and motives by the defiance of his laws, by its

[1] See more of felf-preservation, its extent and obligations, in Part VI. c. i. Examination of Donne.

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