be, between thofe, who deserve its worst imputation, or only a fhare of it, or none at all.

There are points then to be fettled, and exceptions to be made, previous to a general charge of guilt on all, who put a sudden end to their own lives. For though every person, who terminates his mortal existence by his own hand, commits fuicide, yet he does not, therefore, always commit murder, which alone conftitutes its guilt. Some diftinction is neceffary, in regard to a man's killing himself, as it would be had he killed another perfon; which latter he may do, either inadvertently or legally, and therefore in either cafe innocently, and without the imputation of being the murderer of another. When a man kills himself inadvertently and involuntarily, it comes under the legal defcription of accidental death, or per infortunium; but as to his doing it legally, the law allows of no fuch cafe. The only inftance of innocence, which it allows to the commiffion of voluntary suicide, is in the cafe of madness; when a man being deemed under no moral guidance, can be subject to no imputation of guilt on account of his behaviour either to himself or others. But it But it may be remarked, in order to imprefs the greater horror of what is really felf-murder, that one species of confirmed madness, the turbulent and frantic, is feldom known to stain its hands in its own blood; but to employ all the cunning and mifchievous imagination, of which it is mafter, to the harm and destruction of others: ftill feeming, under this deprivation of reafon, to be guided by the same regard for self-preservation, as actuates all other wild and irrational animals. But there is another fpecies of madness, the dejected and melancholic, which, preying more inwardly on itself, is more frequently productive of felfdeftruction. When this wretched depreffion of fpirits holds a confirmed and established empire over the human mind, it becomes an acknowledged and permanent madness; and the unhappy object is no longer liable to moral imputation. Such an one often proves more harmless to others than to himself, fince many are the fuicides committed by this miserable description of men.

But fome, who are ever defirous of leaning toward the fide of humanity, are inclined to judge, that the very act of suicide (being so horrid and unnatural) implies a fubverfion of the brain, or a fpecies of madness. This [B], however,

[B] See chap. ii. part v. where the matter of infanity is fully confidered, and found to be admitted too indifcriminately.

is deciding too favourably of the matter, as will appear in the profecution of the fubject. In all cafes, however, the heinousness of self-murder (when it is proper to call it fo) is fufficiently acknowledged, because the queftion never is put concerning its intrinfic guilt or innocence, but whether "infanity," and that alone, can be proved to ward off all imputableness of moral agency? The act of suicide, then, to be wholly void of guilt, or to be legally deemed fo, muft proceed from an involuntary infanity. It is neceffary to add involuntary, because a temporary fit of phrenfy, occafioned by the distraction of furious paffions, does not excuse it; fince, if these distractions themselves are highly culpable, and might have been avoided, whatever is unlawfully done under fuch commotions of the brain, is liable to the imputation of guilt. The law neither excuses the outrages of intoxication, nor the excefs of that rage, which impels to murder..

But yet an equal fhare of cenfure is fcarcely due to every perpetrator, even of the most voluntary fuicide; fince the proportion of its guilt must depend on the circumstances of the cafe. One commits it, acknowledging its offence, and praying for pardon; but, being of a weak frame and conftitution of body and mind, is overwhelmed by his misfortunes. Another perfuades himself into an idea of his own unimportance to fociety, and therefore, with a folemn address to God to receive him, feeks to free himself from all present and future trouble. This man rushes on his own life without reflection, moved by fome fudden impulfe of vexation and disappointment, goading an impetuous and agitated mind, which at other times has been seriously and virtuously inclined: that embraces fuicide, as the refult of a cool and deliberate judgment, weighing, however, its own calamities through a falfe and magnifying medium. The female flies to it, as her fure refuge from shame and infidelity, in the disappointments and jealoufies of love, and lays the guilt of her death at the door of perjured In fhort, unmerited misfortunes, unavoidable poverty, mifery and affliction, the cutting ingratitude of friends, the base desertion of relatives, are all, in their turn, productive of fuicide: but not being founded on previous guilt in the perpetrator, tend to excite fome degree of compaffion for the agent, in the midst of an abhorrence of the action.

man.

Again; one man thinks not at all of a future ftate, or of the moral government of God; but in a moment of disappointed luft, ambition, or avarice, fills

up

up the measure of his crimes by rushing on eternity; whilst another philofophically or metaphyfically arguing in defence of the practice against all moral and religious fentiment, either like Robeck calmly [c] reduces his theory into practice, (thus at least showing its influence over himself); or like Hume dies the common death of all men, and leaves [D] a defence of fuicide behind him, to be added to his other fceptical performances, for the benefit of his own and future ages. Is there an equality of guilt in all these cases? Is its fimple, and even finful commiffion, equal to its juftification? Shall thofe unhappy victims at the altar of fuicide, who have facrificed themselves on the decifion of a weak and erroneous judgment rather than in defiance of human and divine laws, be placed on the fame level of guilt with thofe, who, by the perpetration of selfmurder, have completed a life of vice and wickedness? Or with those, who attempt to abate its horror, and to make it a matter of choice, of indifference, nay, even of good report, and who, in short, aim at defending its principle [E], by a display of deceitful fophiftry? forbid its humanity. Errors of judgment may be overlooked and forgiven; the careless and thoughtless practitioners of evil fall into the hands of a merciful judge; but the public defenders and justifiers of a wicked action, have all those miferable and pernicious confequences to anfwer for, which a divulgation of their principles may, at any time, produce. An impetuous and perturbid mind, may hastily rush on action, which it neither approves nor would wish to defend; but the calm and cool reafoner in juftification of suicide strikes a dagger at the heart of every civil and domestic connexion, as well as destroys the principles of all moral obligation and religious duty. The philofophic fuicide, therefore, (that is, one who maintains its innocence and legality in his writings, whether he practises it or not on himself) like the deliberate murderer, is entitled to a double portion of cenfure and abhorrence. However then, there can be no affignable caufe, which can render voluntary fuicide lawful, and void of all criminality, yet there may be pallia

[c] Robeck a Swede, wrote a large and difpaffionate volume in defence of suicide; and when he had concluded, according to his own principles, that it was lawful to put an end to his life, he destroyed himself. See an account of him in Part VI. chap. iii.

[D] See for Hume's pofthumous Effay on Suicide, in Part VI. chap. ii.

[E] For the horrid confequences which arife to fociety from defending its principle, see Part II. chap. iii.

3

tions, as well as aggravations, of its guilt; cafes that may be pitiable, though not perfectly innocent: confequently it is not to be concluded with the rigid casuist," that all its inftances are equally unpardonable, because there can be no repentance." God forbid that man should thus attempt to limit the mercies of the Almighty, in a matter in which it is impoffible to exhibit any signs of repentance! It is difficult and impracticable for man to attempt a judgment of the precise degree of guilt which is contracted by any particular fuicide; but there is room for perfect affurance, that the great Judge of all the world will execute righteousness in mercy, and that He will affign a punishment for this, as well as for all other crimes, alone proportioned to the degree of its guilt.

Human laws can only judge of facts: confequently, every perpetrator of suicide, who is not proved a lunatic, (which is the only legal exception) must, in the eye of civil justice, be deemed equally guilty. But the determinations of moral law are founded on the motives producing any action; and therefore, as the motives which lead to fuicide, may be very diffimilar, there arises from hence (as in all other breaches of morality) a great variation, as well as difproportion, in the measure of the guilt. All strictures, however, on this subject, (like the decisions of law) must be conceived in general terms; but the application must vary with the cafe. It will be proved then, in the following inquiry, that felf-murder must be deemed a cowardly act, as being fo frequently the result of a mean despair; a criminal one to the community at large, as it militates against the first principles of society;-base to our private connexions, as it infults their tendereft feelings;-injurious to ourselves, as it puts an end to all our interefts here, and much hazards them hereafter;-finful and rebellious, as it ftruggles against, and seeks to overturn the difpenfations and appointments of Providence ;-in a word, to use an old, but clear and comprehensive distinction, that it is a great breach of duty to God, our neighbour, and ourselves. But before we proceed to confirm these " fpecial" charges against suicide, it may be proper to point out certain causes, which tend to establish its "general" guilt.

CHAP.

CHA P. II.

Suicide arifes from too frong an impreffion made on the mind: and is grounded either on the want of all principle, or on too great a refinement of principle; from the former proceeds a fudden and outrageous; from the latter, a more deliberate and reasoning kind of suicide-Defign of this chapter to trace thofe " diftant causes,' which chiefly prepare the mind for the commiffion of the former.-Mode of education defective; being employed in forming the external manners more than in improving the heart.-From whence proceeds an inattention to moral character or laudable purfuits; because fo little diftinction made in public notice between moral and immoral men.-No fpur to virtuous emulation.-Indolence fucceeds, which degenerates into effeminacy and luxury.-The effects of luxury on the body and mind. Its evil confequences.-Paffions unrestrained no friends to seriousness, virtue, and religion.-Are easily perfuaded by the weakest fophiftry into a disbelief of every thing that thwarts their pursuits.—Such writings eagerly read, as paint vice under amiable colours, and treat lightly of futurity.—Under the direction of fuch fophifts (added to a courfe of luxurious dissipation) the mind is " prepared" for an impatience under all disappointment and trouble, which fo frequently, ends in the outrage of felf-murder in its due time.

SU

UICIDE in general may be conceived to arise from a too strong impression made on the mind; which impreffion owes the excess of its energy either to the want of "all" good principle, or to fuch a great refinement" of principle, as leads to falfe and pernicious conclufions. For as to that species of self-destruction, which arifes from a confirmed melancholy, as it partakes more of a disease than a crime, it falls under the head of commiferation rather than cenfure. From a want of all ferious principle, of all confideration [F] and reflection, chiefly arifes that outrageous kind of fuicide, by which a man instantly despatches himself in paffion and fury, rather than he will bear difappointments and troubles. From a fallacious refinement of principle proceeds that more cool and deliberate fort of felf-murder, concerning which a man has

[F] "Because they never think of death, they die.". -YOUNG'S Night Thoughts.

previously