for the ftoical doctrine of a dignity in fuicide, fince he defcribes but two felfmurderers in the Æneis, and thofe of the weaker fex. The one expired in flames on the difappointments of love and revenge; the other made ufe of the more ignoble rope, as a refuge from rage and indignation on the baffling of her fchemes [c]. By thefe examples he fhould feem to infinuate, that suicide is

but

which was one of the most virtuous according to the chief idea of virtue among the Romans. That clafs of all thefe, which to us would feem the moft guilty, Virgil abfolutely declares to be innocent,qui fibi letum-Infontes peperêre manu. Suppofing them to be fo according to his ideas (fays Myfagetes) pray how comes he to place them in Hell?-That (anfwered Polymetis) is eafily accounted for. On the Heathen fcheme he muft place them there; and I think he feems to have placed them in a very proper part of it. Ades which we interpret (not quite fo exactly as we should) by our word Hell, anciently fignified the grave or place of the dead in general. All therefore that die, must go to Ades. The very good are in one part of it, as well as the very bad in another; and the indifferent must be in fome part or other, as well as the good and the bad. It is the common receptacle of all, who are born in our world; and even the great heroes, who were fuppofed to go to Heaven or to prefide over ftars, had their airy reprefentation in Ades. As all mankind may be divided into three general claffes, the good, the bad and the indifferent, Ades is laid out by Virgil. into three general divifions, Erebus, Tartarus and Elyfium. The indifferent he places neither in the clear light of Elyfium nor in the folid darkness of Tartarus; but in a twylight fort of world, of a melancholy air indeed (for the general notion of death among the ancients was fad and gloomy), but not incapable of fome pleafure or confolation. In Erebus (or this divifion for the indifferent) Virgil places the infants, as not deferving death, firft and nearest to the land of the living. Next to the infants he places fuch as had been condemned to death without a caufe. Then fuch fuicides he looked upon as least guilty; fuch as had the most reason for quitting the station, which the great leader had adigned them in the upper world. Then are thofe whofe lives were fhortened either by love or in

war.

These might very well not be criminals; they have not in general the appearance of being fo; and as there are many warriors, as well as lovers, that fling away their lives without any great merit too, there will be enough of each to flock their particular diftricts in this region of the indifferents, where Virgil plunges them deeper and nearer the borders of Tartarus than the little innocents and unjustly condemned perfons we have been fpeaking of. I fhall only juft add here, that Menippus's account of Hell in Lucian (Netouania) agrees in the general difpofition of the place exactly with Virgil's account, and points out the fame three regions and in the fame order; the firft for judgment, the fecond, for punishment, and the third for rewards. The fame writer in another place makes the fame diftinction of good, bad and indifferent, for the inhabitants of thefe three regions, and places the good in Elyfium, the bad in Tartarus and the indifferent (which he fays are moft numerous) in the wide plains of Erebus."--SPENCE'S Polymetis, Dial. XVI.

[c] In Dido-Sævit amor magnoque irarum fluctuat æftuEn. IV. Speaking of Dido's death the poet says,

nec fato, "meritâ" nec morte peribat;

Sed "mifera" ante diem fubitoque accenfa furore.-—————Æn. IV. and thus he seems to place her among the "miferable" rather than the wicked."

1

but a cowardly and effeminate refuge from the evils of life, only fit for women on any disappointment of their pufillanimous paffions: whereas "fortitude” under every trial is the diftinguishing characteristic of his great hero [D].

The opinions and conduct of Marcus Brutus fhall engage our next attention. Brutus, (according to the relation of Plutarch in his life) though a proficient in all the fects of the Grecian philosophy, was most attached to the Platonifts or ancient academy. He approved not at all of the principles of Carneades or the new academy, in which Cicero made fo confiderable a figure. In confequence of being much converfant in the Platonic writings and which contained alfo the opinions of Socrates, he had many fcruples concerning the legality

When Amata, the wife of Latinus, had failed in her plan for the deftruction of Æneas, whom the defpifed as an unworthy husband for her daughter Lavinia, and thought Turnus, whom she favoured, killed in battle, fhe gave herfelf up to defpair and fuicide.

fubito mentem turbata dolore

Se caufam clamat crimenque caputque malorum :

Multaque per moeftum demens effata furorem,

Purpureos moritura manu difcindit amicus

Et nodum informis leti trabe nectit ab altâ.-EN. XII.

Virgil feems almoft to have made another female fuicide of the mother of Euryalus on hearing of her fon's death.

in me omnia tela

Conjicite, o Rutuli; me primam abfumite ferro.
Aut tu, magne pater Divum, miferere, tuoque
Invifum hoc detrude caput fub Tartara telo:

"Quando aliter nequeo crudelem abrumpere vitam."

Meaning perhaps, "fince I have not refolution enough to kill myself."-ÆN. IX.

Anchifes also wishes Æneas to leave him behind at his departure from Troy, and then he will kill himself.

Vos, o quibus integer ævi

Sanguis, ait, folidæque fuo ftant robore vires;

Vos agitate fugam.

Me fi cœlicolæ voluiffent ducere vitam

Has mihi fervâffent fedes: fatis una fuperque

Vidimus excidia et captæ fuperavimus urbi.
Sic o fic pofitum affati difcedite corpus.
Ipfe manu mortem inveniam.- -EN. II.

[D] Quicquid erit, fuperanda omnis fortuna ferendo eft.EN. V.

or

or propriety of fuicide, and even condemned at the time the voluntary death of his uncle and father-in-law, the Utican Cato. But as the circumftances of his life changed and his fortunes became defperate, he alfo changed his opinion of fuicide. For on the morning of the battle of Philippi, Brutus and Caffius are reported in his life of Brutus, to have holden the following conference.

Cafius. May the Gods grant, o Brutus, that this day we may prove victo"rious and spend the remainder of our lives together in comfort and happiness ! "But fince the event of human affairs, and efpecially of great ones, is most "uncertain; and fince, if the battle fhould prove adverfe, we may find a difficulty "of ever mecting again, tell me, what is your opinion and refolution concerning putting ourselves to death?

"of

Brutus. "When I was a youth, Caffius, and lefs engaged in active life and confequently less experienced, I embraced (I know not how) such sentiments of philofophy, as made me condemn Cato for killing himself. I then deemed "it an act of irreverence towards the Gods, and which implied but little idea "of valour among men, when we thus fhowed ourfelves unwilling to submit to "the difpenfations of Providence, or unable to endure with firmness and refolution "whatever misfortunes might fall to our lot. But now in the midst of danger "I am quite of another mind. For if Providence does not terminate our prefent undertaking according to our wishes, I fhall reft without further trial. "I fhall make no more preparations for war, but will die contented with my prefent fortune. I furrendered up my life to the fervice of my country on the "ides of March, and have furvived ever fince only to enjoy liberty and "honour." At these words Caffius gave a smile of approbation and embracing Brutus faid, "With fuch refolutions let us meet the enemy; for either we shall conquer ourselves, or have no caufe to fear the victory of others." The event of the battle is well known; as likewife that both thefe great leaders fulfilled their previous determinations and fell [E] by their own fwords. But this precipitation

[E] Caffius ordered his freedman to kill him (an usual mode of suicide in those days), which he executed by fevering his head from his body. Brutus, after having taken an affectionate leave of his friends and having affured them, that he was only angry with fortune for his country's fake, fince he efteemed himfelt in his death more happy than his conquerors, advised them to provide for their own Lafety;

Ff2

cipitation has been justly cenfured, in that they destroyed with themselves all remaining [F] hopes of the republic. Though Brutus obferved to Caffius, that he had changed his opinion of fuicide, yet he affigns no grounds or reafons, why he thought it more lawful than he had done before. The truth was, he began to grow desperate, and of courfe the deductions of his cooler reafon appeared weak in proportion; and his judgment clashing now with his perfonal feelings, at length gave way and vanished before them. Such is the cafe with an infinite number of fuicides at the present hour, who are not fo honourable in their purfuits as the Roman patriot. Reason is lulled afleep by the irregularity of appetites, and religion yields to the impulfes of paffion, disappointment and despair.'

Pliny the elder seems to have entertained very favourable notions of suicide; who writes thus in a chapter entitled " Of God." "The chief comfort of man "in his imperfect state is this; that even the Deity cannot do all things. For "inftance, he cannot put himself to death when he pleafes, which is the greatest indulgence he has given to man amid the fore evils of life [G]." Pliny likefafety; and then retiring he used the affiftance of his intimate Strato to run his fword through his body. This is Plutarch's account in his life. But Dion Caffius (Lib. XLVII.) puts the words of disappointment and chagrin into Brutus's mouth at his death, making him quote a paffage from Euripides in his Hercules furens. "O wretched virtue, thou art a bare name! I miftook thee for a fubftance. But "thou thyfelf art the flave of Fortune."

[F] Cato (fays Montefquieu in "Rife and Fall of Roman Empire," C. xii.) gave himself up to death at the end of the tragedy, but Brutus and Caffius before it; without compaffion on that Republic "which they thus abandoned."

[G] Imperfectæ verò naturæ in homine præcipua folatia, ne Deum quidem poffe omnia. Nam neque fibi poteft mortem confcifcere fi velit: quod homini dedit optimum in tantis vitæ ponis.--(NAT. HIST. L. II. C. vii.)

The heathens feem in more than one inftance to have claimed a fuperiority over their Gods. Pliny here arrefts a privilege to man beyond the power of the Gods to exercife. Seneca (Ep. liii.) alfo gives greater credit to his "wife" man than to the Deity; "Because the Deity is wife through his own na"ture, and cannot help being fo; whereas man attains his wifdom by his own application." Eft aliquid quo fapiens antecedit Deum. Ille naturæ beneficio, non fuo, fapiens eft. And Epicurus (or at leaft Lucretius for him) very civilly difimifles the Gods from all management of worldly affairs, for that indeed they are not capable of undertaking fuch a bufinefs."

*

Ipfa fua per fe fponte omnia Diis agere expers.

Nam (proh fancta Deùm tranquillâ pectora pace
Que placidum degunt ævum vitamque ferenam !)

* Scil. Natura,

"wife beftows high commendations on the kindness of mother Earth, who in mere compaflion to our miferies has produced fuch poifons [H], as will most cafily and pleasantly accomplish our death." Thefe the great men of old ufually carried about them against the viciffitudes of fortune [1]. Pliny, when writing of bodily pain or diforders, advances as follows. "Even folly itself "feems capable of determining, which are the most grievous disorders, fince "his "own" feems to every one to be the worst to endure. But our ancestors have judged, that the greatest of tortures is from stones in the bladder occafioning ftrangury; the next from cramps in the ftomach; the third from pains in the “head: and that it is from these chiefly that men feek relief in felf-murder; such "is the condition of life, that death often becomes the most [K] defirable har"bour." Pliny the elder, though not particularly addicted to any one fyftem of philofophy, is faid rather to have inclined to that of the Epicureans; and what is advanced above is very confiftent with their notions. To become "non-existent" rather than live in violent pain and mifery without hopes of relief is agreeable to Epicurean principles; but to claim the power of becoming fo, as a privilege fuperior to that poffeffed by eternal beings fuppofed to be liable to no imperfection or trouble, and therefore wanting no means of escaping it, is too quaint and abfurd a fophifm to deferve further notice: and yet Hume [L] has thought this very paflage from Pliny of fufficient weight and importance to clofe his whole Eflay in favour of fuicide.

Quis † regere immenfi fummam, quis habere profundi

Endo manu validas potis eft moderanter habenas?

Quis pariter colos omnes convertere? et omneis

Ignibus ætheriis terras fuffire feraceis?

Omnibus inque locis effe omni tempore præfto, &c. &c. L. II.

[H] Plinius Terram matrem etiam venena noftri mifertam inftituiffe credi vult: ut fcilicet facillimo hauftu illibato corpore et cum toto fanguine extingueremur, nullo labore fentientibus fimiles.--NAT. HIST. L. II. C. iii.

[1] Mafinifla fidum e fervis vocat, fub cujus cuftodia regio more ad incerta fortunæ venenum erat."--Liv. L. XXX. 15.

[K] Qui graviffimi ex his morbis funt difcerni ftultitiâ prope videri poteft, cum fuus cuique ad præfens qui que atrociffimus videatur. Et de hoc tamen judicavère avi experimento, afperimos cruciatus effe calculorum a ftillicidio veficæ, proximum ftomachi, tertium eorum, qui in capite doleant, non ob alios ferè morte confcitâ : - quoniam ca vitæ conditio eft, ut mori plerumque etiam optimi portûs fit. (NAT. HIST. L. XXV. C. iii.)

[1] See Part III. C. i. where this part of Hume's Effay is confidered.

+ Scil. Deorum.

Pliny