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his death but a bravado deferves not the honourable appellation of a man of true courage.

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"But fuppofe a man, who has hitherto fupported a good reputation in the "world, to be drawn in to commit fome bafe and dishonourable action he "becomes indignant of life under a load of infamy and reproach, and puts a period to it with his own hands. Does not fuch an one fhow more spirit, "refolution and courage in his felf-affaflination than another, whofe daftardly "foul leads him to be content to breathe under his indignity and fhame, or even to fuffer its inglorious punishment?" We are no further obliged to answer this question here than by saying, that each perfon in this cafe follows the bent of his own natural temper; the one by dying, to get rid of his own troublesome feelings; the other by living, poffibly with the hopes of making fome reparation for his fault. The latter lives, perhaps, through "fear" of dying, and the former dies through the "rafhnefs" of defpair; while true courage, which is equally exempt from fear or rafhnefs, and whofe effects are only exalted by their leading caufes, feems to have little or nothing to do in the bufinefs;-except that the man, who lives on in despite of ignominy, and does it on proper motives, must be deemed the most resolute and courageous of the two.

Again; "Is there not more spirit and courage in breaking at once through "unavoidable evils by the ftroke of fuicide, than [D] in pitifully enduring a

"life

[D] Of this opinion feemed a young lady, who left the following lines in her window on morning of her felf-murder.

"O Death, thou pleafing end of human woe!
"Thou cure for life! thou greateft good below!
"Still mayeft thou fly the coward and the flave,,
"And thy foft flumbers only bless the brave."

On reading which a gentleman wrote thus:.

"O Dice, ye vain diverters of our woe,
"Ye wafte of life, ye greateft curfe below!
"May ne'er good fenfe again become your flave,,

"Nor your falfe charms allure and cheat the brave."

the

This young lady at the age of nineteen was in poffeffion of a large fortune. She was extremely beautiful, and by no means deficient in understanding or wit; but. was immoderately fond of play.

She

"life of continual mifery?" But if it implies courage of any fort to strike the ftroke, does it not at the fame time imply timidity in flying from the evil inftead of intrepidity in refifting [E] it? Is it not fomewhat fimilar to flying from the field of battle, instead of fighting bravely and awaiting the iffue? To bear mifery with equanimity and patience feems the truer and more substantial proof of courage [F]. For has the fuicide courage to ftrive against pain, or to overcome trouble? No; he finks under it, he flies before it. But his fpirit is of another fort. He has boldness to encounter annihilation or futurity, or rather to allay the mifery of the moment without thinking of confequences.

She foon gambled away her whole fortune. Reflections on the past became bitter; anticipation of the future alarming; melancholy increafed and wearinefs of life fucceeded. Being at Bath in the year 1731, she was seen to retire to her chamber with her ufual compofure, and was found in the morning hanging by a gold and filver girdle to a closet-door. Her youth, beauty, and diftrefs, rendered her an object of pity to every one-but a near relation, who, on hearing of her death, was inhuman enough to exclaim in a punning ftyle, "Then the has tied herself up from play."-See Gent. Mag. vol. i. and vol. xxxii.

[E] Hercules, (whom no one accuses of cowardice) when oppreffed with misfortunes, is made to say, “That he will refolutely bear his misery, and not kill himself, for fear he should be deemed a "coward; fince he, who cannot bear the ftrokes of adverfity, cannot be fuppofed able to face the "darts of an enemy."--See Euripides, Hercules furens.

[F] Rebus in adverfis facile eft contemnere mortem,

Fortius ille facit, qui mifer effe poteft.MARTIAL.

A few years ago an officer went into Hyde-park with an intention of shooting himself. He applied a piftol to his forehead; the priming flashed, but no difcharge followed. A man of poor appearance, whom the officer had not observed, or perhaps thought worthy his notice, inftantly ran up and wrested the piftol from his hands. The other drew his fword, and was about to ftab his deliverer, who with much spirit replied, "Stab me, Sir, if you think proper; I fear death as little as you, but I have more "courage. More than twenty years I have lived in affliction and penury; and I yet trust in God "for comfort and fupport." The officer was ftruck (as well he might) with these spirited words, continued fpeechlefs and motionlefs for a fhort time, and then burfting into tears gave his purfe to the honest man. He then inquired into his ftory, and became his private friend and benefactor; but he made the poor man fwear, that he would never make inquiries concerning himself, or seem to know him, if chance should ever again bring them in fight of each other.

Did not this poor man of patience fay with truth of himself, "I have more courage, Sir, than you"?

"the brave, the gallant Altamont,

"So call'd, fo thought-and then he fled the field."-YOUNG, Night V.

"Why had he thus falfe fpirit to rebel,

"And why not fortitude to suffer well?"--SAVAGE's Wanderer.

He

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He has rashness to lift his arm and ftrike against every civil, social, domestic, and virtuous principle. He defies the most strong and natural impulfe implanted in man for his own prefervation. He dares to refift all the horrors of death, and to rush into the prefence of God with the covering of his own blood. All this may be reputed courage by fome, but what if others fhould rather deem it temerity, fool-hardinefs and madnefs! Or if it must still be termed courage, how little is that fpecies of bravery to be coveted, which only impels a man to his own deftruction without benefit to others! Better is cowardice than fuch courage as this" better the live dog (as fays the proverb) than the dead "lion."

Thus nothing defirable, nothing meritorious has been discovered in the rife, progrefs, and completion of felf-murder. Its preparatory causes, fuch as exceffive diffipation, fcepticifm, and infidelity, are little to be commended: its immediate incitements, the mazes and perplexities of vice, with their baneful effects on the mind, are full of horror, difgrace, and infamy; whilst its final instigator, despair, is the most mean, pitiful, and destructive of all principles of human action: neither does it gain any degree of credit on the score of honour or courage. So that altogether it may juftly be pronounced of fuicide on the head of its " general guilt," that it is the foul offspring of a most deformed and vicious race of progenitors.

END OF THE FIRST PART.

PART

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Gradations in the shock of death; by fuicide the most dreadful of all; in this cafe the death itself not fo much dwelt on, as the mode of its accomplishment.—Suicide an object of just abhorrence, because contrary to the first principles implanted in man, thofe of felf-preservation.—The natural horror of death a guard to life, which men might otherwife be induced to quit too easily.-Objection 1. concerning Juicide not being always against the propenfities of human nature, fince death is often coveted rather than life, answered.-A weariness of life is never to be afcribed to the genuine feelings of nature, but to its corruptions from external circumftances.-Objection 2. concerning fuicide being not always and neceffarily an offence against the first law of our nature, felf-prefervation, because felfprefervation is not of univerfal obligation, anfwered, by showing how far Self-prefervation is to be the guide of our actions, and when it is to yield to higher motives of conduct.-No apology can be drawn from hence for voluntary and felfish fuicide.

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PEAK no ill of the dead," fays the voice of humanity: yet the nature the prefent fubject calls for a suspension of this general compassion, till the lifeless body has been brought (as it was among the Egyptians of old) to a folemn trial. They fcrutinized the whole conduct of the man; we fit in judgment on that laft act of his life alone, by which he voluntarily deprived himself of his mortal existence, his previous conduct being of no further confequence, than as it ferved to aggravate or extenuate the guilt of his felf-murder.

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To view the powers of death over a fellow-creature is at all times an awful and folemn fpectacle; but many circumftances [G] may confpire to augment the force of its impreffion. When death finks an hoary head into the grave by a gradual decay, or when it terminates a long and painful illness, its terrors are much abated by the expectation that was formed of the impending stroke. When its attack is more fudden, and also levelled against the bloom of youth, yet even this premature intrufion is lamented with a fhare of composure and refignation; death being at all times a natural confequence of violent disease. But when the vital heat this moment glows in full strength and vigour, and the next is totally extinguished by fome frightful accident, our feelings are more forcibly affected; furprize and confternation add new poignancy to forrow, and we' fhudder at the fight of fo fudden and important a change. Yet there is a deprivation of life more calamitous and dreadful than any of the former, because neither nature nor accident have any share in its completion; and that is, by murder. There is something so repugnant of all natural feelings, and so forcible, in the cry of human blood, that the laws of the land (and indeed those of most countries) not only require blood for blood, when one man slays another, but also a compenfation or fatisfaction, whenever man's blood is accidentally fhed by an irrational animal, or even by an inanimate mass of matter; so that not only an horse which mortally ftrikes his keeper, but even a wheel or beam, which happens to crush a man to death, is forfeited under the name of Deodand [H], as an expiation for human blood.

[G]

"plurima mortis imago."

-VIRG.

The

[H] Sir Edward Coke fays, that the law of Deodands is founded upon Exodus xxi. 28. « Si bos "cornu percufferit virum," &c.-Institutes of Laws of England, Part III. c. viii.

There is a death likewise "per infortunium," where no reasonable creature concurs to it, or a death, which is without the fault or procurement of another. This, as Bracton fays, is not properly "Cædium hominis," or killing of man by man; nor is in truth a felony, or punishable as a crime; yet it is what the law takes notice of, and makes what occafioned the death to be forfeited; and this forfeiture is what the law calls a "Deodand." Res Deo datæ,-forfeited to the King, or Lord of the Liberty, and to be distributed "in pios ufus" among the poor, for the appeasing of God's wrath, and as the best recompence for blood cafually fhed. The practice is founded in fcripture ;-" And furely "your blood of your lives will I require at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand " of man," (Gen. ix. 5.)-" If an ox gore a man or a woman that they die, then the ox fhall furely "be ftoned, and his flesh shall not be eaten; but the owner of the ox fhall be quit," (Exod. xxi. 28.) It was formerly a given rule, that "Omne quod movet, cum eo quod occidit Deodandum eft Regi;"

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