LITERATURE.
The Literature of the subject is of very diverse character. France,
Italy, and Germany have produced many works on suicide as a fact.
England has been content with one work on suicide, that of Forbes
Winslow, “The Anatomy of Suicide,” dated 1840. “It is an interesting
collection of anecdotes, arranged without much regard to method or
authenticity.” (Athenæum.)
The thoroughly scientific statistical work of H. Morselli, of Turin,
has been recently published in an English form, but it is hardly a
readable book, consisting almost entirely of statistics; and the
subject, moreover, is treated from an Italian standpoint, and for these
reasons has not found many readers in this country.
There are, however, plenty of references to suicide in English
literature, and some essays, chiefly in its defence. Some of these I
catalogue here, and also several references from French literature. I
also add a few examples of authors of Greece and Rome who concerned
themselves with the subject. Of foreign works relating to suicide, a
list will be found in the Bibliographical Index.
Among the authors of Greek and Roman civilization, in favour of
allowing suicide to be committed, were─
ARISTIPPUS, _circa_ 360 B.C., founder of the Cyrenaic philosophy.
HEGESIAS, a Cyrenaic philosopher, _circa_ 300 B.C.
EPICURUS, d. 270 B.C., founder of the Epicurean philosophy.
ZENO, d. 264 B.C., founder of the Stoic philosophy.
CLEANTHES, d. 240 B.C., a pupil of Zeno.
CICERO, d. 43 B.C.
SENECA, d. A.D. 65.
PLINY THE ELDER, d. A.D. 79.
EPICTETUS, d. _circa_ A.D. 100.
PLUTARCH, d. A.D. 140.
MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS, a Stoic, d. A.D. 180.
DIOGENES LAERTIUS, _circa_ A.D. 200.
The following famous authors denied its permissibility, and condemned
those who practised it:─
PYTHAGORAS, d. 520 B.C.
SOCRATES, d. 399 B.C.
PLATO, d. 348 B.C.
ARISTOTLE, d. 321 B.C.
ÆSCHINES, d. 314 B.C.
VIRGIL, d. 19 B.C. (See Æneid, vi. 434.)
PLINY THE YOUNGER, A.D. 116.
LUCIAN, d. A.D. 180.
PLOTINUS, d. A.D. 270.
According to Morselli of Turin, the word “_suicide_” originated in
France, in the middle of the last century.
In this matter he apparently copied French authors who claim that it
was first used in the “Dictionnaire de Trevoux” (the town of Trevoux),
by Desfontaines, in 1752. It appears along with _Parricide_ in the
“Dictionnaire de l’Academie Française,” of 1762.
Richelet, in his famous French Dictionary of 1680, has, I find,
_Parricide_, but not _Suicide_.
So much for France. With regard to England, Archbishop Trench says,
“Up to the middle of the seventeenth century our good writers use
_self-homicide_, never _suicide_.” Nathan Bailey, in his English
Dictionary, 2nd ed. 1736, gives the word “_suicide_.”
But the word is much older even than that; in the introduction to
Edward Phillips’ “New World of Words,” dated 1662, these remarks are to
be found: “One barbarous word I shall produce, which is _suicide_, a
word which I had rather should be derived from _sus_, a sow, than from
the pronoun _sui_, unless there be some mystery in it; as if it were
a swinish part for a man to kill himself.” Some English Dictionaries,
such as Wright’s, give the obsolete word “_suicism_.”
“Suicidium” looks like a Latin word, but is not so, although Nathan
Bailey in the 30th edition of his Dictionary says it is; the modern
term “Suicide,” is of course derived from the Latin words “sui,” self,
and “cædo” to kill; but the ancient Romans, although familiar with the
fact, used a phrase to express it. They said, “sibi mortem consciscere”
(Cicero, Oratio pro Cluentio), “to procure his own death”; and “veneno
mortem sibi consciscere” for “to poison himself,” or “to procure death
for himself by poison.” They also used as alternative phrases “vim sibi
inferre,” “to cause violence to himself,” Velleius Paterculus; “sua
manu cadere,” Tacitus, Annales; and “mors voluntaria,” Cicero, Epistolæ
ad familiares.
The ancient Greek phrase for “suicide,” was απολακτισμος βιου,
Æschylus; “a suicide” was αυτοφονος, Æschylus; for our phrase “to
commit suicide” they used a verb αυτοκτονεω, Sophocles.
Euripides uses αυτοκτονος: in Plato is found αυτοχειρια, and also in
Euripides; two other forms of speech were εμαυτον διαχραομαι, Æschines,
and εμαυτον βιαζομαι, Plato.
The Germans use the term “Selbstmord,” the Italians “il suicidio.”
The following English Authors have either written treatises on
suicide, or else have made mention of it in their works.
The list is of course not complete, but it represents the views of many
writers of eminence from the time of Henry the Eighth to a recent date.
SIR THOMAS MORE, in his “Utopia,” dated 1516, Book II., writes: “But
yf the disease be not onelye yncurable, but also full of contynuall
payne and anguishe; ... and seinge his lyffe to him is but a tormente,
that he wyl not bee vnwillinge to dye, but rather take a good hope to
him, and either dispatche himselfe out of that payneful lyffe, as out
of a prison, or racke of torment, or elles suffer hymselfe wyllinglye
to be ridde oute of it by other.”
These lines are from the English translation by Ralph Robinson, 1551.
SHAKESPEARE (d. 1616) in “Julius Cæsar,” Act V. Scene 1., makes Brutus
say:─
“Even by the rule of that philosophy,
By which I did blame Cato for the death
He gave himself:─I know not how,
But I do find it cowardly and vile,
For fear of what might fall, so to prevent
The time of life:─arming myself with patience,
To stay the providence of some high powers,
That govern us below.”
And in “Hamlet,” Act I., Scene 2, writes:─
“O, that this too, too solid flesh would melt,
Thaw and resolve itself into a dew;
Or that the Everlasting had not fixed
His canon ’gainst self slaughter, O God! O God!
How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable
Seem to me all the uses of this world.”
And in Act III., Scene 1, is found the long passage commencing, “To be,
or not to be; that is the question;─” in which the relative merits of
life and death are discussed.
In “Othello,” Act I., Scene 3, he makes Roderigo say, “I will
incontinently drown myself.” “It is silliness to live when to live is
a torment;” to which Iago replies, “a pox on drowning thyself! it is
clean out of the way: seek thou rather to be hanged in compassing thy
joy, than to be drowned and go without her.”
DR. JOHN DONNE, d. 1631, wrote an essay on this subject, entitled
‘βιαθανατοσ, or That self-slaying is not so naturally sin that it may
never be otherwise.
MASSINGER, the Dramatist, d. 1640.
“This Roman resolution of self-murder
Will not hold water at the High Tribunal
When it comes to be argued; my good genius
Prompts me to this consideration. He
That kills himself t’avoid misery, fears it;
And at the best shows a bastard valour.”
MILTON, d. 1674, says:─
“Nor love thy life, nor hate: but what thou liv’st
Live well; _how long or short permit to Heaven_.”
SIR THOMAS BROWNE, d. 1682, author of “Religio Medici,” wrote, “Suicide
is, not to fear death, but yet to be afraid of life.”
SIR WM. TEMPLE, d. 1699, said, “A man should depart this life when he
has no further pleasure in remaining.”
HENRY DODWELL, the learned Non-juror, d. 1711, was the author of an
“Apology for Suicide.”
ROBERT FLEMING, d. 1716, Nonconformist Minister, wrote “The command
‘thou shalt not kill’ forbids suicide as well as homicide.”
GEORGE SEWELL, d. 1726, in a poem called “The Suicide,” writes:─
“When all the blandishments of life are gone,
The coward shrinks to death, the brave live on.”
RICHARD SAVAGE, d. 1743. In his poem “The Wanderer” are these lines:─
“From me (she cries), pale wretch, thy comfort claim,
Born of despair, and Suicide my name!
Why should thy life a moment’s pain endure?
Here every object proffers grief a cure.
She points where leaves of hemlock blackening shoot!
Fear not, pluck! eat (said she) the sovereign root!
Or leap yon rock, possess a watery grave,
And leave thy sorrow to the wind and wave!
Or mark─this poniard thus from misery frees!
She wounds her breast!...”
SAMUEL RICHARDSON, in “Clarissa Harlowe,” 1749: “To be cut off by the
sword of injured friendship is the most dreadful of all deaths, next to
suicide.”
EDWARD YOUNG, d. 1765, in his “Night Thoughts,” Night V., The Relapse:
“The bad on each punctilious pique of pride,
Or gloom of humour, would give rage the rein;
Bound o’er the barrier, rush into the dark,
And mar the schemes of Providence below.
* * * * *
O Britain, infamous for suicide!”
DR. JOHNSON, in 1773, was asked: “Suppose that a man is sure that,
if he lives a few days longer, he shall be detected in a fraud, the
consequence of which will be utter disgrace and expulsion from society,
should he make away with himself?” and he answered, “Then, let him go
abroad to a distant country, let him go to some place where he is _not_
known. Don’t let him go to the Devil, where he _is_ known.”
HUME, DAVID, d. 1776, the historian, was unable to condemn the
practice, and indeed wrote an “Essay on Suicide,” showing that it was
consistent with our duty.
BLACKSTONE, d. 1780, “Commentaries,” Book IV., cap. 14: “The suicide is
guilty of a double offence: one spiritual in evading the prerogative
of the Almighty; the other temporal, against the king, who hath an
interest in the preservation of his subjects.”
DRYDEN, d. 1700, writes:
“Brutus and Cato might discharge their souls,
And give them furloughs for another world;
But we like sentries, are obliged to stand
In starless nights, and wait th’appointed hour.”
And in his Fables speaks of Suicide in terms of abhorrence:
“The slayer of himself too, saw I there:
The gore, congealed, was clotted in his hair.
With eyes half closed, and mouth wide ope, he lay,
And grim as when he breathed his sullen soul away.”
GIBBON, EDW., the historian, d. 1794, was in favour of its
permissibility under certain circumstances.
MASON, WILLIAM, d. 1797, writes:
“Unlicensed to eternity! Think! think!
And let the thought restrain thy impious hand.”
PALEY, REV. WM., d. 1805, the great Biblical scholar, discusses the
question of Suicide. He concludes that its commission argues against
our reverence for the Deity, exhibits a want of religious fortitude,
and a deficiency of regard for our future state.
TOM PAINE, d. 1809, in his “Age of Reason,” approves of Suicide, and
more than one case has been traced directly to the mental and moral
effect of reading this work.
LORD BYRON, d. 1824, in his “Don Juan,” c. xiv., v. 4, writes:
“A sleep without dreams after a rough day
Of toil, is what we covet most; and yet
How clay shrinks back from mere quiescent clay!
The very Suicide that pays his debt
At once without instalments (an old way
Of paying debts, which creditors regret),
Lets out impatiently his rushing breath,
Less from disgust of life, than dread of death.”
SIR CHAS. MORGAN writes: “What poetical suicides and sublime despair
might have been prevented by a timely dose of blue pill, or the offer
of a Loge aux Italiens!”
COLTON, d. 1832, in his “Lacon,” writes: “Suicide sometimes proceeds
from cowardice, but not always; for cowardice sometimes prevents it:
since as many live because they are afraid to die, as die because they
are afraid to live.”
It has been affirmed that the works of ROBERT OWEN, of Lanark, d. 1858,
manufacturer and social economist, who was author of several visionary
schemes for the mutual advancement of men, have, like those of Tom
Paine, led to the commission of self-destruction.
. . . . .?
“We are the fools of time and terror: Days
Steal on us, and steal from us, yet we live
Loathing our life, and dreading still to die
In all the days of this detested yoke─
This vital weight upon the struggling heart,
Which sinks with sorrow, or beats quick with pain,
Or joy that ends in agony, or faintness─
In all the days of past and future, for
In life there is no present, we can number
How few,─how less than few, wherein the soul
Forbears to pant for death, and yet draws back
As from a stream in winter, though the chill
Be but a moment’s....”
DR. HENRY MAUDSLEY writes: “Any poor creature from the gutter can put
an end to himself; there is no nobility in the act, and no great amount
of courage required for it. It is a deed rather of cowardice shirking
duty, generated in a monstrous feeling of self, and accomplished in
the most sinful, because wicked ignorance. Even if the act of Cato did
not speak for itself, he was far too self-conscious. Montaigne tells
us that he was given to drinking, and the Catos, as a race, were noted
for rigid severity of character, which mostly signifies narrowness of
vision, self-love, and conceit.”
FOREIGN LITERATURE.
DESFONTAINES, in the Supplement du Dictionnaire de Trevoux, 1752, first
uses the term “Suicide” in French Literature.
DUVERGER DE HAURANE, Abbot of St. Cyran, the patriarch of the
Jansenists, wrote in 1608, a treatise on Suicide, speaking of it as
equally permissible with the right of fellow men to execute judicially:
he adds, “A man may kill himself for the good of his prince, for that
of his country, or for that of his relations.”
MAUPERTUIS, PIERRE DE, approved of its commission when life becomes
wearisome. See “Œuvres,” 1752.
MONTAIGNE, MICHEL DE, “Essays:” these have much information of an
historical character. See Lib. II. cap. iii., “The Custom of the Isle
of Ceos,” also many references to the death of Cato.
MONTESQUIEU, who, in his “Lettres Persanes,” written in the character
of a Persian gentleman resident in Europe, speaks of Suicide with
favour, yet does not mention it by this title; in the 74th letter
he gives a complete apology for it. See also his “Esprit des Lois”
for other remarks on the crime. To this author is due the credit or
discredit of the observation that England is the classic land of
Suicide.
VOLTAIRE, in his “Commentaire sur L’esprit des Lois,” approves of
suicide, and does make use of this term; but in others of his works
he condemns it; in short, he appears to have been undecided in the
matter. It is narrated of him, that he and a friend contemplated and
decided one evening on committing the act, but Voltaire had altered his
mind in the morning.
MADAME DE STAEL, in her youth, wrote an Essay approving of Suicide;
but, later in her life, wrote “Reflexions sur le Suicide,” 1813, in
which she recanted many of her opinions. She remarks that some suicides
are a matter of duty; such are the deaths in a forlorn hope on the
battle field; others were honourable as those of Cato, Decius, Codrus,
and Regulus. Again, she says, “to prefer death to guilt is a suicide of
duty, and such were all martyrdoms.” She discards the doctrine that the
suicide is a coward; he is a man who has conquered even “the fear of
death.”
ROUSSEAU, J. J., wished that it were permissible; He called it,
however, “un vol fait au genre humain.” See Nouvelle Heloise. He is
said by some authorities to have caused his own death by taking arsenic.
LAMARTINE condemns the practice (see his remarks on the death of Cato)
in the “Cours de Litterature.”
ELIAS REGNAULT says, “It is for man the highest expression of his
liberty.”
FALRET, J. P., “C’est un acte de délire.”
RIVAROL, ANTOINE, “L’orgueil est toujours plus près du suicide que du
repentir.”
CHATEAUBRIAND, FRANÇOIS A., “Les suicides sont toujours communs chez
les peuples corrompus.”
LA LUZERNE, C. GUILLAUME, “La religion enleve au suicide l’excuse, le
prétexte, la sécurité, que lui donne l’incredulité.”
TAINE, H. “Quand la douleur est extrême l’homme se réfugie, dans tous
les asiles, jusque dans le suicide, jusque dans la folie.”
SAINTE BEUVE, the poet, wrote, under the pseudonym of Joseph Delorme,
an apology for suicide, in verse.
PRUDHOMME, “La communauté aboutit par toutes ses voies au Suicide;” and
again, “Le suicide est une banqueroute frauduleuse.”
L’ABBE BAUTAIN, “Le suicide est à la fois une grande absurdité, et un
grand crime.”
GIRARDIN, E. DE, “Bonaparte a declaré que tout soldat qui se tue, est
un soldat qui déserte.”
I venture to add here three other French references to the word:
PRUDHOMME, “La proprieté est le _Suicide_ de la Société.”
BALZAC, “Qu’un homme batte sa maîtresse c’est une blessure mais sa
femme c’est un _Suicide_.”
MARTIN, A., “Le celibat est en même temps le véhicule de la débauche,
le scandale du monde, et le _suicide_ du genre humain.”
ST. MARC GIRARDIN. “Le suicide n’est pas la maladie des simples de cœur
et d’esprit, c’est la maladie des raffinés et des philosophes.”
GOETHE, JOHANN W. VON., in his novel “The Sorrows of Werter,” exalts
suicide, as the end of one’s existence. The suicide of a young man
named Jerusalem suggested to the author the composition of this
work, which has been definitely the cause of suicides, among whom
was Fraulein von Lassberg, who drowned herself. The author himself
attempted the act.
FOSCOLO, UGO, d. 1827, the Italian poet, imitated Goethe’s “Werter” in
his “Ultime lettre di Jacopo Ortis,” and in a similar strain discourses
on the unpleasantness of life, and the advantages of ending it when
desirable.
BECCARIA, C. BONESANA, in his “Crimes and Punishments,” written in
Italian, but which has been translated into almost all European
languages, decides in these words; “Suicide is a crime which seems not
to admit of punishment, for it cannot be inflicted but on the innocent,
when it would be unjust, or upon an insensible body, when it would have
no more effect than scourging a statue. Its only punishment is after
death; it is in the hands of God alone; but it is no crime with regard
to man.” See Chapter XXXII.
MORSELLI, ENRICO. “Il Suicidio.” Of this great statistical work, and
the opinions expressed therein, Legoyt, A., in his treatise, remarks,
“he maintains a certain tolerance of Suicide, and is well content
to look on it as a natural fact, governed by a law of human nature,
_precisely_ similar to the laws of Marriages, Births, and Deaths.” See
“Le Suicide,” 1881, p. 98.