תמונות בעמוד
PDF
ePub
[ocr errors]

as well as from the only means in our power to make any reparation. This is, therefore, to act with the greatest degree of injuftice to fociety; fince not only before our deaths by our crimes, but in the very act of dying by felfmurder, we show an utter contempt for the benefits and principles of focial union not to mention further here, (as having been fully difclofed at the entrance of this chapter) the exceffive danger that would accrue to the general and particular interefts of fociety, were it underflood or laid down as a principle, that a man was at liberty to deftroy himself, as foon as there was any hazard of a discovery and punishment of his crimes. It is fometimes further urged; "Suppose I should be engaged in a confpiracy to dethrone an ufurper, to "restore my country to liberty, or in fome other great and virtuous design, "but which required fecrecy and concealment to render it effectual; suppose "I fhould be feized, and either being threatned with racks and tortures, or buoyed up with hopes of my own pardon, fhould be fearful of having my "refolution fhaken, and fo far overcome as to be in danger of difcovering the "best friends of the people and worthieft characters of the ftate as my accomplices; would it not be fafer, more honourable, and even a point of duty, to put a speedy end to my own life, in order to avoid all poffibility of treachery to my friends, or to the interefts of my country?" To fave one's own life by betraying another not more guilty than ourfelves, is mean and defpicable; to lay down one's own life rather than expofe a friend, is an action feemingly deferving of applaufe; to lay it down for one's country's good merits an high degree of approbation; but fo many other circumftances must be taken into the cafe here mentioned, and its occurrence would be fo rare, that though fome particular inftance might allow of favourable interpretation, yet it could have nothing to do with establishing any general defence of the practice of flying by felf-murder from the ftroke of public juftice: which, however, has been the artful and fhrewd purport of its mention by Hume [s] and others.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

[s] See Part VI. c. ii. on Hume.

CHAP.

CHA P. IV.

The whole community linked together by one common chain of union; but the lofs of any individual more immediately felt within his own circle.-The flying by fuicide from the reparation of any injury more completely felt, when the fuicide is committed in confequence of private rather than of public crimes; because the injuftice is diffufed in the latter cafe, but preffes hard on particular perfons in the former.The "principle" of fuicide must always defroy domeftic peace and fecurity.-No man can have a parental or conjugal feeling left, who flies to fuicide as his own Shelter from poverty and ruin, and leaves his family more keenly expofed to the fame by his abrupt death. To be fatherless or a widow fufficiently forlorn of itself, without the aggravation of becoming fo by the most unnatural means.—A great. confolation in grief to be able to dwell on the praises of the friend we have lost; to reflect on our friet union, &c. but these fources of comfort effectually cut off by the fuicide, who shows how little he cared for that family, on whom he has voluntarily brought fo much mifery.-Though much mifery.-Though a Spotless mind cannot participate the "guilt," yet it may the "fhame," of an evil action committed by one in near connexion: the crime of fuicide therefore highly aggravated by piercing the heart of innocence with poignant diftrefs.—Objection. My very view in fuicide is

"to" relieve" my injured family from the further evil effects of my follies and "vices." This anfwered.-A man who is led to commit fuicide through affliction and trouble brought on him by others, equally deferts all his private duties of life.While there is room for exerting a single act of benevolence, or a friendly office, a man should live for the fake of others.

TH

HE perpetrator of fuicide not only breaks, as far as he is able, those general bonds of union, which connect mankind together in all the advantages and bleffings of fociety, but is ftill more guilty in tearing asunder thofe closer ties of intercourfe by which individuals are more intimately united, and become more dependent on each other for mutual happiness. Various are the adjustments, the fprings, and wheels of focial union; but all are fo chained and linked together,, that the moft trivial and infignificant movement cannot.

be:

be out of order, without contributing its fhare of confufion to fome part of the whole community. Though the lofs of an individual, and efpecially of a worthless one, cannot be materially felt in the large fcale of the "whole" body, yet it may heavily affect the partial and confined circle in which that individual moved; and confequently the felf-murderer's guilt is not only against the good order of fociety in general, but is highly aggravated by the evils he brings on thofe, who have the misfortune of his connexion. Does a man apply to his own avenging fword on the difcovery of his having embezzled the public money-the crime, indeed, is great and heinous against the ftate on a double account; as well for the fraud committed, as for the flight from public justice; but the lofs of property occafioned by fuch a treachery is lefs feverely felt by individuals. But if any one feeks to cover his fhameless head from infamy and punishment by the commiffion of fuicide, after having betrayed the confidence of private truft, after having proved himself an unjust steward of charitable donations, a fquanderer of the depofit of friendship, a perfidious guardian of the poffeffions of the orphan, a fraudulent dealer, an evader of the payment of just debts, a forger on the property of others;—as individuals fuffer more feverely by these breaches of private faith, fo is the enormity of his crime increased and multiplied upon him. He makes a sudden and violent retreat from all poffibility of reparation, and by fo doing forfeits also his own private property to the difappointment and lofs of his injured creditors, many of whom are, perhaps, brought into the utmoft diftrefs and ruin by their mifplaced confidence in his integrity and honour. But if his effects be not forfeited, it is more owing to the exertions of clemency and humanity in behalf of the living fufferers, than to the merits, or attention, or prudence, or virtue of the deceafed.

But there are links of ftill clofer connexion, which, while there is a spark of generofity or humanity left, muft make the foul of him, who is on the verge of felf-murder, fhrink back from its execution. Thefe are the ties of confanguinity, the claims of friendship, the important rights, the powerful and affectionate endearments of a family. As the principle of fuicide was found in the laft chapter to be fo detrimental to the interefts and fecurity of fociety in general, so must an avowed opinion of its expediency and lawfulness be a dreadful bar to domeftic peace and fecurity. What anxieties, what mistrufts and forebodings muft it ever occafion in the breaft of a friend or parent, a

ruin

child or wife, who knows or but fufpects its influence over the mind of one with whom there is so close an union! All confidence and fecurity is banifhed; his abfence is a rack and torture, which is but ill exchanged for his prefence, whenever the gloom of melancholy fits brooding on his countenance. Nay, his very fmile of complacency may be often deemed deceitful, as ferving but the better to conceal the bloody purposes of his heart. In fhort, when affairs go not smoothly on, when difappointment ruffles the temper, when views of interest or ambition are croffed and baffled, then the point of the fword is ever glittering before the eyes, or the fancied report of the pistol bursting on the ears, of her, who wishes to prove herfelf the affectionate partner of his forrows, who would fain redouble her attentions to footh his melancholy, and to prevent, if poffible, the impending blow. Whilft he yet lives then, but admits the expediency and lawfulness of fuicide, he plants a perpetual dagger of uneafiness and restless terror in the breaft of every one with whom he is connected. Yet if a man has denied his family the just resources of industry, or has fquandered the rich gifts of birth and fortune in fcenes of diffipation, vice, and gambling, and is now veering apace to the point of -can he have a paternal or conjugal feeling left, if he think only of escaping himself from the miseries of fhame and poverty by a deprivation of life, and of expofing his helpless and innocent family to all those horrors? What shameful cowardice! what a prostitution of all principle! Difficult, indeed, as the task may be, to recall himself back to the paths of fobriety and honest industry, yet the more he has already injured the interefts of a family by a contrary conduct, the more he is bound in honour to make the attempt: which if he refuse to do, and thus bafely and for ever defert their cause, by that very act he lays an heavy burden of additional guilt on himself. To be fatherlefs or a widow, is in general a fituation of itself fufficiently forlorn and deplorable; it needs no aggravations. But fuddenly to become fo by the immediate hands of that very person, who was bound by every law of justice, duty, affection, and interest, to protect these sharers of his fame, his fortunes, and his life, from experiencing the fame, is a circumstance fo unnatural and horrid in itself, as greatly to enhance the forrows of the ftate, and confequently the guilt of that action which occafioned it. This guilt, heinous as it is, is yet capable of one aggravating circumftance, by which it is heightened into the extreme of cruelty; and that is, by the moment fometimes embraced for the commiffion

I

commiffion of the felf-murder; when it is done within the hearing, or in the prefence of, or fo as to be firft difcovered by, that very perfon, whom it is fure toaffect most deeply: this fhocks humanity, but is not unfrequently practifed.

The remembrance of virtue is ever precious. It is a confolation in grief, and brings us fooner than any thing to a complacency under trouble. It is a delight to dwell on the praises of the friend we have loft. The found of his good name is grateful in our ears; we feel a fecret fatisfaction, a conscious pride in our having lived in intimacy and clofe union with fuch a praife-worthy character. But what comfort can be found to footh the forrows of the fatherlefs and widow in the reflection on what brought them into that wretched condition! or where is there room for confolation, when the felf-murderer fhowed by his fhameful desertion of their cause, how little he cared for them, for his own fame, his fortunes, or his life! that he lived for himself alone, and to follow his own purposes; and when he found that these failed of fuccefs, fo that he could no longer be what he had been,-in the rage of disappointment, the forebodings of fear, and timid workings of defpair, he determined no longer to be at all. Though a liberal and generous mind, when spotless itself, cannot partake of the" guilt," yet it may be very fenfibly affected in its niceft feelings by the "fhame" of an evil action committed by one in a near degree of connexion. The crime of fuicide is therefore highly aggravated, whenever it brings distress on the undeferving, and pierces the heart of innocence with affliction and mifery.

But it may be urged, that forrow and fhame for having brought diftrefs, poverty, and ruin on an affectionate and worthy family, is the very cause that fometimes [T] produces fuicide." I have brought indigence and distress on "the

[T] A queftion has been put-" I am involved in debt, and under the perfecution of creditors. "I tenderly love my wife and family. Her jointure is confiderable, but whilft I live, its annual "produce is fubject to my incumbrances. She deferves not to fuffer for my extravagance. She is "now fubject to penury, from which I can inftantly relieve her, and place my family again in ease "and affluence :-if I put an end to my life, she will then immediately be mistress of her own fortune. "Am I not then bound in tenderness to her and my family to kill myfelf?" As this perfon only proposes the happiness of another, whom he has injured, as the ground of his fuicide, he deferves an answer. In the first place, that wife muft little deserve his love, who "could" be restored to any peace and happiness by fuch a facrifice-in the next however we may be wrapped up in our own

family

« הקודםהמשך »