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 ap??a?t?s?? ???, Æschylus; “a suicide” was a?t?f????, Æschylus; for our phrase “to commit suicide” they used a verb a?t??t??e?, Sophocles.

Euripides uses a?t??t????: in Plato is found a?t??e???a, and also in Euripides; two other forms of speech were ea?t?? d?a??a?a?, Æschines, and ea?t?? ?a??a?, 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:-

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 coeur 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.