Virgil thus alludes to the “place of punishment” allotted to those who sacrifice wantonly their own lives:— “Proxima deinde tenent mÆsti loca, qui sibi letum Insontes peperÊre manu, lucemque perosi ProjecÊre animas. QuÀm vellent Æthere in alto Nunc et pauperiem et duros perferre labores! Fas obstat. Tristique palus inamabilis und Alligat, et novies Styx interfusa coËrcet.” (Æneis, lib. vi. ver. 434 et seq.) “The next in place and punishment are they Who prodigally throw their souls away: Fools, who, repining at their wretched state, And loathing anxious life, suborn their fate: With late repentance now they would retrieve The bodies they forsook, and wish to live; Their pains and poverty desire to bear, To view the light of heaven and breathe the vital air. But fate forbids, the Stygian floods oppose, And with nine circling streams the captive souls inclose.” (Dryden.) “Still, still ’tis mine with grief and shame to rove, A dire example of disastrous love; While keen remorse for ever breaks my rest, And raging furies haunt my conscious breast, The lonely shades with terror must I view, The shades shall every dreadful thought renew: The rising sun shall equal horrors yield, The sun that first the dire event revealed; Still must I view myself with hateful eye, And seek, though vainly, from myself to fly.” He says the decalogue forbids us to kill. In this precept, self-murder seems no less to be comprised than murder of our neighbour. But if there are cases in which it is allowable to kill our neighbour, there likewise are cases in which it is allowable to kill ourselves. We must not make an attempt upon our lives until we have consulted reason. The public authority, which holds the place of God, may dispose of our lives. The reason of man may likewise hold the place of the reason of God,—it is a ray of the eternal light. Voltaire, disposed as he was to advocate the right of committing suicide whenever a man considered death preferable to a dishonourable life, had sufficient sagacity to see through the glaring sophistry of St. Cyran’s reasoning on this point. The same author says, “A man may kill himself for the good of his prince, for that of his country, or for that of his relations.” “Against self-slaughter There is a prohibition so divine, That cravens my weak hand.” Again, he says— “Or that the Everlasting had not fixed His canon ’gainst self-slaughter!” T. C. Savill, Printer, 107, St. Martin’s Lane, Charing Cross. ******* This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will be renamed. 1.F. 1.F.3. 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