benevolence, and sets up as a principle of action the detestable maxim, that private caprice and private enjoyment are to be regarded as more worthy objects of pursuit than public happiness. It is a crime, therefore, of which even the atheist, on his own principles, ought to be ashamed, but which the Christian should regard with peculiar abhorrence.'

Voltaire throws out a cutting satire against our country. In the frequency of self-murder,' Voltaire says, 'the Japanese may vie with their brother islanders of England! The Japanese, according to Possevin, not only permit men to be their own murderers, but suppose it an action agreeable to the deities, and the true way to deification. Hence great numbers kill themselves, either by plunging into the water, burning or burying themselves alive, or leaping from the top of a rock.'

But Voltaire might have applied his remarks to his own country, had he properly appreciated the number of suicides in France :- The French,' according to Mr. Holcroft, kill themselves at the rate of two hundred per year in the metropolis, and as many in the departments.'

Considering the frequency of suicides and the enormity of the crime, we can scarcely find fault with the laws against suicides:-'It is remarkable that the Jews did not refuse burial, in King David's

time, to those who were guilty of suicide; since Ahitophel was buried peaceably in the sepulchre of his father. Josephus tells us that those who killed themselves are hated by God and man, and that Moses condemned them to remain unburied until sunset; though even the enemies killed in battle were allowed the favour of a burial. But we have no law of Moses extant upon that point. We find, according to Josephus's account, that selfmurderers were treated in the same manner as those who were hanged for any crimes. They who had committed suicide were, by the heathen religion, refused a funeral pile, as, by the Christian Church, they are refused Christian burial; but we see how that is evaded.'

187

CHAP. VIII.

SERIOUS ARGUMENTS AGAINST SUICIDE.

'Vain man! 'tis Heaven's prerogative
To take what first it deign'd to give-
Thy tributary breath.

In awful expectation plac'd,

Await thy doom, nor, impious, haste

To pluck from God's right hand his instruments of death.

WHARTON'S ODE ON SUICIDE.

Suicide too serious for Ridicule-Serious Suggestions against the Crime-The lamentable History of Chatterton, and the Causes of his Suicide-Specimens of his Genius-Poetical Quotation to his Memory-Proper Education the grand Antidote-The pernicious Effects of unrestrained Indulgence, and the tragical Consequences exemplified in the Case of Eli and his Sons-Rev. T. Robinson's Opinion on the proper Use of Kindness, and the Administration of Discipline to Youth-Contrast of the Hon. Mr. Damer, a Suicide, with Zimmerman's patient Daughter.

WHATEVER attempts we make to render suicide ridiculous, and to drive away the demon of gloom and melancholy by descriptions of humour, yet suicide is a subject which demands a more serious

exposure; and the suicide is of too dark and sullen a temper to be laughed out of his fell and bloody purpose.

'Seldom he smiles, and smiles in such a sort
As if he mock'd himself, and scorn'd his spirit,
That could be moved to smile at any thing.'
SHAKSPEARE.

We should therefore endeavour to impress upon his mind the strongest persuasion of its wickedness and horrible nature. God has given us life to use, not to close it at pleasure. He has concealed from our view the limit of our existence here, but time will be expeditious enough in bringing us to its termination. The terms are in his hand, and all the days of our appointed time we are to wait till our final grand change come :-JOB.

'Safe in the hand of One dispensing Pow'r,

Or in the natal or the mortal hour.'-POPE.

God has sent us into the world for some end. How dare we to determine when that end is accom plished how dare we to desert the post assigned 'us, and to rush unbidden into the presence of our Maker and our Judge before we are called upon to give in our unfinished, unprepared, account?

Vain man! 'tis Heaven's prerogative
To take what first it deign'd to give-

Thy tributary breath.

In awful expectation plac'd,

Await thy doom, nor, impious, haste

To pluck from God's right hand his instruments of death.' WHARTON'S ODE.

Chatterton had an uncommon ardour in the pursuit of knowledge, and an uncommon facility in attaining it. It was a favorite maxim with him, that a man is equal to any thing, and that every thing might be achieved by diligence and abstinence. If an uncommon character was mentioned in his hearing, he would only observe that the person in question merited praise; but that God had sent his creatures into the world with arms long enough to reach any thing, if they would be at the trouble of extending them.'

With this idea he went to London, full of ambitious hopes and prospects, and commenced a literary career. For a time he thought favour, patronage, and wealth, were all open to him, till at length he found that all his intellectual labours brought in so scanty a return as to be insufficient to ward off the approach of poverty; and he seems to have sunk almost at once from the highest elevation of hope and illusion to the depth of despair. Literary pride was his ruling passion; and it was followed in its mortification by a too acute sense of shame. Extreme indigence preceded the fatal ter