14.12. 12. Of the Laws against Suicides.
We do not find in history that the
Romans ever killed themselves without a cause; but the English are apt
to commit suicide most unaccountably; they destroy themselves even in
the bosom of happiness. This action among the Romans was the effect of
education, being connected with their principles and customs; among the
English it is the consequence of a distemper,
[23]
being connected with
the physical state of the machine, and independent of every other cause.
In all probability it is a defect of the filtration of the nervous
juice: the machine, whose motive faculties are often unexerted, is weary
of itself; the soul feels no pain, but a certain uneasiness in existing.
Pain is a local sensation, which leads us to the desire of seeing an end
of it; the burden of life, which prompts us to the desire of ceasing to
exist, is an evil confined to no particular part.
It is evident that the civil laws of some countries may have reasons
for branding suicide with infamy: but in England it cannot be punished
without punishing the effects of madness.
Footnotes
[23]
It may be complicated with the scurvy, which, in some countries
especially, renders a man whimsical and unsupportable to himself. See
Pirard, "Voyages," part II, 21.
