games of the present day may soon be displaced by others, the same in genus, but differing in species. There is a grossness, a vulgarity, a want of mental elevation in these things, which might induce the man of intelligence to reprobate them even if the voice of morality were silent. They are remains of barbarismevidences that barbarism still maintains itself amongst us-proofs that the higher qualities of our nature are not sufficiently dominant over the lower.

These grossnesses will pass away, as the deadly conflicts of men with beasts are passed already. Our posterity will wonder at the barbarism of us, their fathers, as we wonder at the barbarism of Rome. Let him, then, who loves intellectual elevation advance beyond the present times, and anticipate, in the recreations which he encourages, that period when these diversions shall be regarded as indicating one of the intermediate stages between the ferociousness of mental darkness and the purity of mental light.

These criticisms might be extended to many other species of amusement; and it is humiliating to discover that the conclusion will very frequently be the samethat the evil outbalances the good, and that there are no grounds upon which a good man can justify a participation in them. In thus concluding, it is possible that the reader may imagine that we would exclude enjoyment from the world, and substitute a system of irreproachable austerity. He who thinks this is unacquainted with the nature and sources of our better enjoyments. It is an ordinary mistake to imagine that pleasure is great only when it is vivid or intemperate, as a child fancies it were more delightful to devour a pound of sugar at once, than to eat an ounce daily in his food. It is happily and kindly provided that the greatest sum of enjoyment is that which is quietly and

constantly induced. No men understand the nature of pleasure so well, or possess it so much, as those who find it within their own doors. If it were not that moral education is so bad, multitudes would seek enjoyment and find it here, who now fancy that they never partake of pleasure except in scenes of diversion. It is unquestionably true that no community enjoys life more than that which excludes all these amusements from its sources of enjoyment. We use therefore the language, not of speculation, but of experience, when we say, that none of them is, in any degree, necessary to the happiness of life.

CHAPTER XIII.

SUICIDE.

Unmanliness of Suicide-Forbidden in the New Testament-Its

folly.

THERE are few subjects upon which it is more difficult either to write or to legislate with effect, than that of suicide. It is difficult to a writer, because a man does not resolve upon the act until he has first become steeled to some of the most powerful motives that can be urged upon the human mind; and to the legislator, because he can inflict no penalty upon the offending party.

It is to be feared that there is little probability of diminishing the frequency of this miserable offence by urging the considerations which philosophy suggests. The voice of nature is louder and stronger than the voice of philosophy and as nature speaks to the suicide in vain, what is the hope that philosophy will be regarded?—There appears to be but one efficient means

by which the mind can be armed against the temptations to suicide, because there is but one that can support it against every evil of life-practical religion— belief in the providence of God confidence in his wisdom-hope in his goodness. The only anchor that can hold us in safety, is that which is fixed “within the vail." He upon whom religion possesses its proper influence, finds that it enables him to endure, with resigned patience, every calamity of life. When patience thus fulfils its perfect work, suicide, which is the result of impatience, cannot be committed. He who is surrounded, by whatever means, with pain or misery, should remember that the present existence is strictly probationary—a scene upon which we are to be exercised, and tried, and tempted; and in which we are to manifest whether we are willing firmly to endure. The good or evil of the present life is of importance chiefly as it influences our allotment in futurity: sufferings are permitted for our advantage: they are designed to purify and rectify the heart. The universal Father "scourgeth every son whom he receiveth ;" and the suffering, the scourging, is of little account in comparison with the prospects of another world. It is not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall follow-that glory of which an exceeding and eternal weight is the reward of a “patient continuance in well doing." To him who thus regards misery, not as an evil but as a good; not as the unrestrained assault of chance or malice, but as the beneficent discipline of a Father; to him who remembers that the time is approaching in which he will be able most feelingly to "For all I bless Thee-most for the severe ;"every affliction is accompanied with its proper alleviation: the present hour may distress but it does not overwhelm him; he may be perplexed but is not in despair : he sees the darkness and feels the storm, but he knows

say,

that light will again arise, and that the storm will eventually be hushed with an efficacious, "Peace be still;" so that there shall be a great calm.

Compared with these motives to avoid the first promptings to suicide, others are like to be of little effect; and yet they are neither inconsiderable nor few. It is more dignified, more worthy an enlightened and manly understanding, to meet and endure an inevitable evil than to sink beneath it. He who feels prompted to suicide, sacrifices his life to his fears. The suicide balances between opposing objects of dread, (for dreadful self-destruction must be supposed to be,) and chooses the alternative which he fears least. If his courage, his firmness, his manliness, were greater, he who chooses the alternative of suicide, like him who chooses the duel, would endure the evil rather than avoid it in a manner which dignity and religion forbid. The lesson too which the self-destroyer teaches to his connections, of sinking in despair under the evils of life, is one of the most pernicious which a man can bequeath. The power of the example is also great. Every act of suicide tacitly conveys the sanction of one more judgment in its favor: frequency of repetition diminishes the sensation of abhorrence, and makes succeeding sufferers resort to it with less reluctance.

Besides which general reasons, each case will be aggravated by its own proper and particular consequences; by the duties that are deserted; by the claims that are defrauded; by the loss, affliction, or disgrace which our death, or the manner of it, causes our family, kindred, or friends; by the occasion we give to many to suspect the sincerity of our moral religious professions, and, together with ours, those of all others;"'* and lastly, by the scandal which we bring upon religion * Mor. and Pol. Phil. b. 4, c. 3.

itself by declaring, practically, that it is not able to support man under the calamities of life.

Some men say that the New Testament contains no prohibition of suicide. If this were true, it would avail nothing, because there are many things which it does not forbid, but which every one knows to be wicked. But in reality it does forbid it. Every exhortation which it gives to be patient, every encouragement to trust in God, every consideration which it urges as a support under affliction and distress, is a virtual prohibition of suicide ;-because, if a man commits suicide, he rejects every such advice and encouragement, and disregards every such motive.

:

To him who believes either in revealed or natural religion, there is a certain folly in the commission of suicide for from what does he fly? From his present sufferings; whilst death, for aught that he has reason to expect, or at any rate for aught that he knows, may only be the portal to sufferings more intense. Natural religion, I think, gives no countenance to the supposition that suicide can be approved by the Deity, because it proceeds upon the belief that, in another state of existence, he will compensate good men for the sufferings of the present. At the best, and under either religion, it is a desperate stake. He that commits murder may repent, and we hope, be forgiven; but he that destroys himself, whilst he incurs a load of guilt, cuts off, by the act, the power of repentance.

Not every act of suicide is to be attributed to excess of misery. Some shoot themselves or throw themselves into a river in rage or revenge, in order to inflict pain and remorse upon those who have ill used them. Such, it is to be suspected, is sometimes a motive to self-destruction in disappointed love. The unhappy person leaves behind some message or letter, in the hope of