her chickens as she did formerly from the

Plutarch :'

'What dire necessities on ev'ry hand

Our art, our strength, our fortitude require! Of foes intestine, what a numerous band Against this little throb of life conspire! Yet Science can elude their fatal ire Awhile, and turn aside Death's level'd dart,

Sooth the sharp pang, allay the fever's fire,

And brace the nerves once more, and cheer the heart, And yet a few soft nights and balmy days impart.

'Nor less to regulate man's moral frame

Science exerts her all-composing sway.
Flutters thy breast with fear, or pants for fame,
Or pines, to indolence and spleen a prey,
Or avarice, a fiend more fierce than they?
Flee to the shade of Academus' grove,

Where cares molest not, discord melts away

In harmony, and the pure passions prove

How sweet the words of Truth, breath'd from the lips of Love.

'What cannot Art and Industry perform,

When Science plans the progress of their toil?
They smile at penury, disease, and storm;
And oceans from their mighty mounds recoil.
When tyrants scourge, or demagogues embroil
A land, or when the rabble's headlong rage
Order transforms to anarchy and spoil,
Deep-vers'd in man; the philosophic sage
Prepares with lenient hand their frenzy to assuage.'

121

PREDISPOSING

CHAP. V.

NATURAL CAUSES OF SUICIDE,

AND ANTIDOTES SUGGESTED.

'A sight for Pity to peruse

Till she resemble faintly what she views;
Till Sympathy contract a kindred pain,

Pierc'd with the woes that she laments in vain.'

Excess in Animal Food—In Spirituous Liquors-Strong TeaLuxury-Irregular Hours-All tend to Melancholy—Antidotes-Business-Sorrows of Werter-Hume-Garth-Seneca-Cato-Contrast of Heathen Philosophy with Christian Hopes-Change of Scene-Dr. Heberden-Contrast between the hateful Suicide, Mordaunt, and a nameless pitiable Suicide at an Inn in Kent-Ennui a CauseSorrows of Werter mischievous-Mental Agitation illustrated in the Suicide of Lieut. Sharpe, and his Murder of Miss Shuckburgh-Ignorance and Superstition CausesThe Gentoo Widow-The Martyr-Poverty and Infidelity Causes, exemplified in Smith, his Wife, and Child-Pride and Despair Causes-Saul, King of Israel, his SuicideLessons against Apostacy-The Crime of Suicide proved, and its horrid Guilt depicted.

IT must not be denied that there are natural as well as mental causes of suicide. Too copious an use of gross and animal food will oppress the digestive organs of the body, produce plethora, and oc

G

casion uneasy and fretful sensations, impatience, and despondency:

Corpus onustum

Hesternis vitiis animum quoque prægravat unâ.'

HORACE.

The excessive use of strong and spirituous liquors acts as latent poisons; they exhilarate for a time, but depress the spirits afterwards. These wind up the spirits to the utmost elevation; but they go down, like clock-work, with equal depression, and the mind becomes at times elated to frenzy, or deep sunk in melancholy. The frequent use of strong tea also enfeebles and enervates the body, impairs the strength of the nervous system, occasions depression of spirits, and contributes to abate courage, vigour, and steadiness of mind. But, assuredly, luxury, high-seasoned viands, spirituous liquors, effeminate habits, and irregular hours, are the chief causes of those bodily and nervous disorders emphatically called The English Malady,' which may predispose some persons for melancholy and lunacy.

Change of scene, and proper means, timely and judiciously applied, may do much to recover the spirit which has been broken down by sorrow and trouble, and the frame which is the prey of 'sinking, suffocating, and strangling nervous affections:'

Virtuous and faithful Heberden, whose skill
Attempts no task it cannot well fulfil;
Gives Melancholy' up to Nature's care,
And sends the patient into purer air;

Look where he comes! In this embower'd alcove
Stand close conceal'd, and see a statue move :
Lips busy and eyes fix'd, foot falling slow,
Arms hanging idly down, hands clasp❜d below,
Interpret to the marking eye distress

Such as its symptoms can alone express.
This, of all maladies that man infest,

Claims most compassion and receives the least.'

A nervous affection of this kind is

A sight for Pity to peruse

Till she resemble faintly what she views;
Till Sympathy contracts a kindred pain,

COWPER.

. Pierc'd with the woes that she laments in vain.'

It was not such a nervous affection as this which occasioned the suicide of Colonel Philip Mordaunt, as related by Voltaire, but a shadowy sorrow, impatience, and ingratitude, amid the wantonness of prosperity. This man's trouble was truly

'As heads that never ache suppose Forgery of fancy and a dream of woes!'

This gentleman was nearly related to the famous Earl of Peterborough: he was a young man of quality, of about twenty-seven years of age; he was handsome and well made; his birth and genius gave him room to expect the greatest advantages.

He had placed all his happiness in a mistress, by whom he was passionately beloved. Yet under these circumstances he took a sudden distaste to life; wrote several letters to his friends, to bid them farewell; and composed some verses, in which he declares his resolution to die by his own hands ; and says that opium was serviceable to the will on such occasions, but that, in his opinion, a brace of balls and resolution were much better. In one of his letters he has these expressions: Life has given me the head-ache, and I want a good churchyard sleep to set me right.' Accordingly he shot himself, for no other reason but that his soul was tired of his body. He seemed to choose death merely because he had no longer a relish for his present happiness. How detestable to God and man!

The depression and heartbroken grief of an unknown suicide, who was found dead in a chamber at au inn in Kent, excite our pity, while the former moves our execration. The following paper lay beside him:

'Lost to the world, and by the world forsaken,
A wretched creature,

Who groaned under a weary life
Upwards of thirty years, without knowing
One happy hour;

And all

In consequence of one single error,