The Hastings Standard Published Daily. SATURDAY, SEPT. 12, 1896. VOLUNTARY EXTINCTION.

Hastings Standard, Issue 119, 12 September 1896, Page 2

The Hastings Standard Published Daily.

SATURDAY, SEPT. 12, 1896. VOLUNTARY EXTINCTION.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrongs that need resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that we can do.

" In no matter more than in death should we act according to our desire. Depart from life as your impulse leads you. If life pleases you, live. If not, then you have a right to return whence you came." This was the doctrine of Seneca, a pagan, Stoical philosopher, and from the number of the converts he has made it rather seems that we are drifting back into paganism. The prevalence of suicide and the eager rush of men, women, and children to get clear of the " weariness of life " is alarming. If we look for the causes that are hurrying people out of the world we are hopelessly lost. Some find the explanation in drink, others in poverty, while others again in the break-neck pace of modern existence. Steam, electricity, the daily newspaper, and record-breaking sports are said to entail greater wear and tear than human nerves can bear, until men break under the strain. But the explanations do not cover the ground. There have been some remarkable cases of suicide, and to recount them is to show a variety of causes for the rash act. Lloyd Burdekin, a young man of 22, and a student in London, had the command of plenty of money and the comforts that monqy will buy; but he had not quite come up to his own notions of sxiccess at the University, and he left the scene of his earthly abode voluntarily and abruptly. His egotism was abnormal, and death was preferable to his wounded conceit. It must have been morbid curiosity which caused the unfortunate fellow

to cut his throat in full view of his looking-glass, as was reported from the South Island a few days ago. At Bologna a boy of 13 killed himself from unrequited love, and to avoid reproof from his schoolmaster for neglected lessons. " I am therefore obliged to kill myself," he wrote. From Adelaide a somewhat similar occurrence was reported a few days ago, when a lad of 15, to escape punishment for some dereliction of school-work, took his life. There is something pathetic in the suicide of a Dublin lad of 12, who, after spending 4s 6d in articles entitling him to insurance coupons, went and drowned himself so that his mother might be enriched with his insurance money. But what motive can be assigned for the boy who " played a cricket match in the afternoon, came home in good spirits, played the piano and sang after tea, went out in a bright and cheerful mood at eight o'clock," and finished up by hanging himself. The sensational ending of the Dacres, the well-known theatrical folk in Sydney,, will readily occur as a remarkable case of self-slaughter, and not less so was the matricide and suicide of .Jane and Jessie Perkins in a slum in South Melbourne. How are we to look upon suicide ? Is it ever justifiable ? Our juries invariably tell us that it is insanity, and the poet tells us when it is not insanity it is cowardice. " AVhen all the blandishments of life are gone, The coward sneaks to death, the brave live on." But what can children know of the " blandishments of life " and the " weariness of life." Yet of the GO,OOO annual recorded suicides, 2000 are those of children between five and fifteen. In the Humanitarian for July the question " Is suicide justifiable under any circumstances?" is discussed, and those who wish to get the pith of the discussion will find it admirably given in the Review of Keviews for August. Miss Helen Mathers, who with others, discusses the subject in the Humanitarian, says that " so long as there is one human heart to tbrob with love at our approach, to ache with sorrow at our going, so long as there is one single soul who looks to us for protection, love or comfort, nnd -from wh-. lot our oxtiitcfcion would v"h'!i-v.'. the sunshine, we bav-? to call hi our lives.'" F»nt V - \ ther finds coucHtiots" under > .suicide becomes necessary ami h:.;ruic, and states'"the case of a maa afflicted with a loathsome, incurable and lingering disease as " being morally justified in cutting short the last stages of his malady by a self-inflicted death." Also the case when "a man's honor, and possibly

another person's honor, demand the sacrifice of a man's life because it is imperative that his lips should be closed for ever." Dr Forbes Winslow regards suicide as generally, if not universally, the act of one mentally deranged. He holds that to argue that murder and suicide under certain circumstances are just and proper is evidence of insanity, or at least great mental weakness. The more we ponder over it, the more inscrutable becomes the enigma, but for the health of society it is wise that law and custom should frown on this growing habit of self-slaughter, though no frowns are likely to repress a tendency that has its root deep down in the tissues and cells of the ante-natal life.