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a furgeon's knife for his cure. Come, thou worthy-, cut off this leg, which endangers my life; I will see it done without fhrinking, and will give that hero leave to call me coward, who fuffers his leg to mortify, because he dares not undergo the fame operation.

I acknowledge that there are duties owing to others, the nature of which will not allow every man to dispose of his life: but, in return, how many are there which give him a right to dispose of it. Let a magiftrate on whom the welfare of a nation depends, let a father of a family who is bound to procure subsistence for his children, let a debtor who might ruin his creditors, let thefe at all events discharge their duty. Admitting a thousand other civil and domeftic rela tions to oblige an honest and unfortunate man to support the misery of life, to avoid the greater evil of doing injuftice; is it, therefore, under circumstances totally different, incumbent on us to preserve a life oppreffed with a swarm of miseries, when it can be of no fervice but to him who has not courage to die? "Kill me, me," my child," fays the decrepit favage to his fon, who carries him on his fhoulders, and bends under his weight, "the enemy is at hand; go to bat"tle with thy brethren; go and preferve thy

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children, and do not fuffer thy helpless fa"ther to fall alive into the hands of those whofe "relations he has mangled." Though hunger, fickness, and poverty, those domeftic plagues, more dreadful than favage enemies, may allow

a wretched cripple to confume, in a fick bed, the provifions of a family which can fcarce fubfift itself, yet he who has no connexions, whom Heaven has reduced to the neceffity of living alone, whose wretched existence can produce no good, why fhould not he, at least, have the right of quitting a station, where his complaints are troublesome, and his fufferings of no benefit?

Weigh these confiderations, my lord; collect these arguments, and you will find that they may be reduced to the most fimple of nature's rights, of which no man of fense ever yet entertained a doubt. In fact, why fhould we be allowed to cure ourselves of the gout, and not to get rid of the mifery of life? Do not both evils proceed from the fame hand? To what purpofe is it to fay, that death is painful? Are drugs agreeable to be taken? No, nature revolts against both. Let them prove therefore that it is more juftifiable to cure a tranfient diforder by the application of remedies, than to free ourfelves from an incurable evil by putting an end to our life; and let them fhow how it can be lefs criminal to use the bark for a fever, than to take opium for the ftone. If we confider the object in view, it is in both cafes to free ourfelves from painful fenfation; if we regard the means, both one and the other are equally natural; if we confider the repugnance of our nature, it operates equally on both fides, if we attend to the will of Providence, can we ftruggle against any evil of which it is not the author?

can we deliver ourselves from any torment which the hand of God has not inflicted? What are the bounds which limit his power, and when is refiftance lawful? Are we then to make no alteration in the condition of things, because every thing is in the ftate he appointed? Muft we do nothing in this life, for fear of infringing his laws, or is it in our power to break them if we would? No, my lord, the occupation of man is more great and noble. God did not give him life that he fhould fupinely remain in a state of conftant inactivity. But he gave him freedom to act, confcience to will, and reafon to chufe what is good. He has conftituted him fole judge of all his actions. He has engraved this precept in his heart, do whatever you conceive to be for your own good, provided you thereby do no injury to others. If my fenfations tell me that death is eligible, I refift his orders by an obftinate refolution to live; for, by making death defirable, he directs me to put an end to my being.

My lord, I appeal to your wisdom and candor ; what more infallible maxims can reafon deduce from religion, with refpect to suicide? If Chriftians have adopted contrary tenets, they are neither drawn from the principles of religion, nor from the only fure guide, the Scriptures, but borrowed from the Pagan philofophers. Lactantius and Auguftine, the firft who propagated this new doctrine, of which Jefus Chrift and his apoftles take no notice, ground their arguments entirely on the reasoning of Phædo, which I have

already controverted; so that the believers, who, in this refpect, think they are fupported by the authority of the Gospel, are in fact only countenanced by the authority of Plato. In truth, where do we find, throughout the whole Bible, any law againft fuicide, or fo much as a bare difapprobation of it; and is it not very unaccountable, that among the inftances produced of perfons who devoted themselves to death, we do not find the leaft word of improbation against examples of this kind? nay, what is more, the inftance of Samfon's voluntary death is authorized by a miracle, by which he revenges himself of his enemies. Would this miracle have been difplayed to justify a crime? And would this man who loft his ftrength by fuffering himself to be feduced by the allurements of a woman, have recovered it to commit an authorzied crime, as if God himself would practice deceit on men?

Thou fhalt do no murder, fays the decalogue;. what are we to infer from this? If this commandment is to be taken literally, we must not destroy malefactors, nor our enemies: and Mofes, who put so many people to death, was a bad interpreter of his own precept. If there are any exceptions, certainly the first must be in favor of fuicide, because it is exempt from any degree of violence and injuftice, the two only circumftances which can make homicide criminal; and because nature, moreover, has, in this respect, thrown fufficient obftacles in the way.

vours.

But fill they tell us, we must patiently endure the evils which God inflicts, and make a merit of our fufferings. This application however of the maxims of Chriftianity, is very ill calculated to fatisfy our judgment. Man is fubject to a thoufand troubles his life is a complication of evils, and he seems to have been born only to fuffer. Reafon directs him to fhun as many of these evils as he can avoid; and religion, which is never in contradiction to reafon, approves of his endeaBut how inconfiderable is the account of these evils, in com parifon with thofe he is obliged to endure againft his will? It is with refpect to these, that a merciful God allows man to claim the merit of refiftance; he receives the tribute he has been pleased to impose, as a voluntary homage, and he places our refignation in this life to our profit in the next. True repentance is derived from nature; if man endures whatever he is obliged to fuffer, he does, in this respect, all that God requires of him; and if any one is so inflated with pride, as to attempt more, he is a madman, who ought to be confined, or an impoftor, who ought to be punished. Let us, therefore, without fcruple, fly from the evils we can avoid; there will ftill be too many left for us to endure. Let us, without remorfe, quit life itself when it becomes a torment to us, fince it is in our own power to do it, and that in fo doing we neither offend God nor man. If we would offer a facrifice to the supreme Being, is it nothing to undergo death? Let us devote to God

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