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ftate of things, that every one thinks himself difpenfed from fubmitting to the rules which he prescribes to others; and it is well known, that every man who establishes general principles, deems them obligatory on all the world, himself excepted. Once more let us fpeak to you in particular.

You believe that you have a right to put an end to your being. Your proof is of a very fingular nature; "because I am difpofed to die, fay you, "I have a right to deftroy myfelf." This is certainly a very convenient argument for villains of all kinds : They ought to be very thankful to you for the arms with which you have furnished them; there can be no crimes, which, according to your arguments, may not be justified by the temptation to perpetrate them; and as foon as the impetuofity of paffion fhall prevail over the horror of guilt, their difpofition to do evil will be confidered as a right to commit it.

Is it lawful for you therefore to quit life? I fhould be glad to know whether you have yet begun to live? What! was you placed here on earth to do nothing in this world? Did not Heaven when it gave you existence give you fome task or employment? If you have accomplished your day's work before evening, reft yourself for the remainder of the day; you have a right to do it; but let us fee your work. What answer are you prepared to make the fupreme Judge, when he demands an account of your time? Tell me, what can you fay to him? - I have feduced a

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virtuous girl: I have forsaken a friend in diftrefs. Thou unhappy wretch! point out to me that juft man who can boast that he has lived long enough; let me learn from him in what manner I ought to have spent my days to be at liberty to quit life. You enumerate the evils of human nature. You are not afhamed to exhauft common-place topics, which have been hackneyed over a hundred times; and you conclude that life is an evil. But fearch, examine into the order of things, and fee whether you can find any good which is not intermingled with evil. Does it therefore follow that there is no good in the universe, and can you confound what is in its own nature evil, with that which is only an evil accidentally? You have confeffed yourself, that the transitory and passive life of man is of no confequence, and only bears refpect to matter from which he will foon be difencumbered; but his active and moral life, which ought to have most influence over his nature, confifts in the exercise of free-will. Life is an evil to a wicked man in profperity, and a blessing to an honeft man in diftrefs: for it is not its cafual modification, but its relation to some final object which makes it either good or bad. After all what are these cruel torments which force you to abandon life? Do you imagine, that under your affected impartiality in the enumeration of the evils of this life, I did not discover that you was afhamed to speak of your own? Truft me, and do not at once abandon every virtue. Preferve at least your wonted fincerity, and speak thus

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openly to your friend; I have lost all hope of seducing a modeft woman, I am obliged therefore to be a man of virtue; I had much ra"ther die.

You are weary of living; and you tell me, that life is an evil. Sooner or later you will receive consolation, and then you will fay life is a bleffing. You will speak with more truth, though not with better reafon; for nothing will have altered but yourself. Begin the alteration then from this day; and, fince all the evil you lament is in the difpofition of your mind, correct your irregular appetites, and do not fet your house on fire to avoid the trouble of putting it in order.

I endure mifery, fay you: Is it in my power to avoid fuffering? But this is changing the state of the question: for the subject of inquiry is, not whether you fuffer, but whether your life is an evil? Let us proceed. You are wretched, you naturally endeavour to extricate yourself from mifery. Let us see whether, for that purpose, it is necessary to die.

Let us for a moment examine the natural tendency of the afflictions of the mind, as in direct oppofition to the evils of the body, the two substances being of contrary nature. The latter become worse and more inveterate the longer they continue, and at length utterly deftroy this mortal machine. The former, on the contrary, being only external and tranfitory modifications of an immortal and uncompounded effence, are infenfibly effaced, and leave the mind in its original

form, which is not susceptible of alteration. Grief, difquietude, regret, and defpair, are evils of fhort duration, which never take root in the mind; and experience always falfifies that bitter reflection, which makes us imagine our mifery will have no end. I will go farther; I cannot imagine that the vices which contaminate us, are

more inherent in our nature than the troubles we endure; I not only believe that they perish with the body which gives them birth, but I think beyond all doubt, that a longer life would be fufficient to reform mankind, and that many ages of youth would teach us that nothing is preferable to virtue.

However this may be, as the greatest part of our physical evils are inceffantly increafing, the acute pains of the body, when they are incurable, may justify a man's destroying himself; for all his faculties being distracted with pain, and the evil being without remedy, he has no longer any use either of his will or of his reafon; he ceases to be a man before he is dead, and does nothing more in taking away his life, than quit a body which encumbers him, and in which his foul is no longer refident.

But it is otherwife with the afflictions of the mind, which, let them be ever fo acute, always. carry their remedy with them. In fact, what is it that makes any evil intolerable? Nothing but its duration. The operations of furgery are generally much more painful than the disorders they cure; but the pain occafioned by the latter is

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lafting, that of the operation is momentary, and therefore preferable. What occafion is there therefore for any operation to remove troubles which die of courfe by their duration, the only cir cumftance which could render them infupportable? Is it reasonable to apply fuch defperate remedies to evils which expire of themselves? To a man who values himself on his fortitude, and who eftimates years at their real value, of two ways by which he may extricate himself from the fame troubles, which will appear preferable, death or time? Have patience, and you will be cured. What would you desire more?

Oh! you will fay, it doubles my affliction to reflect that they will ceafe at laft! This is the vain fophiftry of grief! an apophthegm void of reafon, of propriety, and perhaps of fincerity. What an abfurd motive of despair is the hope of terminating mifery *! Even allowing this fantastical reflection, who would not chufe to increase the prefent pain for a moment, under the affurance of putting an end to it, as we fcarify a wound in order to heal it? And admitting any charm in grief, to make us in love with fuffering, when we release ourselves from it by putting an end to our being, do we not at that inftant incur all that we apprehend hereafter?

* No, my lord, we do not put an end to mifery by these means, but, rather fill the measure of affliction, by bursting afunder the laft ties which attach us to felicity. When we regret what was dear to us, grief itself ftill attaches us to the object we lament, which is a ftate lefs deplorable than to be attached to nothing.

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