Suicide: history of the penal laws relating to it in their legal, social, moral, and religious aspects, in ancient and modern times

te^%

^A.i^'jyfl^.*-*!'!-!-!

CORNELL

UNIVERSITY

LIBRARY

THIS BOOK IS ONE OF A
COLLECTION MADE BY

BENNO LOEWY

1854-1919

AND BEQUEATHED TO
CORNELL UNIVERSITY

Cornell University Library
HV6545.G93 1883

Suicideihistory of the penal laws relati

3 1924 006 269 017

DATE DUE

M-^^^^^^-f^i j-

JLL-^J

'^rh^::z

'^""r^>

AJ

-^Iww-ismi-*

CAYLORD

PRINTED IN U S.'

SUICIDE:

History of the Penal Laws

RELATING TO IT IN THEIR

LEGAL, SOCIAL, MORAL,

AND

EELIGIOUS ASPECTS,

IN ANCIENT AND MODERN TIMES.

By R. S. guernsey, of the New York Bar.

READ BEFORE THE N. Y. MEDICO-LEGAL SOCIETY SEPT. 23I>, 1 875.

Revised and Enlarged.

new YORK : , \

L. K. Strouse & Co., Law Publishers,

95 Nassau Street.

1883.

1

6<

OPslO

li-t

^-/iM^7

Entered according to act of Congress in the year 1883, by
R. S. GUERNSEY,
^ in the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington,

41"

/

\^A ,.0 Vo^^vo'.^!

INTRODUCTION.

The origin of the following pages was in a request from
the Medical Journal Association, of New York City, for the
author to read a paper before that body, on the Law of
Suicide. This was done in April, 1875, under the title of
" Penal Laws Relating to Suicide." Afterwards the Medico-
Legal Society requested that the paper be read before it. It
was somewhat extended, and was read on September 23, 1875.

The author has not only treated the subject as an original
one, but he believes that this work shows a thoroughness of
research and detail which none of the many treatises on the
subject of suicide has attained.

R. S. G.

Cornell University
Library

The original of tiiis book is in
tine Cornell University Library.

There are no known copyright restrictions in
^he United States on the use of the text.

http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924006269017

SUICIDE

HISTORY OF THE PENAL LAWS RELATING TO IT

IN THEIR LEGAL, SOCIAL, MORAL AND

RELIGIOUS ASPECTS, IN ANCIENT

AND MODERN TIMES.

By R. S. guernsey, Esq.

The subject of suicide, as it has been viewed at various
times and in various nations, is important as well as remarka-
bly interesting.

Penal laws are commonly called criminal laws, and are for
the sole purpose of the protection and welfare of the body
politic — the state and its members ; and penalties are pre-
scribed by the law-making power with that end in view.

I do not use the word penal here in its narrow legal sense,
but in the broad sense of penalty of every kind and nature,
legal, social, moral and religious, in connection with this
subject.

The importance of the subject strikingly appears by com-
paring the statistics of homicide in the United States as given
in the census of 1870. The table also shows by means of
colored parallelograms the positive and relative degrees of
homicide and suicide in different parts of the country as well
as in each State In the eastern States suicide appears to be
about six times as frequent as murder. In the western States

Read before the Society, Sept. Z3d, 1875.

PENAL LAWS

there is a larger portion of murder and about two-thirds less
of suicide. The north presents a broad iield of homicides,
nearly twice as large as that of all the rest of the country,
witli a very narrow strip of suicides. Allowances should be
made for the unsettled condition of the government in the
southern States at the time covered by these statistics. In
New York and New Jersey suicide is about three to one of
murder ; and in Pennsylvania, about two to one. The pro-
portion of suicides to murders is always in excess in all coun-
tries. From the above it appears that man is literally his own
worst enemy, when taken in the aggregate in a community.

As the punishment of a sucide can only act upon that which
he has left behind him — his reputation and his fortune, and
its effects upon his relatives and friends, no little difficulty
has been experienced and ingenuity displayed as to how this
would be the most effective as a preventative of this loss to
the State, as it has been almost universally regarded.

In the famous essay by Beccaria on " Crimes and their
Punishment," first published in Naples, in 1764, he thus dis-
courses on this subject :

" Suicide is a crime which seems not to admit of punish-
ment, properly speaking, for it cannot be inflicted but on the
innocent or upon an insensible dead body. In the first case,
it is unjust and tyranical, for political liberty supposes all
punishments entirely personal ; in the second, it has the same
effect, by way of example, as the scourging a statue. Man-
kind love life too well ; the objects that surround them ; the
seducing phantom of pleasure and hope, that sweetest error of
mortals, which make men swallow such large draughts of
evil mingled with a very few drops of good, allure them too
strongly, to apprehend that this crime will ever be common
from its unavoidable impunity. The laws are obeyed through
fear of punishment, but death destroys all sensibility. What
motive, then, can restrain the desperate hand of suicide ? He
who kills himself does less an injury to society than he who
quits his country forever, for the other leaves his property
behind him, but this carries with him at least a part of his
substance. Besides as the strength of a society consists in
the number of citizens, he who quits one nation to reside in

OF SUICIDE. 7

another, becomes a double loss. This then is the question
whether it be advantageous to society that its members should
enjoy the unlimited privilege of {migration ?"

"If it be demonstrated that the laws which imprison men in
their own country are vain and unjust, it wiil be equally true
of these which punish suicide, for that can only be punished
after death, which is in the power of God alone ; but it is no
crime, with regard to man, becaused the punishment falls on
an innocent family. If it be objected that the consideration
of such a punishment may prevent the crime, I answer, that
he who can calmly renounce the pleasure of existence, who
is so weary of life as to brave the idea of eternal misery will
never be influenced by the more distant and less powerful
considerations of family and children."

It is truly astonishing that so thoughtful a man as Beccaria
should thus combat the reason, observation and experience of
ages, and even the dictates of every heart who has any rela-
tives or dear friends whose feelings of grief or shame are
thought of or cared for above a feeling of revenge or sudden
passion.

Popular opinion has always been against it in proportion to
its prevalence, because no one knows when or who may be
stricken down by this dreadful means if it is not discouraged.

There are two classes of voluntary deaths ; one may be
termed the vicious and criminal, which is that suicide by
which a man under the influence of selfish impatience 'or ap-
prehension withdraws himself from them by death. The other
is where life is sacrificed in the observance of duty or in the
practice of virtue, and then it must be for others; in other
words, it must be a martyrdom or heroic death, voluntarily
imposed, in order to be justifiable.

When it was suggested to Flavius Josephus the Jewish
christian and warrior to destroy himself, he replied : " Oh !
my friends, why are you so earnest to kill yourselves ? Why
do you set your soul and body, which are such dear compan-
ions, at such variance ? It is a brave thing to die in war, but it
should be by the hands of the enemy."

The Mosaic law contained no penalty against self-destruc-
tion. The first instances of suicide recorded in Jewish his-

O PENAL LAWS

tory are of Saul and his armour-bearer, 1055 years before the
Chtistian era. Samson's death cannot properly be called
suicide, and there is but one other recorded in the Bible,being
that of Anhitibel. Public opinion was against it among the
Jews. It was their custom to bury all executed criminals on
the day of their death, at sunset, by the officers of the law,
without any ceremonies and not in the family sepulchre. The
bodies were buried and kept until the flesh was consumed,
the bones were then given to the relatives to be interred
among the family graves. It was regarded as a very great pun-
ishment not to be buried by relatives and friends and not to
have great ceremony, according to wealth and rank, and not
to be buried with their fathers — they abhorred being "buried
like an ass," as their writers expressed it. It is probable that
in olden times suicides were buried by them like criminals.

Among the ancient Jews if a man was found guilty of a
capital offense and condemned to be hanged, his body was not
to remain after sunset on the tree, but, says the Mosaic law,
"Thou shalt bury him that day, that thy land be not defiled,
for he that is hanged is accursed of God."

In the time of Moses and under the custom and laws which
prevailed during the period mentioned in the old testament,
many of the criminals and suicides who had no relatives or
friends to look after their burial, may have been literally
"buried like an ass," that is, an outcast without friends, and
perhaps unknown. For a description of such a burial place
see title " Gehenna," in Chamber's Cyclopedia."

The Jews seldom mourn for such as are suicides or who die
under excommunication. So far, indeed, are they from re-
gretting the loss of them, that they set a stone over the coflSn
to signify that they ought to be stoned to death, if they had
their deserts for thus violating the law of God and doubting
His promises. This punishment of stoning to death was ad-
ministered in cases of blaspheming and heresy, and many of
the capital crimes, among the ancient Jews.

Josephus mentions that in Judea the body of a suicide was
only buried at sunset, he was then denied the usual burial
ceremony. Suicide never was frequent among them, for if it
had been it would have been more often mentioned and there

OF SUICIDE. 9

would have been a more general law or declaration against it,
for the Jews were particularly watchful for the welfare of the
State and the preservation of its members. Saul's death was
regarded as if he had been killed in battle by his enemies —
as his wounds were fatal, and he had rather die than be taken
captive.

The modern Jewish law is the same now as it was for some
centuries before the Christian era.

The fashionable mode of suicide among the Jews seems
to have been by throwing themselves from the roof of a house.
The act must be deliberate. If a person immediately after
declaring his intention to commit self-destruction was seen to
ascend the roof of a house and throw himself off he was deemed
a suicide. But, any one who is found dead, no matter if he
be strangled, hung on a tree, or stabbed with a sword, lie is
not deemed a suicide. A murderer, overtaken by justice and
confined in prison, who is after a while found dead in his cell,
is not to be treated as a suicide under the law. A child or an
idiot who kills himself is not treated as a suicide under the
law, nor is the adult who is driven to the act under circum-
stances like King Saul. But only he can be treated as a
suicide under the law who has previously, while in a sane
state of mind, declared his intention to destroy himself.

Says a standard work on their laws :

"If any one in anger shall be seen to throw himself from
the roof of a house, or to commit suicide, there shall be no
mourning observed, nor keriah (rending of the garments), nor
any office performed in honor of the dead, as in other cases.
None of the rules of mourning is to be observed." He is not
eulogized — the garments are not cut, the shoes are not re-
moved, etc. ; but all that is usually observed to comfort and
to sympathize with the relatives is permitted.

Among the Jews, suicides and murdered persons are buried
in the clothes they have on when they die.

In some of the Oriental countries suicide is in some in-
stances not only legal, but esteemed to be meritorious ; and
this is said to be on the authority of the ancient sacred books
of the Hindoos.

In India the self-sacrifice of widows and self-immolation

10 PENAL LAWS

under the car of Juggernaut are now prohibited by the Brit-
ish government.

In China, self-destruction is no crime, and it has been so
for thousands of years. It is a favor to allow a condemned
criminal to be his own executioner.

In Japan, self-destruction is not only frequent but is con-
sidered meritorious in many instances. When an ofBcial
has committed an offense, or even when there has been in
his department a violation of law, although beyond his power
of prevention, in order to avoid capital punishment, (which
extends to the slightest offenses) he anticipates it by disem-
boweling himself. By this act of self-destruction he saves
his property from forfeiture and his family from death. With
many of the high ofHcials it is a point of honor thus to kill
themselves, on any failure in their departments, and their
sons are often promoted to high rank as a reward for the
father's compliance with the established usage.

If these customs were introduced here in similar cases by
officials we would probably have a more faithful administra-
tion of public trusts. Suicide would then undoubtedly be
more frequent than now, but the public would have less rea-
son to lament its occurrence and example than at present.

By the Code Annamite, translated from the original Chi-
nese in 1865, by which Cochin China is at present ruled, and
is entirely founded on the model of the code which now gov-
erns China, it particularly provides for those who desire to
commit suicide in order to spite other people. " Every wife
of a hard and disagreeable character," declares this Chinese
code, " who has caused her husband such vexations that he
has committed suicide, will be condemned to immediate
strangulation." "The persons who drive another to suicide
bywords or acts are to be capitally condemned. " "The pun-
ishment inflicted on persons who, by reason of their health
or any influence or power they may possess, are of a tyranical
character, and who consequently insult or oppress quiet per-
sons, so that the latter out of despair commits suicide shall
be decapitation."

The desciples of Zeno, the Stoics, held that self-destruction
when not caused by despair is not necessarily immoral is

OF SUICIDE. 1 1

frequently praiseworthy, and under certain circumstances is
even prescribed by duty, yet the corpse of the suicide accord-
ing to old usage remained unburied.

In the early part of the Christian era the bodies of suicides
were left unburied by them, they believing that the soul
would still linger around it and share its ignominy until it
was buried, which was generally dpne after all means of iden-
tification had disappeared. As stoical philosophy advanced
in popular estimation this custom ceased.

The stoical system of ethics was, in the highest sense, a sys-
tem of independent morals. It taught that our reason reveals
to us a certain law of nature, and that a desire to conform to
this law, irrespectively of all considerations of reward or pun-
ishment, of happiness or the reverse, is a possible and a suffi-
cient motive of virtue. It was also in the highest sense a sys-
tem of discipline. It taught that the will, acting under the
complete control of the reason, is the sole principle of virtue and
that all the emotional part of our being is of the nature of a
disease. Its whole tendency was therefore to dignify and
strengthen the will, and to degrade and suppress the desires .
It taught, moreover, that man is capable of attaining an ex-
tremely high degree of moral excellence ; that he has nothing
to fear beyond the present life ; that it is essential to the dig-
nity and consistency of his character that he should regard
death without dismay, and that he has a right to hasten it if
he desires.

The ancient Greeks and Romans were by no means unani-
mous in their approval of the liberty to commit suicide.
Pythagoras is stated to have forbidden men " to depart from
\}a&\r guard or station in life without the order of their com-
mander — that is of God." Plato adopted similar language,
though he permitted suicide, when the law required it, and
also when men had been struck down by intolerable calamity.
Aristottle condemned it on civic grounds as being an injury to
the State. Virgil painted in the darkest colors the condition
of suicides in the future world. Cicero strongly asserted
the doctrine of Pythagoras, though he praised the suicide
of Cato. Apuleius, expanding the philosophy of Plato taught
that "the wise man never throws off his body except by the

I 2 PENAL LAWS

will of God." ClUsar, Ovid, and others, admitted that in ex-
treme distress it isVeasy to despise life, but urged that true
courage is shown \'a>enduring it. Virgil described the souls oi
suicides in the futureXlife in a depreciative manner.

According to Euripil^ies, Hercules said : "I have consid-
ered, and though oppressed with misfortunes, I have deter-
mined thus ; Let no one"Xiepart out of life through fear of
what may happen to him ;^ for he who is notable to resist
evils will fiy like a coward from the darts of an enemy."

Cicero brings before us a passing notice of Hegesias who
was surnamed by the ancients, "the orator of death." His
eloquence was so intense and fascinating in regard to the
tomb and the future life, that multitudes freed themselves, by
suicide, from the troubles of the world, and sought happiness
beyond the grave, and the contagion was so great that
Ptolemy, it is said, was compelled to banish the philosopher
from Alexandria.

As a general proposition the law recognized suicide as a
right, but slight restrictions arose from time to time. Seu-
tonius speaks of Claudius accusing a man for having tried to
kill himself. Ziphilin says that Hadrian gave special per-
mission to the philosopher Euphrates to commit suicide " on
account of old age and disease."

A very strange law, said to have been derived from Greece,
is reported to have existed at Marseilles. Poison was kept
by the Senate of the city and given to those who could prove
that they had sufficient reason to justify their desire for death
and all other suicide was forbidden under penalty of disgrace
to their remains. The law was said to be intended to prevent
hasty suicide and to make deliberate death as rapid and
painless as possible.*

There was some sound philosophy in this law as the follow-
ing anecdote will illustrate :

A French cobbler had resolved to commit suicide ; and to

* In nearly all European countries and in many of tlie American States there
are laws regulating and restricting the sale of poisons, the objects of which in
part are to prevent hasty suicides by such means, as it is the most prevalent
choice of self-destruction. In France and Germany the laws are very strinpent
in this particular.

OF SUICIDE. 13

make his exit more heroic, prepared the following memorial
in writing • " I follow the lesson of a great master, and as
MoUere says,

When all is lost and even hope is fled — "

He had just written thus far and applied the fatal knife to
the carotid artery, when suddenly recollecting, he stopped,
and said to himself: "Eh ! but is it Moliere who says so ? I
must make sure — if not, I shall be laughed at." He now got
Moliere, read a few comedies, changed his mind, and returned
to his cobbler's bench.

Pythagoras forbade suicide among the Greeks. By the law
of Thebes suicides were to have no honors paid to their
memory.

The Athenian law ordained that the hand which attempted
or committed the deed be cut off and burned apait from the
body.

Plutarch informs us that an unaccountable passion for
suicide seized the Milesian virgins. A decree was issued that
the body of every young woman who hanged herself should
be dragged naked Xhxov,^ the streets with the same rope with
which she had committed the deed. As it was not fashiona-
ble to commit suicide in any other manner, this effectually
stopped it.

By the Roman jurists neither suicide or self-mutilation was,
as a rule, regarded as criminal either in consumation or at-
tempt. They sometimes expressed the qualification that the
consent of the Senate or Emperor was necessary to justify
suicide.

The first Roman Law occurs in the reign of Tarquinius
Priscus, the Vth King of Rome, about 606 years before Christ.
The soldiers who were appointed to make drains and common
sewers, thinking themselves disgraced by such servile offices,
put themselves to death in great numbers. The king ordered
the bodies of all self-murderers to be exposed on crosses in
the public places. This put an end to it.

A rescript of Hadrian, (the XVth Emperor of Rome) about
117 years before Christ, expressly directed that these soldiers,
who, either from impatience of pain, from disgust of life,
from disease, from madness, from dread of infamy or disgrace,

14 PENAL LAWS

had wounded themselves or otherwise attempted to put an
end to their life should only be punished with ignominy. But
the attempt of a soldier at self-destruction on other grounds
was a capital offense and likened to desertion. Persons being
under prosecution for heinous offenses or being taken in the
commission of a great crime, who put an end to their life to
escape punishment, forfeited all their property to the Fiscus.
It was not otherwise forbidden.

It had become customary with many men, in Rome, who
were accused of political offenses, to commit suicide before
trial, in order to prevent the ignominious exposure of their
bodies and the confiscation of their goods. This deprived
the emperor of a large source of revenue, and Domitian,
about A.D. 80, ordained that the suicide of an accused person
should entail the same consequences as his condemnation.

Tacitus says that Tiberius, about the beginning of the
Christian era, gave an encouragement to criminals to become
their own executioner.

In a law of Mark Anthony, which is still in the Roman law,
we find it written, " If your brother or your father being con-
victed of no crime hath put himself to death, either to avoid
pain, or being weary of life, or from despair or madness, his
will shall, nevertheless, be valid ; or, if there is no will, his
heirs inherit according to law."

In Justinian's Pandects, made about A.D. 533, there is a
law " that if persons accused or who have been found guilty
of any crime, should make way with themselves, their effects
should be confiscated." But this only took place when con-
fiscation of goods happened to be the penalty appointed by
the law for the crime of which the suicide was found guilty.
By custom it was inflicted on suicides in any other circum-
stances.

The learned Grotius in his famous work on the Law of
Nature and of Nations, published two centuries and a half
ago, thus speaks of suicide :

" The rule that prevailed among the Hebrews with respect
to burying the dead, contained an exception, as we are in-
formed by Josephus, excluding those who had committed
suicide. Nor is it surprising that a mark of ignominy should be

OF SUICIDE. 15

affixed to those on whom death itself connot be inflicted as a
punishment. Aristotle, in the sth book of his Ethics speaks
of the infamy universally attached to suicide. Nor is the ob-
servation at all weakened by the opinions of some of the
Grecian poets, that as the dead are void of all perception,
they cannot be affected either by loss or shame. For it is a
sufficient reason to justify the practice, if the living can be
deterred from committing actions for which they see a mark
of infamy set upon the dead.

"In opposition to the Stoics and others who admitted the
dread of servitude, sickness, or any other calamity, or even
the ambitious love of glory to be a just cause of voluntary
death, in opposition to them, the Platonists justly maintain
that the soul must be retained in the custody of the body,
from which it cannot be released, but at the command of Him
who gave it. On this subject there are many fine thoughts
in Platonus, Olympiodorus, and Macrobius on the dream of
Scipio.

"Brutus, following the opinions of the Platonists, had for-
merly condemned the death of Cato, whom he himself after-
wards imitated. He considered it as an act of impiety for any
one to withdraw himself from his allegiance to the Supreme
Being, and to shrink from evils which he ought to bear with
fortitude. And Megasthenes, as may be seen in Strabo, book
15, remarked the disapprobation which the Judean sages ex-
pressed of the conduct of Calanus; for it was by no means
agreeable to their tenets, that any one, through impatience,
should quit his post in life. In the 5th book of Quintus
Custius there is an expression of King Darius to this effect,
that he had rather die by another's guilty hand than by his
own. In the same manner the Hebrews call death a release,
or dismission, as may be seen not only in the Gospel of St.
Luke, chap. 2, verse 19, but in the Greek version of the Old
Testament, Gen. 15 verse 2 and Numbers 20, towards the
conclusion, and the same way of speaking was used by the
Greeks. Plutarch, in speaking of consolation, calls death
the time when God shall relieve us from our post."

The attitude which the teachings of antiquity, and espe-
cially of the Stoics on the one hand and of almost all modern

1 6 PENAL LAWS

moralists, (for Christianity now coJors all modern moral
philosophy,) on the other, in regard to their conception of
death, appears very plainly in their view of suicide. For this
modern view of it among us we are indebted to the great
Roman Catholic Church.

The doctrine of future rewards and punishments which is
so prominent in the New Testament and the Koran, is the
foundation upon which it was mainly built in religion.

It is true that among the early Christians there prevailed
a sort of ambition for martyrdom to such an extent that it
sometimes became suicide. Tertulian, one of the early church
fathers who lived in the second century, said : " The blood
of the martyrs is the seed of the church." In that age many
dying men deplored the natural death, which robbed them of
the honors of martyrdom. It was. carried to such an extent
that later on the heads of the church condemned it as the
fruit of misguided zeal, but the people considered it with
reverence.

A council of Aries, about the middle of the fifth century,
having pronounced suicide to be the effect of " diabolical in-
spiration," a council of Braga in the following century or-
dained that no religious rites should be celebrated at the
tomb of a suicide, and that no masses should be said for his
soul.

It was ordained in the sixth century by the Canon law tha
no commemoration should be made in the Eucharist for such
as destroyed themselves, neither should their bodies be car-
ried out with palms nor have the usual service read over
them. Suicide and attempting suicide were to be treated as
infamous, and as far as possible amenable to penal discipline,
and a suicide is considered as having " died in mortal sin,"
and could never enter the Paradise of the blest.

And these provisions, which were repeated by later coun-
cils, were gradually introduced with the Canon law into the
laws of the barbarian and of Charlemagne. Thus they were
spread all over Europe.

About the middle of the thirteenth century St. Lewis IX.
king of France, and an ardent crusader, originated confis-
cation of property to the heads of the church, and the corpse

OF SUICIDE. I y

was subjected to gross and various outrages. In some coun-
tries it could only be removed from the house through a per-
foration specially made for the occasion in the wall ; it was
dragged upon a sledge or hurdle through the streets, hung up
with the head downwards, and at last thrown into the public
sewer, or burnt, or buried in the sand below high-water mark,
or transfixed by a stake on the public highway, at cross-roads
in the same manner as that of an executed criminal.

The ferocious laws here recounted contrast remarkably
with a law in the Capitularies of Charlemagne, which pro-
vides that though mass may not be celebrated for a suicide,
any person may, through charity, cause a prayer to be offered
up for his soul.

The reasons for this great change which the Canon law
made were not merely ethical and spiriiualhnt political. There
could be no patient endurance in the state, it was insisted,
unless there was patient edurance in the citizen. If the peo-
ple should resort to suicide to escape trouble, so would the
state, and all social order and safety would be at an end.

During the whole period of the supremacy of the Church
of Rome for many centuries the act was more rare than be-
fore or since. The influence of Catholicism was seconded by
Moharnmedanism which on this, as on many other points, its
teachings are similar to those of the Christian Church, and
even intensified in this case — for suicide, which is never ex-
pressly condemned in the Bible, is more than once forbidden
in the Koran,* and the Christian duty of resignation was ex-
aggerated by the Moslem into a complete fatalism similar to
the Calvinistic doctrine of predestination. Under the gov-
ernment and influence of Catholicism and Mohammedanism
suicide, during many centuries, almost absolutely ceased in
all the civilized, active and progressive part of mankind, f

* It was contended by some of the leaders of the church that suicide was pro-
hibited by the commandment, "Thou shalt not kill." St. Augustine argued
that he who kills himself kills a man. The Koran also says, "Thou shalt not take
the life thou cannot give."

t It should be remembered that about this time monastic life was very prevalent
and its solitude was undoubtedly resorted to in many cases as a substitute for
suicide. If despairing and suffering humanity was thus cut off from the clouds
and storms of life, they also lost its brightness and the sunshine which is derived
from social life.

1 8 PENAL LAWS

The Roman Catholic religion was established by law in all
the countries in Europe, and the Canon laws had the same
force and effect as any other laws.

In all governments where Church and State are united the
ordinances of the Church are always carried out and enforced
by the State power.

Where Church and State are separated the rules of the
church are permitted to have their full force unless there is
a positive statute that may effect them.

In Russia, where the Greek Church is the established
church its priests class as suicides all persons who kill them-
selves by the excessive use of stimulants. *

The position which the Roman Catholic Church and its
propagators took in its early days and in its strength and
vigor, is still maintained by it, and its two main branches, the
Greek Church and the Protestant Episcopal Church. In all
these churches clergymen and others are prohibited, under
penalty of excommunication and suspension, reading the
burial service and rites over the body of any person who has
laid violent hands on himself, whether that of a communicant
or not. But this rule does not apply to insane or weak-
minded persons ; and clergymen and priests argue that no
sound-minded person will commit suicide, or at all events
there is a doubt about it, and they, in Christian charity, give
the deceased the benefit of such doubt, so that the Church
prohibition practically amounts to nothing. A refusal toper-
form the burial rites of those churches or any other church
over the body of a suicide for that reason is almost unknown
in the United States.

The statute law in England prohibits any funeral rites of
any church in all cases.

The old Germanic law adopted the same principle as the
Ecclesiastical law.

Some of the present German codes are silent on the subject,
to wit. : the Bavarian and Saxon.

The Austrian code only provides that the body of a suicide

* In 1881 this ordinance of the Church in Russia was changed so that they
are not now classed as suicides.

OF SUICIDE. 19

shall be buried by the officers of justice, but not in a church
yard or other place of common interment.

The Prussian code forbids all mutilation of the dead body
of a suicide under ordinary circumstances, but declares that
it shall be buried without any marks of respect otherwise
suitable to the rank of the deceased, and it directs that if any
sentence has been pronounced, it shall, as far as it is feasible, be
executed, on the dead body, due regard being had to decency
and propriety. The body of a criminal who commits suicide
to escape the execution of a sentence pronounced against him
is to be buried at night b)' the common executioner at the
usual place of execution for criminals

France has no provision in her penal codes for the punish-
ment of suicides, deeming the Church penalties sufBcient
punishment to deter them. Experience shows that it appar-
ently has little e£Eect in that direction.

In the Reign of Terror, in France, a law was made ordain-
ing that the suicide of an accused person should entail the
same consequences as his condemnation in regard to the dis-
position of the body and the confiscation of property.

While Bonaparte was First Consul in 1802, a grenadier of the
French consular guard was disappointed in love and commit-
ted suicide by shooting himself. When Bonaparte heard of
the transaction, in order to prevent such a cowardly practice
from spreading among the troops, he directed the publication

of the following :

" The grenadier, Grablin, has committed suicide from a
disappointment in love He was in other respects a worthy
man. This is the second event of the kind that has happened
in this corps within a month. The First Consul directs that
it shall be notified in the order of the day Guard, that the
soldier ought to know how to overcome the grief and melan-
choly of his passions ; that there is as much true courage in
bearing mental affliction manfully as in remaining unmoved
under the fire of a battery. To abandon oneself to grief
without resisting, and to kill oneself in order to escape from
it, is like abandoning the field of battle before being con-
quered." .

We have before seen that the Roman Emperor, Hadrian,

assimulated the suicide of a soldier to desertion.

PENAL LAWS

In Denmark, the only penalty is that the body is not al-
lowed to be buried in consecrated grounds or churchyards.

In Norway, the only penalty is that the body is not to be
buried in consecrated ground, but this does not apply to a
non compus mentis, and therefore the law is practically of no
effect.

Sweden, like many other European countries, has no statute
law on the subject of suicide.

In many other European states, where there is no law on
the subject, the practice is to treat the body the same as that
of an executed criminal. This arose in the Church and un-
der the Canon law when the Church of Rome was the pre-
vailing religion throughout Europe, and was united with the
State, and its ordinances were enforced as State laws.

The immorality of suicide was discussed at considerable
length by Abelard in the eleventh century, and by St. Thomas
Aquinas in the thirteenth century.

Dante and Dryden have devoted some fine lines to painting
the condition of suicides in hell, where they are also fre-
quently represented on the bas-reliefs of cathedrals.

In the romances of chivalry, however, this mode of death
is frequently portrayed without horror, being regarded in the
heroic light which prevailed in that age.

When the unhappy Indians in the South American conti-
nent were reduced to slavery and treated with atrocious
cruelty by their conquerors, they killed themselves in great
numbers, until the Spaniards, in order to deter them, declared
that their masters also would commit suicide and would pur-
sue their victims into the world of spirits. Thus the poor un-
fortunate slaves had no hope of rest ; they feared the cruelty
of their masters in the next world. This deterred them from
suicide.

In Cuba, the negroes committed suicide in large numbers
under a religious delusion, believing that they would be re-
stored to life at the end of three days. It was only suppressed
by the Governor-General ordering the heads exposed in pub-
lic for one month, and their bodies burned and their ashes
publicly scattered to the winds. (Ro'one de Paris, 29 April
1845.)

OF SUICIDE. 21

The West African negroes sometimes commit suicide when
in distant slavery, believing that they will revive again in
their own native land, free from toil and their masters lashes.

Among the North American Indians it was mostly among
the squaws, and was by hanging on a tree. They had a tra-
dition that in the spirit land they were forced to drag the fatal
tree forever, and hence they would always select the smallest
one which would answer the purpose.

Many centuries previous to the Reformation in England,
the Canon law was adopted into the statutes of England.
And as a further punishment, confiscation of lands and goods
followed, this being regarded in the nature of a compen-
sation to the State for its loss of a human being. This latter
penalty is said, by Bracton, to have been adopted from the
Danes, where it had previously existed. It may have been
derived from the Canon law and the Roman civil law, in both
of which it had been used many centuries before, as we have
seen. The English statute also directed that the remains
should be buried in the highway at cross-roads, with a stake
driven through the body.

This burial at the cross-roads and without religious rites,
was to give as strong an impression as possible of a heathen
burial, and also of a criminal act, for the heathen Teutons
there executed their caiminals by sacrificing them to the gods
on their altars, which were mostly at the junction of the
cross-roads and the body was pinned to the earth by an un-
painted stake, and passers-by would cast a stone at it.

This mode of disposing of the body of suicides was an
ancient custom brought into England by the Saxons and did
not prevail in all parts of England. Christian burial was de-
nied suicides in all parts of England, under the Canon law.
When they were buried in the parish churchyard they were
placed in the most obscure parts of it.

In many churchyards may be seen a row of graves on the
extreme verge of the north side of the grave yard, apart from
that in which the bodies of the inhabitants in general are de-
posited. Some of the graves do not lie east and west as do
those who have Christian burial. These are occupied by the
bodies of still-born infants, suicides and excommunicated

2 2 PENAL LAWS

persons, and those who it is termed are "buried out of the
sanctuary," because they are not entitled to the church rites
of burial.

The first grave-digger in Hamlet, when he asked if the
grave should be made "straight," was evidently accustomed
to that part of England where a suicide's grave was not made
east and west, as the church stood and as other graves run,
but was to be made " crooked," or not parallel to them.

Forfeitures for felonies did not exist in England until after
the Norman Conquest. Suicide in common with many other
felonies had the penalty of forfeiture of goods and chattels
without any special mention.

All his goods, and chattels, and leases of real estate, were
forfeited to the crown. The real estate (excepting leases),
was not forfeited in such case, and his inheritance was not
forfeited as to other property. This offence was never at-
tended with corruption of blood.

In this as well as in other felonies at common law the
offenders must be of the age of discretion and of sound mind,
and therefore an infant killing himself under the age of dis-
cretion, or a lunatic during his lunacy, is not regarded as a
felo de se, so as to work a forfeiture of his propert)'. But the
disposition of the remains is the same in all cases.

This was only carried out when the coroner's jury decided
the question of the sanity of the offender in the negative
This continued until 1823, when by statute (4 George IV.
chap. 52) the body is required to be taken to the churchyard
or other burial ground of the parish or place in which the re-
mains are found, and is ta be buried by the coroner, if found
sane, within twenty-four hours after the finding, and such in-
terment must take place at night between the hours of 9 and
12 o'clock. The rights of Christian burial are not allowed by
la,w in any case of suicide when the coroner's jury decide the
deceased to have been sane when the act was committed.
This is seldom done, however, and the church officer, the
parson, is bound by the verdict and must perform the burial
service according to the usual form as in other cases. Church-
men of the Protestant Episcopal Church are very much dis-
pleased with this, for by the 68th canon and the rubric in the

OF SUICIDE. 23

Book of Common Prayer such persons are not allowed to be
buried by the parson according to the forms of the Estab-
lished Church. The term Christian burial, as used in the
statute, undoubtedly means any religious ceremony at the
grave, and is not confined to the Episcopal Church, and the
Roman Catholic Church, for they are the only Christian
churches that prescribe the burial service which their priests
must follow.

Churchmen contend that in ali cases of suicide the de-
ceased should be denied the burial rites of the church, and
they ought not to be bound by the coroners jury and com-
pelled to perform the rites in such cases. — Wheatley on Book
of Common Prayer.

Ceremonies over the body were not allowed, but they might
be performed by the relatives and friends at their own houses,
but without the body and without a priest of the Established
Church.

According to the canons of the Established Church of Eng-
land, no clergyman, only those of the Established Church, are
allowed to perform funeral rites and ceremonies in a church
or consecrated churchyard or burial ground belonging to the
Established Church.

By the canon law Christian burial in consecrated ground
and with the religious services prescribed by the Roman
Catholic Church was denied to all who were not Christians, to
excommunicated persons, suicides, criminals, usurers, schis-
matics, heretics, and even unbaptized children of Christian
parents. The eucharist was celebrated at the grave as one of
the rites as early as the fourth century, but it has been gen-
erally abandoned.

The part of the canon law against suicides was taken from
the action of the first council of Braga, which occurred many
years before the canon law noticed it.

The first ecclesiastical rule which occureth as to suicide is
the 34th canon of the first council of Braga, in the year 563,
which forbids any burial service for those qui violentan sill
ipsis infermet mortem. But in Wilkin's councils the 5th chap-
ter of the 2d book of the Penetential of Egbert, Archbishop
or York, written about the year A. D. 750 (which chapter is

24 PENAL LAWS

plainl)'- taken from the canon of Braga), adds this limitation,
" If they do it by the instigation of the devil." And at p. 23?
the 15th of the canons published in King Edgar's time, about
the year 960, adds a further limitation, " If they do it volun-
tarily by the instigation of the devil." (1 Burns, Eccles. Law,
265.) It will be observed that this canon law of Egbert was m
the time of the Saxon Heptarchy, but it, nevertheless, applied
to all of England.

The Decretum of Gratian inserting the canon of Braga
adds to it "voluntaire." (Do.)

VVheatley on Common Prayer, says self-destruction makes
no exception as to the use of the forms of burial used by the
Established Church.

The exact language of the canons of Edgar, as translated

by Wilkins, is as lollows :

" Concerning those who by any fault inflict death upon
themselves, let there be no commemoration of them in the
oblation, as likewise for them who are punished for their
crimes, nor shall their corpses be carried unto the grave with
palms."

"If any shall voluntarily kill himself by arms, or by any insti-
gation of the devil, it is not permitted that for such a person
any masses be sung, nor shall his body be put into the ground
with any singing of a psalm, nor shall he be buried in pure
sepulchre."

Canons Edgar, i Wilk., 225, 232.

Johnson, A. D. 740, No. 96, and 963, No. 24.

I Burns, Ecc. Law, 260.

After the Reformation in England, on the revision of the
Canons of the Protestant Episcopal Church, in 1603, by the
Hampton Court Conferences, the substance of the 68th
canon became and is now known as the 68th canon of the
latter church. The rubric, which is in the burial office in the
English Book of Common Prayer, was not drawn up until
1661, and was deemed as explanatory of the ancient canon
law and of the previous usage in England, and greatly modi-
fied and limited the class of persons to whom it applied in
the canon law. Before the rubrics of 1661, the prohibition
extended to all persons who had not received the holv sacra-

OF SUICIDE. 25

ment, at least at Easter, or such as were killed in duels, tilts
or tournaments, or convicted of infamous crimes, but did not
exclude unbaptized persons and suicides.

The Savoy Conference, in 1662, made the last revision of
the Book of Common Prayer as it is now used by the Protes-
tant Episcopal Church in England, and the rubrics as they
v/ere called (because printed in red ink) over many of the
prayers, and in other parts of it informing the clergy as well
as the laymen how and what to do on particular occasions.
These were derived from the canons in most cases, and in
some instances they conflicted with the canons, and in other
cases did not go so far as the canons. When the law for the
conformity of Christian worship was passed in 1662, compell-
ing its use in the form it then was and that it should be used
as stated in the rubrics, the English Courts held that in all
cases of conflict between the rubrics and the canons that the
rubrics should prevail and that the canons were only of force
so far as the statutes and common law permitted them (Mastin
V. Escott, 2 Curteis, 760).

As to how far the canon law is in force in England it has
been stated by authority that the canons of 1603, as well as
the acts of Parliament after the reformation, also constitute
a portion of that law binding upon the clergy, but only bind-
ing upon the laity where admitted by long custom or express
recognition of the tribunals of the common law (Lord Hard-
wicke in Middleton v. Croft, Strange Rep., 1056 ; see also
Mastin v. Escott and Kemp v, Wickes, 3 Philli, 276).

The duty cast upon the clergyman by his office is prescribed
by the sixty-eighth canon, which provides that no minister
shall refuse or delay to bury any corpse that is brought to the
church or churchyard convenient, warning being given him
thereof, in such manner and form as is prescribed in the
Book of Common Prayer. And if he should refuse to do so,
except the deceased were within the prohibited class speci-
.fied in the rubric, he shall be suspended by the bishop of the
diocese from his ministry by the space of three months.

As the rubric now stands there are only three classes of
persons who are within the prohibition. It reads as follows :
" Here it is to be noted that the office ensuing is not to be

2 6 PENAL LAWS

used for any that die unbaptized, or excommunicated, or have
laid violent hands upon themselves."

If a clergyman should disregard this rubric and perform
the burial ofEce over the prohibited classes, he would be lia-
ble to trial and discipline by an Ecclesiastical Court for dis-
regarding the laws of the church. The result might be sus-
pension for a definite period or the deprivation of his orders.

The committing of a crime would not render a person lia-
ble to be excommunicated even when Church and State were
united. There were ecclesiastical crimes only which would
render a person liable to be excommunicated, and mere state
offences were not regarded as such by the church when they
did not affect church matters. (See Selden's Table Talk.)

In the ecclesiastical law a felo de se hs regarded the same as
an excommunicated person

To the rigid rule of the church there was then, as there still
is no exceptions, but the law made the coroner's inquest bind-
ing upon the church. The first grave-digger in Hamlet be-
lieved that if Ophelia had not been a gentlewoman she would
not have Christian burial. The second grave-digger promptly
answers that she is, because the "crowner " (coronor) has set
upon her and finds that she is to have Christian burial.

Shakespeare has thus accurately stated the laws of the
Church and of the Statutes in England, at the time he wrote,
and not the laws of Denmark, in Hamlet's time.

Hamlet, King of Denmark, lived about A.D. 700 and Chris-
tianity was not introduced in Denmark until about A.D. 827,
by Harold. So the laws of the Christian Church of England
were referred to, and not the laws of Denmark, at the time of
Prince Hamlet.

A sample of how suicide was regarded in law and morals
about the time of the Reformation in England appears by the
argument of counsel in the case of Hales vs. Pettit, reported
in Plowden, page 253 ; it was argued that:

"It is an offence against Nature, against God, against the
King, (i.) Against Nature, because it is contrary to the rules
of self-preservation, which is the principle of nature • for
everything living does, by instinct of nature, defend itself
from destruction, and then to destroy oneself is contrary to

OF SUICIDE. 27

nature and a thing most terrible. (2.) Against God, in that
H is a breach of His commandment, 'Thou shalt not kill,' and
to kill himself by which act he kills in presumption his own
soul, is a greater uflfence than to kill another. (3.) Against
the King, in that he has hereby lost one of his mystical mem-
bers ; also, he has offended the King in giving such an exam-
ple to his subjects, and it belongs to the King, who has the
government of the people to take care that no evil example
be given them; and an evil example is an offence against
him." Hales vs. Pettit, Mich. Term 4 and 5, Eliz. 1562 in C.
P. Plowden, 253.

The reply to this argument is equally as ingenious and sub-
tle. So much so Shakespeare, in Hamlet, Act 5, Scene i,
puts the same logic in the second grave-digger's remarks
when the fair and unfortunate Ophelia's grave is to be
made. He says :

1ST Grave. — Is she to be buried in christian burial that
wilfully seeks her own salvation ?

2D Grave. — I tell thee she is ; therefore make her grave
straight; the crowner hath set on her, and finds it christian
burial.

1ST Grave. — How can that be, unless she drowned herself
in her own defense?

2D Grave. — Why, 'tis found so.

1ST Grave. — It must be se offendendo ; it cannot be else. For
here lies the point : if I drown myself wittingly, it argues an
act ; and an act hath three branches ; it is, to act, to do, to
perform. Argal, she drowned herself wittingly.

2D Grave. — Nay, but hear you, goodman delver.

1ST Grave. — Give me leave. Here lies the water ; good ;
here stands the man ; good. If the man go to this water, and
drown himself, it is, will he, nill he, he goes: mark you that:
but, if the water come to him, and drown him, he drowns not
himself. Argal, he that is not guilty of his own death, short-
ens not his own life.

2D Gravie. — But is this law?

1ST Grave. — Ay, marry is't, crowner's 'quest law.

2D Grave. — Will you ha' the truth ou't? If this had not
been a gentlewoman, she should have been buried out of
christian burial.

28 PENAL LAWS

1ST Grave. — Why, there thou say'st ; and the more pity,
that great folks should have countenance in this world to
drown or hang themselves, more than their even Christian.

Come, my spade." ,

The grave was to be made "straight," that is, it was to be
made East and West, for Christian burial, but in cases of
those who had not Christian burial the grave was North and

South, as before stated.

It is evident that the. burial is represented as taking place
in Denmark, as the King and Queen and Courtiers were pres-
ent, but still the burial was according to the laws of England
and the Established Episcopal Church, and not the Roman
Catholic burial rites, as they were not allowed to be
used in any parish churchyard in England after the Reforma
tion and the establishment of the Episcopal Church and the
rites prescribed by the Book of Common Prayer. For several
centuries following the Reformation in England the Estab-
lished Church was allowed to go beyond the requirements of
the Book of Common Prayer in some particulars, and retain
some of the old customs, and in none more so than in the
burial rites.

We have before seen that the canons of King Edgar prohib-
ited, at the burial of suicides, the carrying of palms by the
funeral cortege, as was then the usual custom, and also the
singing of psalms at the burial, and the singing of masses for
the soul of a suicide.

In Shakespeare's time it is probable that in England the
carrying of palms was customary at funerals, and although
the law of England prohibited masses for the soul in all cases,
it allowed but did not require a requiem at the grave after
burial, and also allowed prayers for the souls of the dead. In
Hamlet it appears that although the burial was according to
the law of England, yet the Church could and did abridge
the usual rites in cases of suicides. The absence of palms and
some other appearances in the funeral cortege of Ophelia is
thus noted :

" Here comes the King, the Queen, the Courtiers.
Who is this they follow.
And with such maimed rites, this do they betoken ?
The corpse they follow did with desperate hand,
Foredo it's own life."

OF SUICIDE. , 29

In the same act in Hamlet the parish priest is made to say-
that Ophelia, upon account of the manner of her death, should
not have the full rites of Christian burial. He said :

' ' Her death was doubtful ;
And but that great command oversways the order
She should in ground unsanctified have lodged,
Until the last Trump ; for charitable prayers
Shards, flints and pebbles should be thrown upon her."

The "great command" referred to was the statute law of
England when the coroner found she was insane, and there-
fore entitled to Christian burial.

The last line above quoted fully describes the burial of sui-
cides in that part of England where the ancient custom pre-
vailed of burying at the cross-roads with a stake driven
through the body, to mark the spot, and passers-by throw
flints and stones upon it.

But the strict letter of the law still allowed the parish priest
to abridge the usual burial service in such cases. Ophelia
had the extent of the bell and burial rites of the church, but
the priest refused to have a requiem sung for her soul after
the burial. When asked by Laertes in suprise if no more
was to be done after the burial, he indignantly said :

' ' No more be done ?
We should profane the service of the dead
To sing a requiem and such rest to her
As to peace-parted souls."

In the American Bookof Common Prayer, the prohibition of
the use of the burial office is that the forms are not to be used by
any minister for any unbaptized adults, any who die excom-
municated or who have laid violent hands upon themselves
(in the English it extends to unbaptized infants).

The minister is subject to the same penalty as in England.

In the United States the canon law as amended is in full
force without any express statutory interference.

No part of the property is vested in the crown before the
self-murder is found by some inquisition. If the body can be
found all such inquisitions must be by the coroner super visuns
corporis, and an inquisition so taken could not formerly be
traversable in the Court of King's Bench. If the body cannot
be found the inquiry may be by a Justice of the Peace the

30 PENAL LAWS

same as all other felonies, or in the Court of King's Bench, if
it sits in the county where the act was committed, and such
inquisitions are traversable by the executor, heir, etc.

Coroners' Juries generally carried their views so far as to
decide that the very act of suicide is an evidence of insanity,
and that therefore it worked no forfeiture to the crown.
Bentham cites this as an example of the uselessness of official
oaths.

About the time of the Commonwealth it was very seldom
that a suicide was pronounced insane by a coroner's jury. It
is reported that out of seventy-four cases only three were
found insane.

In 1693 a law was enacted allowing the findings of a coron-
ers's jury to be reviewed by the Court of King Bench by the
writ of certierari and the inquisition may be quashed as insuffi-
cient. *

In the Catholic Church the confessional, undoubtedlv, al-
ways has had a powerful influence in preventing the violation
of the laws and ordinances of the church. Suicide is yet
much less frequent among members of the Catholic Church
than it is amjng other ^church members. It is proportion-
ately less among Jews, however.

It has been computed, from statistics returned in certain
provinces of Austria and Germany, that in a population of
1,000,000 the proportion of suicides between the Jews and the
mixed white races were as one to four.

It should be remembered that when the Roman Catholic
Church was in its supremacy in England, which was for many
centuries, every State officer must be a member of that
Church, at least in many cases, not of lower rank than a
priest of that church. This was continued by the Protestant
Episcopal Church until a repeal of the Corporation and Test
acts, as they were called, which required it.

In Scotland there is a forfeiture of personal property only.

On the principal that the ethical precepts of the English
Ecclesiastical law are incorporated in the common law of the
several United States, so far as the same is applicable, suicide

* In the year 1870, by statute 33 and 34, Viet., chap. 23, a verdict of suicide
does not now work forfeiture of any estate or property.

OF SUICIDE. 31

and the attempt at suicide are to be viewed as common law
offences with us, and hence are felonies.

The usages of the English law have never been carried out
in this country against the body or estate of the unfortunate
felo de se since Colonial times.

Forfeiture in cases of suicide are expressly abolished by
statute in New York. (3 R. S., p. 988, sec. 32.)

In the United States the law does not make any distinction
or difference in regard to the burial or disposition of the
bodies of suicides and those whose death is caused by disease
or accident.

In 1879, by chap. 33, § 38 of 42 and 43 Viet, for an attempt
at suicide in the British army, an officer will be court-mar-
tiald and cashierd, and a private will be imprisoned.

AIDING AND ABETTING SUICIDE.

When self-killing ceases to be entirely voluntary ; in other
words, when it is executed under another's compulsion, then,
at common law, that other is guilty of homicide, though the
deceased himself struck the fatal blow

Under the New York Revised Statutes (2 R. S., 661, § 7)
assisting another in committing self-murder is declared to be
manslaughter in the first degree.

At common law, if a man encourages another to murder
himself, and he is present abetting him while he does so, such
a man is guilty of murder zs, principal. It is otherwise, how-
ever, at common law when the suicide is consummated in the
absence of the adviser. In such cases, as the adviser is only an
accessory before the fact, he cannot, according to the old tech-
nical rule of law, be convicted until after the conviction
of the principal, who, being on this hypothesis dead, is out of
the reach of legal process. This, however, has been in many
of the States corrected by statute, and where it is not, the
advising another to commit suicide, who afterwards does so,
is indictable at common law as a misdemeanor.

A civil action for damages figainst a person aiding and
abetting another in suicide will nndoubtedly lie in favor of
any party who is injured thereby.

32 PENAL LAWS

Under the Anglo-Saxon laws a person present at the death
of a man who was murdered or had committed suicide was re-
garded as particeps criminis, and as such was liable to a fine.
Every man's life had its value called, a were or capitis estimatto.
This had been varied at different periods, in the time of King
Athelstan, in A.D. 926, a law was made to settle the were of
every order of persons in the State. If the fines were not
paid the punishment was death.

In some countries accessories to suicide are punishable,
even though suicide itself is not a penal offense.

Among the German States, Brunswick, Thuringia, Baden,
and Saxony alone punish those who are accessories to suicide.
The penal code of France has no penalty against accessories
in such cases. The penal code of India has a penalty.

The general principal of law, however, prevails in all civil-
ized countries that when any act is declared and punished as
a crime, aiding and abetting another in it is also punishable.
This was bO under the Roman civil law and the canon law as
well as at common law.

The law against this crime is obsolete from disuse because
it is never necessary to enforce it, the natural instincts of the
human heart being sufficient to prevent the frequency of such
crimes.

In misdemeanors there are no accessories, but all the guilty
actors, whether present or absent at the commission of the
offense are principals, and should be indicted, and are pun-
ishable as such. (People vs. Enim, 4, Denio 129.)

SUICIDE AND TESTIMENTARY CAPACITY.

In regard to wills made just before committing suicide the
prevalent doctrine in England and in this country is that the
act of self-destruction may not necessarily imply insanity so
as to avoid the will ; that if the will is a rational act rationally
done, the sanity of the testator is established, and the charac-
ter of the will and its consistency with the character of the
testator is the sole evidence of rationality at the time of its
execution.

OF SUICIDE. 33

We have before seen that by the Roman law the will of a
suicide could be admitted to probate.

Under the English common law previous to the statute
abolishing forfeiture the will of a felo de se is void, both as to
the appointment of an executor and also with respect to any
legacy or bequest of goods, for they are forfeited by the very
act and manner of his death ; but any devise of land made by
him is good, as that is not subjected to any forfeiture. The
will of 2Lfelo de se is of force against the testator and his repre-
sentatives and all other persons whatsoever ; so if the king or
lord pardons the forfeiture the will is suffered to take effect.

SUICIDE AND LIFE INSURANCE.

It is an established principle of law that an insurance
against the consequences of an illegal act is, like a contract
to do an illegal act, a void contract as against public policy,
and we have before seen that suicide is a crime at common
law, therefore no insurance can be recovered in such cases,
unless the party is proved to be insane at the time of the act,
then the insurance is valid and can be recovered. In order to
avoid a recovery in all cases of suicide, a clause has been in-
serted in many policies conditioned to make it void " if the
assured shall die by his own hand or act," or words to that
effect.

The first case that was decided on the question of suicide
and its effect on a life insuranc policy containing such a clause
was that of Breasted vs. The Farmers' Loan and Trust Com-
pany, in the Supreme Court of the State of New York (re-
ported 4, Hill. 74) in 1843. The policy contained a clause of
forfeiture in case the insured died by his own hand. It was
held in that case that the insanity of the iusured at the time
of his death by suicide was no defence. This decision was
sustained by the Court of Appeals when it came up ten years
afterwards (reported in 8 N. Y. 303) by five 'judges against
three. On this appeal the case of Borradaille vs. Hunter
(44 Eng. C. L. Reps. 336, which was the first English case on
a similar question and was decided in 1843), was cited and ap-
proved

34 pj:nal laws

In England it is the law at present, under this particular
form of a policy, that in every case of suicide, whatever may
have been the mental condition, if the policy containing the
clause which makes it void "if the assured shall die by his
own hand or act," or words to that effect, the policy becomes
void in such case. (In Clift vs. Schwabe 54 Eng. C. L.,

P- 437-)

The principle of the decisions in the English cases is
founded upon the right of contracting parties to make any
exception they may agree upon at the time of the issuing of
the policy, and that it must be strictly construed in favor of
public policy.

In Germany and throughout Continental Europe (with the
exception of France — in the latter the Courts have given con-
flicting decisions as to the construction of the conditions
against suicide), the Courts coincide with the views expressed
in the English decisions and hold the policy void in such
cases. There have been many conflicting decisions in Amer-
ican Courts on this same question, but they have not, any of
them, gone so far as the English cases. In the United Stales
Supreme Court (Life Ins. Co. vs. Terry, 15 Wallace, 580), in a
case where the policy contained a condition " If the said per-
son whose life is hereby insured shall die by his own hand
this policy shall be null and void," and the insured died from
poison voluntarily administered by himself, the Court says ;

"We hold the rule on the question before us to be this. If
the assured, being in the possession of his ordinary reasoning
faculties, from anger, pride, jealousy, or a desire to escape
from the ills of life, intentionally takes his own life, the pro-
viso attaches and there can be no recovery. If the death is
caused by the voluntary act of the assured, he knowing and
intending that his death shall be the result of this act, but
when his reasoning faculties are so'far impaired that he is not
able to understand the moral character of the general nature,
consequences and effect of the act he is about to commit, or
vphen he is impelled thereto by an insane impulse which he
has not the power to resist, such death is not within the con-
templation of the parties to the contract, and the insurer is
liable."

OF SUICIDE. 35

This case was explained by the N. Y. Court of Appeals in
Van Zandt vs. Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Company (55
N. Y. 169).

The presumption of law is, in all cases, that death was
caused by accideut, as in drowning, poisoning, &c. or in the
natural way when no cause of death can be discovered. (Mal-
lory vs. Trav. Ins, Co., 47 N. Y., p. 54.)

The burden of proving that the insured died by his own
hand is on the insurer. This proved, the burden is thrown on
the representatives of the insured to show that he did not
commit the act of self-destruction, with the knowledge that
it would, and the intent that it should, result in death.

(See proper charge to the jury stated fn Van Zandt vs.
Mutual Benefit Ins. Co., 55 N. Y. 169.)

A person is in law presumed to be sane, and to know the
consequences of his own acts, until the contrary appears.

When the question of suicide and insanity, in regards to
life insurance claims, are left to a jury, they are almost always
decided against the insurers, on the ground apparently, if no
other can be found, that the act of suicide itself is evidence
of insanity.*

The nnost important decision, and one in which the Ameri-
can doctrine at the present time is plainly laid down to its full
extent, has very recently been decided by the Court of Ap-
peals of Maryland (Knickerbocker Ins. Co. vs. Peters, 42,
Md. 414).

In this case the policy contained the clause, which by its
terms made it void, " if the assured shall die by his own hand
or act." The act of self-destruction was by hanging. The
wife of the deceased sought to recover from the insurance
company the amount of the policy. The company defended
under said clause, which they claimed made the policy void.
In deciding the case the court said it is now too well settled
to admit of question that the clause is not to be construed as
comprehending every possible case by which life is taken by

* Dr . Johnson was right when he said, in regard to suicides, "that they are often
not universally disordered in their intellects, but one passion presses so upon
them that they yield to it and commit suicide as a passionate man will stab
another."

36

PENAL LAWS

the person's own act. For instance, all the authorities con-
cur in the view that an unintentional or accidental taking of
life is not within the meaning or intention of the clause.

Thus, if, by inadvertence or accident a person shoots him-
self or take poison by mistake, or in a sudden frenzy or delu-
sion tears a bandage from a wound and bleeds to death, in a
literal sense of the term, he dies by his own act ; yet all the
decisions agree that a reasonable construction of the proviso
according to the plain and obvious intention of the parties,
would exclude such party from its operation, and the Court
instructed the jury that the clause in question would not pre-
vent a recovery if they found from the evidence that the de-
ceased killed himself in a fit of insanity which overpowered
his consciousness, reason and will, and acted from a mere
blind and nncrontrollnble impulse ; and that after they are
satisfied that he died by his own hand, it becomes the duty of
the plaintiff, on her part, to offer proof sufficient to prevent
the operation of the clause ; and she does not comply with
such exigency by proof merely that deceased was insane at
times. She must prove that he was insane when the act was
committed, and in the absence of such proof of his condition
at the precise time when the act was committed, the jury
must presume he was then sane, and they cannot draw an in-
ference that he was insane from the fact that he destroyed
his own life. These instructions, say the Judges, state the
law more explicitly and more favorably for the insurer than
is found in any of the American authorities to which they
have referred, or to which their attention has been called on
argument. The Court says, in effect, that when the act of
self-destruction is done during insanity, it is death by acci-
dent. It is to be observed that this clause did not say "sane
or insane."

Mr. Justice Hunt, of the United States Supreme Court, re-
marked, in deciding a case, that "insurance companies some
times insist that individuals, largely insured upon their lives
who are embarrassed in their affairs, resort to self-destruc-
tion, being willing to end a wretched existence if they can
thereby bestow comfort upon their families."

" The juror," adds justice Hunt, "would be likely to repu-

OF SUICIDE. 37

diate such a theory on the ground that nothing can compen-
sate a man for loss of life."

It is a good ground of challenge to a juror, in such cases,
if he believes that suicide is an evidence of insanity.

The question as to the effect of the religious sentiments of
felo de se cannot be taken into consideration by the court or
jury when considering the sanity or insanity of the deceased
in life insurance cases. This has been directly held by the
N. Y. Court of Appeals, in the case of Gibson vs. The Am.
M. Life Ins. Co., 5 Transcript Appeals, p. 261.

In that case the question in contention at the trial was
whether the death of the deceased was accidental or whether
it was a case of intentional self-destruction. The defendant
insisted that they had a right to show that the deceased was
an infidel and an atheist, and thence to draw an argument in
support of the theory of intentional suicide. In holding that
such evidence could not be considered, the Court said :

"To adjudge that a man's belief in Christianity will prevent
the commission of suicide, or that atheism will produce or
tend to produce a contrary effect, is to adopt a principle
more subtle and speculative, more uncertain and more remote
than the law can recognize."

The maxim Nemo praes nuntur, &c. No man is presumed
to be forgetful of his eternal welfare, and particularly at the
point of death. (6 Coke, 76), relates to dying declarations
only, and not to suicides or presumptions in regard to the act.

Expert testimony is also very much restricted in this class
of cases. A medical witness was called for the plaintiff and
asked the question : "Assuming that a person had that form
of insanity which you denominate melancholia, and had com-
mitted suicide, would you attribute that suicide to the dis-
ease ?" This question was objected to on the trial, and the
witness answered, "Yes, I should attribute it as the result of
insanity." The N. Y. Court of Appeals 8. (Van Zandt vs.
Mutual Benefit Life Ins. Co., 55, N. Y., 179,) granted on this
ground a new trial ; the verdict was in favor of the plaintiff.

The many insurance decisions on the subject of suicide
already in the law reports, which show the controversy that
exists among us with all the force of novelty, is caused by the
different policies issued.

38

PENAL LAWS

So long as insanity is allowed to avoid the terms of insur-
ance in cases of suicide, it is apparent that no clause can be
inserted in a policy which can eifectually guard against it if
the question is tried by a jury in the usual manner.

In our American Courts, in order to see that justice and
right is done to insurers, the courts in some cases take the
case away from the jury, if possible, and direct a verdict for
the insurers (Fow^ler vs. Mutual Ins Co., 4 Lansing, 202).

(See McClure vs. Mutual Benefit Life Ins. Co., 55, N. Y.,
p. 651. Weed vs. do. 70 N Y., 562.)

The policy in such a case should contain, in the clause
against self-destruction, the further proviso "whether sane
or insane," or words to that effect. Great caution must be
used in this, or a new trial will be granted, for the reason that
the case was a proper one for the jury alone to pass upon.

It has seemed doubtful what clause could be inserted in any
American policy which could effectually guard against sui-
cide. In a late case, however, in the United States Circuit
Court, in the Northern District of Illinois (Chapman vs. The
Republic Life Insurance Company, 5 Bigelow Ins. Cases, p.
110), the company defended against a suicide claim on the
ground (among others) that its policy contained a condition
thus worded : " In case the said insured die by his or her
own act and intention, whether sane or insane, or of death in
consequence of the violation of law, * * * then, and in
such case, it is stipulated by all the parties in interest that the
company shall not be liable for the sum assured." In point
of fact, Chapman's death was caused by a pistol shot fired by
himself, and the company disclaimed liability on the ground
that the shot was fired "with the intention and for the pur-
pose of then and there causing his death." The usual plea of
irresponsibility on the ground of insanity was put in as an
offset to the company's defense, and the company relied upon
the condition of its policy above quoted. The Court said :
" I have no doubt of the right of an insurance company to
thus protect itself against liabilities ;'' and again " as noth-
ing is seen in this case, or has been suggested, making it in-
competent for the defendant to protect itself against the in-
sane act of persons holding its policy, we think effect must

OF SUICIDE. 39

be given to the condition, and the replication must be held to
be bad."

Quite recently the Federal Court, sitting in St. Louis, de-
clared that whether a suicide is insane or not, whatever, indeed,
may be the circumstances of his killing, if he dies intention-
ally by his own hand, insurance on his life will be forfeited ;
the policy contained a stipulation of forfeiture in event of
suicide. The Court held, in the same case, that on another
policy there was no forfeiture because it was not so stipulated
in the policy.

It was held (Pierce vs. Travelers' Life Ins. Co., 34Wis.S. C,
3 Ins. L. J., 422), where a policy contained the conditional
clause " or die by suicide, felonious or otherwise, sane or in-
sane," &c., the policy should be null and void; that the parties
to the contract having defined the sense in which the word
" suicide " is to be used, the Court is bound by that definition,
and the insurers are not liable without regard to the mental
condition of the deceased.

The apparent conflict among the American adjudications
on this point is chiefly caused by the peculiar wording and
construction of the different provisos against self-destruction.
The current of these decisions, when the policy is properly
worded as construed by our Courts on this question is grad-
ually approaching Dean vs. Am. Mutual, (4, Allen, Mass., p.
96), and will ultimately be in effect the same as the English
decisions, for they are the most just to the insurers and are
according to the common law, and are for the welfare of the
community as tending to discourage and prevent self-de-
struction.

(Since this part of this paper was published the United
States Supreme Court, in October, 1876, in the case of Bige-
low, is Berkshire Life Ins. Co., 93, U. S. p, 284, has impliedly
followed the case of Borradaile vs. Hunter, in the same direc-
tion, by construing a life policy containing the phrase "sane or
insane " to have the same meaning and effect as the policy
was held in that case to have without that language. The
case also follows the case of Breasted vs. The Farmers' Loan
and Trust Co., 4 Hill, p. 74, before cited.)

In viewing the decisions of our Courts, the express Ian-

40 PENAL LAWS

guage of the policy must always be considered. The re-
strictions and practices in regard to suicide clauses are, there-
fore, very important. In England the conditions as to sui-
cide are different at various times and in different companies.
Some of them issue policies free from any conditions on this
point ; others declare that their policies shall be void in the
event of death by suicide occurring within a certain period
after the issue of the policy, such period varying from six
months to five years. The wording of the suicide clause is
also various — as, dying by his own hand, whether under the
influence of insanity or not.

Most of the companies declare that suicide, whenever com-
mitted, shall not prejudice the assignee of a policy, but some
of them add the condition that intimation of the assignment
must have been made to them either before death or one
month after death.

French companies also vary in their policies — some omit-
ting any clause against suicide, and others containing restric-
tions in various terms and conditions.

In Germany, Austria and Switzerland a great variety of
practices exist. Some companies, under their clause against
suicide, pay the full amount assured if the policy has been a
certain number of years in force, some pay only in the event
of insanity being established as the cause of suicide, others
only pay to third parties, some leave the settlement entirely
in the hands of their boards, a very few companies preserve
silence by omitting the clause or giving but vague directions
on the subject. The Gotha Life Assurance Company, the
leading company in Germany, formerly considered a policy
null and void in all cases of suicide, even without any clause
against it, and its action was sustained in the German law
Courts. In 1840 an alteration was made in the by-laws of that
company, by which it was provided that all claim upon the
amount assured, beyond the reserve value of the policy, was
lost if a person died by his own hand. It will be observed
that no distinction under this regulation was made as to
whether a person died under the influence of insanity or oth-
erwise. The reser^^e value is always much less than the
amount of the premiums which have been actually paid. I

OF SUICIDE. 4

believe that the Gotha originated this plan, which is now
quite common in the policies recently issued by American
companies.

The American companies exhibit as extensive varieties in
regard to their practices as can well be imagined. They not
only include all the European varieties of policies and clauses
relating to suicide, but many more. The N. Y. Life Insur-
ance Company, the fourth in rank in the United States in the
number of outstanding policies, has no clause, and never
had any, relating to suicide or self-destruction. Some com-
panies now provide that if insanity is ascertained and pro-
nounced by an authorized board or person specified by them,
by request on the part of the insured, before the act of self-
destruction is committed, then the policy will be paid ; some
of these, even in such case, only pay the amount of the re-
serve of the policy, and others return the premiums.

About one year ago the Chamber of Life Insurance, com-
posed of about thirty leading companies in the United States,
recommended that a clause be inserted in the policies of all
companies, to the effect that it would he null and void " if
the person shall die by suicide or by his own hand, or in con-
sequence of an attempt to commit suicide or to take his own
life, provided, however, that if any of these acts be com-
mitted while in a state of derangement or insanity, the com-
pany agree to pay upon the policy thus voided the full legal
reserve thereof."

The policy must be at least one year old to be entitled to
this. This has generally been adopted, more or less, in effect
by all companies (excepting the New York Life), relating to
new policies. Many of them had used it for several years
before, more or less. In some instances they return the
actual amount of the premiums paid in such cases. The fifth
company in rank does this. Some companies contain further
restrictions, as to the length of time, &c. The practice of
assignment of the policy or the payment to other persons in-
terested in the life of the insured is the same as is in general
use. In all other cases it must be on consent of the com-
pany.

The question of the legal assignment of a life insurance

42 PENAL LAWS

policy is governed by the laws of the State where the assign
ment is made. (Barry vs. Eg. L. A. So., 59 N.Y., 587.)

Of the outstanding life policies in the United States, and
there are about eight hundred and eighty thousand of them,
probably about one-twentieth do not contain any proviso
against suicide; and about three-fifths contain only the simple
proviso making it void if the insured shall " die by suicide,"
and about three-tenths contain the additional words of " sane
or insane." The first and third companies in rank in the
number of outstanding polices only added to that clause "sane
or insane " about four years ago — the fifth had used it for
many years. The second in rank contains only the simple
proviso declaring it void in case of suicide. The fourth, as
we have seen, does not contain any restrictions whatever on
this point. These five companies have more than one-third
of the total number of outstanding policies.

I have not found or heard of any policy, either in Europe
or America, that contained the comprehensive suicide clause,
and in addition thereto the words to the effect that said clause
should "bind the heirs, executors, administrators and as-
signs, and all other persons interested in the insured." Such
an addition to some of the suicide clauses which are in some
policies (to wit: the case of Chapman vs. Republic Life Ins.
Co., above cited) would undoubtedly greatly relieve the
Courts of any necessity of ever submitting any question un-
der it on this point to a jury, and thus the intention of the
parties at the time of the making of the contract would be
enforced in law without any uncertainty in the matter. There
has never been any reported adjudication upon any policy
containing such a clause as is above suggested. In some
States these words would be implied.

Where a policy provides that if the party die by his own
hands the policy should be void, except to the extent of any
bona fide interest which a third person miglit have acquired,
the English Courts hold that it may be enforced for the bene-
fit of others, whatever be the means of which death is occa-
sioned. (Moor vs. Woolsey, 25 Beaman, 599. The Solicitors'
and Gen. Life Assur. Co. vs. Lamb, 2 De Gex. J. and S 251.
Where a policy was taken out for the benefit of the wife

OF SUICIDE. 43

and children of the insured, and it contained no clause for-
feiting it in case his death by suicide, it was held by the N.Y.
Court of Appeals (Fitch vs. Am. Pop. Life Ins. Co., 59 N. Y.,
557)) that evidence that deceased committed suicide was not
admissable, and that the parties interested were not bound by
the acts of the deceased unless in violation of some condition
of the policy.

In regard to the enforcement of payment from foreign
companies doing business abroad, the general rule of the law
of the forum prevails, and the law of the place where the con-
tract is to be performed is to be considered without regard to
the laws under which the company is organized and located
at home.

The lex loci contractus prevails to a certain extent. The
policies generally provide that payment of loss must be by
the "home office," and at the "home office." In such case
the lex loci is at that place, although a suit is commenced in
some other State it is governed by that of the home office.

To allow insurance for suicide, it is argued, seems unjust to
all policy-holders, as it introduces another class of risks which
cannot be guarded against, or only to a very limited extent;
and hence all premiums are necessarily made much larger,
and a loss in such cases also impairs the capital and surplus
of the company. The patronage of the people, however,
shows that it is liked by them. The degree of skill exercised
in the medical examinations of applicants make the risks
much less in such cases than is generally supposed.

The propriety of allowing any insurance on a life destroyed
by suicide may well be questioned on the grounds of public
policy, (i.) It is an illegal act, being a felony at common
law, as we have before seen. (2.) It is an immoral act, and
against the welfare of a State to allow any encouragement for
the self-destruction and loss of its members which all are
bound to preserve and protect. (3.) It is aiding and abetting
suicide, which is also a crime at common law and by statute.
The harm done by allowing it is in proportion to the absence
of restrictions on that point in the policy, and also in the
amount of the insurance.

The endowment plan has a contrary effect from the usuaj

44 PENAL LAWS

life insurance plans, and it should be encouraged as having a
beneficial tendency favorable to the longevity of individuals.
The number of endowment policies outstanding in the United
States is very small in comparison with life policies.

CONCLUSION.

Self-preservation is, unquestionably, the natural law, and
is the strongest instinct of all animal life. If it were not more
prevalent than the destructive agents without and within or-
ganic beings, they would all, sooner or later, become annihi-
lated. Love of life, therefore, is and must be the natural
selection and conservative for preservation ; and death, and
and the fear of it, is and must be naturally shunned for
the same reason.

Man is the only being in all animal life, with one excep-
tion, that ever commits wilful and deliberate self-destruction.
The scorpion will sometimes sting itself to death when its
hope of life is gone, Byron has graphically described this in
" The Giour," by the following lines :

It * * * * jjijg jjjg scorpion girt by fire,
In circle narrowing as it glows,
The flames around their captive close,
'Till inly scorched by thousand throes,
And maddening m her ire.
One sad and sole relief she knows —
The sting, she nourished for her foes.
Whose venom never yet was vain, >

Gives but one pang and cures all pain
And darts into her desperate brain."

There are and must be times when the natural instincts are
overcome or lost, and then some other stronger and counter-
acting influences must be brought to bear to preserve or to
restore them to power and healthy action. '

It is, unquestionably, the duty of a State, and each member
thereof, to use any and every means to protect and preserve
its members from destructive agencies, from whatever sources
they may come. Counteracting influences over predominant

OF SUICIDE. 45

tendencies which are or may be harmful to the community,
is the object of all penal laws. The difficulty seems to be
how this shall be done in this case. The punishment of sui-
cides by a narrow view, seems that it may or can only affect
the living, and not the guilty party, — that the innocent also
must sufiEer. All penal laws relatively, affect the friends and
family of those who may violate them, and many times this is
found to be their most salutary use in deterring their viola-
tion.

We have seen in the foregoing history that there are at-
tributes and peculiarities of the mind that may be used to
effectively prevent this most terrible occurrence. Religious
influence should be encouraged as a solace in moments of
despair, and as having rewards and punishmeuts in a future
life. Suffering humanity seems to require this in the day of
temptations and of troubles, be they real or imaginary.

It may be said here that penalties ought not to be enforced
against insane persons who commit suicide. It is a well re-
cognized fact that the insane have like passions as those who
are not insane, and are amenable to influences, and are re-
strained from doing wrong and constrained to do right, by
the same motives, which have the same effects in sane per-
sons, and that they generally have the power of self-control
when they have a sufficient motive to exert it Their actions
are controlled, like sane persons, by their hopes and fears, be
they real or imaginary.

The disposition of the body and property of the deceased
may be in a manner which will deter others from similar acts.
Exemplary penalties are common and are always commenda-
ble in all penal laws. The bodies of executed criminals have
in all nations and countries (except in the United States)
from the earliest times to the present, been denied the usual
burial rites which were peculiar to the times and country in
which they were executed, and some special disposition of
them were prescribed.

We all need protection from this dreadful foe, which may
deprive us, at any time, of our most esteemed and nearest and

46 PENAL LAWS OF SUICIDE.

dearest friend, or our own hand may be raised against our
own life ; and then there are those who would mourn for the
most worthless of us.

However useless and burdensome the suicide himself may-
be regarded by the community, or by his relatives and
friends, or by himself, his example should not be allowed, for
some more worthy person may be tempted, in a moment of
despondency and madness, to follow tlie unfortunate and
cowardly course to escape the ills and ails of life, instead of
" taking up arms against a sea of troubles," and bravely fight-
ing the battles of life through any and every adversity, bear-
ing all with fortitude — always hoping for the better in the
sharp extremities of fortune. By thus living heroically in
the path of duty and right, he will, like a soldier on duty, die
as he has lived, heroically ; and, at the last, he can exclaim,
with St. Paul, 'W have fought a good fight !" Such examples
will have beneficial effects