3 66 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



his sweet nature and upright manliness — while overcome by grief 

 at the death of his wife, with his own hand sought rest beyond. 



Michael Angelo, after receiving a painful injury to his leg by 

 falling from a scaffold while at work upon The Last Judgment, 

 became so melancholy that he shut himself in his room, refused 

 to see any one, and " resolved to let himself die/' Fortunately, his 

 intentions were frustrated by the celebrated physician Bacio Ron- 

 tini, who learned by accident of his condition. 



Vittoria Alfieri, of whom it has been said that every event in 

 his life is either a factor of disease or a symptom of mental aliena- 

 tion, attempted suicide in Holland, while making one of his rest- 

 less trips through Europe in search of change. 



Kotzebue, who at last met a tragic death at the hand of 

 an assassin, was at one time so melancholy that he meditated 

 self-destruction. Happily, however, as he tells us, his habit 

 of composition was so firmly fixed that 4ie went on with his 

 work and produced one of his finest dramas, Misanthropy and 

 Repentance. 



Cowper, as is well known, when bowed down by religious mel- 

 ancholy, made two unsuccessful attempts upon his life. 



Chateaubriand, the brilliant representative of French litera- 

 ture, became so thoroughly discontented with himself and the 

 world that he attempted to take his life. 



Dupuytren, the distinguished anatomist and surgeon, whose 

 kindly nature induced him to leave a large share of his fortune 

 for the establishment of a benevolent institution for the relief of 

 distressed medical men, contemplated suicide even when at the 

 acme of his fame. 



Cavour, " the regenerator of Italy," and one of the greatest of 

 modern statesmen, twice attempted to kill himself. 



Lincoln, as Herndon tells us in The True Story of a Great Life, 

 was subject to fits of extreme melancholy. Nicolay also says that 

 beneath his apparently cheerful and sunny nature there was an 

 undercurrent of deep sadness. At one time, according to Hern- 

 don, his melancholy reached such proportions that his friends, 

 " fearing a tragic termination, watched him closely day and night." 

 At this time Lincoln himself wrote : " I am now the most misera- 

 ble man living. To remain as I am is impossible. I must die, or 

 be better, as it appears to me." While thus suffering he wrote 

 and published a paper on suicide. But, to the glory of civiliza- 

 tion, the shadows lifted, and he lived to place his name in per- 

 petual honor by freeing the nation from " the incubus of slav- 

 ery." 



Lamartine, poet, statesman, and orator, when overcome by re- 

 verses which were as sudden as his successes had been, looked 

 longingly toward the tomb. 



