SUICIDE FKOM A LEGAL POINT OF VIEW. 203, 



spearc in Hamlet's solilociuy, "To be cr not to be, that is the 

 question — 



Whether it were better for the mind to suiter 

 The sHngs and arrows of outrageous fortune. 

 Or to take arms against a sea ot troubles, 

 And by opposing end them," etc. 



Suicide is shrunk ii'om because it may have disastrous con- 

 sequences to the individual in a possible future life. Such fears 

 may serve a useful purj>ose in preventing rash suicide from 

 selfish motives, such as suggested itself to Hamlet. But I do 

 not think that this is a high-minded view to take of the question. 



It seems to me that we ought to ask not whether we may be 

 punished for suicide in another life, but whether it is right or 

 wrong; and that the best test whether it is right or wrong in a 

 particular case is how far it affects our fellow-men. A suicide 

 committed with the object of injuring any of our fellow-men 

 or of shirking cur duties to them is of course wrong. But when 

 the act is done with the object of relieving them from a burden 

 or other evil, it appears to me that it may be not only inexcusable, 

 but praiseworthy. Where misery that can serve no good pur- 

 pose is in prospect, as when melancholia threatens, it certainly 

 seems excusable. But apart from purely moral considerations, it 

 is surely the rashest of all rash acts without sufficient reason 

 to put an end to a life which one has only a single chance of 

 living in all eternity. 



But I do not wish to press my own opinion on the subject. 

 I wish chiefly to lay before you the undoubted change of view 

 on the question, which, I think, ought to be more generally 

 recognised. 



