OLD AGE. 535 



^voiild miss; on the contrary, who is an injury to everyone, who does 

 not herself know why die kee])s on living, and Avho perhaps Avill 

 be good and dead to-morrow. While on the other hand there are 

 fresh young lives wasting for nothing at all, without being helped by 

 anyone; these can be numbered by thousands; everywhere it is the 

 same." 



Old men not only risk being assassinated; they often end their 

 lives prematurely by committing suicide. Deprived of the means 

 of existence, or attacked by serious maladies, they prefer death to 

 their unhappy life. The frequency of suicides among old men is 

 well established by statistics and supported by a quantity of precise 

 data. This fact has long been known. New statistics tend to confirm 

 it. Thus, in 1878, in Prussia there were 154 suicides per 100,000 indi- 

 viduals among men from 20 to 50 years of age, and almost double that, 

 205, among men between 50 and 80. Denmark, the classical country 

 of suicide, confirms the rule. There were at Copenhagen, during the 

 years from 188() to 1895, for every 100,000 individuals, 804 suicides 

 among men from 80 to 50 years of age, and 68G cases of self-murder 

 among the old from 50 to TO years of age. The young and strong 

 adults furnished, therefore, 36|^ per cent of suicides, while the num- 

 l)er afforded by tlie aged amounted to 63^ per cent. 



It is only in exceptional cases that these suicides can be attributed 

 to the failure of the instinct of life. Most frequently life, although 

 desired, becomes intolerable because of such circumstances as we have 

 already mentioned. The desire to live, instead of diminishing tends, 

 on the contrar}^ to increase witli age. The old Fuegian women, aware 

 that they are destined to be eaten, flee into the mountains whither they 

 are pursued by tlie men and carried back home where they nnist sub- 

 mit to death. 



It has for a k)ng time been noticed that the longer one lives, the 

 longer one desires to live. Charles Renouvier, a French philosopher, 

 recently deceased, gave new proof of the truth of this rule. When 88 

 years old and feeling himself to l)e dying, he jotted down his impres- 

 sions during liis last days. This is what he wrote four days before 

 his death : 



" I have no illusions regarding my condition. I know that I am 

 soon to die, in a week or perhaps two, and yet I have so many things 

 to say about our doctrine. At my age one has no right to hope. 

 One's days, or i)erhaps one's hours are numbered, I nuist be 

 resigned. * '"^ * I can not die Avithout regret. I regret that I 

 can in no Avay foresee what will become of my ideas. Besides I am 

 going before I have said my last word. One always has to leave 

 before terminating one's task. This is one of the saddest of the sad- 

 nesses of life. * * * This is not all. When one is old, very old, 

 habituated to life, it is very difficult to die. I readily believe that 

 young people accept the idea of death more easily than the old. 



