OLD AGE. 535 



would miss; on the contraiy, who is an injury to everyone, who does 

 not herself know why she keeps on living, and who i)erha|)s will 

 he 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; everywhei-e it is the 

 same." 



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

 lives prematurely b}^ 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, 

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

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

 years from 1880 to 1895, for every 100,000 individuals, 39-t suicides 

 among men from 30 to 50 years of age, and 686 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- 

 ber afforded by the aged amounted to G3J per cent. 



It is onh' 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 menti(med. The desire to live, instead of diminishing tends, 

 on the contrary, to increase with age. The old Fuegian women, aware 

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

 are pursued hy the men and carried back home where they must sub- 

 mit to death. 



It has for a long time been noticed that the longer one lives, the 

 longer one desires to live. Charles Renouvier, a P^rench philosopher, 

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

 years old and feeling himself to be dying, he jotted down his impres- 

 sions during his last days. This is what he wrote foui- days before 

 his death : 



'' I have no illusions regarding my condition. I know that T 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 perhaps one's hours are numbered. I must be 

 resigned. * * * j ^.^j^ ^^q^ ^[q -without regret. I regret that I 

 can in no way 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 <me is old, very old, 

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

 young people accej^t the idea of death more easily than the old. 



