88 JZAAK WALTON AND HIS FRIENDS 



neither had I subjected it now to public view, but 

 that I could find no certain way to defend it from 

 the one, but by committing it to the other." In the 

 preface Donne says because he thought, as in the 

 Pool of Bethsaida,^ there was no health till the 

 water was troubled, so the best way to find the 

 truth in this matter was to debate and vex it, he 

 abstained not for fear of misinterpretation from 

 this undertaking. He states that Self-homicide 

 is no more against the law of nature than any 

 other sin, and that that cannot be against the law 

 of nature which men (and he cites many by name), 

 have affected. Hallam says : " No one would be 

 induced to kill himself by reading such a book, 

 unless he were threatened with another volume" 

 (Literary History, Vol. II., note on p. 457). 



Under the euphonical name of "Euthanasia"^ 

 the subject was discussed in the Fortnightly Review 

 for February 1873, in the Spectator for the 15th 

 of February 1874, and quite recently in the 

 Spectator in February 1902. 



Anyone interested in Donne should read his 

 Life and Letters, by Mr Gosse, the article on him 



1 Bethesda is generally given as the word in St John's Gospel 

 V. 2 ; the Eevised Version, however, has the note : " Some 

 ancient authorities read Bethsaida, others, Bethzatha." Bethesda 

 means the house of mercy, Bethsaida means the house of fishing. 



2 " Euthanasia ! Euthanasia ! an easy death ! was the exclamation 

 of Augustus ; it was what Antoninus Pius enjoyed " (see Curiosities 

 of Literature, Vol. III., p 228. Cf. Notes and Queries, 4th S. XI., p. 

 276). 



