DEATH 



has no meaning, since murder is the taking away of a 

 man's life against his will, while the suicide dies volun- 

 tarily. Hence, he usually deserves our sympathy, not 

 contempt, and certainly not punishment. Our conven- 

 tional morality is, as so often happens, full of senseless 

 contradictions. Modern states have introduced con- 

 scription; they demand that every citizen shall give up 

 his life for his country on command, and kill as many 

 other men as he can (an admirable commentary on the 

 Scriptural "Love your enemies") for some political 

 reason or other. But they never secure to each citizen 

 the means of honorable existence and free development 

 of his personality — not even the right to work by which 

 he may maintain himself and his family. 



I fully recognize the advance that social politics has 

 made in improving the conditions of the poorer classes, 

 the promotion of hygiene and education and the bodily 

 and mental welfare of citizens ; but we are still very far 

 from the attainable ideal of general prosperity and happi- 

 ness which reason dictates to every civilized nation. 

 Misery and want are increasing among the poor, as 

 the division of labor and over-population increase. 

 Thousands of strong and active men come to grief every 

 year without any fault of theirs, often precisely because 

 they were quiet and honest; thousands are hungry 

 because, with the best will in the world, they cannot find 

 work; thousands are sacrificed to the heartless demands 

 of our iron age of machinery with its exacting technical 

 and industrial requirements. On the other hand, we see 

 thousands of contemptible characters prospering because 

 they have been able to deceive their fellows by un- 

 scrupulous speculations, or because they have flattered 

 and served the higher authorities. It is no wonder that 

 the statistics of suicide increase so much in the more 

 civilized communities. No feeling man who has any 

 real "Christian love of his neighbor" will grudge his 

 8 113 



