FREE ESSAY ON HUME SUICIDE

HUME SUICIDE

ONE considerable advantage that arises from Philosophy, consists in the sovereign antidote
which it affords to superstition and false religion. All other remedies against that
pestilent distemper are vain, or at least uncertain. Plain good sense and the practice of
the world, which alone serve most purposes of life, are here found ineffectual: History
as well as daily experience furnish instances of men endowed with the {2} strongest
capacity for business and affairs, who have all their lives crouched under slavery to the
grossest superstition. Even gaiety and sweetness of temper, which infuse a balm into
every other wound, afford no remedy to so virulent a poison; as we may particularly
observe of the fair sex, who tho' commonly possest of their rich presents of nature, feel
many of their joys blasted by this importunate intruder. But when found Philosophy has
once gained possession of the mind, superstition is effectually excluded, and one may
fairly affirm that her triumph over this enemy is more complete than over most of the
vices and imperfections incident to human nature. Love or anger, ambition or avarice,
have their root in the temper and affection, which the soundest reason is scarce ever
able fully to correct, but superstition being founded on false opinion, must immediately
vanish when true philosophy has inspired juster sentiments of superior powers. The
contest is here more equal between the distemper and the medicine, {3} and nothing can
hinder the latter from proving effectual but its being false and sophisticated. 
IT will here be superfluous to magnify the merits of Philosophy by displaying the
pernicious tendency of that vice of which it cures the human mind. ([editor's note] 1)
The superstitious man says Tully2 is miserable in every scene, in every incident in life;
even sleep itself, which banishes all other cares of unhappy mortals, affords to him
matter of new terror; while he examines his dreams, and finds in those visions of the
night prognostications of future calamities. I may add that tho' death alone can put a
full period to his misery, he dares not fly to this refuge, but still prolongs a
miserable existence from a vain fear left he offend his Maker, by using the power, with
which that beneficent being has endowed him. The presents of God and nature are ravished
from us by this {4} cruel enemy, and notwithstanding that one step would remove us from
the regions of pain and sorrow, her menaces still chain us down to a hated being which
she herself chiefly contributes to render miserable. 
'TIS observed by such as have been reduced by the calamities of life to the necessity of
employing this fatal remedy, that if the unseasonable care of their friends deprive them
of that species of Death which they proposed to themselves, they seldom venture upon any
other, or can summon up so much resolution a second time as to execute their purpose. So
great is our horror of death, that when it presents itself under any form, besides that
to which a man has endeavoured to reconcile his imagination, it acquires new terrors and
overcomes his feeble courage: But when the menaces of superstition are joined to this
natural timidity, no wonder it quite deprives men of all power over their lives, since
even many pleasures and enjoyments, {5} to which we are carried by a strong propensity,
are torn from us by this inhuman tyrant. Let us here endeavour to restore men to their
native liberty, by examining all the common arguments against Suicide, and shewing that
that action may be free from every imputation of guilt or blame, according to the
sentiments of all the antient philosophers. ([editor's note] 2) 
IF Suicide be criminal, it must be a transgression of our duty either to God, our
neighbour, or ourselves. -- To prove that suicide is no transgression of our duty to God,
the following considerations may perhaps suffice. In order to govern the material world,
the almighty Creator has established general and immutable laws, by which all bodies,
from the greatest planet to the smallest particle of matter, are maintained in their
proper sphere and function. To govern the animal world, he has endowed all living
creatures with bodily and mental powers; with senses, passions, {6} appetites, memory,
and judgement, by which they are impelled or regulated in that course of life to which
they are destined. These two distinct principles of the material and animal world,
continually encroach upon each other, and mutually retard or forward each others
operation. The powers of men and of all other animals are restrained and directed by the
nature and qualities of the surrounding bodies, and the modifications and actions of
these bodies are incessantly altered by the operation of all animals. Man is stopt by
rivers in his passage over the surface of the earth; and rivers, when properly directed,
lend their force to the motion of machines, which serve to the use of man. But tho' the
provinces of the material and animal powers are not kept entirely separate, there results
from thence no discord or disorder in the creation; on the contrary, from the mixture,
union, and contrast of all the various powers of inanimate bodies and living creatures,
arises that sympathy, harmony, {7} and proportion, which affords the surest argument of
supreme wisdom. The providence of the Deity appears not immediately in any operation, but
governs every thing by those general and immutable laws, which have been established from
the beginning of time.