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Contents of this file page
SUICIDE OF JUDGE NORMILE. 1
IS SUICIDE A SIN? 1894 6
COL. INGERSOLL'S REPLY TO HIS CRITICS. 11
SUICIDE A SIN. an interview 20
SUICIDE AND SANITY. 24
**** ****
This file, its printout, or copies of either
are to be copied and given away, but NOT sold.
Bank of Wisdom, Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
The Works of ROBERT G. INGERSOLL
**** ****
A reply to the Western Watchman, published in
the St. Louis Globe Democrat, Sept. 1 1892.
SUICIDE OF JUDGE NORMILE.
QUESTION: Have you read an article in the Western Watchman.
entitled "Suicide of Judge Normile"? If so, what is your opinion of
it?
ANSWER: I have read the article, and I think the spirit in
which it is written is in exact accord with the creed, with the
belief, that prompted it.
In this article the writer speaks not only of Judge Normile,
but of Henry D'Arcy, and begins by saying that a Catholic community
had been shocked, but that as a matter of fact the Catholics had no
right "to feel special concern in the life or death of either," for
the reason, "that both had ceased to be Catholics, and had lived as
infidels and scoffers."
According to the Catholic creed all infidels and scoffers are
on the direct road to eternal pain; and yet, if the Watchman is to
be believed, Catholics have no right to have special concern for
the fate of such people, even after their death.
The church has always proclaimed that it was seeking the lost
-- that it was trying in every way to convert the infidels and save
the scoffers -- that it cared less for the ninety-nine sheep safe
in the fold than for the one that had strayed. We have been told
that God so loved infidels and scoffers, that he came to this poor
world and gave his life that they might be saved. But now we are
told by the Western Watchman that the church, said to have been
founded by Christ, has no right to feel any special concern about
the fate of infidels and scoffers.
Possibly the Watchman only refers to the infidels and scoffers
who were once Catholics.
If the New Testament is true, St. Peter was at one time a
Christian; that is to say, a good Catholic, and yet he fell from
grace and not only denied his Master, but went to the extent of
swearing that he did not know him; that he never had made his
acquaintance. And yet, this same Peter was taken back and became
the rock on which the Catholic Church is supposed to rest.
1
SUICIDE OF JUDGE NORMILE.
Are the Catholics of St. Louis following the example of
Christ, when they publicly declare that they care nothing for the
fate of one who left the church and who died in his sins?
The Watchman, in order to show that it was simply doing its
duty, and was not actuated by hatred or malice, assures us as
follows: "A warm personal friendship existed between D'Arcy and
Normile and the managers of this paper." What would the Watchman
have said if these men had been the personal enemies of the
managers of that paper? Two warm personal friends, once Catholics,
had gone to hell; but the managers of the Watchman, "warm personal
friends" of the dead, had no right to feel any special concern
about these friends in the flames of perdition. One would think
that pity had changed to piety.
Another wonderful statement is that "both of these men
determined to go to hell, if there was a hell, and to forego the
joys of heaven, if there was a heaven."
Admitting that heaven and hell exist, that heaven is a good
place, and that hell, to say the least, is, and eternally will be,
unpleasant, why should any sane man unalterably determine to go to
hell? It is hard to think of any reason, unless he was afraid of
meeting those Catholics in heaven who had been his "warm personal
friends" in this world. The truth is that no one wishes to be
unhappy in this or any other country. The truth is that Henry
D'Arcy and Judge Normile both became convinced that the Catholic
Church is of human origin, that its creed is not true, that it is
the enemy of progress, and the foe of freedom. It may be that they
were in part led to these conclusions by the conduct of their "warm
Personal friends."
It is claimed that these men, Henry D'Arcy and Judge Normile
"studied" to convince themselves "that there was no God;" that
"they went back to Paganism and lived among the ancients," and that
they soon revelled "in the grossness of Paganism." If they went
back to Paganism, they certainly found plenty of gods. The Pagans
filled heaven and earth with deities. The Catholics have only
three, while the Pagans had hundreds. And yet there were some very
good Pagans. By associating with Socrates and Plato one would not
necessarily become a groveling wretch. Zeno was not altogether
abominable. He would compare favorably, at least, with the average
pope. Aristotle was not entirely despicable, although wrong, it may
be, in many things. Epicurus was temperate, frugal and serene. He
perceived the beauty of use, and celebrated the marriage of virtue
and joy. He did not teach his disciples to revel in grossness,
although his malingers have made this charge. Cicero was a Pagan,
and yet he uttered some very sublime and generous sentiments. Among
other things, he said this: "When we say that we should love
Romans, but not foreigners, we destroy the bond of universal
brotherhood and drive from our hearts charity and justice."
Suppose a Pagan had written about "two warm personal friends"
of his, who had joined the Catholic Church, and suppose he had said
this: "Although our two warm personal fiends have both died by
their own hands, and although both have gone to the lowest hell,
and are now suffering inconceivable agonies, we have no right to
Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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SUICIDE OF JUDGE NORMILE.
feel any special concern about them or about their sufferings; and,
to speak frankly, we care nothing for their agonies, nothing for
their tears, and we mention them only to keep other Pagans from
joining that blasphemous and ignorant church. Both of our friends
were raised as Pagans, both were educated in our holy religion, and
both had read the works of our greatest and wisest authors, and yet
they fell into apostasy, and studied day and night, in season and
out of season, to convince themselves that a young carpenter of
Palestine was in fact, Jupiter, whom we call Stator, the creator,
the sustainer and governor of all."
It is probable that the editor of the Watchman was perfectly
conscientious in his attack on the dead. Nothing but a sense of
religious duty could induce any man to attack the character of a
"warm personal friend," and to say that although the friend was in
hell, he felt no special concern as to his fate.
The Watchman seems to think that it is hardly probable or
possible that a sane Catholic should become an infidel. People of
every religion feel substantially in this way. It is probable that
the Mohammedan is of the opinion that no sane believer in the
religion of Islam could possibly become a Catholic. Probably there
are no sane Mohammedans. I do not know.
Now, it seems to me, that when a sane Catholic reads the
history of his church, of the Inquisition, of centuries of flame
and sword, of philosophers and thinkers tortured, flayed and burned
by the "Bride of God," and of all the cruelties of Christian years,
he may reasonably come to the conclusion that the Church of Rome is
not the best possible church in this, the best possible of all
worlds.
It would hardly impeach his sanity if after reading the
history of superstition, he should denounce the Hierarchy, from
priest to pope. The truth is, the real opinions of all men are
perfectly honest no matter whether they are for or against the
Catholic creed. All intelligent people are intellectually
hospitable. Every man who knows something of the operations of his
own mind is absolutely certain that his wish has not, to his
knowledge, influenced his judgment. He may admit that his wish has
influenced his speech, but he must certainly know that it has not
affected his judgment.
In other words, a man cannot cheat himself in a game of
solitaire and really believe that he has won the game. No matter
what the appearance of the cards may be, he knows whether the game
was lost or won. So, men may say that their judgment is a certain
way, and they may so affirm in accordance with their wish, but
neither the wish, nor the declaration can affect the real judgment.
So, a man must know whether he believes a certain creed or not, or,
at least, what the real state of his mind is. When a man tells me
that he believes in the supernatural, in the miraculous, and in the
inspiration of the Scriptures, I take it for granted that he is
telling the truth, although it seems impossible to me that the man
could reach that conclusion. When another tells me that he does not
know whether there is a Supreme Being or not, but that he does not
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Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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SUICIDE OF JUDGE NORMILE.
believe in the supernatural, and is perfectly satisfied that the
Scriptures are for the most part false and barbarous, I implicitly
believe every word he says.
I admit cheerfully that there are many millions of men and
women who believe what to me seems impossible and infinitely
absurd; and, undoubtedly, what I believe seems to them equally
impossible.
Let us give to others the liberty which we claim for
ourselves.
The Watchman seems to think that unbelief, especially when
coupled with what they call "the sins of the flesh," is the lowest
possible depth, and tells us that "robbers may be devout,"
"murderers penitent," and "drunkards reverential."
In some of these statements the Watchman is probably correct.
There have been "devout robbers." There have been gentlemen of the
highway, agents of the road, who carried sacred images, who bowed
at holy shrines for the purpose of securing success. For many
centuries the devout Catholics robbed the Jews. The devout
Ferdinand and Isabella were great robbers. A great many popes have
indulged in this theological pastime, not to speak of the rank and
file. Yes, the Watchman is right. There is nothing in robbery that
necessarily interferes with devotion.
There have been penitent murderers, and most murderers, unless
impelled by a religious sense of duty to God, have been penitent.
David, with dying breath, advised his son to murder the old friends
of his father. He certainly was not penitent. Undoubtedly
Torquemada murdered without remorse, and Calvin burned his "warm
personal friend" to gain the applause of God. Philip the Second was
a murderer, not penitent, because he deemed it his duty. The same
may be said of the Duke of Alva, and of thousands of others.
Robert Burns was not, according to his own account, strictly
virtuous, and yet I like him better than I do those who planned and
carried into bloody execution the massacre of St. Bartholomew.
Undoubtedly murderers have been penitent. A man in California
cut the throat of a woman, although she begged for mercy, saying at
the same time that she was not prepared to die. He cared nothing
for her prayers. He was tried, convicted and sentenced to death. He
made a motion for a new trial. This was denied. He appealed to the
governor, but the executive refused to interfere. Then he became
penitent and experienced religion. On the scaffold he remarked that
he was going to heaven; that his only regret was that he would not
meet the woman he had murdered, as she was not a Christian when she
died. Undoubtedly murderers can be penitent.
An old Spaniard was dying. He sent for a priest to administer
the last sacraments of the church. The priest told him that he must
forgive all his enemies. "I have no enemies," said the dying man,
"I killed the last one three weeks ago." Undoubtedly murderers can
be penitent.
Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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SUICIDE OF JUDGE NORMILE.
So, I admit that drunkards have been pious and reverential,
and I might add, honest and generous.
Some good Catholics and some good Protestants have enjoyed a
hospitable glass, and there have been priests who used the blood of
the grape for other than a sacramental purpose. Even Luther, a good
Catholic in his day, a reformer, a Doctor of Divinity, gave to the
world this couplet:
"who loves not woman, wine and song,
will live a fool his whole life long."
The Watchman in effect, says that a devout robber is better
than an infidel; that a penitent murderer is superior to a
freethinker, in the sight of God.
Another curious thing in this article is that after sending
both men to hell, the Watchman says: "As to their moral habits we
know nothing."
It may then be taken for granted, if these "warn, personal
friends" knew nothing against the dead, that their lives were, at
least, what the church calls moral. We know, if we know anything,
that there is no necessary connection between what is called
religion and morality. Certainly there were millions of moral
people, those who loved mercy and dealt honesty, before the
Catholic Church existed. The virtues were well known, and
practiced, before a triple crown surrounded the cunning brain of an
Italian Vicar of God, and before the flames of the Auto da fe
delighted the hearts of a Christian mob. Thousands of people died
for the right, before the wrong organized the infallible church.
But why should any man deem it his duty or feel it a pleasure
to say harsh and cruel things of the dead? Why pierce the brow of
death with the thorns of hatred? Suppose the editor of the Watch
man had died, and Judge Normile had been the survivor, would the
infidel and scoffer have attacked the unreplying dead?
Henry D'Arcy I did not know; but Judge Normile was my friend
and I was his. Although we met but a few times, he excited my
admiration and respect. He impressed me as being an exceedingly
intelligent man, well informed on many subjects, of varied reading,
possessed of a clear and logical mind, a poetic temperament,
enjoying the beautiful things in literature and art. and the noble
things in life. He gave his opinions freely, but without the least
arrogance, and seemed perfectly willing that others should enjoy
the privilege of differing with him. He was, so far as I could
perceive, a gentleman, tender of the feelings of others, free and
manly in his bearing, "of most excellent fancy," and a most
charming and agreeable companion.
According, however, to the Watchman, such a man is far below
a "devout robber" or a "penitent murderer." Is it possible that an
assassin like Ravillac is far better than a philosopher like
Voltaire; and that all the Catholic robbers and murderers who
retain their faith, give greater delight to God than the Humboldts,
Haeckels and Darwins who have filled the world with intellectual
light?
Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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SUICIDE OF JUDGE NORMILE.
Possibly the Catholic Church is mistaken. Possibly the
Watchman is in error, and possibly there may be for the erring,
even in another world, some asylum besides hell.
Judge Normile died by his own hand. Certainly he was not
afraid of the future. He was not appalled by death. He died by his
own hand. Can anything be more pitiful -- more terrible? How can a
man in the flowing tide and noon of life destroy himself? What
storms there must have been within the brain; what tempests must
have raved and wrecked; what lightnings blinded and revealed; what
hurrying clouds obscured and hid the stars; what monstrous shapes
emerged from gloom; what darkness fell upon the day; what visions
filled the night; how the light failed; how paths were lost; how
highways disappeared; how chasms yawned; until one thought -- the
thought of death -- swift, compassionate and endless -- became the
insane monarch of the mind.
Standing by the prostrate form of one who thus found death, it
is far better to pity than to revile -- to kiss the clay than curse
the man.
The editor of the Watchman has done himself injustice. He has
not injured the dead, but the living.
I am an infidel -- an unbeliever -- and yet I hope that all
the children of men may find peace and joy. No matter how they
leave this world, from altar or from scaffold, crowned with virtue
or stained with crime, I hope that good may come to all.
Robert G. Ingersoll.
**** ****
These letters were published in the New York World, 1894.
IS SUICIDE A SIN?
Col. Ingersoll's First Letter.
I do not know whether self-killing is on the increase or not.
If it is, then there must be, on the average, more trouble, more
sorrow, more failure, and, consequently, more people are driven to
despair. In civilized life there is a great struggle, great
competition, and many fail. To fail in a great city is like being
wrecked at sea. In the country a man has friends; he can get a
little credit, a little help, but in the city it is different. The
man is lost in the multitude. In the roar of the streets, his cry
is not heard. Death becomes his only friend. Death promises release
from want, from hunger and pain, and so the poor wretch lays down
his burden, dashes it from his shoulders and falls asleep.
To me all this seems very natural. The wonder is that so many
endure and suffer to the natural end. that so many nurse the spark
of life in huts and prisons, keep it and guard it through years of
misery and want; support it by beggary, by eating the crust found
in the gutter, and to whom it only gives days of weariness and
nights of fear and dread. Why should the man, sitting amid the
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IS SUICIDE A SIN?
wreck of all he had, the loved ones dead, friends lost, seek to
lengthen, to preserve his life? What can the future have for him?
Under many circumstances a man has the right to kill himself.
When life is of no value to him, when he can be of no real
assistance to others, why should a man continue? When he is of no
benefit, when he is a burden to those he loves, why should he
remain? The old idea was that God made us and placed us here for a
purpose and that it was our duty to remain until he called us. The
world is outgrowing this absurdity. What pleasure can it give God
to see a man devoured by a cancer; to see the quivering flesh
slowly eaten; to see the nerves throbbing with pain? Is this a
festival for God? Why should the poor wretch stay and suffer? A
little morphine would give him sleep -- the agony would be
forgotten and he would pass unconsciously from happy dreams to
painless death.
If God determines all births and deaths, of what use is
medicine and why should doctors defy with pills and powders, the
decrees of God? No one, except a few insane, act now according to
this childish superstition. Why should a man, surrounded by flames,
in the midst of a burning building, from which there is no escape,
hesitate to put a bullet through his brain or a dagger in his
heart? Would it give God pleasure to see him burn? When did the man
lose the right of self-defence?
So, when a man has committed some awful crime, why should he
stay and ruin his family and friends? Why should he add to the
injury? Why should he live, filling his days and nights, and the
days and nights of others, with grief and pain, with agony and
tears?
Why should a man sentenced to imprisonment for life hesitate
to still his heart? The grave is better than the cell. Sleep is
sweeter than the ache of toil. The dead have no masters.
So the poor girl, betrayed and deserted, the door of home
closed against her, the faces of friends averted, no hand that will
help, no eye that will soften with pity, the future an abyss filled
with monstrous shapes of dread and fear, her mind racked by
fragments of thoughts like clouds broken by storm, pursued,
surrounded by the serpents of remorse, flying from horrors too
great to bear, rushes with joy through the welcome door of death.
Undoubtedly there are many cases of perfectly justifiable
suicide -- cases in which not to end life would be a mistake,
sometimes almost a crime.
As to the necessity of death, each must decide for himself.
And if a man honestly decides that death is best -- best for him
and others -- and acts upon the decision, why should he be blamed?
Certainly the man who kills himself is not a physical coward.
He may have lacked moral courage, but not physical. It may be said
that some men fight duels because they are afraid to decline. They
are between two fires -- the chance of death and the certainty of
dishonor, and they take the chance of death. So the Christian
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IS SUICIDE A SIN?
martyrs were, according to their belief, between two fires -- the
flames of the fagot that could burn but for a few moments, and the
fires of God, that were eternal. And they chose the flames of the
fagot.
Men who fear death to that degree that they will bear all the
pains and pangs that nerves can feel, rather than die, cannot
afford to call the suicide a coward. It does not seem to me that
Brutus was a coward or that Seneca was. Surely Antony had nothing
left to live for. Cato was not a craven. He acted on his judgment.
So with hundreds of others who felt that they had reached the end
-- that the journey was done, the voyage was over, and, so feeling,
stopped. It seems certain that the man who commits suicide, who
"does the thing that ends all other deeds, that shackles accident
and bolts up change" is not lacking in physical courage.
If men had the courage, they would not linger in prisons, in
almshouses, in hospitals; they would not bear the pangs of
incurable disease, the stains of dishonor; they would not live in
filth and want, in poverty and hunger, neither would they wear the
chain of slavery. All this can be accounted for only by the fear of
death or "of something after."
Seneca, knowing that Nero intended to take his life, had no
fear. He knew that he could defeat the Emperor. He knew that "at
the bottom of every river, in the coil of every rope, on the point
of every dagger, Liberty sat and smiled." He knew that it was his
own fault if he allowed himself to be tortured to death by his
enemy. He said: "There is this blessing, that while life has but
one entrance, it has exits innumerable, and as I choose the house
in which I live, the ship in which I will sail, so will I choose
the time and manner of my death."
To me this is not cowardly, but manly and noble.
Under the Roman law persons found guilty of certain offence
were not only destroyed, but their blood was polluted and their
children became outcasts. If, however, they died before conviction
their children were saved. Many committed suicide to save their
babes. Certainly they were not cowards. Although guilty of great
crimes they had enough of honor, of manhood, left to save their
innocent children. This was not cowardice.
Without doubt many suicides are caused by insanity. Men lose
their property. The fear of the future overpowers them. Things lose
proportion, they lose poise and balance, and in a flash, a gleam of
frenzy, kill themselves. The disappointed in love, broken in heart
-- the light fading from their lives -- seek the refuge of death.
Those who take their lives in painful, barbarous ways -- who
mangle their throats with broken glass, dash themselves from towers
and roofs, take poisons that torture like the rack -- such persons
must be insane. But those who take the facts into account, who
weigh the arguments for and against, and who decide that death is
best -- the only good -- and then resort to reasonable means, may
be, so far as I can see, in full possession of their minds.
Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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IS SUICIDE A SIN?
Life is not the same to all -- to some a blessing, to some a
curse, to some not much in any way. Some leave it with unspeakable
regret, some with the keenest joy and some with indifference.
Religion, or the decadence of religion, has a bearing upon the
number of suicides. The fear of God, of Judgment, of eternal pain
will stay the hand, and people so believing will suffer here until
relieved by natural death. A belief in eternal agony beyond the
grave will cause such believers to suffer the pangs of this life.
When there is no fear of the future, when death is believed to be
a dreamless sleep, men have less hesitation about ending their
lives. On the other hand, orthodox religion has driven millions to
insanity. It has caused parents to murder their children and many
thousands to destroy themselves and others.
It seems probable that all real, genuine orthodox believers
who kill themselves must be insane, and to such a degree that their
belief is forgotten. God and hell are out of their minds.
I am satisfied that many who commit suicide are insane, many
are in the twilight or dusk of insanity, and many are perfectly
sane.
The law we have in this State making it a crime to attempt
suicide is cruel and absurd and calculated to increase the number
of successful suicides. When a man has suffered so much, when he
has been so persecuted and pursued by disaster that he seeks the
rest and sleep of death, why should the State add to the sufferings
of that man? A man seeking death, knowing that he will be punished
if he fails, will take extra pains and precautions to make death
certain.
This law was born of superstition, passed by thoughtlessness
and enforced by ignorance and cruelty.
When the house of life becomes a prison, when the horizon has
shrunk and narrowed to a cell, and when the convict longs for the
liberty of death, why should the effort to escape be regarded as a
crime?
Of course, I regard life from a natural point of view. I do
not take gods, heavens or hells into account. My horizon is the
known, and my estimate of life is based upon what I know of life
here in this world. People should not suffer for the sake of
supernatural beings or for other worlds or the hopes and fears of
some future state. Our joys, our sufferings and our duties are
here.
The law of New York about the attempt to commit suicide and
the law as to divorce are about equal. Both are idiotic. Law cannot
prevent suicide. Those who have lost all fear of death, care
nothing for law and its penalties. Death is liberty, absolute and
eternal.
We should remember that nothing happens but the natural. Back
of every suicide and every attempt to commit suicide is the natural
and efficient cause. Nothing happens by chance. In this world the
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IS SUICIDE A SIN?
facts touch each other. There is no space between -- no room for
chance. Given a certain heart and brain, certain conditions, and
suicide is the necessary result. If we wish to prevent suicide we
must change conditions. We must by education, by invention, by art,
by civilization, add to the value of the average life. We must
cultivate the brain and heart -- do away with false pride and false
modesty. We must become generous enough to help our fellows without
degrading them. We must make industry -- useful work of all kinds
-- honorable. We must mingle a little affection with our charity --
a little fellowship. We should allow those who have sinned to
really reform. We should not think only of what the wicked have
done, but we should think of what we have wanted to do. People do
not hate the sick. Why should they despise the mentally weak -- the
diseased in brain?
Our actions are the fruit, the result, of circumstances -- of
conditions -- and we do as we must. This great truth should fill
the heart with pity for the failures of our race.
Sometimes I have wondered that Christians denounced the
suicide; that in olden times they buried him where the roads
crossed, drove a stake through his body, and then took his property
from his children and gave it to the State.
If Christians would only think, they would see that orthodox
religion rests upon suicide -- that man was redeemed by suicide,
and that without suicide the whole world would have been lost.
If Christ were God, then he had the power to protect himself
from death. But instead of using his power he allowed them to take
his life.
If a strong man should allow a few little children to hack him
to death with knives when he could easily have brushed them aside,
would we not say that he committed suicide?
There is no escape. If Christ were, in fact, God, and allowed
himself to be killed. then he consented to his own death --
refused, though perfectly able, to defend and protect himself, and
was, in fact, a suicide.
We cannot reform the world by law or by superstition. As long
as there shall be pain and failure, want and sorrow, agony and
crime, men and women will untie life's knot and seek the peace of
death.
To the hopelessly imprisoned -- to the dishonored and despised
-- to those who have failed, who have no future, no hope -- to the
abandoned, the brokenhearted, to those who are only remnants and
fragments of men and women -- how consoling, how enchanting is the
thought of death!
And even to the most fortunate, death at last is a welcome
deliverer. Death is as natural and as merciful as life. When we
have journeyed long -- when we are weary -- when we wish for the
twilight, for the dusk, for the cool kisses of the night -- when
the senses are dull -- when the pulse is faint and low -- when the
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IS SUICIDE A SIN?
mists gather on the mirror of memory -- when the past is almost
forgotten, the present hardly perceived -- when the future has but
empty hands -- death is as welcome as a strain of music.
After all, death is not so terrible as Joyless life. Next to
eternal happiness is to sleep in the soft clasp of the cool earth,
disturbed by no dream, by no thought, by no pain, by no fear,
unconscious of all and forever.
The wonder is that so many live, that in spite of rags and
want, in spite of tenement and gutter, of filth and pain, they limp
and stagger and crawl beneath their burdens to the natural end. The
wonder is that so few of the miserable are brave enough to die --
that so many are terrified by the "something after death" -- by the
specters and phantoms of superstition.
Most people are in love with life. How they cling to it in the
arctic snows -- how they struggle in the waves and currents of the
sea -- how they linger in famine -- how they fight disaster and
despair! On the crumbling edge of death they keep the flag flying
and go down at last full of hope and courage.
But many have not such natures. They cannot bear defeat. They
are disheartened by disaster. They lie down on the field of
conflict and give the earth their blood.
They are our unfortunate brothers and sisters. We should not
curse or blame -- we should pity. On their pallid faces our tears
should fall.
One of the best men I ever knew, with an affectionate wife, a
charming and loving daughter, committed suicide. He was a man of
generous impulses. His heart was loving and tender. He was
conscientious, and so sensitive that he blamed himself for having
done what at the time he thought was wise and best. He was the
victim of his virtues. Let us be merciful in our judgments.
All we can say is that the good and the bad, the loving and
the malignant, the conscientious and the vicious, the educated and
the ignorant, actuated by many motives, urged and pushed by
circumstances and conditions -- sometimes in the calm of Judgment,
sometimes in passion's storm and stress, sometimes in whip and
tempest of insanity -- raise their hands against themselves and
desperately put out the light of life.
Those who attempt suicide should not be punished. If they are
insane they should if possible be restored to reason; if sane, they
should be reasoned with, calmed and assisted.
Robert G. Ingersoll.
**** ****
COL. INGERSOLL'S REPLY TO HIS CRITICS.
In the article written by me about suicide the ground was
taken that "under many circumstances a man has the right to kill
himself."
Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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COL. INGERSOLL'S REPLY TO HIS CRITICS.
This has been attacked with great fury by clergymen, editors
and the writers of letters. These people contend that the right of
self-destruction does not and cannot exist. They insist that life
is the gift of God, and that he only has the right to end the days
of men; that it is our duty to bear the sorrows that he sends with
grateful patience. Some have denounced suicide as the worst of
crimes -- worse than the murder of another.
The first question, then, is:
Has a man under any circumstances the right to kill himself?
A man is being slowly devoured by a cancer -- his agony is
intense -- his suffering all that nerves can feel. His life is
slowly being taken. Is this the work of the good God? Did the
compassionate God create the cancer so that it might feed on the
quivering flesh of this victim?
This man, suffering agonies beyond the imagination to
conceive, is of no use to himself. His life is but a succession of
pangs. He is of no use to his wife, his children, his friends or
society. Day after day he is rendered unconscious by drugs that
numb the nerves and put the brain to sleep.
Has he the right to render himself unconscious? Is it proper
for him to take refuge in sleep?
If there be a good God I cannot believe that he takes pleasure
in the sufferings of men -- that he gloats over the agonies of his
children. If there be a good God, he will, to the extent of his
power, lessen the evils of life.
So I insist that the man being eaten by the cancer -- a burden
to himself and others, useless in every way -- has the right to end
his pain and pass through happy sleep to dreamless rest.
But those who have answered me would say to this man: "It is
your duty to be devoured. The good God wishes you to suffer. Your
life is the gift of God. You hold it in trust and you have no right
to end it. The cancer is the creation of God and it is your duty to
furnish it with food."
Take another case: A man is on a burning ship, the crew and
the rest of the passengers have escaped -- gone in the lifeboats --
and he is left alone. In the wide horizon there is no sail, no sign
of help. He cannot swim. If he leaps into the sea he drowns, if he
remains on the ship he burns. In any event he can live but a few
moments.
Those who have answered me, those who insist that under no
circumstances a man has the right to take his life, would say to
this man on the deck, "Remain where you are. It is the desire of
your loving, heavenly Father that you be clothed in flame -- that
you slowly roast -- that your eyes be scorched to blindness and
that you die insane with pain, your life is not your own, only the
agony is yours.
Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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COL. INGERSOLL'S REPLY TO HIS CRITICS.
I would say to this man: Do as you wish. If you prefer
drowning to burning, leap into the sea. Between inevitable evils
you have the right of choice. You can help no one, not even God, by
allowing yourself to be burned, and you can injure no one, not even
God, by choosing the easier death.
Let us suppose another case:
A man has been captured by savages in Central Africa. He is
about to be tortured to dead. His captors are going to thrust
splinters of pine into his flesh and then set them on fire. He
watches them as they make the preparations. He knows what they are
about to do and what he is about to suffer. There is no hope of
rescue, of help. He has a vial of poison. He knows that he can take
it and in one moment pass beyond their power, leaving to them only
the dead body.
Is this man under obligation to keep his life because God gave
it, until the savages by torture take it? Are the savages the
agents of the good God? Are they the servants of the Infinite? Is
it the duty of this man to allow them to wrap his body in a garment
of flame? Has he no right to defend himself? Is it the will of God
that he die by torture? What would any man of ordinary intelligence
do in a case like this? Is there room for discussion?
If the man took the poison, shortened his life a few moments,
escaped the tortures of the savages, is it possible that he would
in another world be tortured forever by an infinite savage?
Suppose another case: In the good old days, when the
Inquisition flourished, when men loved their enemies and murdered
their friends, many frightful and ingenious ways were devised to
touch the nerves of pain.
Those who loved God, who had been "born twice," would take a
fellow-man who had been convicted of "heresy," lay him upon the
floor of a dungeon, secure his arms and legs with chains, fasten
him to the earth so that he could not move, put an iron vessel, the
opening downward, on his stomach, place in the vessel several rats,
then tie it securely to his body. Then these worshipers of God
would wait until the rats, seeking food and liberty, would gnaw
through the body of the victim.
Now, if a man about to be subjected to this torture, had
within his hand a dagger, would it excite the wrath of the "good
God," if with one quick stroke he found the protection of death?
To this question there can be but one answer.
In the cases I have supposed it seems to me that each person
would have the right to destroy himself. It does not seem possible
that the man was under obligation to be devoured by a cancer; to
remain upon the ship and perish in flame; to throw away the poison
and be tortured to death by savages; to drop the dagger and endure
the "mercies" of the church.
Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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COL. INGERSOLL'S REPLY TO HIS CRITICS.
If, in the cases I have supposed, men would have the right to
take their lives, then I was right when I said that "under many
circumstances a man has a right to kill himself."
Second. -- I denied that persons who killed themselves were
physical cowards. They may lack moral courage; they may exaggerate
their misfortunes, lose the sense of proportion, but the man who
plunges the dagger in his heart, who sends the bullet through his
brain, who leaps from some roof and dashes himself against the
stones beneath, is not and cannot be a physical coward.
The basis of cowardice is the fear of injury or the fear of
death, and when that fear is not only gone, but in its place is the
desire to die, no matter by what means, it is impossible that
cowardice should exist. The suicide wants the very thing that a
coward fears. He seeks the very thing that cowardice endeavors to
escape. So, the man, forced to a choice of evils, choosing the less
is not a coward, but a reasonable man.
It must be admitted that the suicide is honest with himself.
He is to bear the injury; if it be one. Certainly there is no
hypocrisy, and just as certainly there is no physical cowardice.
Is the man who takes morphine rather than be eaten to death by
a cancer a coward?
Is the man who leaps into the sea rather than be burned a
coward? Is the man that takes poison rather than be tortured to
death by savages or "Christians" a coward?
Third. -- I also took the position that some suicides were
sane; that they acted on their best judgment, and that they were in
full possession of their minds. Now, if under some circumstances,
a man has the right to take his life, and, if, under such
circumstances, he does take his life, then it cannot be said that
he was insane.
Most of the persons who have tried to answer me have taken the
ground that suicide is not only a crime, but some of them have said
that it is the greatest of crimes. Now, if it be a crime, then the
suicide must have been sane. So all persons who denounce the
suicide as a criminal admit that he was sane. Under the law, an
insane person is incapable of committing a crime. All the clergymen
who have answered me, and who have passionately asserted that
suicide is a crime, have by that assertion admitted that those who
killed themselves were sane.
They agree with me, and not only admit, but assert that "some
who have committed suicide were sane and in the full possession of
their minds."
It seems to me that these three propositions have been
demonstrated to be true: First, that under some circumstances a man
has the right to take his life; second, that the man who commits
suicide is not a physical coward, and, third, that some who have
committed suicide were at the time sane and in full possession of
their minds.
Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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COL. INGERSOLL'S REPLY TO HIS CRITICS.
Fourth. -- I insisted, and still insist, that suicide was and
is the foundation of the Christian religion. I still insist that if
Christ were God he had the power to protect himself without
injuring his assailants -- that having that power it was his duty
to use it, and that failing to use it he consented to his own death
and was guilty of suicide.
To this the clergy answer that it was self-sacrifice for the
redemption of man, that he made an atonement for the sins of
believers. These ideas about redemption and atonement are born of
a belief in the "fall of man, on account of the sins of our first
"parents," and of the declaration that "without the shedding of
blood there is no remission of sin." The foundation has crumbled.
No intelligent person now believes in the "fall of man" -- that our
first parents were perfect, and that their descendants grew worse
and worse, at least until the coming of Christ.
Intelligent men now believe that ages and ages before the dawn
of history, man was a poor, naked, cruel, ignorant and degraded
savage, whose language consisted of a few sounds of terror, of
hatred and delight; that he devoured his fellow-man, having all the
vices, but not all the virtues of the beasts; that the journey from
the den to the home, the palace, has been long and painful, through
many centuries of suffering, of cruelty and war; through many ages
of discovery, invention, self-sacrifice and thought.
Redemption and atonement are left without a fact on which to
rest. The idea that an infinite God, creator of all worlds, came to
this grain of sand, learned the trade of a carpenter, discussed
with Pharisees and scribes, and allowed a few infuriated Hebrews to
put him to death that he might atone for the sins of men and redeem
a few believers from the consequences of his own wrath, can find no
lodgment in a good and natural brain.
In no mythology can anything more monstrously unbelievable be
found.
But if Christ were a man and attacked the religion of his
times because it was cruel and absurd; if he endeavored to found a
religion of kindness, of good deeds, to take the place of
heartlessness and ceremony, and if, rather than to deny what he
believed to be right and true, he suffered death, then he was a
noble man -- a benefactor of his race. But if he were God there was
no need of this. The Jews did not wish to kill God. If he had only
made himself known all knees would have touched the ground. If he
were God it required no heroism to die. He knew that what we call
death is but the opening of the gates of eternal life. If he were
God there was no self-sacrifice. He had no need to suffer pain. He
could have changed the crucifixion to a joy.
Even the editors of religious weeklies see that there is no
escape from these conclusions -- from these arguments -- and so,
instead of attacking the arguments, they attack the man who makes
them.
Fifth. -- I denounced the law of New York that makes an
attempt to commit suicide a crime.
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Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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COL. INGERSOLL'S REPLY TO HIS CRITICS.
It seems to me that one who has suffered so much that he
passionately longs for death, should be pitied, instead of punished
-- helped rather than imprisoned.
A despairing woman who had vainly sought for leave to toil, a
woman without home, without friends, without bread, with clasped
hands, with tear-filled eyes, with broken words of prayer, in the
darkness of night leaps from the dock, hoping, longing for the
tearless sleep of death. She is rescued by a kind, courageous man,
handed over to the authorities, indicted, tried, convicted. clothed
in a convict's garb and locked in a felon's cell.
To me this law seems barbarous and absurd, a law that only
savages would enforce.
Sixth. -- In this discussion a curious thing has happened. For
several centuries the clergy have declared that while infidelity is
a very good thing to live by, it is a bad support, a wretched
consolation, in the hour of death. They have in spite of the truth,
declared that all the great unbelievers died trembling with fear,
asking God for mercy, surrounded by fiends, in the torments of
despair. Think of the thousands and thousands of clergymen who have
described the last agonies of Voltaire, who died as peacefully as
a happy child smilingly passes from play to slumber; the final
anguish of Hume, who fell into his last sleep as serenely as a
river, running between green and shaded banks, reaches the sea; the
despair of Thomas Paine, one of the bravest, one of the noblest
men, who met the night of death untroubled as a star that meets the
morning.
At the same time these ministers admitted that the average
murderer could meet death on the scaffold with perfect serenity,
and could smilingly ask the people who had gathered to see him
killed to meet him in heaven.
But the honest man who had expressed his honest thoughts
against the creed of the church in power could not die in peace.
God would see to it that his last moments should be filled with the
insanity of fear -- that with his last breath he should utter the
shriek of remorse, the cry for pardon.
This has all changed, and now the clergy, in their sermons
answering me, declare that the atheists, the freethinkers, have no
fear of death -- that to avoid some little annoyance, a passing
inconvenience, they gladly and cheerfully put out the light of
life. It is now said that infidels believe that death is the end --
that it is a dreamless sleep -- that it is without pain -- that
therefore they have no fear, care nothing for gods, or heavens or
hells, nothing for the threats of the pulpit, nothing for the day
of judgment, and that when life becomes a burden they carelessly
throw it down.
The infidels are so afraid of death that they commit suicide.
This certainly is a great change, and I congratulate myself on
having forced the clergy to contradict themselves.
Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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COL. INGERSOLL'S REPLY TO HIS CRITICS.
Seventh. -- The clergy take the position that the atheist, the
unbeliever, has no standard of morality -- that he can have no real
conception of right and wrong. They are of the opinion that it is
impossible for one to be moral or good unless he believes in some
Being far above himself.
In this connection we might ask how God can be moral or good
unless he believes in some Being superior to himself?
What is morality? It is the best thing to do under the
circumstances. What is the best thing to do under the
circumstances? That which will increase the sum of human happiness
-- or lessen it the least. Happiness in its highest, noblest form
is the only good; that which increases or preserves or creates
happiness is moral -- that which decreases it, or puts it in peril,
is immoral.
It is not hard for an atheist -- for an unbeliever -- to keep
his hands out of the fire. He knows that burning his hands will not
increase his well-being, and he is moral enough to keep them out of
the flames.
So it may be said that each man acts according to his
intelligence -- so far as where he considers his own good is
concerned. Sometimes he is swayed by passion, by prejudice, by
ignorance -- but when he is really intelligent, master of himself,
he docs what he believes is best for him. If he is intelligent
enough he knows that what is really good for him is good for others
-- for all the world.
It is impossible for me to see why any belief in the
supernatural is necessary to have a keen perception of right and
wrong. Every man who has the capacity to suffer and enjoy, and has
imagination enough to give the same capacity to others, has within
himself the natural basis of all morality. The idea of morality was
born here, in this world, of the experience, the intelligence of
mankind. Morality is not of supernatural origin. It did not fall
from the clouds, and it needs no belief in the supernatural, no
supernatural promises or threats, no supernatural heavens or hells
to give it force and life. Subjects who are governed by the threats
and promises of a king are merely slaves. They are not governed by
the ideal, by noble views of right and wrong. They are obedient
cowards, controlled by fear, or beggars governed by rewards -- by
alms.
Right and wrong exist in the nature of things. Murder was just
as criminal before as after the promulgation of the Ten
Commandments.
Eighth. -- Many of the clergy, some editors and some writers
of letters who have answered me, have said that suicide is the
worst of crimes -- that a man had better murder somebody else than
himself. One clergyman gives as a reason for this statement that
the suicide dies in an act of sin, and therefore he had better kill
another person. Probably he would commit a less crime if he would
murder his wife or mother.
Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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COL. INGERSOLL'S REPLY TO HIS CRITICS.
I do not see that it is any worse to die than to live in sin.
To say that it is not as wicked to murder another as yourself seems
absurd. The man about to kill himself wishes to die. Why is it
better for him to kill another man, who wishes to live?
To my mind it seems clear that you had better injure yourself
than another. Better be a spendthrift than a thief. Better throw
away your own money than steal the money of another -- better kill
yourself if you wish to die than murder one whose life is full of
joy.
The clergy tell us that God is everywhere, and that it is one
of the greatest possible crimes to rush into his presence. It is
wonderful how much they know about God and how little about their
fellowmen. Wonderful the amount of their information about other
worlds and how limited their knowledge is of this.
There may or may not be an infinite Being. I neither affirm
nor deny. I am honest enough to say that I do not know. I am candid
enough to admit that the question is beyond the limitations of my
mind. Yet I think I know as much on that subject as any human being
knows or ever knew, and that is -- nothing. I do not say that there
is not another world, another life; neither do I say that there is.
I say that I do not know. It seems to me that every sane and honest
man must say the same. But if there is an infinitely good God and
another world, then the infinitely good God will be just as good to
us in that world as he is in this. If this infinitely good God
loves his children in this world, he will love them in another. If
he loves a man when he is alive, he will not hate him the instant
he is dead.
If we are the children of an infinitely wise and powerful God,
he knew exactly what we would do -- the temptations that we could
and could not withstand -- knew exactly the effect that everything
would have upon us, knew under what circumstances we would take our
lives -- and produced such circumstances himself. It is perfectly
apparent that there are many people incapable by nature of bearing
the burdens of life, incapable of preserving their mental poise in
stress and strain of disaster, disease and loss, and who by
failure, by misfortune and want, are driven to despair and
insanity, in whose darkened minds there comes like a flash of
lightning in the night, the thought of death, a thought so strong,
so vivid, that all fear is lost, all ties broken, all duties, all
obligations, all hopes forgotten, and naught remains except a
fierce and wild desire to die. Thousands and thousands become
moody, melancholy, brood upon loss of money, of position, of
friends, until reason abdicates and frenzy takes possession of the
soul. If there be an infinitely wise and powerful God, all this was
known to him from the beginning. and he so created things,
established relations, put in operation causes and effects, that
all that has happened was the necessary result of his own acts.
Ninth. -- Nearly all who have tried to answer what I said have
been exceedingly careful to misquote me, and then answer something
that I never uttered. They have declared that I have advised people
who were in trouble, somewhat annoyed, to kill themselves; that I
have told men who have lost their money, who had failed in
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Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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COL. INGERSOLL'S REPLY TO HIS CRITICS.
business, who were not good in health, to kill themselves at once,
without taking into consideration any duty that they owed to wives,
children, friends, or society.
No man has a right to leave his wife to fight the battle alone
if he is able to help. No man has a right to desert his children if
he can possibly be of use. As long as he can add to the comfort of
those he loves, as long as he can stand between wife and misery,
between child and want, as long as he can be of any use, it is his
duty to remain.
I believe in the cheerful view, in looking at the sunny side
of things, in bearing with fortitude the evils of life, in
struggling against adversity, in finding the fuel of laughter even
in disaster, in having confidence in to-morrow, in finding the
pearl of joy among the flints and shards, and in changing by the
alchemy of patience even evil things to good. I believe in the
gospel of cheerfulness, of courage and good nature.
Of the future I have no fear. My fate is the fate of the world
-- of all that live. My anxieties are about this life, this world.
About the phantoms called gods and their impossible hells, I have
no care, no fear.
The existence of God I neither affirm nor deny, I wait. The
immortality of the soul I neither affirm nor deny. I hope -- hope
for all of the children of men. I have never denied the existence
of another world, nor the immortality of the soul. For many years
I have said that the idea of immortality, that like a sea has ebbed
and flowed in the human heart, with its countless waves of hope and
fear beating against the shores and rocks of time and fate, was not
born of any book, nor of any creed, nor of any religion. It was
born of human affection, and it will continue to ebb and flow
beneath the mists and clouds of doubt and darkness as long as love
kisses the lips of death.
What I deny is the immortality of pain, the eternity of
torture.
After all, the instinct of self-preservation is strong. People
do not kill themselves on the advice of friends or enemies. All
wish to be happy, to enjoy life; all wish for food and roof and
raiment, for friends, and as long as life gives joy, the idea of
self-destruction never enters the human mind.
The oppressors, the tyrants, those who trample on the rights
of others, the robbers of the poor, those who put wages below the
living point, the ministers who make people insane by preaching the
dogma of eternal pain; these are the men who drive the weak, the
suffering and the helpless down to death.
It will not do to say that God has appointed a time for each
to die. Of this there is, and there can be, no evidence. There is
no evidence that any god takes any interest in the affairs of men
-- that any sides with the right or helps the weak, protects the
innocent or rescues the oppressed. Even the clergy admit that their
God, through all ages, has allowed his friends, his worshipers, to
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Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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COL. INGERSOLL'S REPLY TO HIS CRITICS.
be imprisoned, tortured and murdered by his enemies. Such is the
protection of God. Billions of prayers have been uttered; has one
been answered? Who sends plague, pestilence and famine? Who bids
the earthquake devour and the volcano to overwhelm?
Tenth. -- Again, I say that it is wonderful to me that so many
men, so many women endure and carry their burdens to the natural
end; that so many, in spite of "age, ache and penury," guard with
trembling hands the spark of life; that prisoners for life toil and
suffer to the last; that the helpless wretches in poorhouses and
asylums cling to life; that the exiles in Siberia, loaded with
chains, scarred with the knout, live on; that the incurables. whose
every breath is a pang, and for whom the future has only pain,
should fear the merciful touch and clasp of death.
It is but a few steps at most from the cradle to the grave: a
short journey. The suicide hastens, shortens the path, loses the
afternoon, the twilight, the dusk of life's day; loses what he does
not want, what he cannot bear. In the tempest of despair, in the
blind fury of madness, or in the calm of thought and choice, the
beleaguered soul finds the serenity of death.
Let us leave the dead where nature leaves them. We know
nothing of any realm that lies beyond the horizon of the known,
beyond the end of life. Let us be honest with ourselves and others.
Let us pity the suffering, the despairing, the men and women hunted
and pursued by grief and shame, by misery and want, by chance and
fate until their only friend is death.
Robert G. Ingersoll.
**** ****
New York Journal, 1895. An Interview.
SUICIDE A SIN.
QUESTION: Do you think that what you have written about
suicide has caused people to take their lives?
ANSWER: No, I do not. People do not kill themselves because of
the ideas of others. They are the victims of misfortune.
QUESTION: What do you consider the chief cause of suicide?
ANSWER: There are many causes. Some individuals are crossed in
love, others are bankrupt in estate or reputation, still others are
diseased in body and frequently in mind. There are a thousand and
one causes that lead up to the final act.
QUESTION: Do you consider that nationality plays a part in
these tragedies?
ANSWER: No, it is a question of individuals. There are those
whose sorrows are greater than they can bear. These sufferers seek
the peace of death.
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Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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SUICIDE A SIN.
QUESTION: Do you, then, advise suicide?
ANSWER: No, I have never done so, but I have said, and still
say, that there are circumstances under which it is justifiable for
a person to take his life.
QUESTION: What do you think of the law which prohibits
self-destruction?
ANSWER: That it is absurd and ridiculous. The other day a man
was tried before Judge Goff for having tried to kill himself. I
think he pleaded guilty, and the Judge, after speaking of the
terrible crime of the poor wretch, sentenced him to the
penitentiary for two years. This was an outrage; infamous in every
way, and a disgrace to our civilization.
QUESTION: Do you believe that such a law will prevent the
frequency of suicides?
ANSWER: By no means. After this, persons in New york who have
made up their minds to commit suicide will see to it that they
succeed.
QUESTION: Have your opinions been in any way modified since
your first announcement of them?
ANSWER: No, I feel now as I have felt for many years. No one
can answer my articles on suicide, because no one can
satisfactorily refute them. Every man of sense knows that a person
being devoured by a cancer has the right to take morphine, and pass
from agony to dreamless sleep. So, too, there are circumstances
under which a man has the right to end his pain of mind.
QUESTION: Have you seen in the papers that many who have
killed themselves have had on their persons some article of yours
on suicide?
ANSWER: Yes, I have read such accounts, but I repeat that I do
not think these persons were led to kill themselves by reading the
articles. Many people who have killed themselves were found to have
Bibles or tracts in their pockets.
QUESTION: How do you account for the presence of the latter?
ANSWER: The reason of this is that the theologians know
nothing. The pious imagine that their God has placed us here for
some wise and inscrutable purpose, and that he will call for us
when he wants us. All this is idiotic. When a man is of no use to
himself or to others, when his days and nights are filled with pain
and sorrow, why should he remain to endure them longer?
**** ****
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Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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SUICIDE A SIN.
New York Harold, 1897. An Interview.
SUICIDE A SIN.
Col. Robert G. Ingersoll was seen at his house and asked if he
had read the Rev. Merle St. Croix Wright's sermon.
ANSWER: Yes. I have read the sermon, and also an interview had
with the reverend gentleman.
Long ago I gave my views about suicide, and I entertain the
same views still. Mr. Wright's sermon has stirred up quite a
commotion among the orthodox ministers. This commotion may always
be expected when anything sensible comes from a pulpit. Mr. Wright
has mixed a little common sense with his theology, and, of course
this has displeased the truly orthodox.
Sense is the bitterest foe that theology has. No system of
supernatural religion can outlive a good dose of real good sense.
The orthodox ministers take the ground that an infinite Being
created man, put him on the earth and determined his days. They say
that God desires every person to live until he, God, calls for his
soul. They insist that we are all on guard and must remain so until
relieved by a higher power -- the superior officer.
The trouble with this doctrine is that it proves too much. It
proves that God kills every person who dies as we say, "according
to nature." It proves that we ought to say, "according to God." It
proves that God sends the earthquake, the cyclone, the pestilence,
for the purpose of killing people. It proves that all diseases and
all accidents are his messengers, and that all who do not kill
themselves, die by the act, and in accordance with the will of God.
It also shows that when a man is murdered, it is in harmony with,
and a part of the divine plan. When God created the man who was
murdered, he knew that he would be murdered, and when he made the
man who committed the murder, he knew exactly what he would do. So
that the murder was the act of God.
Can it be said that God intended that thousands should die of
famine and that he, to accomplish his purpose, withheld the rain?
Can we say that he intended that thousands of innocent men should
die in dungeons and on scaffolds?
Is it possible that a man, "slowly being devoured by a
cancer," whose days and nights are filled with torture, who is
useless to himself and a burden to others, is carrying out the will
of God? Does God enjoy his agony? Is God thrilled by the music of
his moans -- the melody of his shrieks?
This frightful doctrine makes God an infinite monster, and
every human being a slave; a victim. This doctrine is not only
infamous but it is idiotic. It makes God the only criminal in the
universe.
Now, if we are governed by reason, if we use our senses and
our minds, and have courage enough to be honest; if we know a
little of the world's history, then we know -- if we know anything
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SUICIDE A SIN.
-- that man has taken his chances, precisely the same as other
animals. He has been destroyed by heat and cold, by flood and fire,
by storm and famine, by countless diseases, by numberless
accidents. By his intelligence, his cunning, his strength, his
foresight, he has managed to escape utter destruction. He has
defended himself. He has received no supernatural aid. Neither has
he been attacked by any supernatural power. Nothing has ever
happened in nature as the result of a purpose to benefit or injure
the human race.
Consequently the question of the right or wrong of suicide is
not in any way affected by a supposed obligation to the Infinite.
All theological considerations must be thrown aside because we
see and know that the laws of life are the same for all living
things -- that when the conditions are favorable, the living
multiply and life lengthens, and when the conditions are
unfavorable, the living decrease and life shortens. We have no
evidence of any interference of any power superior to nature.
Taking into consideration the fact that all the duties and
obligations of man must be to his fellows, to sentient beings, here
in this world, and that he owes no duty and is under no obligation
to any phantoms of the air, then it is easy to determine whether a
man under certain circumstances has the right to end his life.
If he can be of no use to others -- if he is of no use to
himself -- if he is a burden to others -- a curse to himself -- why
should he remain? By ending his life he ends his sufferings and
adds to the well-being of others. He lessens misery and increases
happiness. Under such circumstances undoubtedly a man has the right
to stop the pulse of pain and woo the sleep that has no dream.
I do not think that the discussion of this question is of much
importance, but I am glad that a clergyman has taken a natural and
a sensible position, and that he has reasoned not like a minister.
but like a man.
When wisdom comes from the pulpit I am delighted and
surprised. I feel then that there is a little light in the East,
possibly the dawn of a better day.
I congratulate the Rev. Mr. Wright, and thank him for his
brave and philosophic words.
There is still another thing. Certainly a man has the right to
avoid death, to save himself from accident and disease. If he has
this right, then the theologians must admit that God, in making his
decrees, took into consideration the result of such actions. Now,
if God knew that while most men would avoid death, some would seek
it, and if his decrees were so made that they would harmonize with
the acts of those who would avoid death, can we say that he did
not, in making his decrees, take into consideration the acts of
those who would seek death? Let us remember that all actions, good,
bad and indifferent, are the necessary children of conditions --
that there is no chance in the natural world in which we live.
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SUICIDE A SIN.
So, we must keep in mind that all real opinions are honest,
and that all have the same right to express their thoughts. Let us
be charitable.
When some suffering wretch, wild with pain, crazed with
regret, frenzied with fear, with desperate hand unties the knot of
life, let us have pity -- Let us be generous.
**** ****
SUICIDE AND SANITY.
QUESTION: Is a suicide necessarily insane? was the first
question, to which Colonel Ingersoll replied:
ANSWER: No. At the same time I believe that a great majority
of suicides are insane. There are circumstances under which suicide
is natural, sensible and right. When a man is of no use to himself,
when he can be of no use to others, when his life is filled with
agony, when the future has no promise of relief, then I think he
has the right to cast the burden of life away and seek the repose
of death.
QUESTION: Is a suicide necessarily a coward?
ANSWER: I cannot conceive of cowardice in connection with
suicide. Of nearly all things death is the most feared. And the man
who voluntarily enters the realm of death cannot properly be called
a coward. Many men who kill themselves forget the duties they owe
to others -- forget their wives and children. Such men are
heartless, wicked. brutal; but they are not cowards.
QUESTION: When is the suicide of the sane justiciable?
ANSWER: To escape death by torture; to avoid being devoured by
a cancer; to prevent being a burden on those you love; when you can
be of no use to others or to yourself; when life is unbearable;
when in all the horizon of the future there is no star of hope.
QUESTION: Do you believe that any suicides have been caused or
encouraged by your declaration three years ago that suicide
sometimes was justifiable?
ANSWER: Many preachers talk as though I had inaugurated,
invented, suicide, as though no one who had not read my ideas on
suicide had ever taken his own life. Talk as long as language
lasts, you cannot induce a man to kill himself. The man who takes
his own life does not go to others to find reasons or excuses.
QUESTION: On the whole is the world made better or worse by
suicides?
ANSWER: Better by some and poorer by others.
QUESTION: Why is it that Germany, said to be the most educated
of civilized nations, leads the world in suicides?
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SUICIDE AND SANITY.
ANSWER: I do not know that Germany is the most educated;
neither do I know that suicide is more frequent there than in all
other countries. I know that the struggle for life is severe in
Germany, that the laws are unjust, that the government is
oppressive, that the people are sentimental, that they brood over
their troubles and easily become hopeless.
QUESTION: If suicide is sometimes justifiable, is not killing
of born idiots and infants hopelessly handicapped at birth equally
so?
ANSWER: There is no relation between the questions -- between
suicides and killing idiots. Suicide may, under certain
circumstances, be right and killing idiots may be wrong; killing
idiots may be right and suicide may be wrong. When we look about
us, when we read interviews with preachers about Jonah, we know
that all the idiots have not been killed.
QUESTION: Should suicide be forbidden by law?
ANSWER: No. A law that provides for the punishment of those
who attempt to commit suicide is idiotic. Those who are willing to
meet death are not afraid of law. The only effect of such a law
would be to make the person who had concluded to kill himself a
little more careful to succeed.
QUESTION: What is your belief about virtue, morality and
religion?
ANSWER: I believe that all actions that tend to the well-being
of sentient beings are virtuous and moral. I believe that real
religion consists in doing good. I do not believe in phantoms. I
believe in the uniformity of nature; that matter will forever
attract matter in proportion to mass and distance; that, under the
same circumstances, falling bodies will attain the same speed,
increasing in exact proportion to distance; that light will always,
under the same circumstances. be reflected at the same angle; that
it will always travel with the same velocity that air will forever
be lighter than water, and gold heavier than iron; that all
substances will be true to their natures; that a certain degree of
heat will always expand the metals and change water into steam;
that a certain degree of cold will cause the metals to shrink and
change water into ice; that all atoms will forever be in motion;
that like causes will forever produce like effects, that force will
be overcome only by force; that no atom of matter will ever he
created or destroyed; that the energy in the universe will forever
remain the same, nothing lost, nothing gained; that all that has
been possible has happened, and that all that will be possible will
happen; that the seeds and causes of all thoughts, dreams, fancies
and actions, of all virtues and all vices, of all successes and all
failures, are in nature; that there is in the universe no power
superior to nature; that man is under no obligation to the
imaginary gods; that all his obligations and duties are to be
discharged and done in this world; that right and wrong do not
depend on the will of an infinite Being, but on the consequences of
actions, and that these consequences necessarily flow from the
nature of things. I believe that the universe is natural.
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