I endure misery, say you: Is it in my power to avoid suffering?
But this is changing the state of the question: for the subject of
enquiry is, not whether you suffer, but whether your life is an
evil? Let us proceed. You are wretched, you naturally endeavour to
extricate yourself from misery. Let us see whether, for that
purpose, it is necessary to die.

     Let us for a moment examine the natural tendency of the
afflictions of the mind, as in direct opposition to the evils of the
body, the two substances being of contrary nature. The latter become
worse and more inveterate the {97} longer they continue, and at
length utterly destroy this mortal machine. The former, on the
contrary, being only external and transitory modifications of an
immortal and uncompounded essence, are insensibly effaced, and leave
the mind in its original form, which is not susceptible of
alteration. Grief, disquietude, regret, and despair, are evils of
short duration, which never take root in the mind; and experience
always falsifies that bitter reflection, which makes us imagine our
misery will have no end. I will go farther; I cannot imagine that
the vices which contaminate us, are more inherent in our nature than
the troubles we endure; I not only believe that they perish with the
body which gives them birth, but I think, beyond all doubt, that a
longer life would be sufficient to reform mankind, and that many
ages of youth would teach us that nothing is preferable to virtue.

     However this may be, as the greatest part of our physical evils
are incessantly encreasing, the acute pains of the body, when they
are incurable, may justify a man's destroying himself; {98} for all
his faculties being distracted with pain, and the evil being without
remedy, he has no longer any use either of his will or of his
reason; he ceases to be a man before he is dead, and does nothing
more in taking away his life, than quit a body which incumbers him,
and in which his soul is no longer resident.

     But it is otherwise with the afflictions of the mind, which,
let them be ever so acute, always carry their remedy with them. In
fact, what is it that makes any evil intolerable? Nothing but its
duration. The operations of surgery are generally much more painful
than the disorders they cure; but the pain occasioned by the latter
is lasting, that of the operation is momentary, and therefore
preferable. What occasion is there therefore for any operation to
remove troubles which die of course by their duration, the only
circumstance which could render them insupportable? Is it reasonable
to apply such desperate remedies to evils which expire of
themselves? To a man who values himself on his fortitude, {99} and
who estimates years at their real value, of two ways by which he may
extricate himself from the same troubles, which will appear
preferable, death or time? Have patience, and you will be cured.
What would you desire more?

     Oh! you will say, it doubles my afflictions to reflect that
they will cease at last! This is the vain sophistry of grief! an
apophthegm void of reason, of propriety, and perhaps of sincerity.
What an absurd motive of despair is the hope of terminating
misery![10] Even allowing this fantastical reflection, who would not
chuse to encrease the present pain for a moment, under the assurance
of putting an end to it, as we scarify a wound in order to heal it?
and admitting any charm in grief, to make us in love with suffering,
{100} when we release ourselves from it by putting an end to our
being, do we not at that instant incur all that we apprehend
hereafter?

     Reflect thoroughly, young man; what are ten, twenty, thirty
years, in competition with immortality? Pain and pleasure pass like
a shadow; life slides away in an instant; it is nothing of itself;
its value depends on the use we make of it. The good that we have
done is all that remains, and it is that alone which marks its
importance.

     Therefore do not say any more that your existence is an evil,
since it depends upon yourself to make it a blessing; and if it be
an evil to have lived, this is an additional reason for prolonging
life. Do not pretend neither to say any more that you are at liberty
to die; for it is as much as to say that you have power to alter
your nature, that you have a right to revolt against the author of
your being, and to frustrate the end of your existence. But when you
add, that your death does injury to {101} no one, do you recollect
that you make this declaration to your friend?

     Your death does injury to no one? I understand you! You think
the loss I shall sustain by your death of no importance; you deem my
affliction of no consequence. I will urge to you no more the rights
of friendship, which you despise; but are there not obligations
still more dear,[11] which ought to induce you to preserve your
life? If there be a person in the world who loved you to that degree
as to be unwilling to survive you, and whose happiness depends on
yours, do you think that you have no obligations to her? Will not
the execution of your wicked design disturb the peace of a mind,
which has been with such difficulty restored to its former
innocence? Are not you afraid to add fresh torments to a heart of
such sensibility? Are not you apprehensive left your death should be
attended {102} with a loss more fatal, which would deprive the world
and virtue itself of its brightest ornament? And if she should
survive you, are not you afraid to rouse up remorse in her bosom,
which is more grievous to support than life itself? Thou ungrateful
friend! thou indelicate lover! wilt thou always be taken up wholly
with thyself? Wilt thou always think on thy own troubles alone? Hast
thou no regard for the happiness of one who was so dear to thee? and
cannot thou resolve to live for her who was willing to die with
thee?