citation: The Writings of David Hume, ed. James Fieser (Internet
Release, 1995).

     EDITORIAL CONVENTIONS: letters between slashes (e.g., HUME)
designate small capitalization. Letters within angled brackets
(e.g., Hume) designate italics. Note references are contained
within square brackets (e.g., [1]). Original pagination is contained
within curly brackets (e.g., {1}). Spelling and punctuation have not
been modernized. Printer's errors have been corrected without note.
Bracketed comments within the end notes are the editor's. This is a
working draft. Please report errors to James Fieser
(jfieser@utm.edu).]

     [2]De Divin. lib. ii.

     [3]Agamus Die Gratias, quad nemo in vita teneri potest. SEN.
Epist. 12.

     [4]TACIT. Ann. lib i.

     [5]IT would be easy to prove that suicide is as lawful under
the Christian dispensation as it was to the Heathens. There is not a
single text of scripture which prohibits it. That great and
infallible rule of faith and practice which must controul all
philosophy and human reasoning, has left us in this particular to
our natural liberty. Resignation to Providence is indeed recommended
in scripture; but that implies only submission to ills that are
unavoidable, not to such as may be remedied by prudence or courage.
Thou shalt not kill, is evidently meant to exclude only the
killing of others, over whose life we have no authority. That this
precept, like most of the scripture precepts, must be modified by
reason and common sense, is plain from the practice of magistrates,
who punish criminals capitally, notwithstanding the letter of the
law. But were this commandment ever so express against suicide, it
would now have no authority, for all the law of Moses is
abolished, except so far as it is established by the law of nature.
And we have already endeavoured to prove that suicide is not
prohibited by that law. In all cases Christians and Heathens are
precisely upon the same footing; Cato and Brutus, Arrea and
Portia acted heroically; those who now imitate their example ought
to receive the same praises from posterity. The power of committing
suicide is regarded by Pliny as an advantage which men possess
even above the Deity himself. "Deus non sibi potest mortem
consciscere si velit quod homini dedit optimum in tantis vitae
paenis." Lib. II. Cap. 7. ([editor's note] 5)

     [6]Quint. Curtius lib. VI. cap. 5.

     [7]Suet. Augus. cap. 3.

     [8]Lib. 7. cap. 55.

     [9]A strange letter this for the discussion of such a subject!
Do men argue so cooly on a question of this nature, when they
examine it on their own accounts? Is the letter a forgery, or does
the author reason only with an intent to be refuted? What makes our
opinion in this particular dubious, is the example of Robeck, which
he cites, and which seems to warrant his own. Robeck deliberated so
gravely that he had patience to write a book, a large, voluminous,
weighty, and dispassionate book; and when he had concluded,
according to his principles, that it was lawful to put an end to our
being, he destroyed himself with the same composure that he wrote.
Let us beware of the prejudices of the times, and of particular
countries. When suicide is out of fashion we conclude that none but
madmen destroy themselves; and all the efforts of courage appear
chimerical to dastardly minds; every one judges of others by
himself. Nevertheless, how many instances are there, well attested,
of men, in every other respect perfectly discreet, who, without
remorse, rage, or despair, have quitted life for no other reason
than because it was a burden to them, and have died with more
composure than they lived?

     [10]No, my lord, we do not put an end to misery by these means,
but rather fill the measure of affliction, by bursting asunder the
last ties which attach us to felicity. When we regret what was dear
to us, grief itself still attaches us to the object we lament, which
is a state less deplorable than to be attached to nothing.

     [11]Obligations more dear than those of friendship! Is it a
philosopher who talks thus? But this affected sophist was of an
amorous disposition.