A MAN is engaged in a conspiracy for the public interest; is
seized upon suspicion; is threatened with the rack; and knows from
his own weakness that the secret will be extorted from him: Could
such a one consult the public interest better than by putting a
quick period to a miserable life? This was the case of the famous
and brave Strozi of Florence. -- Again, suppose a malefactor is
justly condemned to a shameful death, can any reason be imagined,
why he may not anticipate his punishment, and save himself all the
anguish of thinking on its dreadful approaches? He invades the
business of providence no more than the magistrate did, who ordered
his execution; and his voluntary death is equally advantageous to
society, by ridding it of a pernicious member.

     THAT Suicide may often be consistent with interest and with
our duty to ourselves, no one can question, who allows that age,
{21} sickness, or misfortune, may render life a burthen, and make it
worse even than annihilation. I believe that no man ever threw away
life, while it was worth keeping. For such is our natural horror of
death, that small motives will never be able to reconcile us to it;
and though perhaps the situation of a man's health or fortune did
not seem to require this remedy, we may at least be assured that any
one who, without apparent reason, has had recourse to it, was curst
with such an incurable depravity or gloominess of temper as must
poison all enjoyment, and render him equally miserable as if he had
been loaded with the most grievous misfortunes. -- If suicide be
supposed a crime, 'tis only cowardice can impel us to it. If it be
no crime, both prudence and courage should engage us to rid
ourselves at once of existence, when it becomes a burthen. 'Tis the
only way that we can then be useful to society, by setting an
example, which if imitated, would preserve to every one his chance
for happiness in life, {22} and would effectually free him from all
danger of misery.[5]{23}

                             ESSAY II.

                                  

                               ON THE

                                  

                    IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL.

                                  

     BY the mere light of reason it seems difficult to prove the
Immortality of the Soul; the arguments for it are commonly
derived either from metaphysical topics, or moral or physical.
But in reality 'tis the Gospel and the Gospel alone, that has
brought life and immortality to light.

                                  

     I. METAPHYSICAL topics suppose that the soul is immaterial,
and that 'tis impossible {24} for thought to belong to a material
substance. -- ([editor's note] 1) But just metaphysics teach us that
the notion of substance is wholly confused and imperfect, and that
we have no other idea of any substance, than as an aggregate of
particular qualities, inhering in an unknown something. Matter,
therefore, and spirit, are at bottom equally unknown, and we cannot
determine what qualities inhere in the one or in the other.
([editor's note] 2) They likewise teach us that nothing can be
decided a priori concerning any cause or effect, and that
experience being the only source of our judgements of this nature,
we cannot know from any other principle, whether matter, by its
structure or arrangement, may not be the cause of thought. Abstract
reasonings cannot decide any question of fact or existence. -- But
admitting a spiritual substance to be dispersed throughout the
universe, like the etherial fire of the Stoics, and to be the only
inherent subject of thought, we have reason to conclude {25} from
analogy that nature uses it after the manner she does the other
substance, matter. She employs it as a kind of paste or clay;
modifies it into a variety of forms and existences; dissolves after
a time each modification, and from its substance erects a new form.
As the same material substance may successively compose the bodies
of all animals, the same spiritual substance may compose their
minds: Their consciousness, or that system of thought which they
formed during life, may be continually dissolved by death. And
nothing interests them in the new modification. The most positive
asserters of the mortality of the soul, never denied the immortality
of its substance. And that an immaterial substance, as well as a
material, may lose its memory or consciousness, appears in part from
experience, if the soul be immaterial. -- Reasoning from the common
course of nature, and without supposing any new interposition of the
supreme cause, which ought always to be excluded from philosophy,
{26} what is incorruptible must also be ingenerable. The Soul
therefore if immortal, existed before our birth; and if the former
existence no ways concerned us, neither will the latter. -- Animals
undoubtedly feel, think, love, hate, will, and even reason, tho' in
a more imperfect manner than men; are their souls also immaterial
and immortal? ([editor's note] 3)

                                  

     II. LET us now consider the moral arguments, chiefly those
derived from the justice of God, which is supposed to be farther
interested in the farther punishment of the vicious and reward of
the virtuous. -- But these arguments are grounded on the supposition
that God has attributes beyond what he has exerted in this universe,