Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 16.djvu/836

 another illustration. Had Enoch Arden found that the only way in which his return could be kept secret, and his wife and family saved from misery, was by the sacrifice of his life, would he deserve condemnation if he had sought death?

It will be observed that the question has been discussed from an altruistic standpoint. This, of course, excludes Ridley and Latimer. It excludes all those who, threatened with death by disease, and whose life can be saved only at the price of some operation excruciatingly painful, decline to pay the price. It excludes all those who turn to death as a refuge from their own sufferings.

But, viewed in the light of pure altruism, when does suicide become justifiable? Each person must give answer for himself. Every individual is sole judge of the circumstances which justify a surrender of life. It is true that from this opinion orthodoxy dissents. It reasons thus: "Man has been placed upon the earth by God for some good purpose: it is fitting that he remain there until granted leave to return. Let him not enter the presence of his Maker unsummoned." But the same reasoning will serve the most selfish and cowardly egoism. Let the three hundred at Thermopylæ take to their heels, crying out that they will wait until God calls them. Let Arnold von Winkelried leave the field, protesting that he will not usurp the prerogative of the Almighty by assuming control of his own life. Let the men at sea cling to the floating fragment to the last, comforting themselves with the assurance that they have no right to determine for themselves whether their Maker has summoned them. Let the engineer abandon his train with the conviction that his duty to the Author of his being requires him to preserve his life. Certainly orthodoxy does not mean what it says. It cries aloud, "Wait until God calls you"; but adds, sotto voce, "Use your own judgment as to what constitutes a call." If it commands men not to take their own lives, it qualifies the command by urging them to lay down their lives for others. In fact, the assertion that men should wait until God summons them is merely putting the case in different language. For who is to decide what constitutes a summons? Evidently the individual himself. But to say that every one must determine for himself what constitutes a summons from God is to say that each person is sole judge of the circumstances which justify a voluntary termination of life.

From the Roman who, devoting himself and the enemy to the infernal gods, rushed to death to bring victory to his companions, to the suicides at the shrine of Juggernaut; from these to the man who "lays down his life for his friend"; from this to the engineer who sacrifices himself for the passengers; from this to the man who dies that thousands may be made happy; from this to the man who refuses to live when his life makes others miserable; from this to the man who turns to death to avoid becoming a burden to his friends—the descent is steady and connected. The last case may claim relationship with the