and that, too, in public.[3] And in ancient times, how many heroes and wise men died a voluntary death.  Aristotle,[4] it is true, declared suicide to be an offence against the State, although not against the person; but in Stobaeus’ exposition of the Peripatetic philosophy there is the following remark:  The good man should flee life when his misfortunes become too great; the bad man, also, when he is too prosperous.  And similarly:  So he will marry and beget children and take part in the affairs of the State, and, generally, practice virtue and continue to live; and then, again, if need be, and at any time necessity compels him, he will depart to his place of refuge in the tomb.[5] And we find that the Stoics actually praised suicide as a noble and heroic action, as hundreds of passages show; above all in the works of Seneca, who expresses the strongest approval of it.  As is well known, the Hindoos look upon suicide as a religious act, especially when it takes the form of self-immolation by widows; but also when it consists in casting oneself under the wheels of the chariot of the god at Juggernaut, or being eaten by crocodiles in the Ganges, or being drowned in the holy tanks in the temples, and so on.  The same thing occurs on the stage—­that mirror of life.  For example, in L’Orphelin de la Chine[6] a celebrated Chinese play, almost all the noble characters end by suicide; without the slightest hint anywhere, or any impression being produced on the spectator, that they are committing a crime.  And in our own theatre it is much the same—­Palmira, for instance, in Mahomet, or Mortimer in Maria Stuart, Othello, Countess Terzky.[7] Is Hamlet’s monologue the meditation of a criminal?  He merely declares that if we had any certainty of being annihilated by it, death would be infinitely preferable to the world as it is.  But there lies the rub!

[Footnote 1:  Hist.  Nat.  Lib. xxviii., 1.]

[Footnote 2:  Loc. cit.  Lib. ii. c. 7.]

[Footnote 3:  3 Valerius Maximus; hist.  Lib. ii., c. 6, sec. 7 et 8.  Heraclides Ponticus; fragmenta de rebus publicis, ix.  Aeliani variae historiae, iii., 37.  Strabo; Lib. x., c. 5, 6.]

[Footnote 4:  Eth.  Nichom., v. 15.]

[Footnote 5:  Stobaeus. Ecl.  Eth.. ii., c. 7, pp. 286, 312]

[Footnote 6:  Traduit par St. Julien, 1834.]

[Footnote 7:  Translator’s Note.—­Palmira:  a female slave in Goethe’s play of Mahomet.  Mortimer:  a would-be lover and rescuer of Mary in Schiller’s Maria Stuart.  Countess Terzky:  a leading character in Schiller’s Wallenstein’s Tod.]