date

1818 Jan y 7 Not Paul 85
1818 Jan y 7

Not Paul

85

III Doctrine

Asceticism

6

§ other checks

Suicide

Grant to the ascetic that he who committ[s] suicide commits a sin: behold the

perplexity that awaits him: behold a problem that he will as soon kill himself as

solve. For a man to offer himself to death is if the death be certain to committ an

act of suicide. Agreed. But between certainty at the top of the scale and

impossibility at the bottom, the number of degrees is infinite.

At the top of the scale stands suicide beyond dispute. Proceeding downwards in the

scale let him take pen in hand and point to the degree at which suicide ends. The man

who for the instrument of relief / release / employs a loaded pistol, is he a

suicide? No Not he: although death ensues: for many have been the instances in which

the pistol having with this intent been discharged death has not been the consequence

/ failed in his obedience to the call / in which death though thus called has failed

in his obedience.

The officer who tends[?] the forlorn hope in the mounting of a breach―the soldier

who remains till he has been shot dead in a post known to be untenable in which he

has been left that the main body may have time to retreat―is he a suicide[?] The

medical practitioner whose practice is put an end to by death while he is warring

against the plague is he a suicide? the trader who while in pursuit of affluence is

overtaken by death in a pestilential climate is he a suicide?
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  • Title: [1818 Jan y 7 Not Paul 87]
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    III. Doctrine

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    6 Suicide

    The mechanic / labourer / or manufacturer who for little wages engages in an

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