On the Causes of Frequent Suicide: A Psychological Treatise

those in which it fears its murderers; only man alone makes the striking exception and turns the lethal murder-steel against his own existence. And the yearbooks of all humanity, the history of our race from the most distant time, as well as the experience of our days, provide us with enough examples of this unnatural cruelty of man against himself, even if they are encountered more frequently in certain periods and according to the nature of the countries. It would lead us too far if we attempted to show how, for reasons of religion, of moral and civil law, suicide is an impermissible act and how it can in no case be reconciled with duty;