But the word is much older even than that; in the introduction to Edward Phillips’ “New World of Words,” dated 1662, these remarks are to be found: “One barbarous word I shall produce, which is _suicide_, a word which I had rather should be derived from _sus_, a sow, than from the pronoun _sui_, unless there be some mystery in it; as if it were a swinish part for a man to kill himself.” Some English Dictionaries, such as Wright’s, give the obsolete word “_suicism_.” “Suicidium” looks like a Latin word, but is not so, although Nathan Bailey in the 30th edition of his Dictionary says it is; the modern term “Suicide,” is of course derived from the Latin words “sui,” self, and “cædo” to kill; but the ancient Romans, although familiar with the fact, used a phrase to express it. They said, “sibi mortem consciscere” (Cicero, Oratio pro Cluentio), “to procure his own death”; and “veneno mortem sibi consciscere” for “to poison himself,” or “to procure death for himself by poison.” They also used as alternative phrases “vim sibi inferre,” “to cause violence to himself,” Velleius Paterculus; “sua manu cadere,” Tacitus, Annales; and “mors voluntaria,” Cicero, Epistolæ ad familiares. The ancient Greek phrase for “suicide,” was απολακτισμος βιου, Æschylus; “a suicide” was αυτοφονος, Æschylus; for our phrase “to commit suicide” they used a verb αυτοκτονεω, Sophocles. Euripides uses αυτοκτονος: in Plato is found αυτοχειρια, and also in Euripides; two other forms of speech were εμαυτον διαχραομαι, Æschines, and εμαυτον βιαζομαι, Plato. The Germans use the term “Selbstmord,” the Italians “il suicidio.” The following English Authors have either written treatises on suicide, or else have made mention of it in their works. The list is of course not complete, but it represents the views of many writers of eminence from the time of Henry the Eighth to a recent date. SIR THOMAS MORE, in his “Utopia,” dated 1516, Book II., writes: “But yf the disease be not onelye yncurable, but also full of contynuall payne and anguishe; ... and seinge his lyffe to him is but a tormente, that he wyl not bee vnwillinge to dye, but rather take a good hope to him, and either dispatche himselfe out of that payneful lyffe, as out of a prison, or racke of torment, or elles suffer hymselfe wyllinglye to be ridde oute of it by other.” These lines are from the English translation by Ralph Robinson, 1551. SHAKESPEARE (d. 1616) in “Julius Cæsar,” Act V. Scene 1., makes Brutus say:─ “Even by the rule of that philosophy, By which I did blame Cato for the death He gave himself:─I know not how, But I do find it cowardly and vile, For fear of what might fall, so to prevent The time of life:─arming myself with patience, To stay the providence of some high powers, That govern us below.” And in “Hamlet,” Act I., Scene 2, writes:─