“O, that this too, too solid flesh would melt, Thaw and resolve itself into a dew; Or that the Everlasting had not fixed His canon ’gainst self slaughter, O God! O God! How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable Seem to me all the uses of this world.” And in Act III., Scene 1, is found the long passage commencing, “To be, or not to be; that is the question;─” in which the relative merits of life and death are discussed. In “Othello,” Act I., Scene 3, he makes Roderigo say, “I will incontinently drown myself.” “It is silliness to live when to live is a torment;” to which Iago replies, “a pox on drowning thyself! it is clean out of the way: seek thou rather to be hanged in compassing thy joy, than to be drowned and go without her.” DR. JOHN DONNE, d. 1631, wrote an essay on this subject, entitled ‘βιαθανατοσ, or That self-slaying is not so naturally sin that it may never be otherwise. MASSINGER, the Dramatist, d. 1640. “This Roman resolution of self-murder Will not hold water at the High Tribunal When it comes to be argued; my good genius Prompts me to this consideration. He That kills himself t’avoid misery, fears it; And at the best shows a bastard valour.” MILTON, d. 1674, says:─ “Nor love thy life, nor hate: but what thou liv’st Live well; _how long or short permit to Heaven_.” SIR THOMAS BROWNE, d. 1682, author of “Religio Medici,” wrote, “Suicide is, not to fear death, but yet to be afraid of life.” SIR WM. TEMPLE, d. 1699, said, “A man should depart this life when he has no further pleasure in remaining.” HENRY DODWELL, the learned Non-juror, d. 1711, was the author of an “Apology for Suicide.” ROBERT FLEMING, d. 1716, Nonconformist Minister, wrote “The command ‘thou shalt not kill’ forbids suicide as well as homicide.” GEORGE SEWELL, d. 1726, in a poem called “The Suicide,” writes:─ “When all the blandishments of life are gone, The coward shrinks to death, the brave live on.” RICHARD SAVAGE, d. 1743. In his poem “The Wanderer” are these lines:─ “From me (she cries), pale wretch, thy comfort claim, Born of despair, and Suicide my name! Why should thy life a moment’s pain endure? Here every object proffers grief a cure. She points where leaves of hemlock blackening shoot! Fear not, pluck! eat (said she) the sovereign root! Or leap yon rock, possess a watery grave, And leave thy sorrow to the wind and wave! Or mark─this poniard thus from misery frees! She wounds her breast!...” SAMUEL RICHARDSON, in “Clarissa Harlowe,” 1749: “To be cut off by the sword of injured friendship is the most dreadful of all deaths, next to suicide.” EDWARD YOUNG, d. 1765, in his “Night Thoughts,” Night V., The Relapse: “The bad on each punctilious pique of pride, Or gloom of humour, would give rage the rein; Bound o’er the barrier, rush into the dark, And mar the schemes of Providence below.