It has been affirmed that the works of ROBERT OWEN, of Lanark, d. 1858, manufacturer and social economist, who was author of several visionary schemes for the mutual advancement of men, have, like those of Tom Paine, led to the commission of self-destruction. . . . . .? “We are the fools of time and terror: Days Steal on us, and steal from us, yet we live Loathing our life, and dreading still to die In all the days of this detested yoke─ This vital weight upon the struggling heart, Which sinks with sorrow, or beats quick with pain, Or joy that ends in agony, or faintness─ In all the days of past and future, for In life there is no present, we can number How few,─how less than few, wherein the soul Forbears to pant for death, and yet draws back As from a stream in winter, though the chill Be but a moment’s....” DR. HENRY MAUDSLEY writes: “Any poor creature from the gutter can put an end to himself; there is no nobility in the act, and no great amount of courage required for it. It is a deed rather of cowardice shirking duty, generated in a monstrous feeling of self, and accomplished in the most sinful, because wicked ignorance. Even if the act of Cato did not speak for itself, he was far too self-conscious. Montaigne tells us that he was given to drinking, and the Catos, as a race, were noted for rigid severity of character, which mostly signifies narrowness of vision, self-love, and conceit.” FOREIGN LITERATURE. DESFONTAINES, in the Supplement du Dictionnaire de Trevoux, 1752, first uses the term “Suicide” in French Literature. DUVERGER DE HAURANE, Abbot of St. Cyran, the patriarch of the Jansenists, wrote in 1608, a treatise on Suicide, speaking of it as equally permissible with the right of fellow men to execute judicially: he adds, “A man may kill himself for the good of his prince, for that of his country, or for that of his relations.” MAUPERTUIS, PIERRE DE, approved of its commission when life becomes wearisome. See “Œuvres,” 1752. MONTAIGNE, MICHEL DE, “Essays:” these have much information of an historical character. See Lib. II. cap. iii., “The Custom of the Isle of Ceos,” also many references to the death of Cato. MONTESQUIEU, who, in his “Lettres Persanes,” written in the character of a Persian gentleman resident in Europe, speaks of Suicide with favour, yet does not mention it by this title; in the 74th letter he gives a complete apology for it. See also his “Esprit des Lois” for other remarks on the crime. To this author is due the credit or discredit of the observation that England is the classic land of Suicide.