All Religions become improved in the course of time, by casting aside their harsher outlines and less delicate features; for example, the Christian’s Hell, from being a fiery corporeal dungeon, is developed into a period of mental torture and remorse. Even Christianity then is exalting itself; it has of late tacitly consented to the removal of earthly penalties from the sin of Suicide, penalties which in a bygone age statute law borrowed from ecclesiastical law; this is one mark of its progressiveness. Nothing is practically gained by calling Suicide a _crime_; no one about to slay himself to be rid of brain-distracting trouble will be restrained by the thought that his proposed action is _criminal_; in some cases self-destruction is contemptible and cowardly; in some it is venial; in some cases death is distinctly the lesser evil, in a few it has been honourable, and as such should escape all condemnation, and merit the approval of men of development and refinement. In conclusion, says Philosophy, neither marks of contempt to the corpse, nor legal forfeitures, nor branding the suicide’s memory,─the three ecclesiastical penalties,─have had any obvious effect in checking the act. Nothing but the increase of education will suffice to prevent those suicides which are prompted by immoral thoughts and feelings; as to the venial ones, such as we see in those who but anticipate the hour of release from the tortures of disease, why should we, who are not ill, grudge them this relief: and as to those inspired by the highest and most refined sentiments of honour, we are well content to live in a world in which such valour and self-sacrifice are exhibited. The author hopes no individual will feel aggrieved at this _resumé_ of the so-called _advanced_ views on Suicide of to-day; he does not associate them with any person in particular. These maxims simply represent the impressions remaining on his mind after several conversations with men who cultivate the modern developments of thought. With this apology to the readers of these pages, the divergence between Christian and philosophic views is left behind; and the main object of the work is pursued in an independent scientific vein, without straying into the bye-ways of Ethical discussion. CHAPTER II. THE HISTORY OF SUICIDE. The history of Greece extends back to such a remote period that it is not clearly evident what the general opinion on Suicide was among its early inhabitants. However, a few landmarks occur. In such a dim past as the time of the Trojan War, Ajax, one of the Grecian heroes, slew himself, in a fit of passion, brought on by offended vanity. Lycurgus, the legislator of Sparta, was one who killed himself for his country’s good.