THE MORALS OF SUICIDE. . - - The Morals of
Suicide. By Rev. J. Gainhill, :(Longemas and Co. 6s.)—This is an earnest and useful book. It is- written avowedly. . from the standpoint of the Christian Socialist,." to whom suicide- *- as a symptom of the sin • and misery -which is seething beneath' z• the surface of society in all its classesis asubject-which demaildv his reverent, earnest, and sympathetic attention," and consists of a few thoughts and suggestions which • by God's blessing may "help to abate some of those evils from which society is suffering and which so frequently lead the sufferers to the awful ant of self- destruction as the means of escaping them." Apart from the- - special standpoint of the author, the book is very valuable for the statistical and other information that it supplies as to the
growth of_suicide-and insanity in the world, and as to the rela- tions between them and certain social evils, of which the chief is intemperance. The views of philosophers" who, like Schopen- hauer, hive written perhaps not in praise, but certainly in justificatiOn, of suicide are stated with lucidity and freedom from anything approaching to exaggeration. Mr. Garnhill, as was to be expected, avails himself of the statistics given in Dr. hforselli's valuable work. But he regards as inadequate the science of therapeutics proclaimed by Morselli with a view to putting an end to or reducing suicide, mainly because he finds fault with the definition of duty on which the science is based, "the sacrificing of a man's own egoism to the well-being of the whole race." Morselli acknowledges only the per- sonality of man. Mr. Garnhill as a Theist acknowledges the divine as well as the human personality, and on both as a foundation erects his system of Christian therapeutics. The system is well thought out and carefully elaborated. Here and there the book may appear to the plain lay thinker to savour of sentimentality. But it is so full of faith and hope and charity, of wise counsel and tender sympathy, that it cannot fail to be of ethical as well as of psychological and sociological importance.
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