every joint by cruel
disease; to save himself from years of suffering he lights a pan of
charcoal; and, after carefully considering all the circumstances, the
jury returns a verdict of suicide while in a state of temporary
insanity. Out of years of insanity had sprung a supreme moment of
sanity, and no one understands it. The common stupidity, I should say
the common insanity, of the world on the subject of suicide is quite
comic. A man may destroy his own property, which would certainly be
of use to some one, but he may not destroy his own life, which
possibly is of use to no one; and if two men conspire to commit
suicide and one fails, the other is tried for murder and hanged. Can
the mind conceive more perfect nonsense?"

"I cannot say I agree with you," said Harding; "man's aversion to
suicide seems to me perfectly comprehensible."

"Does it really! Well, I should like to hear you develop that
paradox."

"Your contention is that it is inconceivable that in an already
over-crowded society men should not look rather with admiration than
with contempt on those who, convinced that they block the way,
surrender their places to those better able to fill them; and it is
to you equally inconceivable that a man should be allowed to destroy
his property and not his person. Your difficulty seems to me to arise
from your not taking into consideration the instinctive nature of
man. The average man may be said to be purely instinctive. In popular
opinion--that is to say, in his own opinion--he is supposed to be a
reasonable being; but a short acquaintance shows him to be illumined
with no faintest ray of reason. His sense of right and wrong is
purely instinctive; talk to him about it, and you will see that you
might as well ask a sheep-dog why he herds the sheep."

"Quite so; but I do not see how that explains his aversion to
suicide."

"I think it does. There are two forces in human nature--instinct and
reason. The first is the very principle of life, and exists in all we
see--give it a philosophic name, and call it the 'will to live.' All
acts, therefore, proceed from instinct or from reason. Suicide is
clearly not an instinctive act, it is therefore a reasonable act; and
being of all acts the least instinctive, it is of necessity the most
reasonable; reason and instinct are antagonistic; and the extreme
point of their antagonism must clearly be suicide. One is the
assertion of life, the other is the denial of life. The