essay on 'Suicide') dazzled
me as an audacious paradox. But there is truth in it. Verily, the whole
creation groaneth and travaileth, and man is a degraded monster, and sin
is over all. Ah, my friend, I have shed many of my illusions since I
came to this seething hive of misery and wrongdoing. What shall one
man's life--a million men's lives--avail against the corruption, the
vulgarity and the squalor of civilization? Sometimes I feel like a
farthing rush-light in the Hall of Eblis. Selfishness is so long and
life so short. And the worst of it is that everybody is so beastly
contented. The poor no more desire comfort than the rich culture. The
woman to whom a penny school fee for her child represents an appreciable
slice of her income is satisfied that the rich we shall always have with
us.

"The real crusted old Tories are the paupers in the Workhouse. The
Radical working men are jealous of their own leaders, and the leaders of
one another. Schopenhauer must have organized a labor party in his salad
days. And yet one can't help feeling that he committed suicide as a
philosopher by not committing it as a man. He claims kinship with
Buddha, too; though Esoteric Buddhism at least seems spheres removed
from the philosophy of 'The Will and the Idea,' What a wonderful woman
Madame Blavatsky must be. I can't say I follow her, for she is up in the
clouds nearly all the time, and I haven't as yet developed an astral
body. Shall I send you on her book? It is fascinating.... I am becoming
quite a fluent orator. One soon gets into the way of it. The horrible
thing is that you catch yourself saying things to lead up to 'Cheers'
instead of sticking to the plain realities of the business. Lucy is
still doing the galleries in Italy. It used to pain me sometimes to
think of my darling's happiness when I came across a flat-chested
factory girl. Now I feel her happiness is as important as a factory
girl's."

Lucy, the witness explained, was Lucy Brent, the betrothed of the
deceased. The poor girl had been telegraphed for, and had started for
England. The witness stated that the outburst of despondency in this
letter was almost a solitary one, most of the letters in his possession
being bright, buoyant and hopeful. Even this letter ended with a
humorous statement of the writer's manifold plans and projects for the
new year. The deceased was a good Churchman.

Coroner: Was there any private trouble in his own life to account for
the t