he
is about to suffer. There is no hope of rescue, of help. He has a
vial of poison. He knows that he can take it and in one moment pass
beyond their power, leaving to them only the dead body.

Is this man under obligation to keep his life because God gave it until
the savages by torture take it? Are the savages the agents of the good
God? Are they the servants of the infinite? Is it the duty of this
man to allow them to wrap his body in a garment of flame? Has he no
right to defend himself? Is it the will of God that he die by torture?
What would any man of ordinary intelligence do in a case like this? Is
there room for discussion?

If the man took the poison, shortened his life a few moments, escaped
the tortures of the savages, is it possible that he would in another
world be tortured forever by an infinite savage?

Suppose another case. In the good old days, when the inquisition
flourished, when men loved their enemies and murdered their friends,
many frightful and ingenious ways were devised to touch the nerves of
pain.

Those who loved God, who had been "born twice," would take a fellow-man
who had been convicted of heresy, "lay him upon the floor of a dungeon,
secure his arms and legs with chains, fasten trim to the earth so that
he could not move, put an iron vessel, the opening downward, on his
stomach, place in the vessel several rats, then tie it securely to his
body. Then these worshipers of God would wait until the rats, seeking
food and liberty, would gnaw through the body of the victim.

Now, if a man about to be subjected to this torture had within his hand
a dagger, would it excite the wrath of the "good God," if with one
quick stroke he found the protection of death?

To this question there can be but one answer.

In the cases I have supposed it seems to me that each person would have
the right to destroy himself. It does not seem possible that the man
was under obligation to be devoured by a cancer; to remain upon the
ship and perish in flame; to throw away the poison and be tortured to
death by savages; to drop the dagger and endure the "mercies" of the
church.

If, in the cases I have supposed, men would have the right to take
their lives, then I was right when I said that "under many
circumstances a man has a right to kill himself."

Second, I denied that persons who killed themselves were physical
cowards. They may lack moral courage; they may exaggerate their
misfortunes,