and the smallest is at the end of autumn. So far
is the popular association of suicide with foggy
November from being well founded!
Again: suicides are (with the exception of some peculiar localities) more common in towns than in the country; and in one sort of occupation than another. There are districts which seem to be actually infested by the notion and the practice, while in others it is extremely rare. For instance, while the average of suicide for England and Wales is 68 in a million of the population in the three years 1856-7-8, the county of Pembroke afforded a proportion of only 10 suicides, while Westmoreland exhibited a proportion of 111. These are the two extremities of the list of counties. Every one would suppose that Middlesex would be at the top, and far above every other, unless, perhaps, its populous neighbour Surrey; but rural Westmoreland is worse than even the seat of the metropolis. Middlesex shows a proportion of 105, and Surrey of 104, to the 111 of Westmoreland. Such a fact indicates constant and ascertainable causes; and the causes are not difficult to find among an antiquated population like that of our mountain districts, where natural instincts and passions are strong and comparatively unchecked, and where society is in a transition state from an ancient to a modern economy. The change in the fortunes and method of life of the “statesmen” of the Lake District, caused by the agricultural improvement and the manufactures of the neighbouring counties to the south, has broken the fortunes and the spirit of many a rural family, and induced debt, despair, and drunkenness in many a homestead where all was prosperous a century or two ago. Here we trace causes of suicide, which, as the returns show, work only too surely; and such causes as these are preventible, and will assuredly be obviated by a further advance in civilisation — the first step of which should be, in the special case, an improved management in land and stock.
Another general fact is, the operation of the imitative faculty in propagating the practice of suicide. The case is too low to justify the use of the word sympathy. It might answer well to call it mimickry at once. People who commit deliberate suicide have generally a weak faculty of imagination, together with a strong egotism. They cannot conceive of anything outside of their immediate trouble; they have not the serenity and fortitude which accompany a comprehensive capacity and excursive habit of mind; they think of nothing but an escape from present anguish; and they seize upon any suggestion afforded by the conduct of others. Hence a run of suicides when a new or fantastic method is exhibited. The particular propensity is met for the occasion by some mechanical device: such as raising the balustrades of London bridges at one time, and covering over the gallery of the Monument at another. In their grosser forms of egotism, these imitative suicides are remediable by ridicule, neglect, or the punishment of such offenders as are rescued from death. During the reign of Louis Philippe there was a suicidal epidemic in France, which would have been simply ridiculous but for the perdition of many young people who might have lived to be wiser. A pair of impatient lovers, who could not wait to be happy, shot or drowned themselves (I forget which), tied together with pink ribbons. As soon as the story had gone the round of the papers, another pair of lovers shot themselves with pistols, which were tied together with blue ribbons; and then others poisoned themselves, united by red ribbons; and others precipitated themselves from a balcony, bound together by some other coloured ribbons. By this time, something must be done. The thing done was to suppress all public notice of such suicides for a time; and they soon ceased. In 1841 there was a rage for jumping into the Thames from the bridges. When there was a case almost every night, the survivors of the experiment, and those caught in the attempt, were sentenced by the magistrates to short terms of imprisonment. As soon as it was found that the real disgrace of conviction for an offence was sure to be incurred in case of failure, the number of suicides immediately sank to the average.
As to the permanent causes of that average amount, — they are the influences (whatever they may be) which excite the destructive propensities. A maniac tears his clothes to pieces, if he can do nothing else; a man at large knocks down his neighbour, murders his wife, or cuts his own throat, according to the degree of excitement, or kind of passion that he is under. The same propensity, disciplined by good training, superior powers, and habitual self-control, enables a higher order of man to preserve his health of mind, and occupy that particular faculty in conflict with his difficulties. He conquers fortune, instead of taking up the razor against himself or somebody else. It is a very large and arduous remedy to obtain: but the true preventive of suicide would be a full and equable development of the human faculties, by which imagination would modify the present by the future; ameliorating sensations by ideas, and rendering despair impossible; and by which also all distracting selfishness would be precluded, like any other monomania. In speaking of such an equable development, I of course include such exercise and regulation of the physical faculties as is indispensable to the health of the system. As a warrant for this view, I may cite one more general fact, indicated by the official returns; — that, so far from the spread of education (random and partial as that education is) occasioning an increase of suicide, the amount diminishes (other things being equal) according to the superior quality of education, and increases among the uneducated classes, in proportion to their ignorance. In fact, the passions and propensities of the rudest people are the strongest.
Do we want something more within compass, more immediately practical than the grand method of preserving the balance of the facilities, and the health of the mind? Well, then, there are some very plain practical truths which we might attend to much better than we do.
I say no more about the artificial insanity which comes of excess in drink and other vicious indulgences. Nobody needs convincing of the mischief of intemperance, or the horrors of delirium tremens; and it is enough to fix attention