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ing tendency of the modern individual to take in hand the precious gift of life and fling it back in the face of his Creator. A growing tendency, I say, for as society gradually and logically resolves itself into its two great moral constituents, Catholicity and Infidelity, the out-and-out infidel becomes more numerous and more reckless, and his final symptom, the suicidal mania, assumes a more intense form. Witness in our own country the steady flow of thousands from Protestantism into absolute infidelity, and witness at the same time the hundreds and thousands of these same men and women, aye, and children, too, who annually launch themselves violently into eternity. So much of an institution has self-destruction become that the suicide is extolled as a hero, weak-minded women shower sentiment and flowers on his casket, weak-kneed ministers pour out their sickening eulogies, and even wise men and good shake their heads and say: " Poor fellow, there was nothing else left for him to do; his last act was the redeeming feature of his life." Why, there actually exist societies of men, bound, in certain events, to suicide by oath. Last week one of our leading dailies asserted that neither from Scripture nor from reason can suicide be proved unlawful. Out west a monster of a woman recommends self-destruction to the insane and deformed, and should they refuse, she urges they be murdered, even though the victims be her own children. Not long ago, in France, an army officer, degraded for high treason, found a sword and revolver placed ready in his cell, and thousands of French