CHAPTER X.

EDUCATION, RELIGION, AND MORALS.

Quite closely connected with the consideration of these influences, are others partly dependent on them, the manners and customs of a population, the extent of civilisation, and education, and their religious and moral state. The manners and customs are to a great extent peculiar to each race, while the members of each race are all apt to take on an amount of civilisation by means of education, which varies in a quite indefinite manner. No amount of argument or inquiry seems, however, to invalidate the statement that a preponderant rate of suicide, and a high rate of madness exist in countries the farthest advanced in our modern ideas of civilization, and in education, and in modern modes of thought.

The intensely complicated state of modern society lays ambushes for us of myriads of dangers, difficulties, annoyances, illnesses, and worries, which to the denizen of a savage country are entirely unknown. That the influence of modern education is to increase the suicide-rate is proved by statistics of many sorts; from tables of the percentage amongst those “able to read and write,” and the reverse; from the conscription tables of France and Italy, and from the fact that those countries which possess the higher standard of general culture, furnish the largest contingent of voluntary deaths, other data being equal, or allowed for.

M. Brouc, indeed, went so far, many years ago, as to affirm that, given the number of persons in the public schools of a country, he could deduce the number of suicides which took place there annually.

I subjoin a comparison between the percentage of population at school and the suicide rate in Italy, tabulated by Morselli:-

────────────────────┬────────────────┬────────────── │ Scholars per │ Suicides per ──── │ Hundred │ Million │ Inhabitants. │ Inhabitants. ────────────────────┼────────────────┼────────────── 1863-64 │ 5·44 │ 27·2 1865-66 │ 5·59 │ 28·7 1867-68 │ 6·05 │ 31·0 1869-70 │ 6·06 │ 27·5 1871-72 │ 6·44 │ 32 1873-74 │ 6·80 │ 36·5 1875-76 │ 7·15 │ 35·3 1877 │ 7·45 │ 40·6 ────────────────────┴────────────────┴──────────────

The same effect is exhibited by tables showing the relative numbers of newspapers published in each State; the more numerous these are, the higher the voluntary death-rate; and in States where the literature is of the higher type, scientific and critical, we find, _mutatis mutandis_, a higher rate than where the journals simply contain news and politics.

Brierre de Boismont gives a classification of 4,595 French suicides, in respect to education; a _résumé_ follows:─

────────────────────────────┬─────────┬─────────┬──────── ──── │ Male. │ Female. │ TOTAL. ────────────────────────────┼─────────┼─────────┼──────── Well instructed │ 467 │ 106 │ 573 Read and write well │ 601 │ 188 │ 789 Read, but write ill │ 1,145 │ 511 │ 1,656 Read, but do not write │ 1 │ 2 │ 3 Illiterate │ 36 │ 29 │ 65 Data unknown │ 969 │ 540 │ 1,509 ────────────────────────────┴─────────┴─────────┴────────

In respect to England, the Report of the Registrar General for 1880 contains a statement, which I subjoin, of the effect of education on the proportion of voluntary deaths, calculated on the averages of the ten years 1869-78, with regard to the numbers of adults who were able to sign their names in the marriage registers.

Counties where 27% } 57·5 million of were unable to sign the } inhabitants. register }

Counties where less } 69·2 per million of than 27% but more } inhabitants. than 17% were unable }

Counties where less } 80·2 per million of than 17% were unable } inhabitants.

But, on the other hand, the proportions of crime against the person were the lowest on record, and the better educated counties showed the minimum.

The rule that suicide rate increases with the amount of education is more generally observed than almost any other tendency which we have to consider; and it is probably an accurate statement without any reservation; however unpalatable such a dictum may be, I am not aware of any state where the reverse holds good. The general opinion has always been that this rule is only true when the form of education is faulty; the pages of many authors will show the argument that secular knowledge must be judiciously combined with religious teaching, or else such a result may appear; but the facts seem to lead us to the awkward dilemma, that either the religious teaching is seldom duly administered, or else that even piety is unavailing as a deterrent. Prophets have not been lacking for several years past, who have never ceased to warn us that our present system of removing Christian teaching from the necessary curriculum of our public schools, will inevitably increase crime and suicide in the rising generation.

And I fear there can be no doubt that this coming generation will show a higher rate, but whether the diminution of religious instruction will be the cause, will be open to question.

Personally, and speaking with reference to the masses of the population, I think it is likely to cause such an increase; because, although it may be preferable for well-educated men and women to confess to honest doubt, in preference to acquiescence in a form of faith which they cannot heartily hold; still, in minds of less development, for whom a thorough education is impossible, greater stability of character is ensured by an early inculcated religious conviction of the sanctity of life, and an idea of the duty of waiting on Providence to guide our concerns.

THE INFLUENCE OF RELIGION.

It is impossible to deny that, in respect to the influence of religion on the proportions of suicide in Europe, the maximum rate constantly falls to Protestant States, to the Roman Catholic next, then the Greek Church, and, lastly, the minimum falls to the Jews.

An average, estimated from a large collection of numbers by Morselli, shows that the ratio is 58 per million in Catholic States, 190 per million in Protestant States, and in the Greek Church 40 per million; but the low suicide rate of the Slavonic races renders conclusions as to the Greek Church most unreliable; but it seems to the author that this is not an accurate deduction from the relative numbers, the proportion allotted to Protestant countries being much too high.

Legoyt gives Catholics 62, Protestants 102, Greek Church 36, Jews 48, and this seems an estimate more near the truth. Curiously enough, Catholics far exceed Protestants in the statistics of total crime in all countries.

With regard to the Jews, we are met by the difficulty of the coincidence of race and religion, in the most marked form the world has ever seen. The Jews are undoubtedly more liable to lunacy than are Christians; in Bavaria, for example, there is one lunatic to 908 Catholics, 967 Protestants, and 514 Jews.

History renders it quite certain that in the days of Jewish purity, and in the time of the kings up to the Babylonish captivity, the number of suicides was very small. Self-destruction is not even mentioned in the Pentateuch as a crime; it was apparently thought that the command, “thou shall not kill,” obviously included it.

In later days the number increased; after the close of Old Testament history, when the Jews became more mixed with other nations, it became common. Many killed themselves in the Roman siege of Jerusalem, as Josephus narrates; in 1521, forty Jews were imprisoned in France, doubtless for purposes of extortion; they all killed themselves [Contes de Guillaume de Nangis, p. 96]. And although many Jews put an end to their existence during the times of terrible persecution of the Middle Ages, notably 1200-1400, they have always preserved a reputation throughout Europe for contempt of suffering, and for the avoidance of self-destruction.

Coming now to the present day once more, I introduce here a Table, compiled chiefly from Italian and German sources, which shows the comparative suicide rates, in juxtaposition to the comparative proportions of Catholic and Protestant inhabitants; it is very suggestive, and calls for a few words respecting the Protestant Religion. Compare Morselli, Influenze Sociali, p. 218.

────────────┬────────────────────────┬────────┬───────────┬─────────── │ │ │ Catholics │Protestants │ │Suicides│ per │ per ──── │ COUNTRY. │ per │ Thousand │ Thousand │ │Million │ of │ of │ │ │Inhabitants│Inhabitants ────────────┼────────────────────────┼────────┼───────────┼─────────── {│Spain │ 19 │ 999 │ 1 Catholic {│Portugal │ 16 │ 999 │ 1 Countries {│Italy │ 44 │ 995 │ 2 {│Belgium │ 90 │ 996 │ 4 {│France │ 216 │ 982 │ 16 │ │ │ │ Mixed {│Ireland │ 24 │ 757 │ 234 Catholics {│Bavaria │ 102 │ 713 │ 275 prevail {│Lower Alsace │ 130 │ 642 │ 322 {│Baden │ 157 │ 648 │ 331 │ │ │ │ {│Holland, South │ 50 │ 367 │ 613 Mixed {│Prussia │ 168 │ 331 │ 651 Protestants{│Holland, North │ 54 │ 278 │ 663 prevail {│Wurtemburg │ 172 │ 304 │ 687 {│Black Forest │ 160 │ 259 │ 736 {│Oldenburgh │ 200 │ 228 │ 764 │ │ │ │ {│Swiss Protestant Cantons│ 279 │ 68 │ 922 {│England │ 74 │ 53 │ 946 Protestant {│Hanover │ 150 │ 29 │ 960 Countries {│Saxony │ 469 │ 21 │ 976 {│Denmark │ 265 │ 1 │ 999 {│Sweden │ 101 │ 0 │ 1,000 {│Norway │ 75 │ 0 │ 1,000 ────────────┴────────────────────────┴────────┴───────────┴───────────

The Protestant Religion, more than any other, is the Religion of Idea; Faith, Hope, and Charity, all ideals, are its aims; it refuses all material assistance; neither image, nor cross, nor beads, is an essential.

The Protestant is taught to educate his consciousness, and is responsible alone for his own actions; he cannot lean on the reed of comfort from Masses, or on the idea that a confession of his sins to a priest absolves him from the result of them.

Protestantism tends to develop individual research into its doctrines, self-reflection, and inward communings with one’s consciousness.

Mysterious and sublime dogma is the object of contemplation, with the intention that such idealism shall bring forth fruit as good actions.

This system, so grand and overpowering is, it appears, liable to derange weak minds, especially when by neglecting a due share of taking one’s own worldly responsibilities, such aspire to be devotees, inspired by the highest ideals, but declining to translate good intentions into good deeds, and the active exercise of charity, and duty to their neighbours.

The extraordinary lateral offshoots of the church, which are seen at intervals, the various forms of Revivalism, and the proceedings of the Salvation Army, are all to a certain extent mischievous; although they are, no doubt, productive of some benefit to those who still remain in gross ignorance and vice. Yet such violent temporary ebullitions of theological activity do certainly unhinge men’s minds, and do foster a higher suicide rate. The more permanent, but less violent, waves of change in religious matters do more good, and at the same time less harm; I refer to the alternating popularity of such forms as Evangelicalism and Ritualism. Almost all sudden changes, especially in faith and violent emotions, are harmful.

In general, as a result of the sum of religious statistics, too numerous and voluminous for quotation here, we may generalise and say that Catholics incline to suicide through madness, following their vices, while Protestants fly to suicide as relief from domestic troubles, monetary anxieties, remorse for wasted opportunities, and regret for the absence of hoped for results; they are also more liable than Catholics to suicide following religious mania.

Extravagances in religion are sometimes a symptom of madness; at others, extravagances in religion lead to madness in enfeebled minds.

MORALITY.

The morals of a state cannot fail to have a deep and lasting effect on the amount of crime and madness, and hence on the suicide rate. But it is by no means easy to prove by statistics the actual rate of influence; the social customs and modes of life are so very various, and the different laws of each state with regard to moral sins are so different. At the same time it cannot be denied that several important nations, among whom the virtues of social family life are specially studied, have a very high suicide rate, such as the Germans and Danes.

The average of suicide is found generally to run hand in hand with that of the ratio of total crime. Crime has increased for many years in all European countries except Britain and Holland. Suicide has increased in all except Norway and Russia, and but slightly in England and the Netherlands. Where there is an average annual increase of suicide, there is almost always seen a synchronous increase of crime.─Morselli. Still some countries with very small suicide rate have a very large proportion of crime, as Spain and Italy, which have an average of one convict to 8,130 inhabitants; while Denmark has one convict to 110,474 inhabitants, and England has one convict to 132,791 inhabitants.

It has been found that in respect to the departments of France, the maximum of homicides occurred in connection with the minimum of suicides.─Despine.

Also in Italy, in those districts where crimes against property predominate, suicides are more frequent than in those divisions where crimes of blood are frequent.─Morselli.

Parent Du Chatélet remarks that the suicide rate of prostitutes is very low. Brierre de Boismont estimates the proportion supplied in Paris by registered fallen women as 1-240 of all cases. This author also states, of his series of French cases, that 40 per cent. were persons who led bad moral lives, either drunkards, gamblers, thieves, prostitutes, or persons living in adultery.

The proportion which falls to those who are in health, and lead regular lives, is very small; whilst those who begin life in health, and pander to their vices and appetites, abandon themselves, as statistics definitely show, to a prospect of poverty, disease, and crime; to the prison, the asylum, the hospital, and to a suicide’s grave.

And it is not only open vice that lowers the tone a man may even keep all the conventional rules of morality, and yet fall in this manner, if he neglect and ignore a cheerful acquiescence in those high moral aspirations, which alone make the idea of a self-sought death an evil to which nothing on this side of the grave can compare.

There need not be any difficulty in understanding that lack of moral training, and imperfect and improper education, foster suicide; for it is obvious that men will be more prone to sin, if they have had their consciences weakened by bad advice, loose habits, and the companionship of persons who take a light view of wickedness, and only sneer at self-improvement and goodness.

A system of “laisser aller,” and “don’t care,” are stepping stones to suicide; self-restraint and active efforts after perfection lead one daily farther from it.

Aristotle, in the “Ethics,” Lib. 3, cap. 7, and Plato, in his “Phædo,” remark that “Suicide is committed to avoid evil, and not because it is honourable.”

The suicide judges that the possible evil after death is less than the trouble he has now to bear; hence it is clear enough that the best preventive is to fix on the crime the character of an evil much greater than any that can happen to a man naturally.

Although it has been shewn that the spread of education is followed by an increased amount of self-destruction, yet, if a large number of suicides be analysed, the ratio of one-fifth only are well educated; but then it must be remembered that only a small fraction of the population is educated at all thoroughly. It is the spread of an unsound system of partial education, the tasting of the Pierian spring without drinking deeply, which poisons the mind; mere fragmentary, rudimentary instruction unballasted by the requisite amount of moral and religious teaching. The mere ability to read is, I think, liable to become a great curse unless most carefully used, for it is only too common to find that those who can only read, only read what they had much better have left unread; such as sensational tales, the criminal trials in the daily papers, political squabbles, and narratives of suicides. There could be no stronger prompting influence and determining cause of voluntary death to many an ailing and tempted sufferer than the perusal of such literature.

In “Aurora Floyd” and “Lady Audley’s Secret,” two novels of high standing, suicide is suggested definitely as a remedy for trouble, at least twelve times.

Ch. Elam writes, “The great publicity given to the minutiæ of atrocious crimes in the public press is undoubtedly a fruitful source of crime. Dove, who poisoned his wife, confessed, after his conviction, that the idea had been given to him by study of the case of Palmer, at Rugeley.”