A man is hanged for setting fire to his house in a crowded city, for he burns at the same time or damages those of other people; but if a man who has a house on a heath sets fire to it, he is not hanged, for he has not damaged or endangered any other individual's property, and the principle of revenge, upon which all punishment is founded, has not been aroused.

Similar to such a case is that of the man who, without any family ties, commits suicide; for example, were I to do the thing this evening, who would have a right to call me to account?
I am alone in the world, have no family to support, and, so far from damaging any one, should even benefit my heir by my accelerated death.

However, I am no advocate for suicide under any circumstances; there is something undignified in it, unheroic, un-Germanic.

But if you must commit suicide--and there is no knowing to what people may be brought--always contrive to do it as decorously as possible; the decencies, whether of life or of death, should never be lost sight of.

I remember a female Quaker who committed suicide by cutting her throat, but she did it decorously and decently: kneeling down over a pail, so that not one drop fell upon the floor; thus exhibiting in her last act that nice sense of neatness for which Quakers are distinguished.