And the dull emotion of life
Has filled me with black care.
Recently, Mde. Ackermann, in a series of short poems, has given voice to the grief caused to her by the world and life as they are, although she does not state exactly the reason of her bitter complaints.
Whilst pessimistic philosophers and poets reflect the thoughts and feelings of their contemporaries, it is certain that they also seriously influence their readers. And so there has come into existence a deeply rooted conviction that the miseries of human life are far from being countervailed by its happiness. Probably such ideas have influenced the number of suicides. We do not know with any certainty the real motives of most cases of self-destruction, but it cannot be denied that the trend of modern thought has played an important part. According to statistics, the chief causes of suicide are “hypochondria, melancholia, weariness of life, and unbalancing of the mind.” Thus from the Danish statistics it appears (and Denmark is the country in which suicide is most prevalent) that of 1,000 cases of suicides of males, between 1866 and 1895, 224, or one-quarter, were referred to the causes I have just mentioned. In the case of women, the corresponding figures are higher, amounting to nearly one-half (403 out of 1,000). The second most common cause of male suicides is alcoholism (164 in 1,000).[179] It is very probable that pessimism was the determining condition in most of the suicides referred to these two categories of causes. Leaving out of the question the true cases of mental alienation, amongst the victims of melancholia, hypochondria and weariness of life, in whom the mental condition was not pathological in the strict sense of the word, there must have been many who killed themselves because their view of life was pessimistic. And amongst the victims of drink, there are many who take to alcohol because they are convinced that life is not worth preserving.
The progressive increase in the numbers of suicides in modern times is an index of the great influence of pessimism. There have been even societies for the promotion of suicide. In such a society, founded in Paris in the beginning of last century, members placed their names in an urn, to be drawn by chance. He whose name was drawn had to kill himself in the presence of the other members. According to its rules, this society admitted only persons of honour who must have had experience of “the injustice of man, the ingratitude of a friend, the infidelity of a wife or mistress, and who, moreover, for many years had had a void in their souls and a distaste of what this world can offer.”[180]
Although such societies no longer exist, individuals continue to put their lives to an end, in greater numbers every year.