[28] “Love.”
[29] O’Meara’s “Voice from St. Helena,” vol. i. p. 57.
[30] “Life of Napoleon.” vol. viii. p. 244.
[31] It is worthy of remark that the judge who condemned, as well as the disciple who betrayed, our Saviour, were both driven by despair to suicide. The fate of Judas is recorded in the Gospel; the concluding scenes in the life of Pontius Pilate are related by two learned historians (Josephus and Eusebius.) The former says that “Pontius Pilate, after having exercised great cruelties in his government of Judæa, was, before the Roman Emperor (Caligula), stripped of all his dignities and fortunes, and banished to Gaul, where it is said he suffered such extreme hardships of body and despair of mind, that, after lingering for two years, he became his own executioner.”
[32] Lessing.
[33] On Lunatic Asylums.
[34] Vide Mathews’ Life, by his widow, vol. ii. p. 158.
[35] Dr. Haslam.
[36] “Revue Médicale,” Dec. 1821.
[37] Under the heathen mythology, it was believed that the struggles of death continued till Proserpine had cropped the hair on the crown of the head, as victims were treated at the altar. Virgil has preserved this opinion in the fourth book of the Æneid, where he gives so fine a picture of the dying agonies of Dido.