She wounds her breast!...”
Samuel Richardson, in “Clarissa Harlowe,” 1749: “To be cut off by the sword of injured friendship is the most dreadful of all deaths, next to suicide.”
Edward Young, d. 1765, in his “Night Thoughts,” Night V., The Relapse:
“The bad on each punctilious pique of pride,
Or gloom of humour, would give rage the rein;
Bound o’er the barrier, rush into the dark,
And mar the schemes of Providence below.
O Britain, infamous for suicide!”
Dr. Johnson, in 1773, was asked: “Suppose that a man is sure that, if he lives a few days longer, he shall be detected in a fraud, the consequence of which will be utter disgrace and expulsion from society, should he make away with himself?” and he answered, “Then, let him go abroad to a distant country, let him go to some place where he is not known. Don’t let him go to the Devil, where he is known.”