A voluntary death which, in the case of a capital offence, intervened
between the accusation and the sentence, was admitted as a confession of
guilt, and the spoils of the deceased were seized by the inhuman claims
of the treasury. Yet the civilians have always respected the natural
right of a citizen to dispose of his life; and the posthumous disgrace
invented by Tarquin,[41] to check the despair of his subjects, was never
revived or imitated by succeeding tyrants. The powers of this world have
indeed lost their dominion over him who is resolved on death, and his
arm can only be restrained by the religious apprehension of a future
state. Suicides are enumerated by Vergil among the unfortunate rather
than the guilty;[42] and the poetical fables of the infernal shades
could not seriously influence the faith or practice of mankind. But the
precepts of the gospel, or the Church, have at length imposed a pious
servitude on the minds of Christians, and condemn them to expect,
without a murmur, the last stroke of disease or the executioner.
The penal statutes form a very small proportion of the sixty-two books
of the _Code_ and _Pandects_; and in all judicial proceeding the life or
death of a citizen is determined with less caution or delay than the
most ordinary question of covenant or inheritance.
Pages:
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373