Show The Influence of Religion on Suidde < The influences of religion are together to-gether with the influence of race the strongest motive powers which act on the will of man Tae discussion as to whether the growth of suicide is to be accounted for by the decrease of religious sentiment scarcely finds a place in awik like this It is a thesis generally out forward by moralists mor-alists whose opinion approaches our own on this subject On the other hand the theme of the special influence influ-ence of the various faiths which statisticians have sought dispute presents itself to us two 4 iuda of proof being dednced therefrom Tbe first is furnished by the indication of the form of worship to which suicides belor R but unfortunately unfortu-nately this is represented in very few statistic of Central Europe Eu-rope and ia no nlwaya adapted to each case in particular The second in the approximate rel ion oeaveen the number of vioim eatha and the predominant form of worship in giraii count ies and hire th1 mo t fertile in results are ihe atuMMJua of the states buying uihabiittitrf r f vnri uo forms of worship as pru < itt Germany AuerU Hill aod and tiwiizerland The countries of tbe south Italy Spain and Franot have so small a umub ot nonCothclics that little or no comparative results could be obtained ob-tained iron it We notice again that in the comparisons based on the religion of euioidpp Judaism 5gures in which the influence of religious bonds is complicated with ttut of race This is perhaps the only religion reli-gion hound up in the fate ot a single pod whether account of the pr chifiTenegg of tbe ftlosaio laws or because be-cause no Other race 13 so jealous of its own purity its own customs and OB peoialiy of the faith of ita fathers as the Jewish In every country whero the chosen people baa been spread it has always preserved the moral Semitic Sem-itic character while it has sometimes modified its physical characteristics as when becoming fair where formerly for-merly dark skinned tbe religion oft of-t e God of Abraham is the only bond which now unites its scattered members mem-bers This strong influence of race obliges one to proceed cautiously in attributing to the Mosaic religion the little tendency of Jews toward suicide In the most ancient history of Palis tine not more than ten suicides are mentioned and their greatest number > num-ber belongs to a less pure Jewish period when through the Babylonish captivity and through tbe false prophets pro-phets they lost all trace of tbe ancient an-cient law Already among the last Jews who had to struggle against the invading Roman power suicide had become more frequent Josephus but while dispersing themselves among other nations over the face of the earth the deoendanta of Abraham Abra-ham have always ahown and still show among their moral characteristics characteris-tics an habitual resistance to suicide although the same can not be said with regard to madnessD Morselli m lopular Science HonihlyJorDec9m ber |