Suicide is not a national habit in Germany, as it is in England." "But that poor creature, Werther, who committed suicide, was a German." "Werther is a fictitious character, and by no means a felicitous one; I am no admirer either of Werther or his author.

But I should say that, if there ever was a Werther in Germany, he did not smoke.

Werther, as you very justly observe, was a poor creature." "And a very sinful one; I have heard my parents say that suicide is a great crime." "Broadly, and without qualification, to say that suicide is a crime, is speaking somewhat unphilosophically.

No doubt suicide, under many circumstances, is a crime, a very heinous one.

When the father of a family, for example, to escape from certain difficulties, commits suicide, he commits a crime; there are those around him who look to him for support, by the law of nature, and he has no right to withdraw himself from those who have a claim upon his exertions; he is a person who decamps with other people's goods as well as his own.