"Essays on Suicide and the Immortality of the Soul" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hume David)

ought to be resigned to providence, and that the actions of men are
the operations of the Almighty as much as the actions of inanimate
beings? When I fall upon my own sword, therefore, I receive my death
equally from the hands of the Deity as if it had proceeded from a
lion, a precipice, or a fever. The submission which you require to
providence, in every calamity that befals me, excludes not human
skill and industry, if possible by their means I can avoid or escape
the calamity: And why may I not employ one remedy as well as
another? -- If my life be not my own, it were criminal for me to put
it in danger, as {14} well as to dispose of it; nor could one man
deserve the appellation of , whom glory or friendship
transports into the greatest dangers, and another merit the reproach
of or who puts a period to his life, from the
same or like motives. -- There is no being, which possesses any
power or faculty, that it receives not from its Creator, nor is
there any one, which by ever so irregular an action can encroach
upon the plan of his providence, or disorder the universe. Its
operations are his works equally with that chain of events which it
invades, and which ever principle prevails, we may for that very
reason conclude it to be most favoured by him. Be it animate, or
inanimate, rational, or irrational, 'tis all a case: its power is
still derived from the supreme Creator, and is alike comprehended in
the order of his providence. When the horror of pain prevails over
the love of life; when a voluntary action anticipates the effects of
blind causes, 'tis only in consequence of those {15} powers and

principles which he has implanted in his creatures. Divine
providence is still inviolate, and placed far beyond the reach of
human injuries. 'Tis impious says the old Roman superstition[4] to
divert rivers from their course, or invade the prerogatives of
nature. 'Tis impious says the French superstition to inoculate for
the small-pox, or usurp the business of providence by voluntarily
producing distempers and maladies. 'Tis impious says the modern
superstition, to put a period to our own life, and
thereby rebel against our Creator; and why not impious, say I, to
build houses, cultivate the ground, or fail upon the ocean? In all
these actions we employ our powers of mind and body, to produce some
innovation in the course of nature; and in none of them do we any
more. They are all of them therefore equally innocent, or equally
criminal. particular station, {16} and when you desert it without being
recalled, you are equally guilty of rebellion against your almighty
sovereign, and have incurred his displeasure>. -- I ask, why do you
conclude that providence has placed me in this station? For my part
I find that I owe my birth to a long chain of causes, of which many
depended upon voluntary actions of men. these causes, and nothing happens in the universe without its
consent and co-operation>. If so, then neither does my death,
however voluntary, happen without its consent; and whenever pain or
sorrow so far overcome my patience, as to make me tired of life, I
may conclude that I am recalled from my station in the clearest and

1234567891011121314151617181920212223242526272829303132333435363738394041424344