No … (read it again): in fact he discovered Newton’s laws of motion and the laws of thermodynamics. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction, so no action is responded to by no reaction. And energy can be neither created nor destroyed.
Thanks for your words. My great-great-grandmother committed suicide in a flat at 10 Brown Street, Edinburgh, and I have visited the spot. It was when I was at university in Edinburgh. There was nothing there. The tenement flats had long since been pulled down and this eerie pattern of cobbled streets could be traced between blocks of overgrown foundations, where once flats stood. I'm not sure what I'd have wanted to see, but the desolation was appropriate. She inhaled gas and thereby endangered the entire block. But, did she care? "Felo de se" I only know because it was marked as the cause of death on her death certificate. It was a device used by medics to avoid a criminal investigation at a time when suicide was an offence. Go back far enough and failed suicide was an offence punishable by death. "Thou shalt not kill" means precisely that.
When I was at school, I embarked on my debating career. The house proposed the motion: it should be against the law to commit suicide. I was proposing, backed with Bible and Qu'ran. The 70s were in full swing and Woodstock was 10 years ago: Bowie, winter of discontent and the Sex Pistols. The pre-debate vote was around 60/40 against me. By the final vote, I'd lost the 40%.
Nearly half a century later, that makes sense. There is nobody who can state conclusively, "I will never commit suicide." If only because there is nobody who can state conclusively that they will. So, it's just as well if we do so ... with a clear conscience.
Beautiful and thoughtful. Also, did King Lear accidentally discover the principle of energy conservation?
No … (read it again): in fact he discovered Newton’s laws of motion and the laws of thermodynamics. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction, so no action is responded to by no reaction. And energy can be neither created nor destroyed.
Thanks for your words. My great-great-grandmother committed suicide in a flat at 10 Brown Street, Edinburgh, and I have visited the spot. It was when I was at university in Edinburgh. There was nothing there. The tenement flats had long since been pulled down and this eerie pattern of cobbled streets could be traced between blocks of overgrown foundations, where once flats stood. I'm not sure what I'd have wanted to see, but the desolation was appropriate. She inhaled gas and thereby endangered the entire block. But, did she care? "Felo de se" I only know because it was marked as the cause of death on her death certificate. It was a device used by medics to avoid a criminal investigation at a time when suicide was an offence. Go back far enough and failed suicide was an offence punishable by death. "Thou shalt not kill" means precisely that.
You can read more about her grandson here: https://endlesschain.substack.com/p/the-bastard-henry-canning.
When I was at school, I embarked on my debating career. The house proposed the motion: it should be against the law to commit suicide. I was proposing, backed with Bible and Qu'ran. The 70s were in full swing and Woodstock was 10 years ago: Bowie, winter of discontent and the Sex Pistols. The pre-debate vote was around 60/40 against me. By the final vote, I'd lost the 40%.
Nearly half a century later, that makes sense. There is nobody who can state conclusively, "I will never commit suicide." If only because there is nobody who can state conclusively that they will. So, it's just as well if we do so ... with a clear conscience.