Other related topics at: Death and Mourning 930. Suicide Talking of suicide, Boswell took up the defence for argument's sake, and the Doctor said that some cases were more excusable than others, but if it were excusable, it should be the last resource; 'for instance,' says he, 'if a man is distressed in circumstances, (as in the case I mentioned of Denny) he ought to fly his country.' 'How can he fly,' says Boswell, 'if he has wife and children?' 'What Sir,' says the Doctor, shaking his head as if to promote the fermentation of his wit, 'doth not a man fly from his wife and children if he murders himself?' Anecdotes by Revd. Dr. Thomas Campbell, reprinted in G. B. Hill's "Johnsonian Miscellanies" Link