Note and Comment

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 31, 1903

An awful illustration of the capacity of fiction for evil is afforded by a production by the German writer Goethe, now being portrayed on the stage, according to this item, which appeared recently in the Chicago Tribune:—

There seems to be a fatality about Goethe’s story, “Werther,” it being provocative of suicide. It has been pointed out by a literary statistician that since its production as a novel, the direct cause of no less than seven hundred suicides may be attributed to this melancholy idyl, now being acted with considerable success by Sarah Bernhardt at her theater. A startling example of this occurred last night, when, just as Sarah as Werther was about to fall lifeless at Charlotte’s feet, a woman, Paule de Martigny, attempted suicide by shooting.

Let it ever be our work to portray before men the saving truth of God, which leads not to despair and suicide, but to the inspiration of faith, hope, and love.