192 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the outer darkness of utter irrationality. Men generally regard a man 

 as free when he is in a position to be irfluenced by those considerations 

 by which they think the normal man not under compulsion naturally is 

 influenced. They do not think that he is robbed of his freedom in so 

 far as he weighs motives, seeks information, is influenced by persuasion. 

 What would become of our social system if men were not affected by 

 influences of this sort? It would be the annihilation of all the forces 

 which we have put in motion, and upon which we depend, for the 

 amelioration of mankind. 



There is scarce any tyranny so great as the tyranny of words. It 

 is as reasonable to believe that strong drink will make a man strong, 

 as that 'freedom' will make a man free, and yet how many believe it! 

 So difficult is it to escape the snares of verbal confusion that I cannot 

 be confident that some of my readers will not suppose that I have been 

 arguing against human freedom. The forms of expression which have 

 been chosen by some determinists are in part responsible for their error. 

 The 'free-willists' are not wholly to blame. I feel, then, that I ought 

 to close this brief paper with an unequivocal and concise statement of 

 my position. It is this: 



I believe most heartily in freedom. I am neither fatalist nor 

 materialist. I hold man to be a free agent, and believe that there is 

 such a thing as justice in man's treatment of man. I refuse to regard 

 punishment as the infliction of pain upon one who did not do the thing 

 for which he is punished, could not have prevented it, and cannot possi- 

 bly be benefited by the punishment he receives. I view with horror the 

 doctrine that the teacher's desk and the pulpit, the force of public 

 opinion and the sanction of law, are of no avail. I am unwilling to as- 

 sume without evidence that each man's breast is the seat of uncaused 

 and inexplicable explosions, which no man can predict, against the con- 

 sequences of which no man can make provision and which set at defi- 

 ance all the forces which make for civilization. 



