SCIENCE AXD MAW. 



107 



They were sent into this world labeled " incor- 

 rigible," wickedness being stamped, as it were, 

 upon their organizations. It was an unpleasant 

 truth, but as a truth it ought to be faced. For 

 such criminals the prison over which he ruled 

 was certainly not the proper place. If confined 

 at all, their prison should be on a desert island 

 where the deadly contagium of their example 

 could not taint the moral air. But the sea itself 

 he was disposed to regard as a cheap and appro- 

 priate substitute for the island. It seemed to 

 him evident that the state would benefit if pris- 

 oners of the first class were liberated ; prisoners 

 of the second class educated ; and prisoners of 

 the third class put compendiously under water. 



It is not, however, from the observation of in- 

 dividuals that the argument against " free-will," as 

 commonly understood, derives its principal force. 

 It is, as already hinted, indefinitely strengthened 

 wheu extended to the race. Most of you have 

 been forced to listen to the outcries and denun- 

 ciations which rung discordant through the land 

 for some years after the publication of Mr. Dar- 

 win's " Origin of Species." Well, the world — 

 even the clerical world — has for the most part 

 settled down in the belief that Mr. Darwin's book 

 simply reflects the truth of Nature ; that we who 

 are now "foremost in the files of time" have 

 come to the front through almost endless stages 

 of promotion from lower to higher forms of life. 



If to any one of us were given the privilege of 

 looking back through the aeons across which life 

 has crept toward its present outcome, his vision 

 would ultimately reach a point when the progeni- 

 tors of this assembly could not be called human. 

 From that humble society, through the interac- 

 tion of its members and the storing up of their 

 best qualities, a better one emerged ; from this 

 again a better still ; until at length, by the inte- 

 gration of infinitesimals through ages of ameliora- 

 tion, we came to be what we are to-day. We of 

 this generation had no conscious share in the 

 production of this grand and beneficent result. 

 Any and every generation which preceded us had 

 just as little share. The favored organisms whose 

 garnered excellence constitutes our present store 

 owed their advantages, firstly, to what we in our 

 ignorance are obliged to call " accidental varia- 

 tion ; " and, secondly, to a law of heredity in the 

 passing of which our suffrages were not collected. 

 With characteristic felicity and precision Mr. 

 Matthew Arnold lifts this question into the free 

 air of poetry, but not out of the atmosphere of 

 truth, when he ascribes the process of ameliora- 

 tion to " a power not ourselves which makes for 



righteousness." If, then, our organisms, with all 

 their tendencies and capacities, are given to us 

 without our being consulted, and if, while capa- 

 ble of acting within certain limits in accordance 

 with our wishes, we are not masters of the cir- 

 cumstances in which motives and wishes origi- 

 nate; if, finally, our motives and wishes deter- 

 mine our actions — in what sense can these actions 

 be said to be the result of free-will ? 



Here, again, we are confronted with the ques- 

 tion of moral responsibility which it is desirable 

 to meet in its rudest form and in the most uncom- 

 promising way. " If," says the robber, the ravish- 

 er, or the murderer, " I act because I must act, 

 what right have you to hold me responsible for 

 my deeds ? " ^The reply is, " The right of society 

 to protect itself against aggressive and injurious 

 forces, whether they be bond or free, forces of 

 Nature or forces of man." " Then," retorts the 

 criminal, " you punish me for what I cannot help." 

 " Granted," says society, " but had you known 

 that the treadmill or the gallows was certainly in 

 store for you, you might have ' helped.' Let us 

 reason the matter fully and frankly out. We en- 

 tertain no malice or hatred against you, but sim- 

 ply with a view to our own safety and purifica- 

 tion we are determined that you and such as you 

 shall not enjoy liberty of evil action in our midst. 

 You, who have behaved as a wild beast, we claim 

 the right to cage or kill as we should a wild 

 beast. The public safety is a matter of more im- 

 portance than the very limited chance of your 

 moral renovation, while the knowledge that you 

 have been hanged by the neck may furnish to 

 others about to do as you have done the precise 

 motive which will hold them back. If your act 

 be such as to invoke a minor penalty, then not 

 only others, but yourself, may profit by the 

 punishment which we inflict. On the homely 

 principle that 'a burned child dreads the fire,' 

 it will make you think twice before venturing 

 on a repetition of your crime. Observe, finally, 

 the consistency of our conduct. You offend, be- 

 cause you cannot help offending, to the public 

 detriment. We punish, because we cannot help 

 punishing, for the public good. Practically, 

 then, as Bishop Butler predicted, we act as the 

 world acted when it supposed the evil deeds of 

 its criminals to be the products of free-will." 



" What," I have heard it argued, " is the use 

 of preaching about duty if man's predetermined 

 position in the moral world renders him incapa- 

 ble of profiting by advice ? " Who knows that 

 he is incapable ? The preacher's last word is a 

 factor in the man's conduct ; and it may be a most 



