MATERIALISM AND ITS LESSONS. 671 



tion of mental evolution, it is the first to witness to mental degeneracy. 

 One form of mental disease, known as general paralysis, is usually 

 accompanied with a singularly complete paralysis of the moral sense 

 from the outset ; and a not uncommon feature of it, very striking in 

 some cases, is a persistent tendency to steal, the person stealing in a 

 weak-minded manner what he has no particular need of, and makes no 

 use of when he has stolen it. The victim of this fatal disease is fre- 

 quently sent to prison and treated as a common criminal in the first 

 instance, notwithstanding that a medical man who knows his business 

 might be able to say with entire certitude that the supposed criminal 

 was suffering from organic disease of the brain, which had destroyed 

 moral sense at the outset, which would go on to destroy all the other 

 faculties of his mind in succession, and which in the end would destroy 

 life itself. There is no question in such case of moral guilt ; it is not 

 sin but disease that we are confronted with ; and after the victim's 

 death we find the plainest evidence of disease of brain, which has 

 gone along with the decay of mind. Had the holiest saint in the 

 calendar been afflicted as he was, he could not have helped doing as 

 he did. 



I need not dwell any longer upon the morality-sapping effects of 

 particular diseases, but shall simply call to mind the profound deteriora- 

 tion of moral sense and will which is produced by the long-continued 

 and excessive use of alcohol and opium. There is nowhere a more 

 miserable specimen of degradation of moral feeling and of impotence 

 of will than the debauchee who has made himself the abject slave of 

 either of these pernicious excesses. Insensible to the interests of his 

 family, to his personal responsibilities, to the obligations of duty, he 

 is utterly untruthful and untrustworthy, and in the worst end there is 

 not a meanness of pretense or of conduct that he will not descend to, 

 not a lie he will not tell, in order to gain the means to gratify his 

 overruling craving. It is not merely that passion is strengthened and 

 will weakened by indulgence as a moral effect, but the alcohol or 

 opium which is absorbed into his blood is carried by it to the brain 

 and acts injuriously upon its tissues : the chemist will, indeed, extract 

 alcohol from the besotted brain of the worst drunkard, as he will 

 detect morphia in the secretions of a person who is taking large doses 

 of morphia. Seldom, therefore, is it of the least use to preach refor- 

 mation to these people, until they have been restrained forcibly from 

 their besetting indulgence for a long enough period to allow the brain 

 to get rid of the poison, and its tissues to regain a healthier tone. 

 Too often it is of little use then ; the tissues have been damaged be- 

 yond the possibility of complete restoration. Moreover, observation 

 has shown that the drink-craving is oftentimes hereditary, so that a 

 taste for the poison is ingrained in the tissues, and is quickly kindled 

 by gratification into uncontrollable desire. 



Thus far it appears, then, that moral feeling may be impaired or 



