2 9 o HUMANISM xvi 



person who can to some extent control his actions, there 

 is little or no prospect of any such scientific revision of 

 punishments. But on what grounds could Mr. Blatchford 

 object to schemes of this kind ? Surely by appealing 

 from current morality to Science he has precipitated his 

 protege&quot; from the frying-pan into the fire. 



But even this is not all. Mr. Blatchford has fallen 

 into what is logically a still graver inconsequence. He 

 has so far argued and we, to humour him, have joined 

 with him quite in the ordinary common-sense way, as 

 if the mode and amount of the punishment of offenders 

 were an open question and dependent on the arbitrament 

 of society. But this wliole mode of reasoning involves the 

 assumption of human freedom and a denial of Determinism ! 

 He and we have both assumed that even though the 

 criminal could not but commit his crime, yet society at 

 least was free to punish him, or to pardon, or to send 

 him to a hospital. But if Determinism is the true philo 

 sophy, this assumption is utter nonsense, and an alternative 

 to the punishment is just as unthinkable as to the crime. 

 Society can no more help itself than the criminal. 

 Whatever is and happens, must be and happen. Nothing 

 could possibly be otherwise. The murderer must commit 

 his crime, the police must catch him, the jury must convict, 

 the judge must condemn to death, the executioner must 

 hang, Mr. Blatchford must take society to task and scold 

 it and denounce its institutions, and fail to carry convic 

 tion ; he must contradict himself and use just the bad 

 arguments he does and all this must have been pre 

 destined from all eternity ! 



It is astonishing that so good a reasoner as Mr. 

 Blatchford should not have perceived the incongruity ; 

 but like most Determinists he has tacitly assumed freedom 

 enough to grease the wheels of justice and to retain a 

 meaning in responsibility. 



Hence it is by no momentary lapse that he falls into 

 an affirmation of Free Will. He is forced repeatedly to 

 use arguments which are nonsense unless Freedom is 

 real, because his whole case requires him to use them. 



