416 LESSONS FROM NATURE. [CHAP. XIII. 



These a priori teachings as to the necessary tendencies of 

 religious convictions are supported by many a posteriori con 

 siderations. It is a widely spread notion that ignorance and 

 crime go hand in hand; but the most notorious and con 

 spicuous criminals of late years have been far from unedu 

 cated men. Rush, Palmer, Pritchard, Watson, Traupmann, 

 Wainwright, occur to the mind at once ; and it is un 

 questionable that the educated classes in this country and 

 France furnish a fair percentage of the criminal population. 

 If we take cases in which crime is connected with political 

 passions, France, from 1789 to the present day, proclaims 

 loudly how little guarantee intellectual culture offers against 

 the most lamentable and criminal aberrations. 



A rational self-control, due subordination, and a proper 

 repression of selfish passions often enough fail to be exercised, 

 even with the aid of religious training; but it is inevitable 

 that such training should tend to such repression ; while that 

 the absence of religion tends to occasion effects of an opposite 

 character, is not only plain to the reason a priori, but is 

 made manifest by conspicuous examples. 



These truths have lately strongly impressed themselves 

 on the minds of some of our impulsive neighbours on the 

 other side of the Channel. We might have expected a more 

 important reformatory action in France than there yet appears 

 to be any evidence of ; but the mischief has been too deeply 

 ingrained by the calamity of a century of corrupting influences. 

 It is consoling, however, that here and there we find evidences 

 of a clear perception of the fundamental and most important 

 truth which we are now endeavouring to inculcate. 



M. Le Play, in a recent pamphlet, recalls his fellow- 

 countrymen to the practice of obeying the ten 



M. LePlay. J , 



commandments as the only safe and sure road to 

 national prosperity, and he laments how 



&quot; la nation se persuade, depuis longtemps, qu elle s est assuree 1 adnii- 

 ration et le succes par les revolutions qui n ont fait qu aggraver les 

 maux de la monarchic absolue, qui n ont produit au dedans que la 

 decadence, et qui n ont suscite au dehors que le mepris.&quot; 



