SCIENCE AND MAN 383 



I remember when a youth in the town of Halifax, some 

 two -and- thirty years ago, attending a lecture given by a 

 young man to a small but select audience. The aspect of 

 the lecturer was earnest and practical, and his voice soon 

 riveted attention. He spoke of duty, defining it as a debt 

 owed, and there was a kindling vigor in his words which 

 must have strengthened the sense of duty in the minds of 

 those who heard him. No speculations regarding the free- 

 dom of the will could alter the fact that the words of that 

 young man did me good. His name was Greorge Dawson. 

 He also spoke, if you will allow me to allude to it, of a 

 social subject much discussed at the time the Chartist 

 subject of "levelling." Suppose, he says, two men to be 

 equal at night, and that one rises at six, while the other 

 sleeps till nine next morning, what becomes of your level- 

 ling? And in so speaking he made himself the mouth- 

 piece of Nature, which, as we have seen, secures advance, 

 not by the reduction of all to a common level, but by the 

 encouragement and conservation of what is best. 



It may be urged that, in dealing as above with my 

 hypothetical criminal, I am assuming a state of things 

 brought about by the influence of religions which include 

 the dogmas of theology and the belief in free-will a state, 

 namely, in which a moral majority control and keep in 

 awe an immoral minority. The heart of man is deceitful 

 above all things, and desperately wicked. Withdraw, then, 

 our theologic sanctions, including the belief in free-will, 

 and the condition of the race will be typified by the sam- 

 ples of individual wickedness which have been above ad- 

 duced. We shall all, that is, become robbers, and rav- 

 ishers, and murderers. From much that has been written 

 of late it would seem that this astounding inference finds 



