1 6 EVOLUTION AND SOCIAL PROGRESS 



ancient Greece and Rome before their fall, de- 

 pends entirely upon its belief in the truths of 

 Revelation, as preceded by the invincible evfdences 

 of reason, or its acceptance instead of the irration- 

 al dogma taught in thousands of the schools and 

 universities of our day. If man is a brute in 

 origin, with but one and the same destiny as the 

 brute, why should he not live like the brute? 



The first logical consequence of the acceptance 

 of the dogma of materialistic evolution is the 

 denial of the free will. If nothing exists except 

 matter and force, there can obviously be no moral 

 liberty. Physical laws or chemical actions and 

 reactions can clearly possess no freedom. So 

 human agents could be no more virtuous or crimi- 

 nal than the wind and the waste sea when they 

 drown the wrecked sailor or toss him about on the 

 floating log and wash him to the shore. We 

 should then heartily agree with Enrico Ferri, 

 when he proclaims "the palpable refutations by 

 physio-psychology of the presupposition of free 

 choice or moral liberty,' and declares "the 

 theoretical and practical impossibility of resting 

 man's responsibility for his crimes upon free 

 choice, either absolute or relative." J 



It is true that evolution is not the only argu- 

 ment advanced for these theories, but it is the 

 basic argument. It is moreover the only logical 

 and conclusive argument that would necessitate 



'"Criminal Sociology," p. 308. 



