SOWING THE STORM 1 7 



the denial of free will, once its false evolutionary 

 premises were accepted. Thus when Ferri strives 

 to prove statistically that "there is no free will" 

 by the argument that "those human acts which 

 are believed to be more free morally, such as mar- 

 riages, suicides, crimes or emigrations, were on the 

 contrary subject to the influences of environment 

 and varied with these influences," for the sake of 

 argument we can readily grant the entire state- 

 ment. It does not disprove the existence of free 

 will. It merely illustrates the fact that men, 

 being similarly constituted, will under the same 

 conditions ordinarily make the same choice when 

 this recommends itself to their intelligence by in- 

 trinsic reasons, or else exercises a strong natural 

 appeal on their senses. The impossibility of act- 

 ing otherwise does not follow. It is easy in prac- 

 tice to prove the contrary in our own case. It is 

 the dogma of materialistic evolution only, as 

 taught in the godless schools of our day, that 

 postulates the denial of a free will. 



Admitting materialistic evolution there is no 

 escape from the further conclusion that human 

 responsibility is merely an idle phrase. "Not 

 Guilty" is the title given by Robert Blatchford to 

 one of his ultra-radical productions. The name 

 itself is meant to indicate at once the verdict 

 passed by him upon the criminal behind the prison 

 bars. Men are what heredity and environment 

 make them, is the substance of this doctrine of 



