6] 8 FRAGMENTS off SCIENCE. 



propose to grapple with this question in its rudest form;, 

 and in the most uncompromising way, "If," says the 

 robber, the ravisher, or the murderer, " I act because I 

 must act, what right have you to hold me responsible for 

 my deeds? " The reply is, " The right of society to protect 

 itself against aggressive and injurious forces, whether they 

 be bound or free, forces of nature or forces of man." 

 " Then," retorts the criminal, "you punish me for what I 

 cannot help." "Let it be granted," says society, "but 

 had you known that the treadmill or the gallows was cer- 

 tainly in store for you, you might have 'helped.' Let us 

 reason the matter fully and frankly out. We may enter- 

 tain no malice or hatred against you; it is enough that 

 with a view to our own safety and purification we are 

 determined that you and such as you shall not enjoy liberty 

 of evil action in our midst. You, who have behaved as a 

 wild beast, we claim the right to cage or kill as we should 

 a wild beast. The public safety is a matter of more im- 

 portance than the very limited chance of your moral 

 renovation, while the knowledge that you have been hanged 

 by the neck may furnish to others about to do as you have 

 done the precise motive which will hold them back. If 

 your act be such as to invoke a minor penalty, then not 

 only others, but yourself, may profit by the punishment 

 which we inflict. On the homely principle that 'a burnt 

 child dreads the fire/ it will make you think twice before 

 venturing on a repetition of your crime. Observe, finally, 

 the consistency of our conduct. You offend, you say, be- 

 cause you cannot help offending, to the public detriment. 

 We punish, is our reply, because we cannot help punish- 

 ing, for the public good. Practically, then, as Bishop 

 Butler predicted, we act as the world acted when it sup- 

 posed the evil deeds of its criminals to be the products of 

 free-will."* 



" What," I have heard it argued, " is the use of preach- 

 ing about duty, if a man's predetermined position in the 

 moral world renders him incapable of profiting by advice?" 

 Who knows that he is incapable? The preacher's last 

 word is a factor in the man's conduct, and it may be a 



* An eminent church dignitary describes ail this, not unkindly, as 

 "truculent logic.'' I think it worthy of his grace's graver con- 

 sideration. 



