CHAPTER XXIX 



ATAVISM AND CRIME UTTER SELFISHNESS BRU- 

 TALITY PUNISHMENT SHOULD BE DETERRENT 

 AND PREVENTIVE, NOT REVENGEFUL. 



IT wag stated before that the question why Sin 

 should exist in the world has been ever asked and is 

 ever still unanswered. The churches, Catholic and 

 Protestant, fail to answer, though each provides a 

 remedy to avoid the punishment thereof: the one re- 

 pentance and the Church ; the other repentance and 

 faith. Each leaves unanswered : " Why was man 

 permitted to sin?" Modern science does not pretend 

 to know much more than the churches, but believes 

 it can throw some light thereon. 



The dogma that Sin existed on the earth before 

 Death, and that the latter came in consequence thereof 

 as its punishment, is not supported by historic truth. 

 Death existed thousands of centuries before man ; it 

 is clearly evident that it is as essential a part of 

 the economy of nature as birth itself. Life could not 

 have existed as this world was and is without it. The 

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