THE PATH OF EVOLUTION 



of the law to protect others from their greed and to 

 punish those who have offended. Under the opera- 

 tion of Nature's laws punishment comes, not vindic- 

 tively, but as the necessary consequence and direct 

 result of the infraction of laws intended for the good 

 of all; the punishment usually follows irrespective of 

 the motive of the law-breaker. Plague, pestilence 

 and famine came, and still come, because cleanliness 

 and the laws of hygiene have been neglected, not as 

 the vengeance of a higher power. Such direct con- 

 sequences, if possible, should follow the institution 

 and operation of human laws, not "An eye for an 

 eye and a tooth for a tooth" in angry retribution, but 

 as the inevitable result of the violation of laws that 

 must be kept for the good of all. Man's punish- 

 ment for crime should have but two motives : deter- 

 rence of others from crime by the fear of punishment : 

 and the prevention of its recurrence by the same per- 

 son, for a time or forever, by imprisonment or by 

 death. The deterrence of crime depends very much 

 upon the certainty and the rapidity of punishment 

 after the deed, both of which in this land are woefully 

 deficient, sympathy for the criminal, sentimental folly 

 and delay too often intervening. Legal punishment 

 is considered by many people too much as an act of 

 vengeance; such it should never be, but, like the 

 punishment that nature brings, it should be surely, 

 relentlessly and swiftly administered. 



362 



