326 PRESENT-DAY RATIONALISM 



fiction ; but all men can fall by excessive yielding to 

 their natural and />er se sinless feelings; that is by adus' 

 ing and not using natural laws of their body and mind. 



Asa rule these lower properties are stronger than the 

 tendency or wish to rise above them ; and every one will 

 readily echo the words of St. Paul : " Oh, wretched man 

 that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death ?" 

 And the remedy is supplied by himself; while prayer 

 will strengthen the will to restrain oneself instead of 

 yielding automatically to impulses. 



It has been said by a believer in Natural Selection, 

 that the animal " propensities are inevitably strong in 

 man, because they are, or once were, useful or necessary 

 to life, and were therefore through countless ages inten- 

 sified by Natural Selection ; so there is no reason left 

 for referring their clamorous importunity to an evil bias 

 or a corrupted nature".^ 



If the habits of animals be observed their instincts 

 are so completely regulated by natural laws that they 

 are strictly periodic and never abused^ for it is " use," as 

 the ancient philosopher said, not " Natural Selection," 

 which strengthens any habit. 



Man alone can think of the abstract idea of" pleasure," 

 and can therefore abuse natural law, by exceeding and 

 repeating the use to an abnormal and excessive degree. 

 It is this which intensifies the craving whether it be drink 

 or the sexual passion. Natural periodicity has been 

 completely broken down, or at all events not observed. 



The tendency to possess the "craving" becomes only 

 too often hereditary ; and it is in this limited sense and 

 degree to which science would abbreviate the term 

 " Original Sin," and convert it into " parental taint ". 



' The Origin and Propagation of Sin, F. R. Tcnnaiit, p. 93. 



