214 HEEEDITY. 



one of the English lakes, looks under the arched 

 roots of the cedars, and beholds water gleaming in 

 the sun. There began his conscious life. He had 

 no memory of any event before that, or, at least, 

 none that would hold for his subsequent years. He 

 was an animal until then., was he ? It would have 

 been no crime to have killed him before that, would 

 it? Richter, an infant in the presence of the Fich- 

 telgebirge, looks up one day, and sees an avalanche 

 fall. It is his first memory. Till then there was 

 nothing in him that had the capacity to treasure up 

 experience for his subsequent years. Then began in 

 him the permanent activities of which we call mem- 

 ory ; and a being is not possessed of a soul until he 

 is possessed of a memory, you say. Kill Richter, 

 then, any time before he attains memory, and you 

 have committed no crime. But, in order to have a 

 soul, a being must have a conscience ; and when does 

 a child acquire moral responsibility ? Law says when 

 it is seven years of age. In some children we see 

 the action of conscience earlier ; but is there a de- 

 veloped conscience before the third or fourth year? 

 Now, if there be no soul until there is a conscience, 

 kill any child before it comes to a sense of what is 

 morally right or wrong, and you have killed only an 

 animal. I dare not trust myself here to speak as the 

 topic deserves ; but, I had rather you would listen to 

 the Romish confessional, which always makes a crime 

 of that which the highest medical authorities in the 

 name of Dr. Storer have denounced, I had rather 

 you would listen behind curtains to the severe doc- 



