LECTURES AND ESS A YS 



you say, because you cannot help offend- 

 ing, to the public detriment. We punish, 

 is our reply, because we cannot help 

 punishing, for the public good. Practi- 

 cally, 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." 1 



" What," I have heard it argued, " is 

 the use of preaching 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 most important factor, 

 unlocking moral energies which might 

 otherwise remain imprisoned and unused. 

 If the preacher thoroughly feel that words 

 of enlightenment, courage, and admoni- 

 tion enter into the list of forces employed 

 by Nature herself for man's amelioration, 

 since she gifted man with speech, he 

 will suffer no paralysis to fall upon his 

 tongue. Dung the fig-tree hopefully, 

 and not until its barrenness has been 

 demonstrated beyond a doubt let the 

 sentence go forth, " Cut it down, why 

 cumbereth it the ground ?" 



I remember when a youth in the town 

 of Halifax, some two and thirty years 

 ago, attending a lecture given by a young 

 man to a small but select audience. The 

 aspect of the lecturer was earnest and 

 practical, and his voice soon rivetted 

 attention. He spoke of duty, defining 

 it as a debt owed, and there was a kind- 

 ling vigour in his words which must have 

 strengthened the sense of duty in the 

 minds of those who heard him. No 

 speculations regarding the freedom of the 

 will could alter the fact that the words of 

 that young man did me good. His 

 name was George Dawson. He also 

 spoke, if you will allow me to allude to 

 it, of a social subject much discussed at 

 the time the Chartist subject of "level- 

 ling." Suppose, he says, two men to be 



1 An eminent Church dignitary describes al 

 this, not unkindly, as " truculent logic." I think 

 it worthy of his Grace's graver consideration. 



qual at night, and that one rises at six, 

 while the other sleeps till nine next 

 morning, what becomes of your level- 

 ing? And, in so speaking, he made 

 umself the mouthpiece of Nature, which, 

 as we have seen, secures advance, not by 

 he reduction of all to a common level, 

 Dut by the encouragement and conserva- 

 ion of what is best. 



It may be urged that, in dealing as 

 above with my hypothetical criminal, I 

 am assuming a state of things brought 

 about by the influence of religions which 

 nclude the dogmas of theology and the 

 belief in free-will a state, namely, in 

 which a moral majority control and keep 

 in awe an immoral minority. The heart 

 of man is deceitful above all things, and 

 desperately wicked. Withdraw, then, our 

 theologic sanctions, including the belief 

 in free-will, and the condition of the race 

 will be typified by the samples of indi- 

 vidual wickedness which have been 

 above adduced. We shall, that is, become 

 robbers, and ravishers, and murderers. 

 From much that has been written of late 

 it would seem that this astounding infe- 

 rence finds house-room in many minds. 

 Possibly, the people who hold such views 

 might be able to illustrate them by indi- 

 vidual instances. 



" The fear of hell's a hangman's whip, 

 To keep the wretch in order." 



Remove the fear, and the wretch, follow- 

 ing his natural instinct, may become 

 disorderly; but I refuse to accept him as 

 a sample of humanity. " Let us eat and 

 drink, for to-morrow we die " is by no 

 means the ethical consequence of a 

 rejection of dogma. To many of you 

 the name of George Jacob Holyoake is 

 doubtless familiar, and you are probably 

 aware that at no man in England has the 

 term "atheist" been more frequently 

 pelted. There are, moreover, really few 

 who have more completely liberated 

 themselves from theologic notions. 

 Among working-class politicians Mr. 

 Holyoake is a leader. Does he exhort 

 his followers to " Eat and drink, for ^ 

 to-morrow we die"? Not so. In the 



