308 ARCHDEACON B. POTTER, M.A., ON 
sit still and excuse himself from moving by saying his will was 
determined, even if he called himself a determinist ? 
Secondly, we must remember the lessons of determinism :— 
(a) To cultivate character in ourselves and others, that 
it may influence life. The very fact of doing this 
involves both freedom and determinism. We must 
believe ourselves free when making the effort to 
improve. We must believe ourselves determined 
when we aim at character as a necessary goal. 
(6) We must conquer habit. 
(c) We must seek Divine grace. 
In each case the two beliefs must influence us. 
Thirdly, I think the question of punishment is largely 
affected by our view of this question. We should not punish 
for vengeance. Many a criminal is really insane, others have 
such inborn and developed proclivities that they cannot resist 
acting as they do. When we punish a dog, we do it to teach 
him to do some things and not do others. He learns by punish- 
ment carefully administered. Vengeance and anger do not 
enter into our feelings—nor should they when we punish 
human beings. 
The growing improvement in men’s notions on this subject, 
and consequent alleviation of the hard lot of many half-insane 
criminals may be looked on as a happy result of the deeper 
study of the subject we have been considering. 
Fourthly, we should avoid remorse. Repentance is useful. 
Remorse is worse than valueless. As regards the past, we may 
remind ourselves more of the results of determinist philosophy 
than of the free-will doctrine. It isover. What has happened 
must have happened. Now at any rate it has passed into the 
region of consequences resulting on antecedent circumstances. 
As regards the future, free-will is the important thing to 
remember. On ws, depends our future. That is, we can, at 
any rate, use circumstances to mould character, which will 
secure future action. 
“Thou seemest Human and Divine, 
The highest, holiest manhood Thou, 
Our wills are ours, we know not how, 
Our wills are ours to make them Thine.” 
