50 _ KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 
This view of the matter is from the standpoint of perfect knowledge. From 
our standpoint we can only observe that men differ from each other in height, in 
weight, in mental or physical strength, in moral worth, and that they appear to 
group themselves in a definite way about the average man. 
If we now attempt to grade men according to the wisdom which they exhibit 
in their choices, we should find comparatively few people exhibiting the highest 
forms of wisdom; the representatives of extreme foolishness would probably be 
more numerous. Between these extremes we should have all possible grades, in 
which the mass of society would be represented. It is hardly probable that the 
resulting curve would be symmetric. The greater chances would probably be in 
favor of foolishness, corresponding in the drawing of balls from an urn, to the 
case where the number of white balls is greater or less than the number of black. 
That is, from the human standpoint, the wisdom of human choice, in the aggre- 
gate, appears to be a matter of chance, in the same sense in which it is a matter 
of chance where shots will strike a target. 
From the higher standpoint of perfect knowledge no element of chance can 
enter. Each choice, whether wise or foolish, whether the reasoning which has 
led to it be logical or not, is determined by perfectly definite causes, admitting of 
precise mathematical discussion. 
In what way can we then justify the enforcement of law? The stability of 
society is here involved. Society has the right to protect itself against attack, 
and the greatest good to the greatest number demands that this right be exercised. 
Some of us act as missionaries in elevating the aims and tastes of less fortu- 
nate men, in placing before them motives for a better life, decawse, all things con- 
sidered, we prefer to do so. Many of us admire fine paintings, grand music, and 
generous, self-sacrificing deeds. This will ensure their perpetuation. 
Those who, as a result of pre-existing causes, find themselves in the possess- 
ion of a high appreciation of all that is pure and noble, will strive, more or less 
wisely, to surround others with influences which will draw (or push) them towards 
a higher life. A being sufficiently wise and powerful might at once solve our 
problem by at once removing all tendency to evil. Society must, however, settle 
the matter by a slower process—the process of education of head and heart—a 
process necessarily slow, and accomplished with infinite pain. | 
Even in so small a matter as the preparation of our food we have reached | 
our present knowledge by painful degrees. Our rules for cooking, yet imperfect, | 
have been reached through centuries of experiment, and at the expense of a count- | 
less number of sour stomachs and aching heads. So it has ever been in morals. | 
Here we are all doubtless blundering experimenters, but we are gradually learning | 
that some things are better than others, and the tendency is, slowly but irresisti- | 
bly, toward a morality which is not only practiced butappreciated. In the mean- 
time criminal law is the rude and only partially effective means for repressing 
those evil spirits, upon whom better influences have not chanced to act sufficiently. 
