ORIGIN OF SIN. 451 



kitten, to murder any one who lives outside his village. 

 In the next period, the matrimonial and religious laws 

 which have proceeded from the Science of Breeding 

 and the Fear of Ghosts, place a frequent restraint upon 

 his actions. He now begins to break the moral law ; 

 he commences a career of sin ; yet he is on the whole, 

 a better man. We finally arrive at the civilized man ; 

 he has refined sentiments, and a cultivated intellect ; 

 and now, scarcely a day passes in which he does not 

 offend against his conscience. His life is passed in 

 self-reproach. He censures himself for an hour that 

 he has wasted ; for an unkind word that he has said ; 

 for an impure thought which he has allowed to settle 

 for a moment on his mind. Such lighter sins do not 

 indeed trouble ordinary men, and there are few at 

 present whose conscience reproaches them for sins 

 against the intellect. But the lives of all modern men 

 are tormented with desires which may not be satisfied : 

 with propensities which must be quelled. The virtues 

 of man have originated in Necessity ; but necessity 

 developed the vices as well. It was essential for the 

 preservation of the clan that its members should love 

 one another, and live according to the golden rule ; 

 men, therefore, are born with an instinct of virtue. 

 But it was also essential for the existence of the 

 clan that its members should be murderers and thieves, 

 crafty and ferocious, fraudulent and cruel. These 

 qualities, therefore, are transmitted by inheritance. 

 But as the circle of the clan widens, these qualities are 

 rarely useful to their possessors, and finally are 

 stigmatised as criminal propensities. But because 

 their origin was natural and necessary, their guilt is 

 not lessened an iota. All men are born with these 



