THEORY OF THE SOUL. 517 



ignorant will be forgiven ; the sins of the more en- 

 lightened will be more severely judged. 



Now this appears a very reasonable theory as long 

 as we do not examine it closely, and as long as we do 

 not carry out its propositions to their full extent. But 

 when we do so, we find that it conducts us to ab- 

 surdity, as we shall very quickly prove. 



The souls of idiots not being responsible for their 

 sins will go to heaven ; the souls of such men as 

 Goethe and Rousseau are in danger of hell-fire. 

 Therefore it is better to be born an idiot than to be 

 born a Goethe or a Rousseau ; and that is altogether 

 absurd. 



It is asserted that the doctrine of the immortality of 

 the soul, and of happiness in a future state gives us 

 a solution of that distressing problem, the misery of the 

 innocent on earth. But in reality it does nothing of the 

 kind. It does not explain the origin of evil, and it does 

 not justify the existence of evil. A poor helpless infant 

 is thrust into the world by a higher force ; it has 

 done no one any harm, yet it is tortured in the 

 most dreadful manner ; it is nourished in vice, and 

 crime, and disease; it is allowed to suffer a certain time 

 and then it is murdered. It is all very well to say 

 that afterwards it was taken to everlasting bliss ; but 

 why was it not taken there direct ? If a man has a 

 child and beats that child for no reason whatever, is it 

 any palliation of the crime to say that he afterwards 

 gave it cake and wine ? 



This brings us to the character of the Creator. 

 We must beg to observe again that we describe, not 

 the actual Creator, but the popular idea of the Cre- 

 ator. It is said that the Supreme Power has a mind ; 

 this we deny, and to show that our reasons for deny- 



