THE DIMINUTION OF SIN. 489 



Wales during the year 1863, only 4829 could read and 

 write well. In fact, our criminal population are mere 

 savages, and most of their crimes are but injudicious and 

 desperate attempts to act as savages in the midst, and at the 

 expense, of a civilised community. 



Men do not sin for the sake of sinning; they yield to 

 temptation. Most of our unhappiness arises from a mis- 

 taken pursuit of pleasure ; from a misapprehension of that 

 which constitutes true happiness. Men do wrong, either 

 from ignorance, or in the unexpressed hope that they may 

 enjoy the pleasure, and yet avoid the penalty of sin. In 

 this respect there can be no doubt that religious teaching 

 is widely mistaken. Repentance is too often regarded as a 

 substitute for punishment. Sin it is thought is followed 

 either by the one or the other. So far, however, as our 

 world is concerned, this is not the case ; repentance may 

 enable a man to avoid punishment in future, but has no 

 effect on the consequences of the past. The laws of nature 

 are just, and they are salutary, but they are also inexorable. 

 All men admit that "the wages of sin is death/' but they 

 seem to think that this is a general rule to which there 

 may be many exceptions, that some sins may possibly tend 

 to happiness ; as if there could be any thorns that would 

 grow grapes, any thistles which could produce figs. That 

 suffering is the inevitable consequence of sin, as surely as 

 night follows day, is, however, the stern yet salutary teach- 

 ing of Science. And surely if this lesson were thoroughly 

 impressed upon our minds, if we really believed in the cer- 

 tainty of punishment; that sin could not conduce to hap- 

 piness, temptation, which is at the very root of crime, would 

 be cut away, and mankind must necessarily become more 

 innocent. 



May we not, however, go even farther than this, and say 

 that science will also render man more virtuous. " To pass 



