not only as a means for reforming the criminal, but also as a restraining force, preventing the commission of crimes and protecting the interests of society. Even capital punishment is on this ground justifiable, if the fear of it deters from murder. Only, could we steadily hold in view the determinist doctrine, that what the man does, is what he is, and that, under given conditions, he must be just what he is, then the feeling of revenge which still lingers, disguised under the name of justice, in our conception of punishment, would give place to a profound pity, that might well lead to a firm determination to do all in our power to alter those social conditions which have consequences so terrible and tragic. Tout comprendre c'est tout pardonner, though human mercy, if it would be rational and wise, must often follow the Divine decree that as a man sows so shall he reap.
The objection of the moralist to determinism is that it makes us deny the fact of man's responsibility as a moral agent. But even the most consistent of determinists, who clearly realizes that the so-called 'freedom' which is opposed to causation is a figment of the imagination and is inconsistent with rational thought, must know from his daily experience that man is responsible,—that he has to answer to himself and to others for that conduct which is the outward expression of his nature. Responsibility is there, we cannot deny or ignore it, but we must not give it an interpretation that is inconsistent with clear and logical thinking.
Our first feeling, indeed, when the conviction of the inevitableness, alike of man's nature and of his fate, comes home to us with the force of a necessary truth, is a sort of indignation against the moral order of the world. What right is there in the universe or its maker to inflict pain as a penalty for the sin which is itself an infliction? Has not, in truth, the clay a rightful complaint to bring against the potter, that it has been made thus? Such questions lead us beyond the limits of the present discussion. Two considerations, however, may in conclusion be pointed out. In the first place, the libertarian theory does not help us to a solution of this mystery of evil.
