Page:Philosophical Review Volume 2.djvu/119

No. 1.] means of satisfying the natural impulse to happiness nor something hovering beyond morality. It penetrates, renews, and ennobles moral and natural life. Only by uniting these three standpoints are we able to solve the problem regarding the origin of good and evil. By reason of the Ideological organization of nature, anti-egoistic impulses are already evolved in the animal sphere. With the growth of consciousness these predispositions to good reach the dignity of norms. This evolution is the work of preparatory grace. Inherited disposition means original grace and original sin. Hence the morally good has its mediate or immediate origin in the supra-moral sphere. Evil springs from the natural which has not yet been drawn into the service of the supra-moral and moral teleology. Now the natural is willed by God. Is evil, then, also decreed by God? Can anything be bad that is not opposed to divine purposes? This antinomy needs to be solved. The natural sphere where evil originates is logical in so far as it is a means of higher stages of teleology, relatively illogical in so far as it checks their realization. That which is absolutely illogical, or the will, necessitates this antilogical process. To the will of God, then, we may attribute the existence of evil. But since the will or the absolutely illogical in God transcends the moral sphere, it cannot be called bad. On this basis, then, we can hold to the supra-morality of the absolute as well as to the immoral character of evil within the moral sphere. We are also enabled to solve the problem of man's moral responsibility in spite of the fact that he is absolutely dependent on God and relatively dependent on nature.

F. T.

An estimate of the value of criminal statistics is a necessary preliminary to the study of crime. Changes in judicial procedure affect the number of offences, and render statistics misleading. It is not possible to compare periods with absolute certainty. Brief periods are of no value, and in long periods account must be taken of changes in (1) law, (2) attitude of authorities, (3) public feeling, (4) conditions of life. International statistics are only reliable as throwing light on the probable causes of crime. The subject falls under three heads: (1) movement of crime, (2) causes, (3) means of repression. The movement of crime comprises extent, intensity, and geographical distribution. It is determined by examining the records of cases reported, cases tried, and cases of conviction. Each record has special advantages and defects, but, interpreted in the light of each other, the three form a valuable index of the state of crime in a community. The causes of