Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 58.djvu/200

192 the outer darkness of utter irrationality. Men generally regard a man as free when he is in a position to be influenced by those considerations by which they think the normal man not under compulsion naturally is influenced. They do not think that he is robbed of his freedom in so far as he weighs motives, seeks information, is influenced by persuasion. What would become of our social system if men were not affected by influences of this sort? It would be the annihilation of all the forces which we have put in motion, and upon which we depend, for the amelioration of mankind.

There is scarce any tyranny so great as the tyranny of words. It is as reasonable to believe that strong drink will make a man strong, as that 'freedom' will make a man free, and yet how many believe it! So difficult is it to escape the snares of verbal confusion that I cannot be confident that some of my readers will not suppose that I have been arguing against human freedom. The forms of expression which have been chosen by some determinists are in part responsible for their error. The 'free-willists' are not wholly to blame. I feel, then, that I ought to close this brief paper with an unequivocal and concise statement of my position. It is this:

I believe most heartily in freedom. I am neither fatalist nor materialist. I hold man to be a free agent, and believe that there is such a thing as justice in man's treatment of man. I refuse to regard punishment as the infliction of pain upon one who did not do the thing for which he is punished, could not have prevented it, and cannot possibly be benefited by the punishment he receives. I view with horror the doctrine that the teacher's desk and the pulpit, the force of public opinion and the sanction of law, are of no avail. I am unwilling to assume without evidence that each man's breast is the seat of uncaused and inexplicable explosions, which no man can predict, against the consequences of which no man can make provision and which set at defiance all the forces which make for civilization.