between the parties-to which they were unrighteously subjected. This pecuniary trouble, then, taken in connection with the inherited temperaments and mental tendencies of the criminal, was the cause of the premeditation and the sin. Therefore, inasmuch as the first cause of this evil is to be found in our social arrangements, so am I, in common justice to truth, compelled to charge upon society the damages and injuries done to the parties involved.

You ask, "Why does not every man destroy his creditor, when similarly embarrassed in a money-relation ?" For the same reason that every man is not physically and mentally organized precisely alike. Each man would be a NEWTON or a SHAKESPEAR, were it not for this fact, that the inequalities of birth, the contrarieties of surrounding circumstances, and the different social positions which men occupy-all conspire against the possibility of every person being and doing in a corresponding manner. One man can bear fifty times more embarrassment and vexation than another, and manifest no discomposure or retaliation. It depends altogether upon individual organization, and the use which society makes of that organization, as to the good or evil issues. You inquire: "Who made society?" Society is the work of ignorant and undeveloped men. Like the first cotton machine, society does not properly accomplish or manufacture what the constructive minds desire. Individuals are not personally responsible for all the evils evolved from present social arrangements. For it is the human aggregate which forms society. The social mechanism can be improved, only, on the event of the masses becoming enlightened as to the actual causes of sin so-called, and as to the best methods of reorganization. The reader, therefore, will apprehend me as not tolerating vice, or as exculpating the individual from the commission of discordant deeds which he, as a comparative free power, can prevent or abstain from; but as teaching the

doctrine, which can not be successfully refuted, that the greatest evils in this world arise from Ignorance as to the organization of men, and, equally, from a defective social arrangement. A different and harmonious organization of human occupations and interests would render society a better Parent to its offspring! But the individuals were not the real sufferers; because, when their physical existence terminated a better opened upon them; but they were citizens, and husbands, and fathers! From these relations sprang all the suffering which the murder developed. Society, therefore, receives back, with interest compounded, all the wrongs, the insults, and oppressions which its antagonistic relations inflict upon individuals. Society, when it strangulates the murderer, at the same time, absolutely insults the moral feelings of every man who has outgrown theology and the prevailing evils of an undeveloped race.

In conclusion, I will briefly reply to the almost thoughtless assertion, that "this philosophy is immoral." This assertion, my friends, is grounded in ignorance and prejudice. The logical fruits are personal analysis, self-development, harmony, peace, brotherly love, and a universal unity of interests. We are taught to feel ourselves free to do Right; but we are not free to do wrong. The law of our existence is Justice or harmony; this is our highest Interest or chief attraction. Almost the last words which broke from the soul of Jesus, when he separated from his sorrow-stricken disciples, bring out in full force the practical teachings of this philosophy: "Be ye one, even as I and my father are one"-a blending of interests the most intimate, wise, and divine. This state can never be developed under the teaching of supernaturalism; which tolerates social antagonisms on the fallacious theory of man's moral freedom. This doctrine which asserts that each man is a self-determining and self-regulating power, is disproved by every thing in existence. The mission of the Christ-prin

ciple is to reveal to the race the peace and unity of truth It will unfold a Wisdom-power among men to the ultimate establishment of a sacred harmony on earth, permanent as the Eternal Mind.

I have said that man's will is an effect, and not a cause; that it is, therefore, not absolutely, but comparatively free. If a man wills to accomplish any thing, the execution thereof depends wholly upon the favorable conspiration of surrounding things. There could be no lying, no stealing, no murder, if every man was an isolated being an independent, selfcausing, self-determining, and self-sustaining power. Nay. Association is the parent of all discordant contrasts in men and deeds; and the Law of Progression is the parent of the countless varieties of character visible in the human world. I say, then, that man is comparatively free in his will. He can follow out, or after, his strongest attraction or Interest on the condition, that all relative influences and circumstances, over which he can have no direct control, are friendly to his proceeding. Kossuth, in the exercise of his freedom, could do nothing, though he might will forever, if there were no hearts to beat sympathetically with his own. his love of, and labors for, Liberty as the natural result of the events which developed him, and of the peculiar organization which, without his consent, he originally derived from his progenitors. Hence, manifestly, the reason why all men are not precisely like Kossuth, is to be found in the fact, that all are not personally organized and situated in a corresponding manner. So, therefore, there is no great cause for aristocracy in feeling; for the most splendid man before the world to-day might have been, through the accident of birth, a negro delving in the earth for a livelihood.

Now I regard

But you ask: "If this doctrine be true, how shall we graduate the measure of personal responsibility?" This question I will more fully answer hereafter. My present reply

is from the mind of fine endowments we should expect fine results, all immediately surrounding things being favorable. I think many who now pass for good Christian citizens, have never committed theft or murder; simply because, they have not been situated amid the adequate temptations. But what might constitute an irresistible temptation to one man, could form no inducement whatever to another, possessing a different temperament and a higher organization. This fact men are quite too apt to overlook in pronouncing judgment upon the moral delinquencies of the victims of vice. The man who would not be tempted at all to do a certain thing, which some weaker brother was influenced to accomplish in society, sits in cold judgment against the misdirected mind, and consigns him, on the ground of moral freedom, to some loathsome prison or burning hell. Such is the doctrine of supernaturalism!

Man, I repeat, is free to do right; but he is not free to do wrong. When he does right, he glides peacefully along with the divine life-currents of this beautiful universe, like a flower on the ocean's bosom. This is the glorious Liberty of the children of God. But to attempt to do wrong, or rather to be influenced by social laws to go in a wrong direction, is to meet with insurmountable impediments at every step; it is like an effort to ascend the imperative tide of Niagara falls. According to this philosophy," you ask, "what motive have we to use our comparative freedom?" I answer: The chief attraction of every soul is Happiness. But there are very few who know which road to take to find it. Thousands think it is to be found in licentiousness, in gaming, in prowling through the world, like the prodigal son, in drunkenness and recklessness; but such soon discover their error; for a miserable experience teaches a different lesson.

Happiness, then, is the chief of all attractions; and all mankind would go directly to it, if they possessed sufficient

wisdom. We, therefore, who have this wisdom should impart it to those whose present proceedings are against the law of Right. This Law operates in us and upon us, whether we recognize it or not; and every movement which deviates from its imperative tendency, is attended with the legitimate consequences. These results are recorded in the book of life; not always in accordance with our educational notions of right and wrong, with our voluntary or involuntary doings; but, invariably, in proportion to the real deviation of the individual. Society does the most injury to individuals in this respect. "You ask: "What do you mean by the book of life?" The book of life, my friends, is composed of the human body and mind. The lids are made of the body; the folios of the mental faculties. Upon these leaves are written the many deviations of the individual from the paths of rectitude. The recording angel is the Law of Right, or the Positive Principle of nature, which is Harmony. The mark of transgression is upon the brow. The individual— the book of life-is immortal; it soon passes away to the Spirit Land. The record of misdirection appears on the living faculties; is manifested in their deformity and decrepitude; in their inability immediately to advance, with the higher spirits, upon the eternal highway of Love and Wisdom. Such are the motives, according to this philosophy, which we have for exercising aright all the comparative freedom in our possession. One can righteously affect a Family; another a Society; another still, can affect a Community; and still another, can move a Nation with the power of Mind-if all the immediate outer conditions conspire to that end. But society must be changed. For the greatest injury which can be done an individual, is to place him, by the mere accident of birth, in a world which favors crime, and the perpetuation of mental misery.

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