The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-04-19
THURSDAY, APRIL 10, 1866.
The philosophy of Crime.

the origin and laws of crime, they involve
themselves in great deal of perplexity. One
of their favorite questions is, whether there
is, in fact, such thing as human conscience,
and If they settle that afirmatvely, they then
go on to dispute whether conscience Is innate
or acquired. The Scriptures tell us that man
is desperately wicked, and inclined to evil as
the sparks fly upward The authority of the
Divine Book is quite sufficient to solve the
first problem of the moralists, namely, whether
crime is natural or not. There can be no
doubt in the mind of a Christian that all men
are disposed to sin by inheritance. ADAM
and EVE, though reported to have been ere
ated in perfection, were seduced by the
Devil, and fell from their high estate. They
were forthwith turned out of Paradise
and left under the dominion of Satan. All
their descendants have partaken of the effects
of their disobedience TO the Divine law, and
human nature, ever since, has been prone to
iniquity.
But ADAM and EVE went out of the Gar
den Of Eden with painful sense of their
disloyalty to God and His law and that sense
of wrong, and moral suffering under it, has
been impaired and bequeathed to all their
posterity. And it is that hereditary sensi-
bility, mental and moral, in consequence OF
any violation of the religious code, which
constitutes what is called, technically, con-
science.
From this follows one very obvious con-
c'usion, and that is, that in the degree that
we educate conscience, according to the re-
vealed will of God, we restrain men from the
transgression of Gods law. Human laws, in
SO far as they prohibit cruelty, injustice, and
violence, are only declaratory of the Deca-
logue. They are merely designed 10 enforce,
by temporal direction and sanction, the COM
mands of the Divine Lawgiver. But the
mere knowledge of law is not always suff1-
cient to secure obedience to it. The heart of
the subject must be brought into harmony
with it to the fullest possible extent, When
any one is required to obey particular pre-
cept, especially if that precept is in direct
opposition to his natural proclivites, he needs
to be convinced of its reasonableuess and its
fitness to secure his own welfare. Human
selfshness will be satisfied with nothing less.
L
tude alone. Every mans love of God and re-
spect for Gods law should be built altogether
on f1lial sense of Gods parental love. But
human selhshness has, too often, much more to
do with human piety or its profession, than a
child's affection for a forgiving and indulgent
iather.
But, nevertheless, crime in this world can
only be etfecUually restrained by an intelligent
and sincere religious faith. Our criminal
laws, and magistrates, and police, and prisons,
and gibbets, may exercise certain measure
of restraint on the evil passions and DISPOSE
tions of mankind. But they cannot entirely
prevent crime. They do not reach down to
the moral depths of human nature. They do
not impress and control the conscience of
men. They deter from violence by fear of
temporal inconvenience and suffering. But
that is all. When the human soul has no
other restraint from sin, no sense of response
bility beyond this lie, human laws and pun
ishments fail in their effect. n.l
There can be no doubt, we think, that the
fend who murdered the DEARING family is
an infldel or an atheist. He either believed
that there is no God, or that, if there is a God,
He has no concern about the creatures of this
world. His notion of his own life probably
is, that he came into this sphere of being like
brute, and that he viii die like a
brute. Thus estimating his own life, he
naturally cared very little for the lives of his
fellOw-cTeaturss. The step from a wrong
conception of his own nature and existence
to th 1t ofa false valuation of the nature and
existence OF other human beings, was
quite short. He probably thought no
more of killing man or woman
or child, than he thought of killing dog or
snake. We would not excite any commise-
seration for PRoBsT, because he has effectu-
ally put himself beyond the pale of human
sympathy; but we would earnestly, in view
of his awful crime, enforce the doctrine that
sound religious morality is the only sure
basis of civil society, and the most effectua
protection against the commission of capita
ofenses. An eminent English divine has
truly and eloquently said: "That to extinguist
human life by the hand of violence must be
quite different thing in the eyes of skep
tic from what 1t is in those of Christian
With the skeptic it is nothing more thar
diverting the course Of little red fuic
called blood; it is merely lessening the mum
ber by one of many millions of fugitive
contemplate creatures. The Christian see.
in the same event an accountable
being cut off from a state of probation