St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-04-14
Changed Ideas on the Subject
Of the Revenge Of the Al
mighty.
Vengeance Originated in the
Old Myths Of Gods and
GoddesseS.
How 1t Traced Down Through
the Rack and the Inquisi-
ton.
Growing Thought That Crime
Should Be Treated as a
Disease.

Rev. w. S. Vail. of the First Uniyer-
salist church, preached a very interest
ing and instructive sermon yesterday
on the changed ideas of the vengeance
of God. 1t was prettily worded and
very logically reasoned out. He quoted
Paul's remark to the Romans, "Ven-
geance is mine; will repay, saith the
Lord" The remark here quoted was
evidently thrown out without special
emphasis. st. Paul was at this time
thinking of the man, and not especially
of God. He was trying to persuade his
brethren that when offenses against
themselves were insufficient to merit
the interference of the state, such Of
lenses should be left to higher law,
and that the man could best relieve the
responsibility resting upon him by for
giyenesS rather than vengeance. l want
to make comprehensive survey of the
conditions and follow the experience of
man through some of its windings, be-
Iieving that we can only know the
present by knowing the past.
In the prehistoric age man had no
seDse of responsibility. He was at the
mercy of thousand influences. The
gods reigned supreme. Their influence
might involve You in the direSt evils.
They could send the tidal wave, the
storm, cause the beautiful valleys to be
filled with rushing rivers and roaring
fountains; and then they could fasten
suspicion on you. In that twilight OF
the world, when man had no knowledge
of the real conditions of life, when ey-
ery grove was filled with satyrs, when
in the moonlight nymphS and sprites
issued FROM the stream to dance upon
the flowery carpet in high g1ee, and
then to leap into the shimmering stream
again, losing their white selves in It's
white foam; when furies with their
lank and bony hands eager for blood,
mingled with the winds of every storm
and hurled men down to death-ln that
age we have the thought of vengeance,
but the avengers were gods, while man
had but sorry chance in any attempt
he made for redress OF wrong.
His Rights We're Nothing,
he was at the mercy of supernatural
powers. Like the great river when its
pent up waters have broken a crevasse
mingling their loud roar with the wild
cries Of the multitude. who stood and
hoped and feared, vainly believing the
strong walls would stay the angry tide,
but now obliged to see the seething
waters creep over the rich fields, and
crawl like a shr0uded demon into the
homes of men with mercileSS approach,
so did the ancient world find evil gods,
furles, spirits of the air, encircling
man, and holding him in powerful
grasp, man powerless to resist.
But the idea is rudimentary. 1t be-
longs to the past, and Is like the re-
mains of wings in animals that long
since ceased to fly; it has been super
seeded. The next experience of man
leads BIN to higher ground. Man now
becomes responsible. He, in the new
condition, commits crime, lncurs PEN
atty, is responsible to some law, and this
law names his punishment. The first
clear form of this is in the un-
written law of revenge, called by the
Hebrews Goel, and finding favor all
through a stratum of human experience.
When we picture the Eastern tribe,
living in quietness beside some stream,
with fioeks and herds feeding at peace
upon the hills. and find the quiet shaken
by the news of crime. fancylng we can
to some safe asylum, we also see the
next of kin to the wronged person grid
ing himself with staff and weapon, like
some brave modern knight who, with
sword and in armor clad, goes forth to
right wrong. Nor will he halt or rest,
or count the danger OF the swamp where
fever turks or Of the rocky hill where
the lion makes his lair and where from
the creyices he looks with hungry eye
| UPON the stranger, resting not nor rech-
ing of the dangers manifold, until he
overtakes his enemy and strikes with
strong. unerring stroke. This condition
has not passed away. IL is the eXplana-
ton OF
Those Kentucky Feuds
that have in many instances exhausted
the families on both sides. 1t was in
the minds of the jurors, says Mr.. Brice
in his American Commonwealth, when
they tried young Kailoch, in San Fran
cisco, for deliberately shooting the
| man who had attempted his fathers
life. 1t is the spirit of the action on
which we pride ourselves to-day. And
in this period is born the sentiment that
punishment is to he measured out to
man by the Judgment of his fellow man.
All ideas. of torment that have been
born in the imaginations of men has APP
peared in this stadium of the minds
progress. In this time, dominated by
| its central idea, men have conceived the
theory of torturiI,g the body nthe lake
of fire; they have developed the inqui-
Sition, with its rack and thumbscrew.
The horrors of prison abuses grow up
because men feel that they are priv
To xr-3,af ftnir
nate brethren deserve, and insist on
| melting out the vengeance proper to
the offense.
But with the adventof the last decade
we find some of the thoughts foreshad-
| owed years ago Tipeiiing into life. When
Elizabeth Frye went int Newgate
prison women reviled her. Before a
! month had passed the same women
chung 10 her neck and asked her to be
as mother to them. John Howard rr-
| vealed new idea concerning the pfiS-
oner by teaching the existence of a
| latent manhood. In our time the word
"reformatory" is becoming common
| name tor the prison. And if | may use
! the words so as to be understood would
explain that the wrongdoing of man is
| coming to be looked on as disease. Dc
not misunderstood me. This view does
| not say that crime shall 60 unpublished.
| That wonld be fatal mistake. But il
does say that there are ways of dealing
| with the criminal without the brutality
| of former times, treating him as you
would a sick man, and having in view
the protection of society as an end, and
not the search for vengeance. We talk
| loudest where we know least. The PEG
pie of Maine demanded the restoration
of the gallows, and then found to their
| shame that more brutal mistake had
| never been made. The expectation thai
crime would be iessened was the meres'
dream of men who had never followed
| the history of crime.
In This Last Age
l.said we have tried to study all the con
| ditions. The three things that we mus
consider in regard to the person are
very clear. We must know his hered
itary tendencies, his education and the
extent to which he has offered resist