New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1890-11-30
WHAT Has BECOME or ORIGINAL SIN.
CHANGES IN THE WAY OF LOOKING AT THINoa

CHANGES IN THE WAY OF LOOKING AT THIN0l.
From The London Spectator.
A writer in the October number OF "Macmillan's
Magazine who does not give his name but who 4:
evidently schoolmaster, has been 50 struck, and
tribute all the faults Of schoolboys TO their Instructors
mat ne asks this singular question He does not answer
included in a much wider puzzle, why the world has
begun to believe that everybody Is potentially good
let SS p %as sy RGps E0as s
wise Wis mat the great mass OF mansnd not actually
become So few persons, indeed we're admitted 70
be naturally good subjects the theologans used 20
rsnina careful watching legal restricons and sharp
painshments whenever they went astrsy, Their IN
also and much Of the old social law besides that inst,
new generation have almost forgotten. The social
precautions against badness endless one Of them
for example, being that attendance at church was com
offenders Of many kinds were boycoted with severity
rgor is needless that the vast majority are very good
and that If you will only concede liberty and abolish
according TO his own inner light, the millennium will
speedily arrive. Fewer laws, gentler punshments,
wrong doing; and there are men among us only
little more advanced than the rest who would edu.
cate criminals instead Of restraining Them and abolish
the police sort Of insult to generation which
must. on the dominant hypothesis, be well ntenoned
philosophers but many good Christians; and persons
Otherwise sensible reply 70 the suggestion that without
by the remark: The world Is beyond all that, II i
II they honestly believed that the monkeys had not
only developed into men, but into nice men. for whom
law was unnecessary or rather to whom t. was In,
It used to be believed that Impulse was sure to 30
bad-revenge for example. being Of all impulses tho
that that everybody viii forgive What is the cause d
that changei
lurng the sense of personal responsibility but tina.
cannot produce the theory that automaia will be good
they w. let alone nf Witch s the b ts0 rs nt NOW s
change Is not due to mere love of case positive dis
like to take great deal Of trouble and witness much
precautionary fences but that viii not explain the
whole f cha cv o felt By many % are
mankind. The true cause Of II Is, we believe, not so
sne Of SCI e the %, S
The spirit Of COLLECTIVELY has invaded the moral region.
snd good Sdd people honestly That the Or 9
put it in another way that society tants the individual.
and not the individual society. Please, sir, said
"'Tworn't my fault. Twas my fare as kept giving
Of me drink Is your throat gutter then retorted
Your throat IS your own Fined los' mr. Wa@s
fear, Is elderly certainly he is behind his time
would assert that the claimants throat had been made
gutter by society, when the collective body failed
lie, poor man. was victim of the social system. and
society in Furnishing him: was selecting the wrong
at all events to have itself to learn how 10 avoid
making such victims. Influenced by this feeling,
society bames ITSELF and not only does not believe that
the individual is be tainted with original sin,
but hardly bear to punish him, even in self
defence, for what it deems TO be, in truth. its own
msdoing. 1t ITSELF its organization, is Original
Sin, the predisposing impulse which makes such q
number OF individuals so disappointing. II II could
only make itself perfect-an advance for which y
trusts mainly education. inspection, eeotasm and
high wages-the individual would be perfect too. and
even schoolboys would betray but good impulses
their disposition toward lies. for example being the
result of fear generated by the overharsh discipline
Y.
boys would always be truthful, the hypothesis even
toward their masters and about their comrades. The
tendency toward COLLECTIVELY all sides collective
responsibility collective Improvement collective ease
and consequently a decay Of action except for thu
benefit Of the collective mass, which must be set re
because il has everything to do. and IS alone pc.
sessed of the capacity TO do it. Ii is phase OF feel
ing and thought which will. We imagine, pass -
cause. after all. every man is himself and knows II;
hut while II lasts ii will suspend belief In the ancient
dogma, because society will attribute 10 Itself every.
thing which the Individual does. "The individual
dwindes," and society Is ALL