[TO THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR. " ] Sin,—According to Blackstone, the
law of England is based on the divine law, and, as a matter of fact, many sins are also crimes. Thus crime and sin are often interchangeable terms. Now, if we substitute " crimes " for " sins " in Sir Oliver Lodge's dictum, it reads thus : " The higher man to-day is not worrying about his crimes at all, still less about their punishment." But assuming this to be so, ought not the "higher men" to be promptly despatched to Dartmoor ? There is one curious feature noticeable in the " higher men," if by that description we are to understand modern scientists. Many of them seem to have imbibed as religion the punitive theology of the disciplinarian nursery-maid,—a theology far removed from the doctrines of Christianity, of which doctrines many a modern scientist knows as little as he does of science ; what he knows being second or third hand, and mostly inaccurate. The old-fashioned gospel is one of forgiveness, not of punishment; but if scientists propose to continue in unregretted crime, we may exclaim with the old Devonshire stage-coach man, when speaking of a man cruel to horses: " I do not see what is the use of keeping a devil if they are to be let off." Besides which, imagine the anxieties of a future state swarming with "higher men" unrepentant of their
crimes.—I am, Sir, &c., A. R. H.
[We imagine that what Sir Oliver Lodge meant by the passage in question were not real sins or crimes, but the so- called "sins" over which morbidly religious people often torment themselves. The poet Cowper offers an example of such self-torment.—En. Spectator.]
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