utterly diabolical influence in the universe. It invariably either
debauches or martyrizes men and women, accordingly as it renders them
desperate and hardened, or makes them a prey to undying grief and
self-contempt. When I consider that more sin is the only anodyne for sin,
and that the only way to cure the ache of conscience is to harden it, I
marvel that even so many as do essay the bitter and hopeless way of
repentance and reform. In the main, the pangs of conscience, so much
vaunted by some, do most certainly drive ten deeper into sin where they
bring one back to virtue."

"But," remarked Henry, "suppose there were no memory, and men did forget
their acts, they would remain just as responsible for them as now."

"Precisely; that is, not at all," replied the doctor.

"You don't mean to say there is no such thing as responsibility, no such
thing as justice. Oh, I see, you deny free will. You are a
necessitarian."

The doctor waved his hand rather contemptuously.

"I know nothing about your theological distinctions; I am a doctor. I say
that there is no such thing as moral responsibility for past acts, no
such thing as real justice in punishing them, for the reason that human
beings are not stationary existences, but changing, growing, incessantly
progressive organisms, which in no two moments are the same. Therefore
justice, whose only possible mode of proceeding is to punish in present
time for what is done in past time, must always punish a person more or
less similar to, but never identical with, the one who committed the
offence, and therein must be no justice.