rator, could hardly tell the fraction of
a chance that gave us life.

The causes of human action are infinite, and no cause stands isolated
from the rest. In the first place we cannot tell the meaning of the word
"cause" when applied to a problem of this sort. In law the ordinary
rule for a "proximate cause" is "an event or happening in the direct
line of causation, not too remote, that has led to the result, and
without which the result could not have happened." But this means
nothing. Infinite are the causes which have led to every act, and
without each one of the infinite causes the act could not have resulted.
If it be something that affected a life, and had it not happened then
the life would have drifted somewhere else. In the end it would have
reached the same harbor of Nirvana. But the life would not have been the
same. A drop of water falls on the Rocky Mountains, it trickles along,
going around through pebbles and grains of sand; it joins with others,
meets trees and roots, winds and twists perhaps for hundreds, even
thousands of miles before one can tell by what channel it will reach the
sea. Infinite accidents determine even which sea it shall finally reach.
The most radical advocates of social control are never at a loss to lay
their fingers on causes or to know what would have happened if something
else had not happened; they never hesitate to forbid seemingly innocent
acts because they are certain that evil will follow. They are
contemptuous of one who wants to preserve the semblance and spirit of
freedom.

Life has none too much to offer where men are left to control
themselves, and to be forbidden to follow your inclinations and desires
because sometimes they may result disastrously, is to give up what seems
to be a substance for what is most likely a shadow.

All we can tell about the man whom we are pleased to call a criminal, is
that he had a poor equipment and met certain influences, motives and
conditions, called environment, on his journey. We know that at a given
time the journey has reached a certain point; it has met disaster or
success, or most likely indifference. At a certain point he has reached
a prison or is waiting for the hangman to tie a noose around his neck.
Is heredity responsible? We know of many who apparently started out with
an equipment no better. These may be business men and congressmen and
deacons in the church. While we do not know and cannot know the trend
and relative