hat I am what heredity and environment made me. But I know
that I can make myself better or worse if I try. I know that because I
have learnt it, and the learning has been part of my environment.

My claim, as a Determinist, is that it is not so good to punish an
offender as to improve his environment. It is good of the Christians to
open schools and to found charities. But as a Determinist I am bound to
say that there ought to be no such things in the world as poverty and
ignorance, and one of the contributory causes to ignorance and poverty
is the Christian doctrine of free will.

Take away from a man all that God gave him, and there will be nothing of
him left.

Take away from a man all that heredity and environment have given him,
and there will be nothing left.

Man is what he is by the act of God, or the results of heredity and
environment. In either case he is not to blame.

In one case the result is due to the action of his ancestors and
society, in the other to the act of God.

Therefore a man is not responsible for his actions, and cannot sin
against God.

_If God is responsible for Man's existence, God is responsible for Man's
acts._

A religion built upon the doctrine of Free Will and human responsibility
to God is built upon a misconception and must fall.

Christianity is a fabric of impossibilities erected upon a foundation of
error.

Perhaps, since I find many get confused on the subject of Free Will from
their consciousness of continually exercising the "power of choice," I
had better say a few words here on that subject.

You say you have power to choose between two courses. So you have, but
that power is limited and controlled by heredity and environment.

If you have to choose between a showy costume and a plain one you will
choose the one you like best, and you will like best the one which your
nature (heredity) and your training (environment) will lead you to like
best.

You think your will is free. But it is not. You may think you have power
to drown yourself; but you have not.

Your love of life and your sense of duty are too strong for you.

You might think I have power to leave the _Clarion_ and start an
anti-Socialist paper. But I know I have not that power. My nature
(heredity) and my training and habit (environment) are too strong for
me.

If you knew a lady was going to choose between a red dress and a grey
one, and if you knew the lady very well, you could guess her cho