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Romanes, George John, 1848-1894

"A Candid Examination of Theism"


[9] Hamilton.
[10] Lectures on Metaphysics, vol. i. pp. 25-31.
[11] Lectures on Metaphysics, vol. ii. p. 542.
[12] _Loc. cit._, p. 543.
[13] Appendix to Discussions, pp. 614, 165.
[14] Mill, in the lengthy chapter which he devotes to the freedom of the
will in his Examination, does not notice this point.
[15] If more evidence can be wanted, it is supplied in some suggestive
facts of Psychology. For example, "From our earliest childhood, the idea of
doing wrong (that is, of doing what is forbidden, or what is injurious to
others) and the idea of punishment are presented to the mind together, and
the intense character of the impressions causes the association between
them to attain the highest degree of closeness and intimacy. Is it strange,
or unlike the usual processes of the human mind, that in these
circumstances we should retain the feeling and forget the reason on which
it is grounded? But why do I speak of forgetting? In most cases the reason
has never, in our early education, been presented to the mind. The only
ideas presented have been those of wrong and punishment, and an inseparable
association has been created between these directly, without the help of
any intervening idea. This is quite enough to make the spontaneous feelings
of mankind regard punishment and a wrong-doer as naturally fitted to each
other--as a conjunction appropriate in itself, independently of any
consequences," &c.


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