Courts and juries judge and sentence mortals, in order to restrain crime, to prevent deeds of violence, Mental crimes. and to punish those deeds. To say that these tribunals have no jurisdiction over mortal mind, would be to contradict precedent, and admit that the power of human law is restricted to matter, while mortal mind, which is the real outlaw, defies justice and is recommended to mercy. Can matter commit a crime? Can matter be punished? Can you separate the mentality from the body over which courts hold jurisdiction? Mortal mind, not matter, is the criminal in every case; and human law rightly estimates crime, and courts reasonably sentence it, according to its motive.
When our laws eventually take cognizance of mental crime, and no longer apply legal rulings wholly to Important decision. physical offences, these words of Judge Parmenter, of Boston, will become historic: “I see no reason why metaphysics is not as important to medicine as to mechanics or mathematics.”
He who uses his developed mental powers like an escaped felon, to commit fresh atrocities as opportunity Escaped criminal. occurs, is never safe. God will arrest him. Divine justice will manacle him. His sins will be millstones about his neck, weighing him down to the depths of ignominy and death. The aggravation of error foretells its doom, and confirms the ancient axiom: “Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.”
From ordinary medical practice, the distance to Christian The misuse of mental power. Science is full many a league in the line of light; but to go from the use of inanimate drugs, in healing, to the criminal misuse of mortal
