punishments are really educational; that is to say,
they are not intended to retaliate on the offender, but to teach him
a lesson. Also there is an element of chance in them, which is another
name for our ignorance of the laws of nature. There is evil too
inseparable from good (compare Lysis); not always punished here, as good
is not always rewarded. It is capable of being indefinitely diminished;
and as knowledge increases, the element of chance may more and more
disappear.

For we do not argue merely from the analogy of the present state of this
world to another, but from the analogy of a probable future to which we
are tending. The greatest changes of which we have had experience as yet
are due to our increasing knowledge of history and of nature. They
have been produced by a few minds appearing in three or four favoured
nations, in a comparatively short period of time. May we be allowed to
imagine the minds of men everywhere working together during many ages
for the completion of our knowledge? May not the science of physiology
transform the world? Again, the majority of mankind have really
experienced some moral improvement; almost every one feels that he has
tendencies to good, and is capable of becoming better. And these germs
of good are often found to be developed by new circumstances, like
stunted trees when transplanted to a better soil. The differences
between the savage and the civilized man, or between the civilized
man in old and new countries, may be indefinitely increased. The first
difference is the effect of a few thousand, the second of a few hundred
years. We congratulate ourselves that slavery has become industry;
that law and constitutional government have superseded despotism and
violence; that an ethical religion has taken the place of Fetichism.
There may yet come a time when the many may be as well off as the few;
when no one will be weighed down by excessive toil; when the necessity
of providing for the body will not interfere with mental improvement;
when the physical frame may be strengthened and developed; and the
religion of all men may become a reasonable service.

Nothing therefore, either in the present state of man or in the
tendencies of the future, as far as we can entertain conjecture of them,
would lead us to suppose that God governs us vindictively in this
world, and therefore we have no reason to infer that he will govern us
vindictively in another. The true argument from anal