lations.

How tragically false this view was! Its existence can be explained
only as an expression of an ill-organized society in which impulsive
violence was not enough held in check. Supernatural sanctions could be
used to restrain malefactors of great power in less happy times.
Society has grown beyond this need. Courts of law and outraged public
opinion are quite able to deal with criminals. If the reason for
punishment is prevention, it is certainly true that punishment by
society is more likely to be effective than the postponed pains of an
hereafter, because of its immediacy and power of being repeated. But
it is very doubtful whether fear is a moral motive or whether it is a
very effective deterrent. Social thinkers are agreed that punishment
is a very {177} bungling method at the best. It does not show the
presence of a very constructive imagination.

Hell has always been a magnified torture chamber. It has been the
reflection on the gigantic background of the next world of the penal
ideas of the time. That is why it has always been more interesting
than heaven. Man feared to make a social utopia out of heaven because
he conceived it as a kingdom in which he was to play a very minor role,
while he was quite certain of his importance in hell. But the morbid
results of his imaginings were tragic in their effects when connected
with such damnable doctrines as infant damnation and eternal punishment
for lack of belief in a particular creed. What distorted ethical
notions, what mixture of horrible fear before a world-tyrant and
callous delight in the punishment of others are revealed in these
pictures of a place of eternal torment! Thank goodness, the civilized
world is outgrowing the whole savage set of ideas.

Before we leave these juridical religious sanctions, it may be well to
call attention to the fact that theories of punishment have radically
changed during the last century. The purpose of modern justice is less
to uphold the majesty of an outraged law than to protect the citizens
of a state and reform the character of the criminal. Crime is studied
genetically and its conditions determined so far as possible. It is
well known that criminals are products of biological and social
conditions over which they have little control. The modern ideal is
coming to be prevention by means of the betterment of social
organization and negative eugenics. Healthy and capable persons in a
decent society