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Show REASON AND ESIOTION. An article entitled "Self Control" appears elsewhere in this paper, and in the light of recent criminal trials, may be read with profit. It describes the necessity and utility of self-restraint, self-restraint, and the dreaded dangers that follow the inordinate indulgence of the passions. It is nn obvious truth that man differs from the brute in that the former has reason to guide him, while the latter is led by instinct. If man come9 down from the pedestal of reason rea-son and grovels in the field of the lower passions, by abdicating his higher station, sta-tion, he becomes worse, than the brute. Indeed, it is not complimentary to the brute to compare its actions with those of the man who thus forsakes the condition con-dition of his rational being. It is of vital importance, then for parents to check all exhibitions of undue emotion by their children. It is sad, however, to think that this is a duty very much neglected by parents, and that frequently fre-quently they are rudely awakened to the responsibility that attaches to them only when? their children have made a shipwreck of life. And if ever there was an age when a strict discipline of children in this respect was necessary, it is in this day of the nineteenth century, cen-tury, when excitability and irritable unquiet have taken hold of nearly every class of society. It is a rushing, pushing age, when a man really does not live; he subsists. It is the rustler who comes out ahead; therefore, it is good to rustle. Children see this and naturally drop into the line of imitation. imita-tion. Brevity, the law of heredity, comes into play, and as in cases of imitation imi-tation generally, it is not the good, if any, but the bad that appears. It is very necessary, 'then, that parents should exercise a careful vigilance over their children, and spare no pains to inculcate upon them the necessity and value of self-control, showing them the physical and moral evils that attend emotional indulgences. Of course, emotions emo-tions are not bad when controlled by reason. But developed unduly, they produce conditions variously described as hysteria, hypochondria and emotional emotion-al insanity, and this brings us to this plea, old and familiar enough in the East, but rather new in the far West. To say the least of it, such a defense to high crime opens a wide field for speculation. It seems to render life and property less secure, and is a serious seri-ous reflection upon so-called modem not in the possession of sufficient reason rea-son to distinguish right from wrong is, or should be, responsible to the law; on the other hand, the line of demarcation demarc-ation between reason and unreason grows so thin that it is hard to see how best to provide against injury to the' community. Juries, are sometimes quite emotional, and the pathetic plea ia seldom amiss with them. Except for some technicality born of the emotional law-maker, far oftener than experience experi-ence tells, judges would set aside what may be called emotional verdicts. Nevertheless, it is not altogether a sentimental age; and even, in this direction direc-tion of the sentimental, it is not unknown, un-known, that many distinguished men are seeking to give a practical character charac-ter to abstruser developments of psychology. psy-chology. Mesmerism, new. learnedly called hypnotism, and mind-reading, attract considerable attention from scholars and specialists. . This is, indeed, in-deed, right, as it also that medicolegal medico-legal jurisprudence should find in such interesting subjects material for grave and conscientious thought. The study of these- questions may eventuate in fastening crimes where they properly belong. It may be said, anyhow, that the widening sphere of pleas) related to the fundamental one of Insanity, will gladden the heart, fatten the pocket, and enlarge the capici'y for usefulness of the practitioner of criminal law. But it is doubtful whether it will insure to the general welfare. The optimist, however, thinks that "old landmarks are in tha wty, and to him the disk of life is speckless. Belonging to the laissez-faire school, he considers things at the best when let alone. But optimist opti-mist and pessimist, like all extremists, are wrong; the moderate is the right view, and the moderate man well knows that the whole system of human and social machinery is a matter of tinkering and patching. This is what the law-maker must keep in mind, and with the so-called enlightenment of the dayut should dlawn on the voter's mind that the coming legislator should be chosen from the most highly educated edu-cated and best classes of society. They, too, will be tinkers, still their tinkering tinker-ing will be more skillful and intelligent intelli-gent Eut the amelioration, of society is a perplexing problem. The wise, however, will admit that at the root of all efforts made in this direction there must be a Christian education in the home as well as the school. This sort of education in fact, this alone i3 education edu-cation aims at subjecting the passions and emotions to reason and revelation, and by a constant discipline of self-controleginning self-controleginning betimes in life, the citizen will be a rational being, or, what is the same in other words, a practical Christian. |
