View report page

14 Parish of Saint George the Martyr, Southwark.
Besides, that it filled "the world with those to whom life will bring most pain, and tended
to keep out of it those to whom life would bring most pleasure." The result being that,
by their preservation positive misery was inflicted, and positive happiness prevented.
However true this may be, our duty remains plain, and which is, to preserve and not destroy.
Not only to save life in whatever degenerate and enfeebled form it may appear, but to try
to elevate and strengthen it. For every child born into the world, there should be found
plenty of water, of air, of light, and of food; these 'Nature has given to the wild beast of
the forest." They are essential. Without them the blessing of life is turned into a curse.
And with these should be combined open spaces, with natural rural objects in them, that
instinct may find its realisation. For to every instinct there is a satisfaction somewhere.
In our crowded towns, where every bit of ground is utilised and built upon, where shall
these requisites be found ? It takes much to crush out our humanity, or London would but
exist as a den of thieves, or as a vast desert. How children pass through childhood in
localities we daily see, and retain their humanity is a marvel. That they should ever
arrive at manhood or womanhood with any residue of health and strength, or that there
should be found in them any moral feeling, shows what a resisting power to evil there
exists in that humanity.
Before concluding, I desire to draw your attention to the connexion that exists, between
disease and crime, as cause and effect. Hitherto, this has not been generally considered,
and yet it has an important bearing upon our social proceedings. The mind is connected
with our organism, and if that organism should happen to be deficient in proportion, or
defective in working, the mental faculty will also be deficient or defective in its operations.
Dr. Wilks, before a gathering of the British Medical Association held at Birmingham,
told them, that so close was this connexion, that he believed that vice and crime could
never be eradicated whilst such was the condition of the organism. Hence, not only may
disease be created or prevented, according as we take or do not take heed to man's physical
condition, but so also may vice and crime. Thus, our power widens, and our responsibilities
increase. Our laws punish the guilty only; but nature punishes the innocent with the
guilty. Children and childrens' children suffer for the deeds of their ancestors. And when
we learn that physical diseases will obliterate the distinctions of vice and virtue, of honesty
and dishonesty, of kindness and cruelty, and in fact upset our whole moral nature, we may
well stand aghast at the position we occupy. I will just refer to the effects of intemperance
as bearing upon this point. As a rule, the children of drunkards are born with a defective
vitality; stunted in growth, as regards both mind and body; unequal to the demands which
the common duties of life make upon them; and possessing a craving for drink, often so
imperious as to be irresistible. Farther, they are often born with a strong tendency
towards insanity, whilst numbers are born idiotic. In an Asylum for Idiots, enquiries were
purposely made concerning the parents of the inmates, when it was discovered that nearly
half of them were habitual drunkards. In one family consisting of seven idiotic children,
both parents were found to be irreclaimable drunkards.* The United Kingdom it is stated
contains 50,000 idiots. Thousands who now fill our jails, and hulks, and penal settlements
have been born with diseased organisations, the hereditary gift of many generations; and
who have been born into the world amid circumstances the most propitious for their
*Dr. W. B. carpenter in Contemporary Review.