731. The assailant of Spiritualism to whom allusion was made, while admitting the truth of the evidence given of communication with spirits, explained it by reference to Satan. It is remarkably inconsistent with this idea that this evidence is of a nature to abrogate the existence, and of course the sovereignty, of that imaginary arch-fiend. Again, it can hardly be conceived that the greater commiseration for sinners should come from a malevolent devil, and the urging for everlasting and cruel torture from a sincere disciple of the benevolent Jesus Christ. But how much, then, must it shock one who embraces these views, that in addition to the misfortune of being badly organized, badly educated, and badly tempted, the being subjected to these disadvantages is to be exposed eternally to misery, typified, if not realized, by broiling on burning brimstone! I am aware that doing away with the more horrible attributes of hell will be alleged to be subversive of one of the restraints upon criminality; but, in the first place, it is evident that a man who is restrained from crime solely by the fear of punishment is only a more prudent villain than one who is not restrained by that selfish apprehension. When a man is deterred from crime only by prudence, hope of reward, or fear of punishment, he ought not to have a higher grade in heaven than the perpetrator of the crime. 732. But, agreeably to experience, of all restraints upon crime, none are more efficacious than the fear of degradation. The lawyer who will do the bidding of a caucus (or of a powerful demagogue in the executive office) in order to get a judicial appointment, when securely seated therein, will not give a charge which will degrade him in the eyes of the legal profession, and consequently in that of society, as well as in his own estimation. The dishonest gambler, who neglects to pay his tradesman’s bill, will not fail to pay his gambling debts. The debtor who will take every advantage in getting a high price for his goods, and who will put off any other payment as long as possible, fails not to pay his note at a bank. Sovereign states, who pay no other claims, take every means to meet the interest on their funded obligations. “Failure” in the one case, in the mercantile adaptation, involves the loss of reputation for good financial faith, abroad as well as at home; but the just complaints of domestic claimants, not heard upon the exchange, are unheeded. The great object, in many cases, is not to leave the crime “undone, but to keep it unknown.” The corrupt, selfish politician, who would promote war in order to give himself an opportunity of emolument or official pre-eminence, when facing the enemy in the field of battle will _nominally_ die for that country whose interests he has sacrificed. But not from the alleged motive will he die, but either to avoid being degraded as a coward, or for the hope of popularity which may help him to office.