some are good—at least some are bad. The law is not concerned with the good. Its business is not rewarding, but punishment; not love but hate. How can human judgment determine what heart is bad? Men’s lives are a strange mixture of thought, motive and action; an infinite mixture of good and evil, as it is given to finite man to know good and evil. No life is wholly good, and no life is wholly bad. A life of great virtues may here and there be interspersed with an evil act. The law picks out the evil and ignores the good. A life barren of real affirmative goodness may still be free from serious positive sin, and thus escape the condemnation of man and his courts. The conduct which falls under the observation of others is not so much due to the goodness or badness of the heart as to the emotion or placidity of the nature. In balancing the evil of a life against the good, no one can give the exact weight to each for no two men weigh moral worth or turpitude with the same scales. Neither can a man’s standing be determined until his life is done. Acts which seem evil if left to develop character are often the means of softening the heart, of developing love and charity and humanity, of really building up the moral worth of man. But no person can be judged even by his conduct. Goodness and evil are both latent in man and this fact shows the evil of resistance and force. One may be intrinsically good and live a long life and still never be touched upon the proper side to develop character and reveal to the world the real self. It requires circumstance, opportunity and the proper appeal to develop the best in man, the same as to develop the worst in man. To judge the character of a human soul from one isolated act, would be as impossible as to judge his physical health by testing his sight or hearing alone. Every person’s first impressions show how often these are really wrong, and how much they depend upon the circumstances of time and place. To really judge another’s character requires almost infinite knowledge, not of their acts alone, but of their thoughts and aspirations, their temptations, and environment, and every circumstance that makes up their lives. But if the administration of punishment is to depend on the good or evil of the man, then each person must be judged from his own standpoint. One’s merit or demerit depends not on what he does but on his purpose and intent, upon his desire to do good or evil. In short, upon the condition of his heart, which can only be told in part from his isolated acts.