The problem of the origin of evil has been the great theological puzzle to all theologians and with all religious systems, and has turned the heads of more good people, and sent more devout Christians to the lunatic asylum, than any other theological question, excepting that of endless punishment; and yet modern science, which furnishes the principles for solving all the "holy mysteries" and miracles embodied in the religious creeds and Bibles of the past ages, shows the question to be quite simple and easily understood. The true signification of the word evil, in a moral sense, can be expressed in a few words. It is only another name for imperfection or negation.

It is the negative pole of the great moral battery; and without it the battery could not be run. And without it there could be no morality, no moral principle or accountability, while man exists upon the present animal plane. In fact, morality without evil would be an unmeaning word. Evil is a state of imperfection running through every vein of nature, from the igneous rock to the brain of man. Some writers attempt to discriminate between natural and moral evil; but there is no dividing line. Moral evil is as natural as any phenomenon in nature, and is, strictly speaking, the phenomenal action of the brain. Moral evil is governed as rigidly by natural laws as physical evil; because (as science demonstrates) it has its basis in man's moral nature. And, practically speaking, there will be neither natural nor moral evil when nature (now in a crude state) grows to a state of maturity. Evil or imperfection, which now characterizes every thing, diminishes in its ratio to goodness or perfection as we ascend from inanimate matter to man,—the crowning work of nature. The theological world assumes that man alone bears the impress of imperfection, and that his imperfection is restricted principally to his moral action. "Man alone is imperfect: all else bears the mark of divine perfection." So says Archbishop Whately. But the converse assumption is nearer true: Man is the crowning work of nature, and his moral attributes constitute the keystone of the arch. He is occasionally erratic, and often wicked, but not universally and continually so, like some of the lower animal tribes. The hyena will murder at all times when opportunity offers; but man only occasionally, and when driven to it by the pressure of circumstances. All monkeys are thieves; but only a small portion of the genus homo are such. Man derives all his propensity to evil and wickedness from the lower animals. His propensity to rob is exhibited in the eagle; his inclination to steal, in the monkey; his disposition to murder, in the hyena, alligator, rattlesnake, &c.; his disposition to enslave, in the red ant, which makes a slave of the black ant, as has often been observed by naturalists. Such was the wickedness among the lower animals in their earlier stage of development, that, by theft, robbery, and murder, they effected the entire extinction of many species of animals. And if we descend still lower, and learn the practical history of the mineral kingdom, we shall find that its operations are marked by a a still more ruinous and destructive form of evil. The hideous and devouring earthquake; the heaving and overflowing volcano, burying whole cities beneath its deep and merciless waves of running fire; the roaring and furious tornado, destroying hundreds of dwellings, and dooming the inmates to a terrible death; and the swift-sped lightning, which, with no note of warning, strikes down hundreds of people every year,—all these violent operations of nature are the manifestation of evil, and a proof that imperfection exists everywhere. And man is the last and least manifestation of this multifarious destructive outburst of nature; and he will never outgrow it, and escape its operation entirely, till all nature arrives at manhood. While nature is imperfect, man will be imperfect; for he is a child of nature, and all things move forward in correlated order. He can, however (and it is a necessity of his nature that he should), battle with opposing forces, and modify the circumstances around him. His nature impels him to this as naturally as it urges him to eat food when hungry; but, as at present constituted and situated, it will be the work of time to rid the earth of moral evil. The only way to accomplish the extinction of evil is to labor for the elevation of the whole race. We are only rowing against the current in attempting to put down evil with our present system of moral ethics, which treats the criminal as a wicked being instead of an unfortunate, sin-sick brother. He should be sent to a moral hospital instead of to the gallows, the jail, and the dungeon. He should be treated as an unfortunate brother, rather than as a being to be spurned from society as a viper. He should be treated kindly, not cruelly; fed, and not starved. His moral nature should be warmed by affection, and not congealed by frowns. His instinctive respect for virtue should be developed by a sound moral education, and not crushed by pursuing him with a malignant spirit. Moral evils must be treated as the fruits of the imperfections of our nature, and not as the product of sin-punishing devils, who first originate and stimulate crimes, and then join with Cod in punishing the criminal with fiendish cruelty; thus applying a remedy which is a thousand times worse than the disease.

The science of phrenology explains most beautifully the cause and nature of sin or crime, and demonstrates that it is simply the perverted or unbalanced action of the natural faculties of the mind. Combativeness when excessively developed or unduly excited, prompts to quarrels and fighting; destructiveness, under similar circumstances, leads to war and bloodshed; amativeness, when not properly restrained, leads to the various forms of licentiousness; over-active acquisitiveness is the main-spring in most cases of theft and robbery, and all crimes committed for the acquisition of property or money. And other crimes are prompted by the over-active condition of these and, other mental faculties unrestrained by the moral faculties, every act and every species of crime are in this way most satisfactorily accounted for by this now generally received and thoroughly established science of mental philosophy; so that "the mystery of godliness," comprehended in the word sin, which for ages perplexed the student of theology, is now unraveled and understood by the scientific men of the age, and known to have a natural basis and natural origin. And this all-important discovery has driven the old orthodox Devil from the arena of human action. He no longer walks "to and fro in the earth, seeking whom he may devour." He is dead—dead,—killed by the sledge-hammer of science. And yet the fifty thousand clergymen who still "defend the faith once delivered to the saints" are (many of them) so far behind the march of human progress that the news of the mortal exit of his Satanic Majesty seems not yet to have reached them; or, if it has, it is because they are unwilling to lose the services of a long-cherished and highly valued friend that they refuse to credit the report of his demise. Take away their Devil, and their whole theological scaffolding falls to the ground. Revivals could no more be carried on without his aid, than a watch could be kept running without a main-spring. And with the departure of the Devil must go "salvation by Christ," as there is then nothing, in a theological sense, to be saved from. It is an important fact, of which the clergy seem to be ignorant, that the march of science has exploded all their old theological dogmas. Phrenology has banished the Devil; physiology explains the modus operandi of repentance; psychology, the process of "getting religion;" philosophy analyzes their Bible miracles; geology has expanded their six days of creation into six thousand years; astronomy has displaced Moses' theory of creation, and demolished St. John's little eight-by-ten heaven. (See Rev. chap. 21.) And yet the orthodox clergy refuse to shorten their creeds by leaving out these old, exploded dogmas. Like moles, they continue rooting and digging away among their musty creeds, dogmas, and catechisms, seemingly unconscious that the sun of science is now shining with dazzling brilliancy in the moral heavens. Some of them manifest a tenacity in holding on to musty and antiquated dogmas equal to that of the butcher's dog in the army which seized a slaughtered ox by the caudal appendage, with the intention of monopolizing the meat, and held on with a "manly grip" till limb after limb had been torn off, and piece after piece had been cut away from the body by the hungry soldiers, and nothing was left but the tail and the backbone; and then his canine majesty growled at passers-by, as much as to say, "I am master of the situation." The fossilized clergy are "masters of the situation," while the old orthodox carcass is now minus every part but the tail and naked backbone, to which they cling with a deathly grasp worthy of a better cause. They remind us of the hotel-keeper in Vermont, who, in answer to the interrogatories of some travelers, stated that he did not keep any kind of food for either men or horses. "What in the name of God, then, do you keep?" inquired one of the hungry guests. He replied, "I keep Union Hotel." The stand-still clergy still keep the old theological hotel minus any spiritual food, or supplied only with old salt junk handed down from the camp of Moses or Father Abraham.

A word more with respect to the origin of evil: Is it not strange that Christians should deny their God to be the author of evil, when it is expressly so declared in their Bible? "I make peace, and I create evil. I Jehovah do all these things."

Here is the positive declaration that God is the author of evil; and, if it were not thus unequivocally taught, we could prove that the Bible teaches this doctrine indirectly by various texts If "God made every thing that was made," then he either made evil or the author of evil, whether that was a devil or a serpent or a fallen angel; and this is substantially the same thing as originating evil,—to originate the author of evil. We challenge refutation of the proposition. But a philosophical analysis of the question will show there is no such thing as evil in either the abstract or absolute sense. Good and evil are but relative terms, like heat and cold, light and darkness, &c. There is no distinct line of demarkation between any of these correlative terms. It is impossible to tell where one ends, and the other begins. And then there is no act but that may become either right or wrong under different circumstances. The Bible says, "Thou shalt not kill." But the man who should see an assassin pointing a pistol to the head of his wife, or a dagger to her breast, and refrain from killing him as the only means of saving her life, would be virtually himself a murderer. "Thou shalt not steal" (Exod. xx.); and yet stealing would become a moral right, as well as a physical necessity, to avoid starvation. And so of all other acts called crime and sin: they may become absolute virtues. How foolish, therefore, to erect inflexible standards for human action or conduct! And then it should be noted that what is regarded as sin in one age or country may be imposed as a moral or religious duty in another. It is a sin to disbelieve the Koran in Arabia, and a sin to believe it in America. It is a sinful act to disbelieve the Christian Bible in this country, and a moral and religious duty in Japan. It is blasphemy and atheism to disbelieve in Jehovah and Jesus Christ in this country, but a still greater blasphemy and sin to believe in them in Arabia. And thus all human actions are modified by the circumstances under which, and the locality in which, they are committed.