26 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



individual initiative, and develops it by letting enterprise bring its 

 normal advantages. Those who are successfully original in idea and 

 act, prospering and multiplying in greater degrees than others, pro- 

 duce, in course of time, a general type of nature ready to undertake 

 new things. The speculative tendencies of English and American 

 capitalists, and the extent to which large undertakings, both at home 

 and abroad, are carried out by them, sufficiently indicate this trait of 

 character. Though, along with considerable qualification of militancy 

 by industrialism on the Continent, there has occurred there, too, an 

 extension of private enterprise, yet the fact that, while many towns 

 in France and Germany have been supplied with gas and water by 

 English companies, there is in England but little of kindred achieve- 

 ment by foreign companies, shows that, among the more industrially- 

 modified English, individual initiative is more decided. 



There is evidence that the decline of international hostilities, going 

 as it does with the decline of hostilities between families and be- 

 tween individuals, is followed by a weakening of revengeful sen- 

 timents. This is implied by the fact that in our own country the 

 more serious of these private wars early ceased, leaving only the less 

 serious in the form of duels, which also have at length ceased : their 

 cessation coinciding with the recent great development of industrial 

 life a fact w T ith which may be joined the fact that in the more mili- 

 tant societies, France and Germany, they have not ceased. So much 

 among ourselves has the authority of the lex talionis waned, that a 

 man, whose actions are known to be prompted by the wish for ven- 

 geance on one who has injured him, is reprobated rather than ap- 

 plauded. 



With decrease of the aggressiveness shown in acts of violence and 

 consequent acts of retaliation has gone decrease of the aggressiveness 

 shown in criminal acts at large. That this change has been a con- 

 comitant of the chancre from a more militant to a more industrial state 

 can not be doubted by one who studies the history of crime in Eng- 

 land. Says Mr. Pike in his work on that subject, " The close connec- 

 tion between the military spirit and those actions which are now 

 legally defined to be crimes has been pointed out, again and again, in 

 the course of this history." If we compare a past age in which the 

 effects of hostile activities had been less qualified by the effects of 

 peaceful activities than they have been in our own age, we see a 

 marked contrast in respect of the numbers and kinds of offenses 

 against person and property. We have no longer any English buc- 

 caneers ; wreckers have ceased to be heard of ; and travelers do not 

 now prepare themselves to meet highwaymen. Moreover, that flagi- 

 tiousness of the governing agencies themselves, which was shown by 

 the venality of ministers and members of Parliament, and by the cor- 

 rupt administration of justice, has disappeared. With decreasing 

 amount of crime has come increasing reprobation of crime. Biogra- 



