i6 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



exacted of her. Her health became so broken that, at the earnest 

 solicitation of her relatives, the prison authorities took the case up, 

 and secured her a pardon on condition that she left the State, and 

 her relatives provided for her. But the transition from prison-life to 

 the comforts of a home, and a life of ease, offered no attractions to the 

 unfortunate woman. I believe she remained under the care of her 

 relative a devoted sister but a few months, when she resumed, out 

 of choice, her old mode of life, and is now serving out another sen- 

 tence. 



This case shows how irresistibly the deliberate acts of life flow in 

 the channel which habit and mental traits mark out for them. The bar- 

 riers which society, and fear of punishment, and love, place in the way 



of a career like this of Lena S , are swept away, as it were, before 



a flood. This is the destiny of the fatalist, and the force of habit, an 

 expression of the theory of least resistance, and the effects of heredity 

 of the sociologist. Let us analyze the last case further, to illustrate 

 the theory of least resistance, as modified by occupation and social 

 condition. It presents a seeming contradiction. She moved on in 

 her career of crime late in life, with her moral atmosphere charged 

 with resistance to her progress. Contrasted with this was her criminal 

 pupilage in early life. Her husband united pauperism and crime, and 

 if originally her moral perceptions were clear which I doubt she 

 thus found the best school to obscure these, and familiarize her with 

 the criminal idea. With these faculties blunted and weakened, which 

 serve to hedge in the impulses to evil, she proceeded to supply her 

 wants by the method most familiar and easy. The thief looks vipon 

 the pi'operty of others in a peculiar way, and one that constitutes the 

 essence of the crime. He believes in a sort of ownership which is 

 mutual, and depends upon possession. This belief may become a 

 fixed habit of mind. Originally it may have been easier to steal than 

 to work, later it may become more impossible to work than to steal. 

 Then came attempts at reform, made by others, with the life of ease 

 and comfort, but the criminal grew wretched and drooped. There 

 was but one life before her which met the demands of her nature 

 that was to wander from place to place and steal. This woman an- 

 swered in no sense to the legal definition of the insane ; she was not 

 irresponsible for her acts, she knew their nature and the punishment 

 which follov\^ed detection ; but she simply did that which the most of 

 U.S desire to do, follow the easier and pleasanter life. It has become 

 the fashion of late to speak of criminals of this class as insane, but 

 this theory cannot explain their irreclaimable condition. The real 

 state, as it appears to me, is, that thoughts and acts move in the 

 direction of least resistance. What began in this way, may be con- 

 firmed by habit, so that life may wear for itself channels from which 

 it is impossible that its current may be driven. 



