628 CRIMINAL ANTHROPOLOGY. 



the evil education, tlic evil exaini)les, tlio natural or factitious needs, 

 the seductive occasions, the improper liasous, tlie repugnance to labor, 

 the pleasures of idleness, the apparently natural willingness to cat the 

 bread and enjoy the fruits of another's labor, or tiie satisfaction of a 

 former escapade which brought profit, and went unpunished; and, iu 

 a word, it is useless to refuse to recognize the thousand different socio- 

 logic conditions which may serve to form a million of combinations, 

 any of which may lead towards crime. With what care is one not 

 obliged to guard the child aud the young person from the hardening 

 effect of evil influences or from the corruption of his childish innocence 

 and innate honesty and virtue by the persuasions and example of evil 

 associates. 



Without doubt theft appears execrable, while murder is horrible, to 

 those young persons who, thanks to a careful education or the precepts 

 of a good mother, or the influences of a Christian family and surround- 

 ings, have acquired the habits and situation of honest people; and, 

 nevertheless, one can easily imagine a combination of circumstances, 

 au acquaintance with vice and crime, by which such an individual has 

 or may become a criminal. 



Vice is a mouster of such Lkleous mien, 

 Tliat to be hated needs but to be seen ; 

 Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face, 

 We first eudure, then pity, then embrace. 



And there are all sorts of crimes, and that which might be no tempta- 

 tion in one case might be overpowering iu another. With all these 

 difficulties is it not impossible by any system of classification to draw 

 the line between a normal and an abnormal physiologic state, which 

 will separate the criminal classes from the honest men? 



We have still to consider that there are many physiologic pecul- 

 iarities which become good or bad qualities according to the circum- 

 stances, aud these circumstances are simply the surroundings, the envi- 

 ronment. Au amorous temperament might be highly appreciated and 

 complimented in one case, and yet become extremely dangerous in 

 another. The audacity and courage which might be a source of pride 

 iu the soldier, would become execrable on the part of a robber. An 

 excellent salesman, the successful drummer, the best newspaper re- 

 porter, might, with a change of circumstances, a change in his sur- 

 roundings, his environment, become a most dangerous swindler, or the 

 best mechanic may become a most dangerous bank burglar or counter- 

 feiter; and his eminence in crime is attained because of his apparently 

 natural excellencies, which might have made him, and which went so 

 far towards making him, an honest and successful man. 



Crime is, therefore, not necessarily bound to physiologic peculiarities, 

 nor is it produced by abnormal or disadvantageous anatomic characters. 



It must be remembered that the man, healthy and normal though he 

 be, is not a man without faults or without tendency to vice. To seek 



