VIRILE SENTIMENT 139 



Tlie same courage and resolution and quick decisive- 

 ness that serve Garibaldi serve also the Tottenham 

 murderers. Whether the civic value of a man or a 

 cliild shall be positive or negative depends chiefly 

 not on any simple qualities but on the direction of 

 purpose and will. Now it is just this direction of 

 will that is found nowhere short of humanity to a 

 noticeable extent, which therefore it maybe difficult 

 for natural science to judge aright. From the point 

 of view of moral science I urge with all possible 

 emphasis that to treat such direction as a simple 

 quality, transmissible as a deformity is trans- 

 missible, is impossible in every way ; it is absurd ; 

 it is mythology. Criminality in this sense is no 

 more innate than loyalty to Austria was innate in 

 the Swiss Von Mecliel, or loyalty to Italy in the 

 Englishman Peard. Anyone can see a wise teacher 

 winning a child to the side of authority, or a foolish 

 one worrying him into rebellion against it ; it will 

 only be the foolish one who speaks of " innate 

 naughtiness." The child, and still more the man, 

 knows that he can make a choice ; can decide for 

 himself what object he will serve and pursue. Some 

 choose when they are young to serve society as 

 such ; a few decide to fight society as such ; and 

 none of them ever manage to live consistently on 

 those lines. Our lives are made up of a continuous 

 series of decisions, and the civic value of most of 

 us is positive and negative by turns. Whichever it 

 is, we decide it continually as we go along. If our 

 choices are inherent, it is in a metaphysical sense 



