224 MARRIAGE AND HEREDITY 



taken in the widest sense of the word, and may 

 imply no more, as in Illinois, than that both parties 

 agree to a divorce. Among these various systems 

 it is impossible to decide upon abstract grounds 

 which is the best. Eventually that form of divorce 

 will prevail in America and elsewhere which may 

 be found to be the most expedient. The system 

 finally adopted by every nation will be the one 

 best calculated to safeguard communal as opposed 

 to individual interests. 



In social ethics generally we shall probably come 

 to recognise with Maudsley that there are "three 

 great neuroses — the epileptic, the insane, and the 

 criminal." For thousands of years the world has 

 been governed upon the principle that man is morally 

 a free agent — free to practise vice or virtue as he 

 chooses. "We pity the hunchback, and we have 

 nothing but execration for the drunkard or the thief. 

 We have but one law for the rich and the poor, 

 the enlightened and the ignorant. In the case of 

 insanity alone is any allowance made for moral 

 irresponsibility. The lunatic who murders his fellow 

 is not sentenced to death, but ordered to be confined 

 during Her Majesty's pleasure. Yet the criminal 

 who comes into conflict with the law again and again 



