THE NEW CRIMINOLOGY 865 



thought, feeling, and volition, and the fact that certain of them are 

 demonstrably simultaneous, have given defmiteness and precision 

 to metaphysical speculation with reference to purely mental opera- 

 tions, if such there are; and they have given us an intelligible theory 

 of the formation of habits which, physiologically speaking, are 

 neither more nor less than reflex nervous discharges rendered auto- 

 matic by their repeated recurrence, until the paths worn in the brain 

 have become, so to say, broad and smooth. The current of nervous 

 energy accordingly takes the line of least resistance. This parallelism 

 extends as far as consciousness enables us to follow it, and no doubt 

 it is still deeper and more far-reaching. It partially explains, 

 perhaps, the well-known and familiar fact that bodily states, experi- 

 ences, and habits affect the mind, while mental states, experiences, and 

 habits equally affect the body. 



The truth of this general view is illustrated and confirmed by the 

 success attending the efforts made by expert neurologists to develop 

 the mentality of backward children by means of physical exercise 

 and the systematic training of the senses, and, through them, of 

 the nerve-centres. It is also illustrated by the success attending the 

 converse efforts made by mental healers to stimulate or soothe 

 nervous physical action by means of suggestion addressed to the 

 mind. We are able to gain admission to the arcanum of life, as it 

 were, by either of two doors, the avenue of sensation or that of 

 ideation. We can modify mental operations by securing and exer- 

 cising control of the body. We can modify physiological action by 

 controlling the mind. The only question is whether we possess the 

 requisite knowledge and skill. The knowledge and skill demanded 

 for success, in either direction, is expert knowledge and skill. 



It will not answer, therefore, to contend that, because criminals in 

 the care and custody of an unskilled warden, with untrained and 

 incompetent subordinates, have not been reformed, the same indi- 

 viduals might not have been reformed if they had been subjected to 

 expert treatment at the hands of an expert. Expert treatment is 

 the ideal of the new criminology. The new criminology aims at 

 nothing less than the suppression of evil habits and replacing them 

 by their opposites; in other words, the wearing of paths in the brain 

 which shall offer less resistance than the old, familiar paths; the 

 creation of new habits of thought, speech, and action, with or without 

 the consent of the convict himself. This is a task of tremendous 

 difficulty. It is revolution by means of evolution. It is education, 

 in the etymological sense of the word ; the education of all the pris- 

 oner's faculties, physical, mental, and moral, on a well-considered, 

 well-grounded plan, scientific and practical at the same time, but 

 differentiated to meet the conditions and needs of each individual 

 case. Kindness must be blended with severity, hope aroused as well 



