DEFENCE OF CRIMINALS : 

 A CRITICISM OF MORALITY 



The State is the actually existing realised moral life. For it 

 is the unity of the universal essential Will with that of the individual, 

 and this is " Morality." — Hegel. 



A CRIMINAL is literally a person accused 

 — accused, and in the modern sense of 

 the word convicted, of being harmful 

 to Society. But is he there in the dock, the patch- 

 coated brawler or burglar, really harmful to Society ? 

 is he more harmful than the mild old gentleman 

 in the wig who pronounces sentence upon him .'' 

 That is the question. Certainly he has infringed 

 the law : and the law is in a sense the consolidated 

 public opinion of Society : but if no one were to 

 break the law, public opinion would ossify, and 

 Society would die. As a matter of fact Society 

 keeps changing its opinion. How then are we 

 to know when it is right and when it is wrong ? 

 The Outcast of one age is the Hero of another. 

 In execration they nailed Roger Bacon's manu- 

 scripts out in the sun and rain, to rot crucified 

 upon planks — his bones lie in an unknown and 



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