Defence of Criminals 



it may be, the precious seed of a life which is to 

 come in the future ; and are as necessary and 

 integral a part of society in the long run as the 

 most respected and most honoured of its members 

 at present. 



The upshot then of it all is that " morals " as 

 a permanent code of action have to be discarded. 

 There exists no such permanent code. One age, 

 one race, one class, one family, may have a code 

 which the users of it consider valid, but only they 

 consider it valid, and then only for a time. The 

 Decalogue may have been a rough and useful 

 ready-reckoner for the Israelites ; but to us it 

 admits of so many exceptions and interpretations 

 that it is practically worthless. * Thou shalt not 

 steal." Exactly ; but who is to decide, as we saw 

 at the outset, in what " stealing " consists ? The 

 question is too complicated to admit of an answer. 

 And when we have caught our half-starved tramp 

 " sneaking " a loaf, and are ready to condemn him, 

 lo ! Lycurgus pats him on the back, and the 

 modern philosopher tells him that he is keeping 

 open the path to a regenerate society ! If the 

 tramp had also been a philosopher, he would per- 

 haps have done the same act not merely for his 

 own benefit but for that of society, he would 

 have committed a crime in order to save man- 

 kind. 



There is nothing left but Humanity. Since 

 there is no ever-valid code of morals we must 

 sadly confess that there is no means of proving 

 ourselves right and our neighbours wrong. In 



'73 



