e 1 6 FRA GMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



under the influence of insanity, the best guidance the 

 judge and jury can have is derived from the parental 

 antecedents of the accused. If among these insanity be 

 exhibited in any marked degree, the presumption in the 

 prisoner's favor is enormously enhanced, because the 

 experience of life has taught both judge and jury that 

 insanity is frequently transmitted from parent to child. 



I met, some years ago, in a railway carriage the governor 

 of one of our largest prisons. He was evidently an ob- 

 servant and reflective man, possessed of wide experience 

 gathered in various parts of the world, and a thorough 

 student of the duties of his vocation. He told me that 

 the prisoners in his charge might be divided into three 

 distinct classes. The first class consisted of persons who 

 ought never to have been in prison. External accident, 

 and not internal taint, had brought them within the grasp 

 of the law, and what had happened to them might 

 happen to most of us. They were essentially men of sound 

 moral stamina, though wearing the prison garb. Then 

 came the largest class, formed of individuals possessing no 

 strong bias, moral or immoral, plastic to the touch of 

 circumstances, which could mold them into either good or 

 evil members of society. Thirdly came a class happily 

 not a large one whom no kindness could conciliate and 

 no discipline tame. They were sent into this world 

 labeled " incorrigible," wickedness being stamped, as it 

 were, upon their organizations. It was an unpleasant 

 truth, but as a truth it ought to be faced. For such 

 criminals the prison over which he ruled was certainly not 

 the proper place. If confined at all, their prison should be 

 on a desert island where the deadly contagium of their 

 example could not taint the moral air. But the sea itself 

 he was disposed to regard as a cheap and appropriate sub- 

 stitute for the island. It seemed to him evident that the 

 state would benefit if prisoners of the first class were 

 liberated; prisoners of the second class educated; and 

 prisoners of the third class put compendiously under 

 water. 



It is not, however, from the observation of individuals 

 that the argument against " free-will," as commonly 

 understood, derives its principal force. It is, as already 

 hinted, indefinitely strengthened when extended to the 

 race. Most of you have been forced to listen to the out- 



