48 Human Physiology. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



DISHONESTY AND CRIME. 



Man alone Criminal Crimes of English Life Lying and Cheating- 

 Perjury Pecuniary Dishonesty The Criminal Classes Statistics of 

 Crime Cost of Crime Dishonesty of Servants Dishonesty ripens 

 into Crime The Gardens of Guilt. 



MAN differs from all other creatures, in that he has fallen into 

 the depravity of crime. Animals obey the laws of their lives ; 

 men violate them. We drive away or destroy insects and 

 animals when they annoy us, but we do not blame them. Men 

 we blame and punish when they lie, slander, bear false witness,, 

 cheat, steal, assault, and murder. If man were descended, or 

 had ascended, from the lowest forms of animal life through 

 anthropoid apes, and been gradually developed by natural 

 selection to his present status of civilisation and religion, how 

 are we to account for the evident fact that he alone of all 

 creatures is guilty of crimes against Nature, against himself, 

 and against his fellow-creatures? Man alone, at his best a 

 little lower than the angels, can sink below the brutes. 



The common crimes of English life are neglect, ill-treatment, 

 and spoliation of the poor, ignorant, and helpless ; enslaving 

 them by requiring too long or too hard labour ; the robbery of 

 paying inadequate wages \ cheating them by the truck system 

 of payment ; grinding and oppression of children and appren- 

 tices; the robbery of stopping wages as fines; the worse than 

 robbery of compelling men to take their wages in drink. In 

 trade we have the frauds and robberies of bad qualities, sham 

 articles, adulterations, often noxious, and even murderous ; the 

 sale of diseased meat and poisoned liquors ; cheating by false 

 weights and measures ; overcharges ; duplication of accounts ; 



