ATAVISM AND CRIME 



care of his own was his first duty. As civilization 

 advanced, the need of considering the wants and rights 

 of those near and around him was forced upon him : 

 he learned also that it was wise to take thought for 

 the morrow, to lay up provision for the future, and to 

 deny himself an immediate pleasure for the sake of 

 avoiding a future .ill. Thus he learned self-restraint 

 in his conduct to others, though tfulness for others, 

 and finally the wish and the power to control himself 

 in the present and in the immediate future, in the 

 hope of a greater good in a far off time to come. 

 This mode of thought and action is still selfishness, 

 but it is an enlightened selfishness that, although act- 

 ing for itself, considers and takes care of the interest 

 of others. Joined with the sense of duty before 

 named, they form together the mainsprings to a pro- 

 per life. 



The victim of atavism without the feeling of the 

 obligation of duty, has only the primitive selfishness 

 of the savage life. Too indolent to work honestly, 

 he supplies himself with what he needs by appropri- 

 ating, as his far off ancestors did by cunning or by 

 open violence the goods of others. If well placed in 

 life, he contrives means of helping himself by secret 

 participation in illegal contracts, by misappropriating 

 funds, by buying up and selling out railroads to their 

 ruin, or the thousand and one ways in which unscrupu- 

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