CRIMINALS AND 1NCAPABLES. 103 



limits to everyone's resources, when we give any- 

 thing, even a penny to a passing beggar, we are 

 giving some of this power, we are taking upon our- 

 selves the responsibility of " selecting," and are 

 influencing this selection, let it be in never so small 

 a degree. We are playing with humanity the part of 

 the gardener with his flowers, or the farmer with his 

 stock. 



This is a very high function, and a difficult one to 

 perform judiciously, yet we all of us presume to 

 exercise it without thought or training. There can 

 be no doubt that the lawgivers responsible for the 

 present condition of public charity, and private indi- 

 viduals who assist cases whose thorough investigation 

 they have been too lazy to take up, are in part 

 responsible for the perpetuation of the criminal 

 classes in the community. 



The Poor in very Deed. 



If we place the vicious and idle, though capable, 

 pauper on one side, in a class by himself a criminal 

 class we can deal fairly and reasonably with the 

 other two classes. 



Under the varying conditions of life some people 

 are hardly pressed upon, and the burden is light 

 upon other persons' shoulders. Our conditions of 

 life, although perhaps selective in the main, are by 



