92 DARWINISM AND RACE PROGRESS. 



which have surrounded him. Theft by a person in 

 necessity need by no means imply so vicious a tem- 

 perament as that of a man who spends his life in 

 getting the better of his less clever neighbours, and 

 enriches himself by the loss of others, as is done in 

 many so-called legitimate ways ; and the killing of a 

 man in passion may be done by one who would be 

 incapable of settling an old grudge by taking a mean 

 advantage of an enemy. Again, many criminals 

 areincapables driven to crime through their incapacity; 

 therefore with the incapables let us study them. 



The Innate Criminal 



Over and above those we have just mentioned, 

 however, are a band of innate criminals whose feet 

 take by nature the crooked rather than the straight 

 path, whose lives alternate between abuse of public 

 law and the punishment thereby entailed. These be- 

 get children, and the suffering they inflict and have to 

 endure is continued from parent to offspring. In 

 every locality these inveterate criminals are well- 

 known to the administrators of justice. Time after 

 time they come up for punishment, and wantonly and 

 wilfully all chances of improvement are thrown 

 away ; they seem wanting in those feelings of in- 

 dividual responsibility, and in the wish to be held in 



