ENCOURAGING VIRTUE BY EXPOSING VICE. 277 



the popular works of fiction which used to make 

 heroes of house-breakers and highwaymen, did a vast 

 amount of injury amongst the rising generation of the 

 last century. In fact, even later, Harrison Ains worth 

 might have chosen more virtuous heroes for his novels 

 than Jack Sheppard and Dick Turpin. 



Another writer who seems well acquainted with 

 facts relating to the criminal classes of the last century, 

 says that " ignorance and innocence are synonymous 

 terms." This is a libel on virtue, for it is as much 

 as saying that, in the absence of guilty knowledge 

 of crime mankind eschews its commission. But this 

 is not the argument of a healthy mind. Were this the 

 case they would evince no more sagacity than the 

 ostrich, who plunges his head into the sand, in the 

 belief that by doing so, the whole of his body will 

 be hidden. 



The Spartans intoxicated their helots to deter 

 them from drunkenness, by showing the degradation of 

 their minds and bodies when subjected to such a 

 process. This is very much like allowing a lad or 

 young woman engaged in a pastry-cook's shop to de- 

 vour as many sweetmeats as they like, in order that by 

 surfeiting them with these dainties, they may come to 

 ■dislike them, so that the proprietor of the shop may 

 be ensured against future loss from their depredations. 

 It is on this principle, and with this object in view, 

 that old fictional writers of the last century made 

 heroes of highwaymen and house-breakers, so that the 

 knowledge and punishment of crime might act as a 

 deterrent to the youth of that period. 



Turpin, in conjunction with Tom King, robbed 

 whenever he had a chance, mostly confining his 

 exploits to the highway ; but one robbery very much 



