262 VESTIGES OF THE 



series of phenomena, traceable to a principle good in the 

 main, but which admits of evil as an exception. We 

 have seen that it is for wise ends that God leaves our 

 moral faculties to an indefinite range of action; the 

 general good results of this arrangement are obvious; 

 but exceptions of evil are inseparable from such a system, 

 and this is one of them. To come to particular illustra- 

 tion — when a people are oppressed, or kept in a state of 

 slavery, they invariably contract habits of lying, for the 

 purpose of deceiving and outwitting their superiors, 

 falsehood being a refuge of the weak under difficulties. 

 What is a habit in parents becomes an inherent quality 

 in children. We are not, therefore, to be surprised when 

 a traveller tells us that black children in the West Indies 

 appear to lie by instinct, and never answer a white 

 person truly, even in the simplest matter. Here we 

 have secretiveness roused in a people to a state of con- 

 stant and exalted exercise; an over-tendency of the 

 nervous energy in that direction is the consequence, and 

 a new organic condition is established. This tells upon 

 the progeny, which comes into the world with secretive- 

 ness excessive in strength and activity. All other evil 

 characteristics may be readily conceived as being im- 

 planted in a new generation in the same way. x\nd 

 sometimes not one, but several generations, may be con- 

 cerned in bringing up the result to a pitch which pro- 

 duces crime. It is, however, to be observed, that the 

 general tendency of things is to a limitation, not the 

 extension of such abnormally constituted beings. The 

 criminal brain finds itself in a social scene where all is 

 against it. It may struggle on for a time, but the medium 

 and superior natures are never long at a loss in getting 

 the better of it. The disposal of such beings will always 

 depend much on the moral state of a communitA-,the degree 



