48 DEFENCE OF CRIMINALS! 



The more complicated, pronounced, or awkward the defect is the finer 

 will be the result when it has been thoroughly worked up. Love of ap- 

 probation is difficult to deal with. Through sloughs of duplicity, of con- 

 cealment, of vanity, it leads its victim. It sucks his sturdy self-life, and 

 leaves him flattened and bloodless. Yet once mastered, once fairly torn 

 out, cudgeled, and left bleeding on the road (for this probably has to be 

 done with every vice or. virtue some time or other), it will rise up and fol- 

 low you, carrying a magic key round its neck, meek and serviceable now, 

 instead of dangerous and demoniac as before. 



Deceit is difficult to deal with. In some sense it is the worst fault that 

 can be. It seems to disorganise and ultimately to destroy the character. 

 Yet I am bold to say that this defect has its uses. Severely examined 

 perhaps it will be found that no one can live a day free from it. And 

 beyond that is not "a noble dissimulation " part and parcel of the very 

 greatest characters : like Socrates, ' ' the white soul in a satyr form ? " 

 When the divine has descended among men has it not always like Moses 

 worn a veil before its face ? and what is Nature herself but one long and 

 organised system of deception ? 



Veracity has an opposite effect. It knits all the elements of a man's 

 character rendering him solid rather than fluid; yet carried out too liter- 

 ally and pragmatically it condenses and solidifies the character overmuch, 

 making the man woodeny and angular. And even of that essential Truth 

 (truth to the inward and ideal perfection) which more than anything else 

 perhaps constitutes a man it is to be remembered that even . here there 

 must be a limitation. No man can in act or externally be quite true 

 to the ideal though in spirit he may be. If he is to live in this world 

 and be mortal, it must be by virtue of some partiality, some defect. 



And so again since there is an analogy between the Individual and 

 Society may we not conclude that as the individual has ultimately to 

 recognise his so-called evil passions and find a place and a use for them, 

 Society also has to recognise its so-called criminals and discern their place 

 and use ? The artist does not omit shadows from his canvas; and the 

 wise statesman will not try to abolish the criminal from Society lest haply 

 he be found to have abolished the driving force from his social machine. l 



From what has now been said it is quite clear that in general we call a 

 man a criminal, not because he violates any eternal code of morality for 

 there exists no such thing but because he violates the ruling code of his 

 time, and this depends largely on the ideal of the time. The Spartans 

 appear to have permitted theft because they thought that thieving habits 

 in the community fostered military dexterity and discouraged the accumu- 

 lation of private wealth. They looked upon the latter as a great evil. 



But to-day the accumulation of private wealth is our great good and 

 the thief is looked upon as the evil. When however we find, as the his- 



i The derivation of the word " wicked " seems uncertain. May it be suggested that 

 it is connected with "wick" or " quick," " meaning alive ? 



