THE JUKES, 57 



educational axiom, that the moral nature— which really means the 

 holding of the emotions and passions under the dominion of the 

 judgment by the exercise of will — is the last developed of the ele- 

 ments of character, and, for this reason, is most modifiable by the 

 nature of the environment. 



Leaving this branch of the inquiry we now come to the con- 

 sideration of some of the English experience in the study of crime 

 which bears on this question. Dr. Neison,* classifying the total 

 population of England and Wales so as to divide them into succes- 

 sive terms of life as follows, from 10 to 15, from 15 to 20, from 20 to 25, 

 from 25 to 30, from 30 to 40, from 40 to 50, from 50 to 60, found 

 that age affected the tendency to crime in a remarkable degree. 

 The maximum proportion of male criminals he found between the 

 ages of 20 and 25, where the percentage of crime, as compared to 

 the total male population of the same age, is .77.02 per cent, while 

 between 50 and 60 the percentage to total population of the same 

 age is only .16.94 per cent. Also the same law holds good for 

 women but in different ratios, and here the tendency to crime at 

 each successive term of life above enumerated decreases from 20 

 years at the rate of ZZ-ZZZ P^"" cent for males and 25 per cent for 

 females. Now this gradual decrease is precisely what might be ex- 

 pected from the operation of the law of cerebral development 

 above explained. From 15 to 20 the emotions and sensations are 

 more active proportionately than they are at a later age. It is not 

 that temptation is stronger, but that the will has not yet become 

 fully organized, and therefore fails to govern the conduct. The 

 formation of the character up to this time has been largely through 

 precept and example ; experience has not yet come to teach, in its 

 fulness, that a present self-denial may lead to a future greater ad- 

 vantage. But after twenty the formation of the character depends 

 more upon experience, for the man of 25 does not find the same ex- 

 cuse granted for his misdeeds that the lad of 20 did ; the will now 

 begins to be organized under what might be called social compul- 

 sion so as to become an efficient factor in conduct, and as it grad- 

 ually strengthens by wider experience, the grown man sees the short- 



* F. G. P. Neison, Vital Statistics, p. 404. 



