Insanity and Crime. 131 



ture, when a cessation of the impulses would otherwise be fol- 

 lowed by a waning 1 of its light. 



If no illustration can be found in the regular emission of 

 solar light and heat, to the constant exercise of gravitation in 

 every particle of matter, at least it appears more philosophical 

 to approach the unexplored ground by open paths, than to 

 ascribe both these principles of solar heat and gravitation, to- 

 gether, to mysterious agency, on account of then activity alone. 



INSANITY AND CRIME. 



The attention of the public has been very strongly called by 

 a recent case to the question of insanity and crime, and it may 

 therefore be a convenient opportunity for endeavouring to 

 ascertain a few of the scientific principles by which such inves- 

 tigations should be guided, and jurisprudence controlled. In the 

 first place let us endeavour to limit the inquiry within the bounds 

 of the hioivable, for it is clearly useless, or even mischievous, 

 to suffer ourselves to be led astray in the performance of prac- 

 tical duties by indulging in speculations which the restricted 

 nature of our faculties must of necessity render uncertain, and 

 incomplete. When any member of our society has committed 

 an offence, we must not expect to be able to measure the actual 

 quantity of his guilt. To do this we should have to ascertain 

 the precise force of the temptation that led him astray, and the 

 precise force of the resistance to the temptation which he might 

 have exhibited had he strongly desired and earnestly willed to 

 do that which was right. Not only should we have to ascertain 

 these facts in relation to the actual state of the individual at 

 the period of the commission of his offence, but we ought to 

 have the whole of his life-history before us, in order that we 

 might discover at what times he had destroyed the just balance 

 of his faculties, by performing acts or acquiring habits that 

 were bad, when it was within his power to have performed 

 and acquired acts and habits that were good. It is quite 

 plain that such an inquiry would far transcend all human 

 powers, and we must therefore confine our researches to a 

 humbler sphere, and go to the work with a consciousness that 

 our most careful judgments are likely to be wrong. 



Practically, our proceedings must be limited to two in- 

 quiries : firstly, whether an accused person did really commit 

 the act which our law declares to be an offence ; secondly, 

 whether he was labouring under physical conditions that de- 

 tracted wholly, or to a great extent, from that normal position 

 of responsibility which we feel justified in assigning to human 



vol. v. — NO. II. L 



