KIDD'S OWN JOURNAL. 



101 



he did not sell, and made no use of them. The 

 wife of the famous physician Gaubius had such a 

 propensity to rob, that when she made a purchase, 

 she always sought to take something - . Countesses 

 M., at Wesel, and P., at Frankfort, also had this 

 propensity. Madame de W. had been educated 

 with peculiar care. Her wit and talents secured 

 her a distinguished place in society. But neither 

 her education nor her fortune saved her from the 

 most decided propensity to theft. Lavater speaks 

 of a physician, who never left the room of his 

 patients without robbing them of something, and 

 who never thought of the matter afterward. In 

 the evening his wife used to examine his pockets; 

 she there found keys, scissors, thimbles, knives, 

 spoons, buckles, and cases, and sent them to their 

 respective owners. Moritz, in his experimental 

 treatise on the soul, relates, with the greatest 

 minuteness, the history of a robber who had the 

 propensity to theft, in such a degree that, being 

 in articulo mortis, at the point of death, he stole 

 the snuff-box of his confessor. Doctor Bernard, phy- 

 sician of his majesty the king of Bavaria, speaks of 

 an Alsatian of his acquaintance, who was always 

 committing thefts, though he had everything in 

 abundance, and was not avaricious. He had been 

 educated with care, and his vicious propensity 

 had repeatedly exposed him to punishment. His 

 father had him enlisted as a soldier, but even this 

 measure failed to correct him. He committed 

 some considerable thefts, and was condemned to 

 be hanged. The son of a distinguished literary 

 man offers us a similar example. He was distin- 

 guished among all his comrades for his talents, 

 but, from his early infancy, he robbed his parents, 

 sister, domestics, comrades, and professors. He 

 stole the most valuable books from his father's 

 library. Every kind of means was tried to correct 

 him ; he was sent into the service, and underwent 

 several times the most rigorous punishments, but, 

 all was useless. The conduct of this unhappy 

 young man was regular in all other respects : he 

 did not justify his thefts ; but if they addressed to 

 him on this subject the most earnest and the most 

 amicable representations, he remained indifferent; 

 he seemed not to understand them. The almoner 

 of a regiment of Prussian cuirassiers, a man 

 otherwise well educated, and endowed with 

 moral qualities, had so decided a propensity to 

 theft, that frequently on the parade he robbed 

 the officers of their handkerchiefs. His general 

 esteemed him highly ; but as soon as he appeared 

 they shut everything up with the greatest care, 

 for he had often carried away handkerchiefs, 

 shirts, and even stockings belonging to the women. 

 When he was asked for what he had taken, he 

 always returned it cheerfully. M. Kneisler, direc- 

 tor of the prison at Prague, once spoke to us of the 

 wife of a rich shopkeeper, who continually robbed 

 her husband in the most ingenious manner. It 

 was found necessary to confine her in gaol ; but 

 she had no sooner escaped than she robbed again, 

 and was shut up for the second time. Being set 

 at liberty, new thefts caused her to be condemned 

 to a third detention, longer than the preceding. 

 She even robbed in the prison. She had contrived, 

 with great skill, an opening in a stove which 

 warmed the room where the money-box of the 

 establishment was placed. 4 The repeated depreda- 

 tions she committed on it were observed. They 



attached bells to the doors and windows to discover 

 her, but in vain ; at length, by the discharge of 

 pistols, which went off the moment she touched 

 the box, she was so much terrified, that she had 

 not time to escape by the stove. We have seen 

 in a prison at Copenhagen an incorrigible thief, 

 who sometimes distributed his gains to the poor. 

 In another place, a thief, shut up for the seventh 

 time, assured us with sorrow that it did not seem 

 possible to him to act otherwise. He eagerly 

 begged to be retained in prison, and to be furnished 

 with the means of gaining his living. 



I might cite thousands of similar facts, which 

 prove, at the same time, that the propensity to theft 

 is not always the consequence of a bad education, 

 of idleness, of poverty, of the want of certain good 

 qualities, nor even the want of morality and reli- 

 gion ; and this is so true, that every one shuts his 

 eyes on trifling larcenies, when committed by rich 

 people, who are otherwise of good character. These 

 thefts are imputed to absence of mind. But may 

 not the same propensity be found in the poor ? and 

 does it then change its character ? Is its nature 

 altered by the value of the thing stolen ? It fol- 

 lows, from these cases, that it requires great pru- 

 dence and experience to fix, with exactness, the 

 degree of criminality. 



Let us now consider, under the same point of 

 view, another mischievous propensity. 



Excessive propensity to hill, enfeebling Moral 

 Liberty. 



There is in man an inclination, which varies in 

 degree, from simple indifference at seeing animals 

 suffer, and from simple pleasure at witnessing the 

 destruction of life, to the most imperious desire of 

 killing. Our sensibility revolts at this doctrine, 

 but it is nevertheless only too true. Wlioever 

 would judge justly the phenomena of nature, must 

 have the courage to acknowledge things as they 

 are, and, in general, not to make man better than 

 he is. 



We observe, that among children as among 

 adults, among coarse people as well as those who 

 have received education, some are sensitive and 

 others indifferent to the sufferings of their fellows. 

 Some even find pleasure in tormenting animals, 

 in seeing them tortured, and in killing them, with- 

 out our being able to charge it either to habit or 

 to defect of education. I could cite several in- 

 stances in which this inclination, when very ener- 

 getic, has decided individuals in their choice of 

 employment. A student used to shock his com- 

 panions by the particular pleasure he took in tor- 

 menting insects, birds, and other animals. It was 

 to satisfy this propensity, as he himself said, that 

 he made himself a surgeon. An apothecary's boy 

 experienced such a violent propensity to kill, that 

 he took up the trade of a hangman. The son of a 

 shopkeeper, whose mind took the same turn, em- 

 braced that of a butcher. A rich Dutchman used 

 to pay the butchers, who made largo contracts for 

 supplying vessels with beef, to let him kill the 

 cattle. 



We may also judge of the existence of this pro- 

 pensity and of its diversity, by the impression 

 produced on spectators by the punishment to which 

 criminals are subjected. Some cannot support tho 

 spectacle ; others seek it as an amusement. The 

 Chevalier Selwyn made particular exertions to be 



