-84 MENTAL CONSTITUTION OF ANIMALS. 



himself. He is only a part of a series of phenomena, 

 traceable to a principle good in the main, but which ad- 

 mits of evil as an exception. We have seen that it is for 

 wise ends that God leaves our moral faculties to an indefi- 

 nite range of action; the general good results of this ar- 

 rangement are obvious; but exceptions of evil are insep- 

 arable from such a system, and this is one of them. To 

 come to particular illustration— -when a people are op- 

 pressed, or kept in a state of slavery, they invariably con- 

 tract 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 be- 

 comes 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 in- 

 stinct, and never answer a white person truly even in the 

 simplest matter. Here we have secretiveness roused in 

 a people to a state of constant and exalted exercise ; an 

 over-tendency of the nervous energy in that direction is 

 the consequence, and a new organic condition is estab- 

 lished. This tells upon the progeny, which comes into 

 the world wijth secretiveness excessive in volume and 

 activity. All other evil characteristics may be readily 

 conceived as being implanted in a new generation in the 

 same way. And sometimes not one, but several genera- 

 tions, may be concerned in bringing up the result to a 

 pitch which produces crime. It is, however, to be ob- 

 served, that the general tendency of things is to a limita- 

 tion, 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 

 community, the degree in which just, views prevail with 

 regard to human nature, and the feelings which accident 

 may have caused to predominate at a particular time. 

 Where the mass was little enlightened or refined, and 

 terrors for life or property were highly excited, malefac- 

 tors have ever been treated severely But when order ia 

 generally triumphant, and reason allowed sway, men be- 

 gin to see the true case of criminals — namely, that while 

 one large department are victims of erroneous social con- 

 ditions, another are brought to error by tendencies which 



