herd did wrong. In its last analysis, the criminal is the one who leaves
the pack. He may lag behind or go in front, he may travel to the right
or to the left, he may be better or worse, but his fate is the same.

The beaten path, however formed or however unscientific, has some right
to exist. On the whole it has tended to preserve life, and it is the way
of least resistance for the human race. On the other hand it is not the
best, and the way has ever been made easier by those who have violated
precepts and defied some of the concepts of the time. Both ways are
right and both ways are wrong. The conflict between the two ways is as
old as the human race.

Paths and customs and institutions are forever changing. So are ideas of
right and wrong, and so, too, are statutes. The law, no doubt, makes it
harder for customs and habits to be changed, for it adds to the inertia
of the existing thing.

Is there, then, nothing in the basis of right and wrong that answers to
the common conception of these words? There are some customs that have
been forbidden longer and which, it seems, must necessarily be longer
prohibited; but the origin of all is the same. A changing world has
shown how the most shocking crimes punished by the severest penalties
have been taken from the calendar and no longer even bear the suspicion
of wrong. Religious differences, witchcraft and sorcery have probably
brought more severe punishments than any other acts; yet a change of
habit and custom and belief has long since abolished all such crimes.
So, too, crimes come and go with new ideals, new movements and
conditions. The largest portion of our criminal code deals with the
rights of property; yet nearly all of this is of comparatively modern
growth. A new emotion may take possession of man which will result in