and moving, and it is impossible for the inferior man to adjust his
emotions and his life rapidly to the changes. Things which are not
condemned by his feelings of right and wrong are condemned by laws that
meet with no response from his emotions and moral ideas. To him at least
these are not different from the things that are done by others with
impunity and without rebuke. Especially is this true of the rapidly
growing class of property laws that have had no counterpart in the early
history of man. This list has grown so fast that it is beyond the power
of a large class of men to find in their feelings any response to many
of these criminal statutes. The ever-growing social restrictions are of
the same modern growth, and it is equally impossible to feel and
understand them. What we call civilization has moved so fast that the
structure and instincts of man have not been able to become adjusted to
it. The structure is too cumbersome, too intense, too hard, and if not
breaking down of its own weight, it is at least destroying thousands who
cannot adjust themselves to its changing demands. Not only are the
effects of this growing body of social and legal restrictions shown
directly by their constant violation, generally by the inferior and the
poor, but indirectly in their strain on the nervous system; by the
irritation and impatience that they generate, and which, under certain
conditions cause acts of violence.




VI

PSYCHOLOGY OF CRIMINAL CONDUCT