ght cite is the congregation of
a crowd. Without knowing what he goes to see, a man crosses the street
and swells a growing crowd merely because others do so. The idea is
suggested, and the impulse becomes almost irresistible. Even if
resisted, the temptation will be appreciated. The suggestion has
produced an effect. To explain the specific growth of a crime by this
means, I will remind you of the woman who, when leaving home, told her
children not to go into the barn and steal any apples, but that if
they did go, above all things not to lie about it when she should
return. Of course they went, and of course they lied to her upon her
return. She had suggested both actions to them. The child who sees
theft for the first time, may look upon it with abhorrence, because
home influence has suggested to it that stealing is wrong. But permit
a daily association with theives, and the abhorrence will pass into
tolerance, and thence into imitation."

"I begin to perceive your meaning, and after all it is only the old
idea, that conscience is merely the result of education."

"Precisely so! But that very expression is but another example of the
indefinite recognition of an important fact. You say my theory is old.
Perhaps! But my utilization of it is new. Just as there are pathogenic
bacteria which produce disease, so there are also non-pathogenic
bacteria which not only do not cause bodily affliction, but which
actually are essential and conducive to perfect health. The one takes
its sustenance by destroying that which is needed by man, at the same
time generating poisons which are deleterious, while the latter
thrives upon that which is harmful to the human body. Analogously,
just as there are germs, or suggestions which debase the morality, so
also there are suggestions which produce the highest moral health."

"That seems probable enough!"

"By the means which I have explained to you, your daughter was born,
immune to all diseases. You have heard that certain maladies, as
consumption, can be transmitted, and are therefore inherited. This is
not true. But a parent who has suffered with phthisis, may transmit to
his progeny what is termed a diminished vital resistance. The child is
not born consumptive, but he is poorly equipped to contend against the
germ of that disease. If thrown into contact with it, consumption will
probably follow. But it is possible that as he matures his environment
may be such, that his vital resis