fth class, finally, was composed of people who were more sinned
against by society than they sinned themselves. These were the
helpless people, blunted by constant oppression and temptation, like
that boy with the mats, and hundreds of others whom Nekhludoff saw
both in and out of prison, and the conditions of those whose lives
systematically drove them to the necessity of committing those acts
which are called crimes. To these people belonged, according to
Nekhludoff's observations, many thieves and murderers, with some of
whom Nekhludoff had come in contact. Among these Nekhludoff found, on
close acquaintance, those spoiled and depraved people whom the new
school calls the criminal type, and the existence of which in society
is given as the reason for the necessity of criminal law and
punishment. These so-called depraved types, deviating from the normal,
were, according to Nekhludoff, none other than those very people who
have sinned less against society than society has sinned against them,
and against whom society has sinned, not directly, but through their
ancestors.

Nekhludoff's attention was attracted by a habitual thief, Okhotin, who
came under this head. He was the son of a fallen woman; had grown up
in lodging-houses, and till the age of thirty had never met a moral
man. In childhood he had fallen in with a gang of thieves, but he
possessed a humorous vein which attracted people to him. While asking
Nekhludoff for aid he jested at himself, the judges, the prison and
all the laws, not only criminal, but even divine. There was also a
fine-looking man, Fedorff, who, in company with a gang of which he was
the leader, had killed and robbed an old official. This one was a
peasant whose father's house had been illegally taken from him, and
who, while in the army, suffered for falling in love with an officer's
mistress. He was attractive and passionate. His sole desire in life
was to enjoy himself, and he had never met any people who, out of any
consideration, tempered their passions, nor had he ever heard that
there was any other aim in life than personal enjoyment. It was plain
to Nekhludoff that these two were richly endowed by nature, and were
only neglected and mutilated as plants are sometimes neglected and
mutilated. He also came across a vagabond, and a woman, whose
stupidity and apparent cruelty were repulsive, but he failed to find
in them that criminal type spoken of by the Italian school. He only
saw in