ting
horses. Some reformatory schemes have trusted entirely to moral
agencies, and their failure has been quoted as evidence that all such
schemes are futile. But their failure has been due to an entirely wrong
conception of the cause of crime. The primary cause is undoubtedly a
reprobate will: but this cause is not found in every case. Where the
consequences of the parent's conduct has been inherited we find not the
primary, but a secondary cause, such as e.g. a diseased nervous system.
Sometimes both the primary and the secondary causes exist side by side,
and then treatment must be addressed to both the will and to the
physical system. In fact whatever methods of treatment are employed, the
moral temperament must not be neglected, for even if the will be not
perverted, it is considerably weakened and needs strengthening.

The case of the sensualist is somewhat similar to that of the drunkard.
Ribot quoting Prosper Lucas, gives the example of a "man cook, of great
talent in his calling, has had all his life, and has still at the age of
sixty years, a passion for women. To this he adds unnatural crime. One
of his natural sons living apart from him does not even know his father,
and though not yet quite nineteen, has from his childhood given all the
signs of extreme lust, and strange to say, he, like his father, is
equally addicted to either sex." (Ribot; Heredity p. 89.)

The fact that this son imitated his father's vices at an early age, is
not sufficient in itself to assign the cause to heredity. Nor does the
fact that he was separated from his father's influence or example,
strengthen the assignment beyond dispute. The causes for such conduct
are so common that very few men escape from their influence, and
whosever does not resist them, falls and becomes a victim. But probably
this was a case in which an inherited influence pressed itself so
strongly upon him as to become irresistible. What, we ask was inherited?
A perverted will? That is absolutely impossible. A perverted will is the
outcome of a deliberate choice of evil when the choice of virtue is
equally possible. A weakened will, or a will subject to heavy stress is
a different thing. There must be some stress upon the will. What is it?
It is a well known fact that the exercise of the members of our body
results in a great facility of movement being attained. The pianist can,
after long practice, execute rapid and complex performances of
fingering, which in t