what you might call the climate of a man. Some men, and some women,
look like a perfect June day, and there are others who, while the
look quite smiling, yet you feel that the sky is becoming overcast,
and the signs all point to an early storm. There are people who
are autumnal--that is to say, generous. They have had their harvest,
and have plenty to spare. Others look like the end of an exceedingly
hard winter--between the hay and grass, the hay mostly gone and
the grass not yet come up. So you will see that I think a great
deal of this thing that is called magnetism. As I said, there are
good people who are not magnetic, but I do not care to make an
Arctic expedition for the purpose of discovering the north pole of
their character. I would rather stay with those who make me feel
comfortable at the first.

[From personal magnetism to the lynching Saturday morning down at
Nashville, Tennessee, was a far cry, but when Colonel Ingersoll
was asked what he thought of mob law, whether there was any
extenuation, any propriety and moral effect resultant from it, he
quickly answered: ]

I do not believe in mob law at any time, among any people. I
believe in justice being meted out in accordance with the forms of
law. If a community violates that law, why should not the individual?
The example is bad. Besides all that, no punishment inflicted by
a mob tends to prevent the commission of crime. Horrible punishment
hardens the community, and that in itself produces more crime.

There seems to be a sort of fascination in frightful punishments,
but, to say the least of it, all these things demoralize the
community. In some countries, you know, they whip people for petty
offences. The whipping, however, does no good, and on the other
hand it does harm; it hardens those who administer the punishment
and those who witness it, and it degrades those who receive it.
There will be but little charity in the world, and but little
progress until men see clearly that there is no chance in the world
of conduct any more than in the physical world.

Back of every act and dream and thought and desire and virtue and
crime is the efficient cause. If you wish to change mankind, you
must change the conditions. There should be no such thing as
punishment. We should endeavor to reform men, and those who cannot
be reformed should be placed where they cannot injure their fellows.
The State should never take revenge any more than th