redeeming them completely and justifying their existence
in the eyes of mankind and in the scheme of nature.

We find, in fact, in nature numerous instances of a partnership for
mutual benefit between animals and plants of very diverse species and
tendencies. Lichens are a living symbiosis of algae and fungi: the
pagurus allows the actiniae to settle on his dwelling, where they attract
his prey and in return are housed and conveyed from place to place.

In imitation of this principle, criminal anthropologists seek to devise
a means of making offenders serviceable to civilisation by carefully
analysing their tendencies and psychology, and fitting them into some
suitable groove in the social scheme, where they may be useful to
themselves and to others. Side by side with depraved instincts,
criminals frequently possess invaluable gifts: an abnormal degree of
intelligence, great audacity, and love of innovation. The wonderful
galleries and fortifications cut out in the rocks at Gibraltar and Malta
by English convicts and the complete transformation of parts of Sardinia
have led criminologists to the conclusion that the ancient penalty of
enforced labour was more logical, useful, and advantageous both for the
culprit and the community than all modern punishments. The Mormons of
America and the religious sects persecuted in Russia by an omnipotent
bureaucracy, have by their energy transformed uninhabitable regions into
lands of extraordinary fertility. Still greater results might be
obtained, if the abnormal tendencies of certain individuals were turned
into useful channels, instead of being pent up until they manifest
themselves in anti-social acts, and this beneficent and lofty task
should devolve on teachers and protectors of such of the young as show
physical and psychic anomalies at an early age.

The colonisation of wild regions and all professions (motoring, cycling,
acrobatic and circus feats) which demand audacity, activity, love of
adventure, and intense efforts followed by long periods of repose are
eminently suited to criminals. There are cases on record in which young
men have actually become thieves and even murderers in order to gain
sufficient means to become comedians or professional cyclists, and there
is every reason to suppose that these crimes would never have been
committed had the youths been able to obtain the required sums honestly.
On the other hand, men of bad character, ready to develop into
cri