We

tween such cases and between thefts properly so called. are far from admitting that every one who steals is a kleptomaniac: we do not even go so far as to assert that every kleptomaniac should be held irresponsible for his thefts; and we assert that in all cases where theft is the sole symptom of the disease, the individual should be held, in every respect, responsible for the commission of every other crime except that of larceny.

194. Bungling Execution of Crime no Proof of Insanity. Several rules may, however, be given for the detection of real disease as the exciting cause of the criminal act. We would caution medical men and other persons who have to deal with such questions from paying too great attention to the existence of some stupidity in the execution of the crime in question as a proof of the existence of insanity. This is too frequently done. People have got into a habit of using the word "insane" upon occasions which are far from being sufficiently adequate to warrant its use. Folk say of a neighbor, if he does some act which they consider foolish, "He must be mad." (131 And from this somewhat wholesale importation of the word into ordinary use, the meaning has become somewhat less definite. Because a man leaves a knife with his name upon it lying beside the victim's throat that it has just cut, all the people cry, he is insane. Because a man who murders his neighbor appropriates his clothes, and within a few days after the commission of the offence pawns the dead man's property, every self-constituted judge pronounces the man quite mad. Is it not the fact that, unless the criminal did some foolish thing, the commission of the deed never would have been associated in thought with him? Is it not a fact that all the inmates of our prisons indulge, not in repentance of the crimes for which they are incarcerated, but in vain regret over some little bungled circumstance in connection with the act on account of which they are undergoing sentence?—not saying, "Would I had never done the deed," as a true man ought to say; but saying, "If I had not left the door open, if I had not dropped my hat, if that man had not heard his screams." But are such circumstances to be taken as proof of the existence of insanity? There are very

few who are not blinded by the rules of what they think a science, who would advance such a proposition.

? 195. Unusual Circumstances in connection with Crime not a Proof of Insanity. Neither is the association with the crime of one or two unusual circumstances to be regarded as an indication of insanity. An individual of the name of Campbell, who resided in a northern town a good many years ago, was proved to have stolen various articles. It was also proved that the articles had been stolen with the view of supporting a mother, who was entirely dependent upon the exertions of the accused; and, further, it was ascertained that upon one occasion, when crossing the churchyard in the dreary dark of a winter nightfall, while upon his way to commit one of the crimes with which he was charged, and being wholly unconscious that he was observed, he knelt down and prayed earnestly for a blessing on his undertaking. Sympathy was excited-the man stole for his mother, and he prayed to God to bless him while stealing-he must be mad! But, nevertheless, Campbell was hanged. And although the punishment by death for the crime of theft seems to be unwarranted by any law of God, of nature, or of expediency, which ought to guide a legislature, it seems to us that the exemption of the accused from all punishment upon the ground of insanity, as proved by the facts above stated, would have been ill-advised. Many individuals day and night use this great engine, [132]prayer-the lever of the moral world-to hoist them up in the social world. Many people pray night and morning for Heaven's blessing upon acts which every Balaam prophet of our time has declared shall be cursed. What a marvellous revelation it would be if the thoughts that run through men's heads, or well over their lips, when they are on their knees, were made known. Surely a man with a mistaken idea of morality is not to be thought mad. A man who thinks that the end will justify the means, and who prays that the means may be blessed because the end is worthy of God's blessing, is not to be looked upon as a dement.

196. Uniformity in Character of Crimes not always Proof of Insanity. Neither is it well to decide the question of insanity or crime, as taken in connection with theft, simply upon the fact that the individual has only been in the habit of appropriating one kind of article. When such is the case the question ought to be considered in relation to the individual's capacity, so far as opportunities went, to steal any other kind of articles. An old woman, Nickie Frizzel by name, lived in the castle-crowned town of Stirling some fifty years ago. Boys, whose imaginations helped to the conclusion that a crutch and nut-cracker jaws were the truest attributes of a witch, looked upon her as "ower grit wi' the Diel." But even friends of the Devil must die, and Nickie Frizzel paid her little debt of nature when it was overdue by some years. She died, and her house was searched. Many articles were found in her possession which had come into it by the back door of theft, and not by the front door of purchase. But the fact which excited most curiosity was the discovery of a washing-tub full of "peries," or peg-tops, which had, it was surmised, been stolen from the boys as she passed on her daily rambles. No wonder they thought her a witch! But the discovery of all these peg-tops does not convince us that Nickie Frizzel was non compos. But instead of saying at length who ought not to be looked upon as mad, even though they steal, we had, perhaps, better say who ought to be considered as of unsound mind under such circumstances. The positive is generally a shorter road than the negative in such cases.

? 197. Distinction between Sane Theft and Kleptomania: What should be had regard to.-The means, the position, the rank of the individual, should be taken into consideration. We know that poverty and want are, under ordinary circumstances, incentives to procure food or money in the most accessible way, which for the poor is not unfrequently by theft. If hunger gnaws a man, it would be a severe moralist who would censure the appropriation of food. Man seems to have a sort of right to live, as much as he can have a right, when standing in God's presence; and when that right is menaced by undermining hunger, there is at

least some excuse for theft. But the law is to prevent theft, and the law properly looks upon want as the most powerful incentive to honest work, and not to dishonest pilfering. Although it should always lead to industry, and not to dishonesty, it does not always do so. The temptation to steal is great. It is SO easy, and does not look very wrong: the man you take from has enough and to spare, and you well-nigh perish with hunger. Thus it is that poverty is a real inducement to commit crime. Sad though it be, it is true! Now, if we find a man of wealth appropriating to himself some article that, in comparison to his means, is of little value, we are surely warranted in supposing that his motive is somewhat different from that of the man to whom the same article or sum of money would be, as it were, life, and that "chance" which opens the world's door to man. It is certain that motive is to be judged as much by the position of the person wishing, as by the object wished for. What is a crust of bread after a good dinner?-what is it not after a long fast? So we say that the position and means of the individual suspected of laboring under kleptomania are to be carefully considered. And not only his social position, but that "position" which is his entire relation to the external world. An old copper coin, utterly valueless to anybody except to a boy, who might take it to play buttons with, would, in the eyes of an antiquary, be, as it were, the nucleus of a hundred pleasant feelings, and in that way have value in his eye. For, as Shakespeare says:1

"What is aught, but as 'tis valued ?"

In this wide sense of the word position, a man's rank, his circumstances at the time, his relations to the individual stolen from or to any individual who might possibly be suspected of the theft, the circumstances of the theft-for the manifestation of cleverness or skill in the perpertation may be a perfectly healthy motive inducing to the crime-must all be considered. But if, as in one of the above-mentioned cases, an individual steals towels, and no ordinary motive likely to influence him individually or a healthy person cir

Troilus and Cressida.

cumstanced as he is, can be discovered, there is a strong probability that the individual stole in consequence of dis

ease.

In

198. The Value of the Article to be consilered.[134 The value of the article taken should be ascertained. many cases of true kleptomania the value of the article stolen does not seem to be of much importance. To the true thief the value is all important. Before going further, we would say that these tests altogether form a net which will catch the thief and allow the insane to go. Not one of these will. alone be sufficient to decide the question of sanity or insanity, and in many instances they may altogether fail. With regard to the value, the case of the lady who only took pins and concealed them in the hem of her dress is certainly illustrative. And we may refer the readers to the case of L. Hmentioned in an earlier part of this work, and to the case of the lady who stole bread, which we quoted on the authority of Dr. Rush, as further showing that in very many cases the mere morbid desire to become possessed of something is so strong as to make the choice of the article according to the ordinary standard of value a matter of no importance. It is strange that the morbid desire to acquire should in many cases be limited so as to operate only in relation to one class of objects. But we generally find, if we choose to seek, the type of the same law in the manifestations of disease that is to be found in the actions which are the ordinary outcome of a state of health. Men's desires always "clot," as it were. They live in the light of gratification and they grow to that light. Men's desires have to be cut by the cloth the world gives them, and resignation is the obsequy of desire. We have to go without many things we want, and the inevitable is a good argument against our beating ourselves against the immovable bars. But education and birth, and all a man's circumstances, shape a man's desires until his mind is like an island with many long peninsulas running from it, one seeking the south with its summer and flowers, the other the north with its fierce winds and dreary snows. Men's minds,

1 Reports Crichton Institution