Philosophically speaking, we never attach a feeling of merit or of demerit to any action done by ourselves or others, except where there has been a struggle between a higher and a lower desire, which has ended in the one case in the ascendency of the moral impulse, and in the other in the triumph of the propensity. Thus, when an idiot, from defective development of brain, habitually indulges in the most vicious conduct, we never think of ascribing blame or demerit to him; because we know that he has no restraining power, and any feeling of that kind manifested towards him could not be productive of benefit to him or to us. In like manner, while we think of an angel with feelings of respect and admiration for the mental purity described as characterising such beings, we do not, and, from this very purity, cannot, connect the idea of merit with their conduct. Or, let us suppose a human being possessed of such an exquisitely proportioned development of brain, as to cause his every feeling, thought, and action, to be pure, moral, and excellent, and to render the very idea of wrong highly painful to his mind, it is clear that such a being could have no merit in doing good, and that he himself would be conscious that he was entitled to none. He would feel the pleasure of obeying the dictates of his faculties, to be in itself his highest and most delightful reward. Some, no doubt, would attribute merit to him; but they would do so under the erroneous impression that he was constituted as they themselves were, was beset with the same temptations, and had laboured successfully to resist them; and they would say, that in this resistance his merit consisted. The few, however, who examined more closely, while they would respect, love, and admire a being endowed with such qualities, would never think of ascribing merit to their possessor for acting in accordance with their dictates.

But as soon as a struggle between the propensities, which look to self alone, and the moral sentiments, which look to the welfare of others, terminates in favour of the latter, we say that the individual has merit; and he himself is conscious of being on that account entitled to a certain degree of praise or consideration. Two things are in harmony here. First, the action implies a denial of selfish desire, and a regard to the well-being of others; and the having accomplished this self-denial not only gratifies the moral faculties which influenced him, but gives rise to a feeling of self-merit depending mainly on Self-esteem. Secondly, the very circumstance of the good being done to another, by the constitution of our nature excites Conscientiousness in the object

to make a grateful return; Benevolence to aid and do good to his benefactor; Veneration to look up to him with respect; and Love of Approbation to express that respect; all which manifestations being in perfect harmony with the benefactor's own feeling of merit, gratify his Self-esteem and Love of Approbation, and operate as strong inducements or motives to him to follow the dictates of the moral sentiments on all future occasions. And hence, as mankind act always from their strongest desires, merit, and the respect shewn to it, are not only necessary in themselves, but strictly in harmony with moral necessity.

If, again, the struggle terminates in the ascendency of the propensities, self is then set against society. By the constitution of our minds, neither Conscientiousness, Benevolence, nor Veneration, can look up to, respect, or sympathise with meanness and degradation. The Self-esteem of the individual is disagreeably affected by the result of the struggle, and a feeling of dissatisfaction arises; he feels degraded, and his moral dignity diminished. His own mind is in perfect harmony with the feeling of demerit and dissatisfaction then felt by others, and hence a powerful motive to a better decision in other cases. In short, here is the responsibility which Nature has attached to his failing to obey her dictates, when she made the moral sentiments paramount in authority. Different individuals are moved by different motives, and Nature has wisely surrounded man with a variety of these, all tending to the same good end, and all giving rise to pain when not listened to or obeyed; and in this way, even faculties whose object is exclusively selfish, are made to cooperate in leading to virtuous conduct.

VIII. On the Hereditary Tendency to Depravity and Crime. By JULIUS HENRY STEINAU, M.D. of the Royal Medical College, Berlin.*

Dr Gall relates the two following remarkable cases, in which suicide occurred hereditarily. M. Gauthier, owner of several warehouses in Paris, left to his seven children a property of two millions of francs. They all remained in Paris

*From the Appendix to "A Pathological and Philosophical Essay on Hereditary Diseases. By J. H. Steinau, M.D., &c." London: Simpkin, Marshall, and Co., 1843. 8vo. pp. 52.

and its environs, where they lived upon their property, which some of them even increased by commercial transactions. Not one was visited by any material disaster, and all enjoyed the best state of health. They all had sufficient to live upon, and were highly esteemed; but every one laboured under an inclination to commit suicide, to which they yielded in the course of thirty or forty years: some hanged, some drowned, and others shot themselves. The last but one invited on a Sunday a party of sixteen persons to dine with him. When dinner was served, the host was suddenly missing; and having been everywhere called and looked for in vain, he was at last discovered hanging in a barn. Only one hour before, he had been giving orders to the servants with the greatest composure of mind, and had cheerfully conversed with his friends. The last of the seven, who was the owner of a house in the Rue de Richelieu, having raised it by two stories, at once conceived the idea that the expense had ruined him. Three times he tried to destroy himself, but was each time prevented from accomplishing it; however, he at last succeeded in shooting himself. The amount of his property, after the payment of all liabilities, was found to be 300,000 francs. He destroyed himself at the age of forty-five years.

Another case, related by Dr Gall, is the following:—A person committed suicide at Paris. His brother, who was present at the funeral, when seeing the corpse, called out, "What a misfortune! My father and my uncle have both destroyed themselves: my brother has followed their example: and I myself was, during my journey here, more than twenty times hardly able to withstand the inclination of throwing myself into the Seine."

To these facts the writer of this essay may be allowed to add a case equally remarkable; for the truth of which he can vouch, as he was highly interested in, it, and is able to describe it with all its particulars.-Whilst yet in B, in Germany, I was visited by a man whom I well knew; he was accompanied by a handsome lively youth of about eleven or twelve years of age, whom he introduced to me as the son of his sister in L; requesting me, at the same time, that I would allow the youth to call now and then upon me, for the purpose of letting me judge of the progress he was making at school; and that I might also otherwise superintend him, since he himself (his uncle) was not competent to the first, and prevented by his avocations from undertaking the latter. He added, that his brother-in-law, the father of the youth, having been unfortunate in business, destroyed himself; and that, to ease the condition of his sister, he had resolved

to bring the boy to B, and let him finish his education there.

I readily undertook the charge. The boy often visited me; and, I must confess, the more I knew of him the more I was captivated by him. He was an honest, cheerful, and obliging youth; he made daily progress in his studies; and was beloved by all his teachers in the school. He became so dear to me, that I felt daily a necessity of enjoying his company in the evening hours. Thus passed several years, when at last the boy received the holy rite of Confirmation; and leaving the school, he was, according to his own inclination, bound as an apprentice with a respectable tradesman; and I soon learnt that his master had every reason to be perfectly satisfied with him. Many changes in my own circumstances were the cause that I afterwards saw this youth less frequently than before; and, as is natural in a large city, I soon almost entirely lost sight of him, so that I had for several months neither seen nor heard any thing of him. One day, happening to be in the neighbourhood of the establishment where the youth was apprenticed, I could not help entering, with the intention of paying him a visit; well knowing, at the same time, that it would produce an agreeable surprise. Upon my asking the master for the apprentice, he for a while looked at me with a sad countenance, and then said, " What, Sir, do you not know what a misfortune we have met with, about this boy? He has now been two months dead and buried: he has destroyed himself." "How was this possible?" said I, quite amazed-"this good boy! Perhaps he had done something wrong, for which he was afraid of being severely punished?" "By no means," replied the master, with tears in his eyes; "on the contrary, he has always behaved in every respect so honestly, that I was delighted with him, and I loved him like one of my own children. About eight weeks ago he was, in the forenoon, occupied alone in the storehouse; and dinnerhour having come, and the dinner being ready, he was several times called without answering; upon which I went myself to look for him; and there he was, hanging, by a rope round his neck, on a large hook in the wall, quite cold and stiff. There was no doubt but that he had hanged himself in an evil moment. We cannot imagine any reason that could have induced him to such a step; and I cannot think otherwise than that he had inherited the inclination to commit suicide from his father."-The boy, at the time of his death, was not yet fifteen years old, and had not been a full year from school.

It cannot be denied that the tragical death of this youth VOL. XVIII. N. S. NO. XXXII.-OCTOBER 1845.

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whose father had committed suicide, and who himself put an end to his existence in the fifteenth year of his age without any apparent cause, present indications, like those related by Gall, of an hereditary tendency or disposition to commit suicide. However, we can only draw a conditional and hypothetical conclusion.

As an example of the hereditary occurrence of moral depravities of another kind, and of their appearing sometimes as innate, we give the following fact; the parties connected with which were, like those in the foregoing case, well known to the writer.

When I was a boy, there lived in my native town an old man, named P—, who was such an inveterate thief, that he went in the whole place by that name. People speaking of him, used no other appellation but that of "the thief;" and every body knew then who was meant for epithets, generally speaking, are of common occurrence in small towns. Children and common people were accustomed to call him by that name, even in his presence, as if they knew no other name belonging to him; and he bore it, to a certain degree, with a sort of good-naturedness. It was even customary for the tradesmen and dealers who frequented the annual fairs in this place (which are there of a more mercantile character than in other countries), to enter into a formal treaty with him; that is, they gave him a trifling sum of money, for which he engaged not only not to touch their property himself, but even to guard it against other thieves.

A son of this P—, named Charles, afterwards lived in B, during my residence there. He was respectably married, and carried on a profitable trade, which supported him handsomely. Still, he could not help committing many robberies, quite without any necessity, and merely from an irresistible inclination. He was several times arrested and punished the consequence was, that he lost his credit and reputation, by which he was at last actually ruined. He died, while still a young man, in the House of Correction at Sp―, where he had been confined as a punishment for his last robbery.

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A son of this Charles, and grandson of the above-mentioned notorious P- —, in my native town, lived in the same house where I resided. In his earliest youth, before he was able to distinguish between good and evil, the disposition to stealing, and the ingenuity of an expert thief, began already to develop themselves in him. When about three years old, he stole all kinds of eatables within his reach; although he always had plenty to eat, and only needed to ask for what