Prohaska opposed, alleging that it would hinder her in her walk. No sooner is he left alone, than he runs with the infant to his house, where he had left the other asleep; splits the skull of both with a small hatchet; places them on the bed in each other's arms; and, having carefully shut the chamber, goes to the guard-room, and, with a certain satisfaction in his looks and gestures, says that he has killed his wife and children. "Now," added he, "let lieutenant de V. make love to her. She and my children are beyond seduction and dishonor; they will thank me for the happiness they enjoy, and will pray for me in heaven."

The counsel of war that tried him, paid no attention to the extenuating motives, and did not take them into consideration to determine the degree of culpability, with reference to moral freedom. It treated Prohaska, not as a deranged man, but as a man in health, as a man who had acted with perfectly free will, consequently, as an assassin with premeditation: it condemned him to be beheaded; and, to aggravate the punishment, refused him in prison, and even when he went to execution, the privilege of being accompanied and exhorted by a clergyman.*

This fact proves to what degree violent melancholy and superstition may obscure the mind, and extenuate the conduct of those unfortunate men, who, in this condition, commit crimes. But, how many other circumstances, hitherto little remarked, contribute to affect our reason, and, consequently, to impair our freedom!

Certain aliments, and especially spirituous liquors, produce on many persons peculiar irritations, which are the effect of a species of ebriety, though not accompanied with the ordinary symptoms of that state. know that wine and brandy render a man courageous,

We

*This fact was communicated to us by Major Grambkowski, whoterminates his narrative in these words: "I abstain from any comment, but I warrant the truth of what I relate."

quarrelsome, eloquent, sincere, amorous, sad, or gay. When the robber Peter Petri was sober, he seemed plunged in a state of dulness and apathy. They could then do what they would with him. But, after drinking a few glasses of brandy, he was a very tiger, who threw himself without distinction upon friends and enemies. A woman at Bamberg, whenever she had drank brandy, felt a strong desire to set fire to some house; but no sooner had the excitement passed, than this woman was filled with horror at her own previous state. As, however, she was not always on her guard against the enticements of her favorite beverage, she actually committed arson in fourteen instances.

The most embarrassing case in regard to culpability, without reference to the laws, is that in which a peculiar quality acquires by itself, and in consequence of the organization, so great a degree of energy, that it forms the ruling passion of an individual. I have already shown, that all the faculties, and all the propensities, may arrive at this degree of energy. If this takes place in regard to a matter, which is indifferent or laudable, we may felicitate the individual, without making it a subject of commendation. Many persons are naturally inclined to devotion; others would be forced to do great violence to their nature, if they dismissed, without aid, an abandoned child, or a friendless old man. Many men have an especial inclination for building, travelling, disputing; one is inflamed with an insatiable desire of glory; another cannot spare his best friends, when a brilliant sarcasm rises in his mind. We found in a house of correction a young nobleman extremely proud, who was confined there, because he was ashamed of every kind of work. Even there he would only condescend to speak to persons of distinction, and his questions discovered uncommon penetration. The nervous systems of certain external senses may also acquire such an extraordinary degree of activity and energy, that they determine, as it were, the principal character of an individual. This kind of energy is even sometimes he

reditary. In a certain Russian family, the father and the grandfather early became victims of their propensity to drunkenness; the son, though he foresaw the consequences of this perverse habit, continued to abandon himself to it, in spite of his exertions; and the grandson, a boy of five years, at the time of the publication of the first edition of this work, already manifested a decided propensity for spirituous liquors.

Is

Why should not this imperious activity sometimes take place, also, in other organs, which, by the excess of their action, lead to evil? The reality of such exaltation is proved by so many examples, that any objection dictated by prejudice or superstition, would be absurd. The individual who experiences this exalted energy, is governed by a single sensation or idea, in which his whole soul is centered. If this violent action is not controlled by some superior force, the man becomes its slave. If faculties of a superior order act at the same time in a contrary direction, there hence results an obstinate struggle between the unhappy propensities of the individual and the painful opposition of his reason. it, then, surprising, that evil propensities often gain the mastery over the good; the flesh, over the spirit? This state, it is true, is not a real alienation of the mind; it is rather a partial exaltation, a subjection of the soul, and it offers an incomprehensible contrast between man and the animal in man.* If the exaltation takes place in a quality, whose too energetic activity leads to criminal acts, a state can hardly be imagined more unhappy for the individual, and more perplexing to the judge; for this state produces effects in appearance so contrary, that, on the one hand, it is scarcely possible to distinguish it from the state of reason; and, on the other, it seems to confound itself with madness. Let us examine some

"The flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh and these two are contrary the one to the other, so that ye cannot do; the things that ye would." St. Paul to Gal. ch. v. ver. 17.

of these inclinations, beginning with the propensity to theft.

Violent Propensity to the commission of Theft, destroying the Moral Freedom.

Victor Amadeus I., King of Sardinia, was in the constant habit of stealing trifles. Saurin, pastor at Geneva, though possessing the strongest principles of reason and religion, frequently yielded to the propensity to steal. Another individual was, from early youth, a victim to this inclination. He entered the military service, on purpose that he might be restrained by the severity of the discipline; but, having continued his practices, he was on the point of being condemned to be hanged. Ever seeking to combat his ruling passion, he studied theology, and became a capuchin. But his propensity followed him even to the cloister. Here, however, as he found only trifles to tempt him, he indulged himself in his strange fancy with less scruple. He seized scissors, candlesticks, snuffers, cups, goblets, and conveyed them to his cell. An agent of the government at Vienna had the singular mania for stealing nothing but kitchen utensils. He hired two rooms as a place of deposit; he did not sell, and made no use of them. The wife of the famous physician Gaubius had such a propensity to rob, that when she made a purchase, she always sought to to take something. Countesses M., at Wesel, and P., at Frankfort, also had this propensity. Madame de W. had been educated with peculiar care. Her wit and talents secured her a distinguished place in society. But neither her education nor her fortune saved her from the most decided propensity to theft. Lavater* speaks of a physician, who never left the room of his patients without robbing them of something, and who

* Physiognomie, Edit. de la Haye. t. ii. p. 169.

never thought of the matter afterward. In the evening his wife used to examine his pockets; she there found keys, scissors, thimbles, knives, spoons, buckles, cases, and sent them to their respective owners. Moritz, in his experimental treatise on the soul, relates with the greatest minuteness the history of a robber, who had the propensity to theft in such a degree, that, being "in articulo mortis," at the point of death, he stole the snuff-box of his confessor. Doctor Bernard, physician of his majesty the king of Bavaria, speaks of an Alsatian of his acquaintance, who was always committing thefts, though he had every thing in abundance, and was not avaricious. He had been educated with care, and his vicious propensity had repeatedly exposed him to punishment. His father had him enlisted as a soldier, but even this measure failed to correct him. He committed some considerable thefts, and was condemned to be hanged. The son of a distinguished literary man offers us a similar example. He was distinguished among all his comrades for his talents; but, from his early infancy, he robbed his parents, sister, domestics, comrades, and professors. He stole the most valuable books from his father's library. Every kind of means was tried to correct him he was sent into the service, and underwent several times the most rigorous punishments; but all was useless. The conduct of this unhappy young man was regular in all other respects; he did not justify his thefts; but, if they addressed to him on this subject the most earnest and the most amicable representations, he remained indifferent; he seemed not to understand them. The almoner of a regiment of Prussian cuirassiers, a man otherwise well educated and endowed with moral qualities, had so decided a propensity to theft, that frequently on the parade he robbed the officers of their handkerchiefs. His general esteemed him highly; but as soon as he appeared, they shut every thing up with the greatest care, for he had often carried away handkerchiefs, shirts, and even stockings belonging to the women. When he was asked for what he had