All the penalties, all the punishments, are inflicted under a belief
that man can do right under all circumstances--that his conduct is
absolutely under his control, and that his will is a pilot that can,
in spite of winds and tides, reach any port desired. All this is, in my
judgment, a mistake. It is a denial of the integrity of nature. It is
based upon the supernatural and miraculous, and as long as this mistake
remains the corner-stone of criminal jurisprudence, reformation will be
impossible.
We must take into consideration the nature of man--the facts of
mind--the power of temptation--the limitations of the intellect--the
force of habit--the result of heredity--the power of passion--the
domination of want--the diseases of the brain--the tyranny of
appetite--the cruelty of conditions--the results of association--the
effects of poverty and wealth, of helplessness and power.
Until these subtle things are understood--until we know that man, in
spite of all, can certainly pursue the highway of the right, society
should not impoverish and degrade, should not chain and kill those who,
after all, may be the helpless victims of unknown causes that are deaf
and blind.
We know something of ourselves--of the average man--of his thoughts,
passions, fears and aspirations--something of his sorrows and his joys,
his weakness, his liability to fall--something of what he resists--the
struggles, the victories and the failures of his life. We know something
of the tides and currents of the mysterious sea--something of the
circuits of the wayward winds--but we do not know where the wild storms
are born that wreck and rend. Neither do we know in what strange realm
the mists and clouds are formed that darken all the heaven of the mind,
nor from whence comes the tempest of the brain in which the will to
do, sudden as the lightning's flash, seizes and holds the man until the
dreadful deed is done that leaves a curse upon the soul.
We do not know. Our ignorance should make us hesitate. Our weakness
should make us merciful.
I cannot more fittingly close this address than by quoting the prayer
of the Buddhist: "I pray thee to have pity on the vicious--thou hast
already had pity on the virtuous by making them so."