The letter of the _Times'_ correspondent referred to contained an
account of one of the most singular cases of depravity ever brought
before a criminal court; but it is unnecessary to bring any of its
details under the reader's attention, for nearly every other number of
our journals has of late contained some instances of atrocities before
unthought of, and, it might have seemed, impossible to humanity.
The connection of these with the modern love of excitement in the
sensational novel and drama may not be generally understood, but it is
direct and constant; all furious pursuit of pleasure ending in actual
desire of horror and delight in death. I entered into some fuller
particulars on this subject in a lecture given in the spring at the
Royal Institution.
[Any part of the Lecture referred to likely to be of permanent
interest will be printed, somewhere, in this series.]