{"product_id":"2940013191068","title":"A BOOK OF REMARKABLE CRIMINALS","description":"Introduction\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"The silent workings, and still more the explosions, of human passion\u003cbr\u003ewhich bring to light the darker elements of man's nature present to the\u003cbr\u003ephilosophical observer considerations of intrinsic interest; while\u003cbr\u003eto the jurist, the study of human nature and human character with its\u003cbr\u003einfinite varieties, especially as affecting the connection between\u003cbr\u003emotive and action, between irregular desire or evil disposition and\u003cbr\u003ecrime itself, is equally indispensable and difficult.\"--_Wills on\u003cbr\u003eCircumstantial Evidence_.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI REMEMBER my father telling me that sitting up late one night talking\u003cbr\u003ewith Tennyson, the latter remarked that he had not kept such late\u003cbr\u003ehours since a recent visit of Jowett. On that occasion the poet and\u003cbr\u003ethe philosopher had talked together well into the small hours of the\u003cbr\u003emorning. My father asked Tennyson what was the subject of conversation\u003cbr\u003ethat had so engrossed them. \"Murders,\" replied Tennyson. It would have\u003cbr\u003ebeen interesting to have heard Tennyson and Jowett discussing such a\u003cbr\u003etheme. The fact is a tribute to the interest that crime has for many\u003cbr\u003emen of intellect and imagination. Indeed, how could it be otherwise?\u003cbr\u003eRob history and fiction of crime, how tame and colourless would be the\u003cbr\u003eresidue! We who are living and enduring in the presence of one of the\u003cbr\u003egreatest crimes on record, must realise that trying as this period of\u003cbr\u003ethe world's history is to those who are passing through it, in the hands\u003cbr\u003eof some great historian it may make very good reading for posterity.\u003cbr\u003ePerhaps we may find some little consolation in this fact, like the\u003cbr\u003eunhappy victims of famous freebooters such as Jack Sheppard or Charley\u003cbr\u003ePeace.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut do not let us flatter ourselves. Do not let us, in all the pomp and\u003cbr\u003ecircumstance of stately history, blind ourselves to the fact that the\u003cbr\u003ecrimes of Frederick, or Napoleon, or their successors, are in essence no\u003cbr\u003edifferent from those of Sheppard or Peace. We must not imagine that\u003cbr\u003ethe bad man who happens to offend against those particular laws which\u003cbr\u003econstitute the criminal code belongs to a peculiar or atavistic type,\u003cbr\u003ethat he is a man set apart from the rest of his fellow-men by mental or\u003cbr\u003ephysical peculiarities. That comforting theory of the Lombroso school\u003cbr\u003ehas been exploded, and the ordinary inmates of our prisons shown to be\u003cbr\u003eonly in a very slight degree below the average in mental and physical\u003cbr\u003efitness of the normal man, a difference easily explained by the\u003cbr\u003eenvironment and conditions in which the ordinary criminal is bred.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA certain English judge, asked as to the general characteristics of the\u003cbr\u003eprisoners tried before him, said: \"They are just like other people;\u003cbr\u003ein fact, I often think that, but for different opportunities and other\u003cbr\u003eaccidents, the prisoner and I might very well be in one another's\u003cbr\u003eplaces.\" \"Greed, love of pleasure,\" writes a French judge, \"lust,\u003cbr\u003eidleness, anger, hatred, revenge, these are the chief causes of crime.\u003cbr\u003eThese passions and desires are shared by rich and poor alike, by the\u003cbr\u003eeducated and uneducated. They are inherent in human nature; the germ is\u003cbr\u003ein every man.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eConvicts represent those wrong-doers who have taken to a particular form\u003cbr\u003eof wrong-doing punishable by law. Of the larger army of bad men\u003cbr\u003ethey represent a minority, who have been found out in a peculiarly\u003cbr\u003eunsatisfactory kind of misconduct. There are many men, some lying,\u003cbr\u003eunscrupulous, dishonest, others cruel, selfish, vicious, who go through\u003cbr\u003elife without ever doing anything that brings them within the scope of\u003cbr\u003ethe criminal code, for whose offences the laws of society provide no\u003cbr\u003epunishment. And so it is with some of those heroes of history who have\u003cbr\u003ebeen made the theme of fine writing by gifted historians.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMr. Basil Thomson, the present head of the Criminal Investigation\u003cbr\u003eDepartment, has said recently that a great deal of crime is due to a\u003cbr\u003espirit of \"perverse adventure\" on the part of the criminal. The same\u003cbr\u003emight be said with equal justice of the exploits of Alexander the Great\u003cbr\u003eand half the monarchs and conquerors of the world, whom we are taught\u003cbr\u003ein our childhood's days to look up to as shining examples of all that a\u003cbr\u003egreat man should be. Because crimes are played on a great stage instead\u003cbr\u003eof a small, that is no reason why our moral judgment should be suspended\u003cbr\u003eor silenced. Class Machiavelli and Frederick the Great as a couple of\u003cbr\u003erascals fit to rank with Jonathan Wild, and we are getting nearer a\u003cbr\u003eperception of what constitutes the real criminal. \"If,\" said Frederick\u003cbr\u003ethe Great to his minister, Radziwill, \"there is anything to be gained\u003cbr\u003eby it, we will be honest; if deception is necessary, let us be cheats.\"\u003cbr\u003eThese are the very sentiments of Jonathan Wild.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47073711554800,"sku":"2940013191068","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013191068_p0.jpg?v=1763578160","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013191068","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}