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SEEKING THE CAUSES 97
many of them are mentally deranged, and for these it is
the asylum, and not death or the gallows, that is fitting.
It is necessary also to take account, in the case of some
of these criminals, of their noble altruism which renders
them worthy of certain regard. Many of these people
are souls that have gone astray and are hysterical, like
Vaillant and Henry, who, had they been engaged in some
other cause, far from being a danger, would have been
able to be of use in this society which they wished to
. . .
destroy.
"As to indirect suicides, is it not to encourage them
and to make them attain the end that they desire when
we inflict on all those so disposed a spectacular death
. . . For many criminals by passion, unbalanced by
an inadequate education, and whose feeling is aroused by
either their own misery or at the sight of^the misery of
others, we would no more award the death penalty if the
motive has been exclusively political, because they are
much less dangerous than the criminal born. On the
other hand, commitment to the asylum of the epileptic
and the hysteric would be a practical measure, especially
in France, where ridicule kills them. Martyrs are venerated
and fools are derided." (10)
Of course, Lombroso is
endeavoring to prescribe a
method of treatment for the terrorist that will not breed
more terrorists. He sees in the present punitive methods
an active cause of violence. However, it is perhaps impossible
to hope that society will adopt any different attitude
than that which it has taken in the past toward these
unbalanced souls. In fact, it seems that a savage lex
talionis is
wholly satisfying to the feudists on both sides.
Neither the one nor the other seeks to understand the
forces driving them both. They are bent on destroying
each other, and they will probably continue in that