THE HARMONY OF VIRTUE

448 The Harmony of Virtuetorture, humiliation and degradation. The jail system is an organisationof these four principles. Physical death has been reducedto a minimum, it is now only a punishment for murderand rebellion. A century or more ago, every crime almost waspunished with death in England. The principle was — your lifefor my shilling, your life for my handkerchief. It is now — yourlife for the life you have taken, your life for the mortal fear youput me into of the loss of my power, emoluments and pleasures.The organisation of slavery is the first principle of the system. Itake my enemy, put him on a dog's diet, load him with chains,set guards to beat and kick him into obedience and diligence,and make him work for my profit for a period fixed by myself,careless whether his nature is brutalised or his life shortened inthe process — for he is my slave to do my will with, and if I donot kill him for taking my shilling or my handkerchief, it is becauseI am civilised and merciful, not a barbarous Oriental. Forthe same reason, I do not inflict physical torture on him, unlesshe is unwilling or unable to do the amount of work I have fixedfor him, or either deliberately or accidentally remembers that hewas a human being or behaves like the brute I have successfullylaboured to make him. Even then I torture according to his physicalcapacity and take care not to maim or kill this serviceable animal.Degradation and humiliation are as well organised as theslavery. It is done, not once in a way but driven in daily, hourly,momently, in every detail of his dress, food, conduct, discipline.In every possible way I brand in upon his soul that he is nolonger such a one, no longer possessed of the name, rights ornature of humanity, but my slave, beast and property — of myselfand of my servants. It is my object to wipe out every trace ofthe human in him and I stamp my foot daily on anything in himthat may remind him of such human qualities as modesty, culture,self-respect, generosity, fellow-feeling. If everything else fails,I have the exquisite rack of mental torture, called solitary imprisonmentto shake his reason or destroy his manhood. And ifin the end I have not succeeded, if he comes out a man and nota brute or idiot, it is not my fault, but his, I have done mybest. This is the European prison system, and it is inflicted onall alike with machine-like efficiency. The curious thing is, that