The Loeb-Leopold case - The Clarence Darrow Collection

A. Practically not.
The Loeb-Leopold Case
Q. Are there various centers in the brain for certain
emotions?
A. Not as far as I know. There are some who place
sexual emotions in the cerebellum and others who place cer-
tain moral emotions in the large ganglia at the base, but as
far as I know, there is no confirmation of those localizations.
Q. Is it correct to say moral emotions?
A. Well, that is descriptive of one variety of emotional
action, those which pertain to the duties and obligations between
men.
Q. WTiere does one get those?
A. They are usually a matter of experience or educa-
tion. The ethical ideas must always be instilled in a child,
because the only two emotions which he has at birth are fear
of sound and fear from a sense of falling.
Q. The whole idea of moral emotions is built up from
teachings, is it not?
A. Precept and example.
Q. And the strength of the precept and the example and
the teaching as compared with the primitive emotions determines
the conduct, doesn't it?
A. Yes, I think those things are related.
Q. That is, if the teaching is deep enough and the habit
is strong enough, people will stay in the moral groove. And
if the emotions are so strong and the teachings are so weak,
they may leap over it?
A. Yes. It is a question of self-control, which turns again
upon the question of discipline.
Q. Self-control means pure discipline, doesn't it?
A. Yes.
Q. So the whole question of education, what we call moral
education, is a question of fixing habit deep into the individual
so that he ^^ill withstand temptation?
A. Yes, I think so.
Q. When is the most trying age in a young man?
A. At the age of puberty and adolescence.
Q. Then comes a change of emotional life, doesn't it, as a
rule?
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