maintenance, on the one hand
abolishing want, and on the other checking the accumulation of riches, we cut
this root, and the poison tree that overshadowed your society withered, like
Jonah's gourd, in a day. As for the comparatively small class of violent crimes
against persons, unconnected with any idea of gain, they were almost wholly
confined, even in your day, to the ignorant and bestial; and in these days, when
education and good manners are not the monopoly of a few, but universal, such
atrocities are scarcely ever heard of. You now see why the word atavism is used
for crime. It is because nearly all forms of crime known to you are motiveless
now, and when they appear can only be explained as the outcropping of ancestral
traits. You used to call persons who stole, evidently without any rational
motive, kleptomaniacs, and when the case was clear deemed it absurd to punish
them as thieves. Your attitude toward the genuine kleptomaniac is precisely ours
toward the victim of atavism, an attitude of compassion and firm but gentle
restraint.«
    »Your courts must have an easy time of it,« I observed. »With no private
property to speak of, no disputes between citizens over business relations, no
real estate to divide or debts to collect, there must be absolutely no civil
business at all for them; and with no offenses against property, and mighty few
of any sort to provide criminal cases, I should think you might almost do
without judges and lawyers altogether.«
    »We do without the lawyers, certainly,« was Dr. Leete's reply. »It would not
seem reasonable to us, in a case where the only interest of the nation is to
find out the truth, that persons should take part in the proceedings who had an
acknowledged motive to colour it.«
    »But who defends the accused?«
    »If he is a criminal he needs no defence, for he pleads guilty in most
instances,« replied Dr. Leete. »The plea of the accused is not a mere formality
with us, as with you. It is usually the end of the case.«
    »You don't mean that the man who pleads not guilty is thereupon discharged?«
    »No, I do not mean that. He is not accused on light grounds, and if he
denies his guilt, must still be tried. But trials are few, for in most cases the
guilty man pleads guilty. When he makes a false plea and is clearly proved
guilty, his penalty is doubled. Falsehood is, however