But those discouraged by modern crime misunderstand the meaning
of events and fail to make a just comparison between the past and
the present.
It is true that crime to-day is shocking in its frequency. Each
day we see spread out before us murders.
But first of all remember this:
We often mistake widespread NEWS of crime for increase in crime
itself. The newspapers are multiplied in number by tens of
thousands, and they all tell what happens. It seems as though
crime had increased, whereas in reality we have simply increased
facilities for letting all the people know what goes on among us.
----
We are shocked occasionally by crimes of poisoning. Go back a
few centuries and you find men and women making a regular
business of selling poison to those who want to commit murder.
The crimes that fill us with horror would not have been noticed
in those days.
We hear of a father killing his own child, and we declare that
humanity is going to destruction. Yet but a few centuries back
and THE LAW RECOGNIZED EVERY FATHER'S RIGHT TO KILL HIS CHILD IF
HE CHOSE.
We shudder when we hear that a mother has exposed a new-born
child on a doorstep or thrown it into an ash barrel. That is a
horrid and unbelievable crime.
But in Rome, before the days of Christianity, there were
appointed places where mothers might legally expose their
children to destruction.
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