Publisher's Synopsis
Book Excerptmpt by fraud or violence topossess oneself of something belonging to another, and as suchthe cases of it in history are as clear as those dealt with incriminal courts. Germany to-day has been guilty of a perverseand criminal adventure, the outcome of that false moralityapplied to historical transactions, of which Carlyle's life ofFrederick is a monumental example. In that book we have aman whose instincts in more ways than one were those of acriminal, held up for our admiration, in the same way that thesame writer fell into dithyrambic praise over a villain calledFrancia, a former President of Paraguay. A most interesting workmight be written on the great criminals of history, and might dosomething towards restoring that balance of moral judgment inhistorical transactions, for the perversion of which we aresuffering to-day.In the meantime we must be content to study in the microcosm ofordinary crime those instincts, selfish, greedy, brutal which, exploited often by bad men in the so-callRead Mor
