Excerpt from Not Guilty: A Defence of the Bottom Dog If we blame a man for inheriting cupidity from an ancestor who was greedy and rapacious, or for inheriting licentious ineli nations from an ancestor who was a rake, we are blaming him for failing to be born of better parents. Briefly, then, heredity makes, and environment modifies, a man's nature. And both these forces are outside the man. Therefore man becomes that which he is by the action of forces outside himself. Therefore it is unjust to blame a man for being that which he is. Therefore it is unjust to blame him for doing that which he does. Therefore our human laws, which punish men for their acts, are unjust laws. Now, before we go fully into the meanings of the words hered ity and environment, let us make a short summary of the argu ments above put forth. Since man did not create his own nature, man is not responsible for his own acts. Therefore all laws, human or divine, which punish man for his acts are unjust laws. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.