صفحة 177 من 1294

The question whether the disease gives rise to the crime, or

whether the crime from its own peculiar nature is always

accompanied by something of the nature of disease, he did not yet

feel able to decide.

When he reached these conclusions, he decided that in his own

case there could not be such a morbid reaction, that his reason

and will would remain unimpaired at the time of carrying out his

design, for the simple reason that his design was "not a

crime...." We will omit all the process by means of which he

arrived at this last conclusion; we have run too far ahead

already.... We may add only that the practical, purely material

difficulties of the affair occupied a secondary position in his

mind. "One has but to keep all one's will-power and reason to

deal with them, and they will all be overcome at the time when

once one has familiarised oneself with the minutest details of

the business...." But this preparation had never been begun. His

final decisions were what he came to trust least, and when the

hour struck, it all came to pass quite differently, as it were

accidentally and unexpectedly.