e been the subjects of
taboo, and just as numerous and weird have been the charms and amulets
and ceremonies that saved him from the dangers that everywhere beset his
way. The life of the primitive human being was a journey down a narrow
path; outside were infinite dangers from which magic alone could make
him safe.

All animal life automatically groups itself more or less closely into
herds. Buffaloes, horses and wolves run in packs. Some of these groups
are knit closely together like ants and bees, while the units of others
move much more widely apart. But whatever the group may be, its units
must conform. If the wolf gets too far from the pack it suffers or dies;
it matters not whether it be to the right or the left, behind or ahead,
it must stay with the pack or be lost.

Men from the earliest time arranged themselves into groups; they
traveled in a certain way; they established habits and customs and ways
of life. These "folk-ways" were born long before human laws and were
enforced more rigidly than the statutes of a later age. Slowly men
embodied their "taboos," their incantations, their habits and customs
into religions and statutes. A law was only a codification of a habit or
custom that long ago was a part of the life of a people. The legislator
never really makes the law; he simply writes in the books what has
already become the rule of action by force of custom or opinion, or at
least what he thinks has become a law.

One class of men has always been anxious to keep step with the crowd.
The way is easier and the rewards more certain. Another class has been
skeptical and resentful of the crowd. These men have refused to follow
down the beaten path; they strayed into the wilderness seeking new and
better ways. Sometimes others have followed and a shorter path was made.
Often they have perished because they left the herd. In the sight of the
organized unit and the society of the time and place, the man who kept
the path did right. The man who tried to make a new path and left the
herd did wrong. In its last analysis, the criminal is the one who leaves
the pack. He may lag behind or go in front, he may travel to the right
or to the left, he may be better or worse, but his fate is the same.

The beaten path, however formed or however unscientific, has some right
to exist. On the whole it has tended to preserve life, and it is the way
of least resistance for the human race. On the other hand it is not the
best,