he act may
be--say the killing of his own father or child--if he commits the deed
with the full conviction that he is doing right, he cannot be blamed or
punished for committing that awful crime.

The principle then is clear that an insane man is not to be held
responsible to God or man for his insane acts. For the root and reason
of our responsibility for an act lies in the fact that we do the deed of
our own free choice; knowing its moral nature, being masters of our own
free will, so that, if we do one act in preference to another, we
wilfully take upon ourselves the consequences of this preference as far
as we can know or suspect them.

If we do what we are firmly convinced is right, just, worthy of a man,
we deserve praise; if we do what we are convinced or suspect is wrong,
unjust, unworthy of a man, we deserve blame and punishment. But an
insane man may do the most unjust act, and yet feel invincibly convinced
that it is just; he cannot then be held responsible for doing it,
because the root of responsibility is then wanting.

I do not, however, maintain that one who is insane on any one point is
thereby made irresponsible for all his actions. If he does what he
thinks to be wrong, he acts against the dictates of his conscience, he
deserves punishment from God; and if he violates a just law of the land,
and it can be proved that his deed proceeded from a bad will, he may be
punished by the civil courts as well, even though he is insane on other
points. For instance, if a young man were to have a crazy notion that
his father disliked him, that he is often in various ways unjust to him,
and if, in consequence of this insane conviction, he were to attempt his
father's life, he should be punished for the criminal act; because, even
according to the way he views the matter, he could not be justified in
killing his father for such a reason. It were different if he insanely
imagined that his father was in the act of killing him, and that he
could not escape death but by killing his father first; for then he
could plead the right of self-defence against an unjust aggressor, as he
foolishly imagines his father to be.

The conclusion then from all this explanation is that an insane man
should not be held responsible for a deed which he insanely thinks to be
right; but he is responsible for all his other acts.

In our next lecture we shall consider more fully the treatment of the
insane by the civil and criminal tribun