“… I read standard works on crime and criminals. They all confirmed my opinion. Degeneracy, disease⁠—never the deliberate embracing of a career by a farseeing man. Then I considered. Supposing my utmost ambitions were realized⁠—that I was called to the bar, and rose to the height of my profession? That I entered politics⁠—say, even, that I became Prime Minister of England? What then? Was that power? Hampered at every turn by my colleagues, fettered by the democratic system of which I should be the mere figurehead! No⁠—the power I dreamed of was absolute! An autocrat! A dictator! And such power could only be obtained by working outside the law. To play on the weaknesses of human nature, then on the weaknesses of nations⁠—to get together and control a vast organization, and finally to overthrow the existing order, and rule! The thought intoxicated me.⁠ ⁠…