| Title: | Punish, chastise |
| Original Title: | Punir, châtier |
| Volume and Page: | Vol. 13 (1765), p. 573 |
| Author: | Unknown |
| Translator: | Adrienne Jacaruso [University of Michigan] |
| Subject terms: |
Grammar
Synonyms
|
| Original Version (ARTFL): | Link |
| Rights/Permissions: |
This text is protected by copyright and may be linked to without seeking permission. Please see http://quod.lib.umich.edu/d/did/terms.html for information on reproduction. |
| URL: | http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.did2222.0002.884 |
| Citation (MLA): | "Punish, chastise." The Encyclopedia of Diderot & d'Alembert Collaborative Translation Project. Translated by Adrienne Jacaruso. Ann Arbor: Michigan Publishing, University of Michigan Library, 2013. Web. [fill in today's date in the form 18 Apr. 2009 and remove square brackets]. <http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.did2222.0002.884>. Trans. of "Punir, châtier," Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, vol. 13. Paris, 1765. |
| Citation (Chicago): | "Punish, chastise." The Encyclopedia of Diderot & d'Alembert Collaborative Translation Project. Translated by Adrienne Jacaruso. Ann Arbor: Michigan Publishing, University of Michigan Library, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.did2222.0002.884 (accessed [fill in today's date in the form April 18, 2009 and remove square brackets]). Originally published as "Punir, châtier," Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, 13:573 (Paris, 1765). |
Punish, Chastise. One chastises he who has committed a fault, with a view to preventing him from falling back into it; one wants to make him better. One punishes he who has committed a crime, to make him atone; one wants him to serve as an example
Parents chastise their children; judges punish criminals. Chastisement signifies a correction, but punishment signifies only a mortification of the one punished. It is necessary, in order to correct, that the chastisement is not nor does it appear to be the effect of bad temper. The laws should make punishment proportional to the error; he who steals should not be punished as a murderer.
The word chastise carries with it the idea of subordination, that marks authority, or the superiority of someone who chastises over he who is chastised, but the word punish does not include at all this idea in its meaning; one is not always punished by ones superiors; one is sometimes punished by one's equals, by oneself, by one's inferiors, by the outcome of things, by fate, or by the consequences of the crime one has committed.
Parents moved by tenderness to avoid chastising their children, are often punished for their kindness by the ingratitude and the poor manners of their own children.
A good master does not chastise his student for all of his errors; because chastisements which are too frequent contribute less to correcting a vice, than to provoking disgust for virtue. The preservation of society being the motive for the punishment of crimes, worldly justice should punish only those who disturb society or aim at its ruin.
It is the duty of the men of the cloth to work toward the extirpation of vice by the path of exhortation and of example, but it is not for them to chastise , much less to punish the sinner. Girard [1]
Chastise and punish have nearly the same meaning in the figurative; but chastise is also to correct , to polish a work ; the style of LaFontaine is not always chastised , but his negligence is agreeable.
Note
1. Gabriel Girard, La Justesse de la langue françoise ou les Différentes significations des mots qui passent pour synonimes (Paris: Laurent d’Houry, 1718).