the public peace is hereby removed out of the world, and others are terrified by his fate from imitating his example.
Such is the account commonly given of our approbation of the punishment of in|justice. And so far this account is un|doubtedly true that we frequently have oc|casion to confirm our natural sense of the propriety and fitness of punishment by re|flecting how necessary it is for preserving the order of society. When the guilty is about to suffer that just retaliation, which the natural indignation of mankind tells them is due to his crimes; when the inso|lence of his injustice is broken and hum|bled by the terror of his approaching pu|nishment; when he ceases to be an object of fear, with the generous and humane he begins to be an object of pity. The thought of what he is about to suffer extinguishes their resentment for the sufferings of others to which he has given occasion. They are disposed to pardon and forgive him, and to save him from that punishment which in all their cool hours they had considered as the retribution due to such crimes. Here, therefore, they have occasion to call to their assistance the consideration of the
