the verdicts we give, and the worst principles of our nature may be at the bottom of our pretended zeal for morality; but if we only mean to inquire, why they who are well difpofed to mankind, apprehend, in every inftance, certain rights pertaining to their fellow-creatures, and why they applaud the confideration that is paid to those rights, we cannot perhaps affign a better reason, than that the perfon who applauds, is well difpofed to the welfare of the parties to whom his applaufes refer. When we confider, that the reality of any amicable propenfity in the human mind has been fre. quently contefted; when we recollect the prevalence of interested competitions, with their attendant paffions of jealoufy, envy, and malace; it may feem ftrange to alledge, that love and compaffion are the most powerful principles in the human breaft: but they are deftined, on many occafions, to urge with the most irrefiftible vshemence; and if the defire of felfprefervation be more conftant, and more uniform, thefe are a more plentiful fource of enthufiafm, fatisfaction, and joy. With a power, not inferior to that of refentment and rage, they hurry the mind into every facrifice of intereft, and bear it undifmayed through every hardship and danger. The difpofition on which friendfhip is grafted, glows with fatisfaction, in the hours of tranquillity, and is pleafant, not only in its triumphs, but even in its forrows. It throws a grace on the external air, and, by its expreffion on the countenance, compenfates for the want of beauty, or gives a charm which no complexion of features can equal. From this fcource the fcenes of human life derive their principal felicity; and their imitations in poetry, their principal ornament. Defcriptions of nature, even reprefentations of a vigorous conduct, and a manly courage, do not engage the heart, if they be not mixed with the exhibition of generous fentiments, and the pathetic, which is found to arife in the ftruggles, the triumphs, or the misfortunes of a tender affection. The death of Polites, in the Eneid, is not more affecting than that of many others who perished in the ruins of Troy? but the aged Priam was prefent when this laft of his fons was flain; and the agonies of grief and forrow force the parent from his retreat, to fall by the hand that fhed the blood of his child. The pathetic of Homer confifts in exhibiting the force of affections, not in exciting mere terror and pity; paffions he has never perhaps, in any inftance, attempted to raise. After all, it must be confeffed, that if a principle of affection to mankind, be the bafis of our moral approbation and diflike, we fometimes proceed in diftributing applaufe or cenfure, without precifely attending to the degree in which our fellow-creatures are hurt or obliged; and that, befides the virtues of candour, friendship, generofity, and public fpirit, which bear an immediate reference to this principle, there are others which may feem to derive their commandation from a different fource. Temperance, prudence, fortitude, are thofe qualities likewife admired from a principle of regard regard to our fellow-creatures? Why not, fince they render men happy in themselves, and useful to others? He who is qualified to promote the welfare of mankind, is neither a fot, a fool, nor a expreffed, that temperance, prudenee, and fortitude, are neceffary to the character we love and admire? I know well why I fhould wish for them in myfelf; and why likewife I should wish for them in my friend, and in every perfon who is an object of my affection. But to what purpose feek for reafons of approbation, where qualities are fo neceffary to our happinefs, and fo great a part in the perfection of our nature? We must ceafe to esteem ourselves, and to diftinguish what is excellent, when fuch qualifications incur our neg lian: with a Commentary attributed to Monfieur de Voltaire; tranflated from the French. One vol. 8vo. coward. Can it be more clearly THE merit of the effay before US is fo generally known and allowed, that it may feem unneceffary to inform our readers, that it has gained the attention of all ranks of people in almoft every part of Europe; and that few books on any subject have ever been more generally read, or more univerfally applauded. This work was written in Italian by the Marquis Beccaria of Milan. The tranflator informs us, in his preface, that it was read at different times to a fociety of learned men in that city, at whofe defire it was published. He alfo tells us, that it paffed through fix editions in the original language, in eighteen months; that it was tranflated into French, and that the tranflation was alfo re-printed feveral times. lect. A perfon of an affectionate mind, poffeffed of a maxim, That he himself, as an individual, is no more than a part of the whole that demands his regard, has found, in that principle, a fufficient foundation for all the virtues; for a contempt of animal pleasures, that would fupplant his principal en. joyment; for an equal contempt of danger or pain, that come to ftop his purfuits of public good. "A vehement and fteady affec"tion magnifies its object, and "leffens every difficulty or danger that ftands in the way.' Afk thofe who have been in "love," fays Epictetus, "they will know that I fpeak truth." An Efay on Crimes and Punishments; tranflated from the Ita. Though the author feems to have been ftudiously careful not to give any room for offence in point of expreffion, yet the freedom he has taken with the established forms of government in Italy, made it prudent not to put his name to this book; from the fame caufe, he has fince thought proper to quit his native country, and has for a confiderable time paft made Paris the place of his abode. The commentary which is joined to this effay is attributed to Voltaire; and it feems to bear fuch evident marks of his peculiar manner, as leave little room to doubt his being the author of it. A few fpeciments of the writer's argu arguments, and of his manner of handling his fubject, will be more pleafing to our readers, than any comment we fhould make on it. In his introduction, he makes the following general reflections. "If we look into history we fhall find; that laws, which are, or ought to be, conventions between men in a ftate of freedom, have been, for the most part, the work of the paffions of a few, or the confequences of a fortuitous, or temporary neceffity; not dictated by a cool examiner of human nature, who knew how to collect, in one point, the actions of a multitude, and had this only end in view the greatest happiness of the greatest number. Happy are thofe few nations, who have not waited, till the flow fucceffion of human viciffitudes, fhould, from the extremity of evil, produce a tranfition to good; but by prudent laws, have facilitated the progrefs from one to the other! and how great are the obligations due from mankind to that philofopher, who, from the obfcurity of his clofet, had the courage to fcatter amongst the multitude the feeds of ufeful truths, fo long unfruitful! The art of printing has diffufed the knowledge of thofe philofophical truths, by which the relations between fovereigns and their fubjects, and between nations, are difcovered. By this knowledge, commerce is animated, and there has fprung up a fpirit of emulation and induftry, worthy of rational beings. Thefe are the produce of this enlightened age; but the cruelty of punishments, and the irregularity of proceedings in criminal cafes, fo principal a part of the legislation, and fo much ne. glected throughout Europe, has hardly ever been called in queftion. Errors, accumulated through many centuries, have never yet been expofed by afcending to general principles; nor has the force of acknowledged truths been ever oppofed to the unbounded licentioufnefs of ill-directed power, which has continually produced fo many authorized examples of the most unfeeling barbarity. Surely, the groans of the weak, facrificed to the cruel ignorance and indolence of the powerful; the barbarous torments lavished, and multiplied with ufelefs feverity, for crimes either not proved, or in their nature impoffible; the filth and horrors of a prifon, increased by the most cruel tormentor of the miferable, uncertainty, ought to have roufed the attention of those, whofe bufinefs is to direct the opinions of mankind. In the fecond chapter, "of the right to punish," he proceeds as follows. "Every punishment, which does not arife from abfolute neceffity, fays the great Montefquieu, is ty rannical. A propofition which may be made more general, thus: Every act of authority of one man over another, for which there is not an abfolute neceffity, is tyrannical. It is upon this, then, that the fovereign's right to punish crimes is founded; that is, upon the neceffity of defending the public liberty, entrusted to his care, from the ufurpation of individuals; and punishments are just, in proportion as the liberty, preferved by the fovereign, is facred and valuable. Let us confult the human heart, and there we shall find the foun dation of the fovereign's right to punish; for no advantage in moral policy can be lafting, which is not founded on the indelible fentiments of the heart of man. Whatever law deviates from this principle will always meet with a refiftance, which will deftroy it in the end; for the fmalleft force, continually applied, will overcome the most violent motion communicated to bodies. No man ever gave up his liberty, merely for the good of the public. Such a chimera exifts only in romances. Every individual wishes, if poffible, to be exempt from the compacts that bind the reft of mankind. The multiplication of mankind, though flow, being too great for the means, which the earth, in its natural ftate, offered to fatisfy neceffities, which every day became more numerous, obliged men to feparate again, and form new fo'cieties. These naturally oppofed the firft, and a ftate of war was transferred from individuals to nations. Thus it was neceffity, that forced men to give up a part of their liberty; it is certain then, that every individual would chufe to put into the public ftock the fmallest portion poffible; as much only as was fufficient to engage others to defend it. The aggregate of these, the smalleft portions poffible, forms the right of punishing all that extends beyond this is abuse, not justice. : Obferve, that by justice I un. derftand nothing more than that bond, which is neceffary to keep the intereft of individuals united; without which, men would return to their original state of barbarity. All punishments, which exceed the neceffity of preferving this bond, are in their nature unjust. We should be cautious how we affociate with the word juftice, an idea of any thing real, fuch as a phyfical power, or a being that actually exifts. I do not, by any means, fpeak of the juftice of God, which is of another kind, and refers immediately to rewards and punishments in a life to come. Whoever reads, with a philofophic eye, the hiftory of nations, and their laws, will generally find, that the ideas of virtue and vice, of a good or a bad citizen, change with the revolution of ages; not in proportion to the alteration of circumftances, and confequently conformable to the common good; but in proportion to the paffions and errors by which the different law-givers were fucceffively influ enced. He will frequently obferve, that the paffions and vices of one age, are the foundation of the morality of the following; that violent paffion, the offspring of fanaticifm and enthufiafm, being weakened by time, which reduces all the phenomena of the natural and moral world to an equality, become, by degrees, the prudence of the age, and an ufeful inftrument in the hands of the powerful or artful politician. Hence the uncertainty of our notions of honour and virtue; an uncertainty which will ever remain, because they change with the revolutions of time, and names furvive the things they originally fignified; they change with the boundaries of ftates, which are often the fame both in phyfical and moral geography. Pleafure and pain are the only fprings fprings of action in beings endowed with fenfibility. Even amongst the motives which incite men to acts of religion, the invifible legiflator has ordained rewards and punishments. From a partial diftribution of thefe, will arife that contradiction, fo little obferved, becaufe fo common; I mean, that of punishing by the laws, the crimes which the laws have occafioned. If an equal punishment be ordained for two crimes that injure fociety in different degrees, there is nothing to deter men from committing the greater, as often as it is attended with greater advantage. The foregoing reflections autho. rife me to affert, that crimes are only to be measured by the injury done to fociety. They err, therefore, who ima. gine that a crime is greater or lefs, according to the intention of the perfon by whom it is committed; for this will depend on the actual impreffion of objects on the fenfes, and on the previous difpofition of the mind; both which will vary in different perfons, and even in the fame perfon at different times, according to the fucceffion of ideas, paffions, and circumftanUpon that fyftem, it would be neceffary to form, not only a particular code for every individual, but a new penal law for every crime. Men, often with the best intention, do the greatest in. jury to fociety, and with the worft, do it the most effential fervices. Others have estimated crimes rather by the dignity of the perfon offended, than by their confe. quences to fociety. If this were the true ftandard, the smalleft irreverence to the divine Being ought to be punished with infinitely more feverity, than the affaffination of a monarch. In short, others have imagined, that the greatnefs of the fin fhould aggravate the crime. But the fal. lacy of this opinion will appear on the flightest confideration of the relations between man and man, and between God and man. The relations between man and man, are relations of equality. Neceffity alone hath produced, from the oppofition of private paffions and interefts, the idea of public utility, which is the foundation of human juftice. The other are relations of dependance, between an imperfect creature and his creator, the most perfect of beings, who has referved to himself the fole right of being both lawgiver, and judge; for he alone can, without injuftice, be, at the fame time, both one and the other. If he hath decreed eternal punishments for those who difobey his will, fhall an infect dare to put himself in the place of divine juf tice, or pretend to punish for the Almighty, who is himself all-fufficient; who cannot receive im. preffions of pleafure, or pain, and who alone, of all other beings, acts without being acted upon? The degree of fin depends on the malignity of the heart, which is impenetrable to finite beings. How then can the degree of fin ferve as a ftandard to determine the degree of crimes? If that were admitted, men may punifh when God pardons, and pardon when God condemns; and thus act in oppofition to the Supreme Being. We have proved, then, that crimes are to be eftimated by the injury done to fociety. This is one of thofe palpable truths, which, though |