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rable and engaging, or the moft odious and contemptible, denomi

nations.

It is pleafant to find men, who, in their fpeculations, deny the reality of moral diftinctions, forget in detail the general pofitions they maintain, and give loofe to ridicule, indignation, and fcorn, as if any of these fentiments could have place, were the actions of men indifferent; and with acri. mony pretend to detect the fraud by which moral reftraints have been impofed, as if to cenfure a fraud were not already to take a part on the fide of morality.

Can we explain the principles upon which mankind adjudge the preference of characters, and upon which they indulge fuch vehement emotions of admiration or contempt? If it be admitted that we cannot, are the facts lefs true? or muft we fufpend the movements of the heart until they who are employed in framing fyftems of fci ence have difcovered the principle from which those movements proceed? If a finger burn, we care not for information on the properties of fire: if the heart be torn, or the mind overjoyed, we have not leifure for fpeculations on the fubject of moral fenfibility.

miferation; if calamities be mea. fured by the numbers and the qualities of men they involve; and if every fuffering of a fellow-creature draws a crowd of attentive fpectators; if even in the cafe of thofe to whom we do not habitually with any pofitive good, we are till a verfe to be the inftruments of harm; it should feem, that in thefe various appearances of an amicable difpofition, the foundations of a moral apprehenfion are fufficiently laid, and the fenfe of a right which we maintain for ourfelves, is, by a movement of humanity and candour, extended to our fellow-creatures.

What is it that prompts the tongue when we cenfure an act of cruelty or oppreffion? What is it that conftitutes our restraint from offences that tend to diftrefs our fellow-creatures? It is probably, in both cafes, a particular application of that principle, which, in prefence of the forrowful, fends forth the tear of compaffion; and a combination of all thofe fentiments, which constitute a benevolent difpofition; and if not a refolution to do good, at least an averfion to be the inftrument of harm.

It may be difficult, however, to enumerate the motives of all the If it be true, that men are united cenfures and commendations which by inftinct, that they act in fo- are applied to the actions of men. ciety from affections of kindnefs Even while we moralize, every dif and friendship; if it be true, that pofition of the human mind may even prior to acquaintance and ha- have its thare in forming the judg-, bitude, men, as fuch, are comment, and in prompting the tongue. monly to one another objects of As jealoufy is often the most watchattention, and fome degree of re-ful guardian of chastity, fo malice gard; that while their profperity is often the quickest to fpy the is beheld with indifference, their failings of our heighbour. Envy, afflictions are confidered with com- affectation, and vanity, may dictate

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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 thofe rights, we cannot perhaps affign a better reafon, than that the perfon who applauds, is well difpofed to the welfare of the parties to whom his applaufes refer.

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When we confider, that the reality of any amicable propenfity in the human mind has been frequently contefted; when we recollect the prevalence of interefted competitions, with their attendant paffions of jealoufy, envy, and malace; it may feem ftrange to alledge, that love and compaflion are the most powerful principles in the human breaft: but they are destined, on many occafions, to urge with the most irrefiftible vehemence, 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 in to every facrifice of intereft, and bear it undifmayed through every hardihip 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

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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 struggles, 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 last of his fons was flain; and the agonies of grief and forrow force the parent from his retreat, to fall by the hand that shed 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 raife.

After all, it must be confeffed, that if a principle of affection to mankind, be the bafis of our moral approbation and dislike, 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

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regard to our fellow-creatures ? Why not, fince they render men happy in themselves, and ufeful to others? He who is qualified to promote the welfare of mankind, fot, a fool,

lian; with a Commentary attri buted to Monfieur de Voltaire; tranflated from the French, One vol. 8vo.

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expreffed, that temperance, prudence, and fortitude, are neceffary to the character we love and admire? I know well why I fhould with for them in myfelf; and why likewife I fhould 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 ourfelves, and to diftinguish what is excellent, when fuch qualifications incur our negleft.

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 pleafures, that would fupplant his principal enjoyment for an equal contempt of danger or pain, that come to ftop his purfuits of public good. "A vehement and steady affec"tion magnifies its object, and leffens every difficulty or danger that ftands in the way." Ak thofe who have been in lore," fays Epictetus, " they "will know that I fpeak truth."

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known and allowed, that it may feem unacceflary 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 hare 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 dif ferent 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 eigh teen months; that it was tranflated into French, and that the transation was alfo re-printed feveral times.

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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 eftablished 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 palt made Paris the place of bis 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 ments; tranflated from the Ita. A few speciments of the writer's {nofashiya! satgu

An Elay on Crimes and Punifh

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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.

Who If we look into hiftory we shall find, that laws, which are, or ought to be, conventions between men in a state of freedom, have been, for the most part, the work of the paffions of a few, or the confequences of a fortuitou, 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 num ber. 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 philoTopher, who, from the obfcurity of his elofet, had the courage to fcatter amongst the multitude the feeds of useful truths, fo long unfruitful!

The art of printing has diffufed the knowledge of those philofophical truths, by which the rela-tions 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. These are the produce of this enlightened age; but the cruelty of punishments, and the irregularity of proceedings in criminal cafes, fo principal à 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 moft unfeeling barbarity. Surely, the groans of the weak, facrificed to the cruel ignorance and indolence of the powerful; the barbarous torments lavifhed, and multiplied with ufelefs feverity, far crimes either not proved, or in their nature impoffible; the filth and horrors of a prifon, increafed by the most cruel tormentor of the miferable, uncertainty, ought to have roufed the attention of thofe, 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 indivi duals; and punishments are juft, 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 destroy it in the end; for the fmalleft force, continually applied, will overcome the moft violent motion communicated to bodies.

No man ever gave up his liberty, merely for the good of the public. Such a chimera exifts on ly in romances. Every individual wifhes, 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. Thefe naturally opposed the firft, and a state of war was transferred from individuals to nations.

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All punishments, which exceed the neceffity of preferving this bond, are in their nature unjukt. We fhould be cautious how we af. fociate with the word juftice, an idea of any thing real, fuch as a phyfical power or a being that actually exifts. Ido 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 history 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 inflo. 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 enthafiafm, being Thus it was neceffity, that weakened by time, which reduces forced men to give up a part of all the phenomena of the natural their liberty; it is certain then, and moral world to an equality, that every individual would chufe become, by degrees, the prudence to put into the public ftock the of the age, and an ofeful intrufmalleft portion poffible; as much ment in the hands of the powerful only as was fufficient to engage or artful politician. Hence the others to defend it. The aggregate uncertainty of our notions of hoof thefe, the fmalleft portions pof- nour and virtue'; an uncertainty fible, forms the right of punifh-which will ever remain, because ing all that extends beyond this is abuse, not justice,

Obferve, that by juftice I underftand nothing more than that bond, which is neceffary to keep the intereft of individuals united; without which, men would return to their original ftate of barbarity.

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.

Pleafore and pain are the only fprings

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