It will not be requisite to examine here, how far the punishments which
society inflicts upon those who offend against it, may be reasonably
carried. Reason should seem to indicate that the law ought to shew to
the necessary crimes of man, all the indulgence that is compatible with
the conservation of society. The system of fatalism, as we have seen,
does not leave crime unpunished; but it is, at least, calculated to
moderate the barbarity with which a number of nations punish the victims
to their anger. This cruelty becomes still more absurd, when experience
has shewn its inutility: the habit of witnessing ferocious punishments
familiarizes criminals with the idea. If it be true that society
possesses the right of taking away the life of its members--if it be
really a fact, that the death of a criminal, thenceforth useless, can be
advantageous for society, which it will be necessary to examine,
humanity, at least, exacts that this death should not be accompanied
with useless tortures; with which laws, perhaps in this instance too
rigorous, frequently seem to delight in overwhelming their victim. This
cruelty seems to defeat its own end, it only serves to make the culprit,
who is immolated to the public vengeance, suffer without any advantage
to society; it moves the compassion of the spectator, interests him in
favor of the miserable offender who groans under its weight; it
impresses nothing upon the wicked, but the sight of those cruelties
destined for himself; which but too frequently renders him more
ferocious, more cruel, more the enemy of his associates: if the example
of death was less frequent, even without being accompanied with
tortures, it would be more efficacious. If experience was consulted, it
would be found that the greater number of criminals only look upon death
as a _bad quarter of an hour_. It is an unquestionable fact, that a
thief seeing one of his comrades, display a want of firmness under the
punishment, said to him: _"Is not this what I have often told you, that