An Essay on Crimes and Punishments/Chapter XLVII
CHAPTER XLVII.
CONCLUSION.
I conclude with this reflection, that the severity of punishments ought to be in proportion to the state of the nation. Among a people hardly yet emerged from barbarity, they should be most severe, as strong impressions are required; but in proportion as the minds of men become softened by their intercourse in society, the severity of punishments should be diminished, if it be intended, that the necessary relation between the object and the sensation should be maintained.
From what I have written results the following general theorem, of considerable utility, though not conformable to custom, the common legislator of nations. That a punishment may not be an act of violence, of one, or of many against a private member of society, it should be public, immediate and necessary; the least possible in the case given; proportioned to the crime, and determined by the laws.