Page:Essay on Crimes and Punishments (1775).djvu/187

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CRIMES AND PUNISHMENTS.
175

This chiefly consists in presenting to the mind a small number of select objects; in substituting the originals for the copies, both of physical and moral phænomena; in leading the pupil to virtue by the easy road of sentiment, and in withholding him from evil by the infallible power of necessary inconveniences, rather than by command, which only obtains a counterfeit and momentary obedience.


CHAPTER XLVI.

Of Pardons.

AS punishments become more mild, clemency and pardon are less necessary. Happy the nation in which they will be considered as dangerous! Clemency, which has often been deemed a sufficient substitute for every other virtue in sovereigns, should be excluded in a perfect legislation, where punishments are mild, and the proceedings in criminal cases regular and expeditious. This truth will seem cruel to

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