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We think the chief difficulty, which has made conclusions unsatisfactory to a large and increasing class of men, is a misunderstanding of justice, and a confusion of the notions of divine and human justice—of right which is right by law, and right wherein both law and its violation find their expediency.

The original of the justice of nature is revenge—an instinct of all flesh, which finds its expression in the saying, "an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth"—an instinct which prompts and defends us in doing to another as he does to us, redeeming our pride from bondage to superior force. "Served him right" is the hearty response to an even retaliation.—The cordiality of this retaliation is founded mainly on the superior ability of the recipient to endure it, and react under it. The spleen, hardihood and strength of the aggressor graduate the rate of interest on the principal of injury he gives. When this hardihood gives way, and the beaten aggressor is a sufferer in his turn, then it becomes cruelty and persecution to beat him more. All giants and monsters are fair game: they are to be freely tortured, until their extraordinary assurance falls—until the crisis of their mortal anguish bespeak the level of human sympathy. A fair fight, where either party stands up to his punishment, may be witnessed with some degree of pleasure; but a single blow given to a weak and retiring man rouses the wrath of all beholders; and he that strikes a fallen foe is dubbed a coward and a brute by all honorable men. When the courage and the fortitude are gone, or when remorse and repentance seize upon the soul of the criminal, the justice of