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nature is content.—But society has deemed it expedient to hang men, though the judge who sentences falters and chokes, and the hangman does his office with tears in his eyes,—while not a heart that beats in the presence of this sterner justice but wishes the criminal might escape unhurt. This is another kind of justice from that first spoken of—a justice founded on experience and observation—the justice of enlightened society. We have learned that it is not good to give blow for blow; we have also learned that men should be punished, although the men they grieved may afterward wish them at liberty. The social law takes no account of the peculiar resentment of the injured individual, and does not for the present punish either more or less therefor. It is as great a crime to strike a philosopher as to strike a fool. The law looks toward the injury of other men. The law punishes not for vengeance, but for protection ; not for what men have done, but for what men may do here- after. In the true spirit of social law, if henceforth there could be crime no more, but rather harmony and peace, all those offenders now incarcerated should go free at once. This is the justice of reason.

The justice of reason is the justice of policy. It is practical, rather than metaphysical. It takes no immediate cognizance of the origin of an evil nature, whether the will be of God or man; for its punishment is to the abatement of the nuisance, and looks no further. It punishes for the good of all men, the criminal included, if possible; but if he be deemed incorrigible, (which is a debatable presumption,) the law slays him without regard either to the origin of

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