I reject sentiment as an absolute Judge, but under the control of reason it may not be a useless monitor. When a penal dispensation is revolting to the public feeling, this is not of itself a sufficient reason for rejecting it, but it is a reason for subjecting it to a rigorous scrutiny. If it deserves the antipathy it excites, the causes of that antipathy may be easily detected. We shall find that the punishment in question is mis-seated or superfluous, or disproportionate to the offence, or that it has a tendency to produce more mischief than it prevents. By this means we arrive at the seat of the error.
Sentiment excites to reflection, and reflection detects the impropriety of the law.
The species of punishment that command the largest share of public approbation are such as are analogous to the offence. I know not. The delinquent suffers the same evil he has caused. Fortunately, the same bent of the imagination that renders this mode of punishment popular, renders it at the same time appropriate. The analogy that presents itself to the people, presents itself, at the moment of temptation, to the delinquent, and renders it a peculiar object of dread.