PHI LOS 0 P H Y . - Classic Works of Apologetics Online

Vf' G'ri1llts lind PunZSiJnlents. 409
tions, as mig'bt preserve them, unless. urged by ex ..
treme want; from re13psing into their former crimes.
~1ut this is an experiment that from its nature cannot
be repeated often.
Of the reforming punishments which have not yet \
been tried, none promises so much success as that o~
solitary imprisonment, or the confinement of crimi.
nals in separate apartments. 1'his improvement
augm~nt~ the terror of .the p~mi~hment; s.ecludesf
the crllmnal from the SOcIety 9t hIS fellow prIsoners,'
in which society the worse are sure to corrupt the;
better; weans him from the kllowledge of his com.
panions, and f-rom the love of that turbulent, precarious
life, in which his vices haq, engaged him; is)
calculated to raise up in him reflections on the fo11y
of his clloice, and to dispose .his mind to such bitter
and continued penitence, as may produce a lasting al ..
teration in the principles of llis conduct .
. As aver'sion to labour is the cause, from which half
of the vices of 10\1/ life deduce their origin and con. ,
tinuance, punishments .ought to be contrived with a ;
view to the conqueriIlg of this disposition. '1'\,\700p..
posite expedients h:a\Te been reconlmended for this
.purpose; the one solitary confinement, with hard la~
bour; the other solitary confinement, with nothinQ'{
to do. Both expedients seek the same end-to re':\
concile the idle to a life of ind ustry. 1~lle former'
;hopes to effect t11is by making labour habitual; the )
:latter by nlaking idleness iIlsupportable: and the .
preference of one method to the other depends upon.
rhe question, whether a man is more likely to betake
11imself, of hi~ own accord, to work, WilO has been'i