Moral essays. With an English translation by J.W. Basore

ON MERCY, I. XXI. 4-xxii. 3the vanquished nothing that was worthy of thevictor. To his fellow-countrymen, to the obscure,and to the lowly he should show the greater moderation,as he has the less to gain by crushing them.Some men we should be glad to spare, on some weshould scorn to be avenged, and we should recoilfrom them as from the tiny insects which defile thehand that crushes them ; but in the case of thosewhose names ^\ill be upon *he hps of the community,whether they are spared or punished, the opportunityfor a notable clemency should be made use of.Let us pass now to the injuries done to others, inthe punishment of which these three aims, which thelaw has had in \iew, should be kept in \iew also bythe prince : either to reform the man that is punished,or by punishing him to make the rest better, or byremo\ing bad men to let the rest live in greatersecurity. You Avill more easily reform the culpritsthemselves by the hghter form of punishment ; forhe will hve more guardedly who has something leftto lose. No one is sparing of a ruined reputation ;it brings a sort of exemption from punishment tohave no room left for punishment. The morals ofthe state, moreover, are better mended by thesparing use of punitive measures ; for sin becomesfamiliar from the multitude of those who sin, andthe official stigma is less weighty if its force isweakened by the very number that it condemns, andseverity, which provides the best corrective, loses itspotency by repeated application. Good morals areestabUshed in the state and vice is wiped out if aprince is patient v\ith vice, not as if he approved ofit, but as if unvvilhngly and vvith great pain hehad resort to chastisement. The very mercifulness419