Book Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1837 edition. Excerpt: ... sound coming from the breeze through the bending tree-tops, all seem well calculated to beget fine thoughts--daring fancies--bold and striking emotions." "You talk of taking life as if it were the crowning crime. It appears to me an error of society, by which the existence of a being, limited to a duration of years, is invested with so much importance. A few years lopped from the life of an individual is certainly no such loss, shortening, as it must, so many of his cares and troubles; and the true standard by which we should determine upon a deed, is the amount of good or evil which it may confer upon the person or persons immediately interested." "That is not the standard," was his reply, " since that would be making a reference to varying and improper tribunals to determine upon principles which should be even and immutable. To some men, from the operation of circumstances, or from their own improvidence, death would be welcome even by violence; and the feeling with which such a man would submit to the executioner, can surely afford no standard by which to determine upon the fate of others not so situated, and not having the same feeling or condition with himself. Life is a sacred something which we do not venerate enough. It is considered quite too lightly by society, and it appears to me, if we believe for a moment in the immortality of the soul and the doctrine of rewards and punishments, we have not the right, even in the case of the criminal, to doom him to a loss of it. The idea is horrible which conceives the murder of a human being, even according to the standard you suggest; for, leave the choice but a moment to the victim, and he will submit, in most cases, to the loss of all his possessions, and even of his liberty, to...