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Show 24 LIBERTY AND SLAVERY. offender must rest upon the one or the other of two grounds: either upon the ground that the offender deserves punishment, or that his punishment is necessary to prevent similar offences. Now, upon neither of these grounds has any man, even in a state of nature, the right to punish an offence committed against himself. First, he has no right to punish such an offence on the ground that it deserves punishment. No man has, or ever had, the right to wield the awful attribute of retributive justice; that is, to inflict so much pain for so much guilt or moral turpitude. This is the prerogative of God alone. To his eye, all secrets are known, and all degrees of guilt perfectly apparent; and to him alone belongs the vengeance which is due for moral ill-desert. His law extends over the state of nature as well as over the state of civil society, and calls all men to account for their evil deeds. It is evident that, in so far as the intrinsic demerit of actions is concerned, it makes no difference whether they be punished here or hereafter. And besides, if the individual had possessed such a right in a state of n>ttnre, he has not transferred it to society; for society nei tber has nor claims any NATURE OF CIVIL LI.BE RTY. 25 •uch right. Blackstone but utters the voice of the law when he says: "The end or final cause of human punishment is not by way of atonement or expiation, for that must be left to the just determination of the supreme Being, but as a precaution against future offences of the same kind." The exercise of retributive justice belongs exclusively to the infallible Ruler of the world, and not to frail, erring man, who himself so greatly stands in need of mercy. Hence, the right to punish a transgressor on the ground that such punishment is deserved, has not been transferred from the individual to civil society: first, because he had no such natural right to transfer; and, secondly, because society possesses no such right. In the second place, if we consider the other ground of punishment, it will likewise appear that the right to punish never belonged to the individual, and consequently could not have been transferred by him to society. For, by the law of nature, the individual has no right to punish ,11n oftimce against himself in order to prevent future offences of ilte same kind. If the object of human punishment be, aa indeed it is, to prevent the commission of crime, by holding np examples of terror to e,~J-doers, then if I• / |