Whatever a soul needs, that it receives; and
it receives nothing that is vindictive or harsh. The ideas of punishment
on earth are hopelessly confused; we do not know whether we are
revenging ourselves for wrongs done to us, or safeguarding society, or
deterring would-be offenders, or trying to amend and uplift the
criminal. We end, as a rule, by making every one concerned, whether
punisher or punished, worse. We encourage each other in vindictiveness
and hypocrisy, we cow and brutalise the transgressor. We rescue no one,
we amend nothing. And yet we cannot read the clear signs of all this.
The milder our methods of punishment become, the less crime is there to
punish. But instead of being at once kind and severe, which is perfectly
possible, we are both cruel and sentimental. Now, there is no such thing
as sentiment here, just as there is no cruelty. There is emotion in full
measure, and severity in full measure; no one is either pettishly
frightened or mildly forgiven; and the joy that awaits us is all the
more worth having, because it cannot be rashly enjoyed or reached by any
short cuts; but do not forget, in what you now see, that the end is
joy.
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