Lost wretch, a horrible device enthroned

On proud temptations, till the victim groaned
Under the steel his hand had dared to draw.
But O, restrain compassion, if its course,
As oft befalls, prevent or turn aside

Judgments and aims and acts whose higher source
Is sympathy with the unforewarned, who died 1
Blameless-with them that shuddered o'er his grave,
And all who from the law firm safety crave.

The stern word

THE ROman Consul doomed his sons to die
Who had betrayed their country.
Afforded (may it through all time afford)
A theme for praise and admiration high.
Upon the surface of humanity

He rested not; its depths his mind explored;
He felt; but his parental bosom's lord
Was Duty,-Duty calmed his agony.

And some, we know, when they by wilful act
A single human life have wrongly taken,
Pass sentence on themselves, confess the fact,
And, to atone for it, with soul unshaken.
Kneel at the feet of Justice, and, for faith
Broken with all mankind, solicit death.

1

1840.

that died

1838.

*

"In the third and fourth sonnets the reader is prepared to regard as low and effeminate the views which would estimate life and death as the most important of all sublunary conditions." (Sir H. Taylor.)-ED. + Lucius Junius Brutus, who condemned his took in the conspiracy to restore the Tarquins.

sons to die for the part they

(See Livy, Book II.)—ED.

IV.

Is Death, when evil against good has fought
With such fell mastery that a man may dare
By deeds the blackest purpose to lay bare-
Is Death, for one to that condition brought,
For him, or any one, the thing that ought
To be most dreaded? Lawgivers, beware,
Lest, capital pains remitting till ye spare
The murderer, ye, by sanction to that thought
Seemingly given, debase the general mind;
Tempt the vague will tried standards to disown,
Nor only palpable restraints unbind,
But upon Honour's head disturb the crown,
Whose absolute rule permits not to withstand
In the weak love of life his least command.

V.

NOT to the object specially designed,
Howe'er momentous in itself it be,
Good to promote or curb depravity,

Is the wise Legislator's view confined.

His Spirit, when most severe, is oft most kind;

As all Authority in earth depends

On Love and Fear, their several powers he blends,

Copying with awe the one Paternal mind.

Uncaught by processes in show humane,

He feels how far the act would derogate

From even the humblest functions of the State;

If she, self-shorn of Majesty, ordain

That never more shall hang upon her breath

The last alternative of Life or Death.

96 BEFORE THE WORLD HAD PASSED HER TIME OF YOUTH.

VI.*

YE brood of conscience- Spectres! that frequent
The bad Man's restless walk, and haunt his bed-

Fiends in your aspect, yet beneficent

In act, as hovering Angels when they spread
Their wings to guard the unconscious Innocent-
Slow be the Statutes of the land to share

A laxity that could not but impair

Your power to punish crime, and so prevent.
And ye, Beliefs! coiled serpent-like about
The adage on all tongues, "Murder will out,"
How shall your ancient warnings work for good
In the full might they hitherto have shown,
If for deliberate shedder of man's blood
Survive not Judgment that requires his own?

*

VII.

BEFORE the world had passed her time of youth
While polity and discipline were weak,

The precept eye for eye, and tooth for tooth,
Came forth a light, though but as of day-break,
Strong as could then be borne. A Master meek
Proscribed the spirit fostered by that rule,

Patience his law, long-suffering his school,

And love the end, which all through peace must seek.

But lamentably do they err who strain

His mandates, given rash impulse to controul

"The sixth sonnet adverts to the effects of the law in preventing the

crime of murder, not merely by fear, but by horror, by investing the crime itself with the colouring of dark and terrible imaginations." (Sir H Taylor.)—ED.

And keep vindictive thirstings from the soul,
So far that, if consistent in their scheme,
They must forbid the State to inflict a pain,
Making of social order a mere dream.

VIII.*

FIT retribution, by the moral code
Determined, lies beyond the State's embrace,
Yet, as she may, for each peculiar case
She plants well-measured terrors in the road
Of wrongful acts. Downward it is and broad,
And, the main fear once doomed to banishment,
Far oftener then, bad ushering worse event,
Blood would be spilt that in his dark abode
Crime might lie better hid. And, should the change
Take from the horror due to a foul deed,

Pursuit and evidence so far must fail,

And, guilt escaping, passion then might plead

In angry spirits for her old free range,

And the "wild justice of revenge" prevail.

IX.

THOUGH to give timely warning and deter
Is one great aim of penalty, extend
Thy mental vision further and ascend
Far higher, else full surely shalt thou err.1
What is a State?

The wise behold in her

1

1845.

thou shalt err.

1842.

* "In the eighth sonnet the doctrine which would strive to measure out the punishments awarded by the law in proportion to the degrees of moral turpitude is disavowed." (Sir H. Taylor.)—ED.

98 AH, THINK HOW ONE COMPELLED FOR LIFE TO ABIDE.

A creature born of time, that keeps one eye
Fixed on the statutes of Eternity,

To which her judgments reverently defer.

Speaking through Law's dispassionate voice, the State
Endues her conscience with external life

And being, to preclude or quell the strife

Of individual will, to elevate

The grovelling mind, the erring to recal,

And fortify the moral sense of all.

X.

OUR bodily life, some plead, that life the shrine.
Of an immortal spirit, is a gift

So sacred, so informed with light divine,

That no tribunal, though most wise to sift
Deed and intent, should turn the Being adrift
Into that world where penitential tear

May not avail, nor prayer have for God's ear
A voice that world whose veil no hand can lift
For earthly sight. "Eternity and Time,"
They urge, "have interwoven claims and rights
Not to be jeopardised through foulest crime:
The sentence rule by mercy's heaven-born lights.”
Even so but measuring not by finite sense
Infinite Power, perfect Intelligence.

XI.*

Aн, think how one compelled for life to abide
Locked in a dungeon needs must eat the heart

"In the eleventh and twelfth sonnets the alternatives of secondary punishment,—solitary imprisonment, and transportation,—are adverte to." (Sir H. Taylor.)-ED.