He is thrown a poisoner, a parricide, a blasphemer. He seizes him, stretches him out, ties him to a horizontal cross, and raises his arms. Then there is a horrible silence; there is no sound but the crack of bones breaking under the crossbar and the howls of the victim. He unties him and carries him to a wheel. The broken limbs are bound to the spokes, the head hangs down, the hair stands on end, and the mouth gaping like a furnace occasionally emits a few bloody words begging for death. He has finished; his heart is pounding, but it is with joy. He congratulates himself. He says in his heart, No one can break men on the wheel better than I. He steps down; he holds out his blood-stained hand, and justice throws him form afar a few gold coins, which he carries away through a double row of men drawing back in horror. He sits down to table and eats; the he goes to bed and sleeps. Awakening on the morrow, he thinks of something quite different from what he did the day before. Is this a man? Yes. God receives him in his shrines and allows him to pray. He is not a criminal and yet no tongue would content to say, for example, that he is virtuous, that he is an honest man, that he is admirable etc. No moral praise seems appropriate for him, since this supposes relationships with human beings and he has none. And yet all greatness, all power, all subordination rests on the executioner; he is both the horror and the bond of human association. Remove this incomprehensible agent from the world, and in a moment order gives way to chaos, thrones fall, and society disappears. God, who is the author of sovereignty, is therefore the author of punishment. He has suspended our earth on these two poles; For the pillars of the earth are the Lords, and he has set the world upon them. There is then in the temporal sphere a divine and visible law for the punishment of the crime. This law, as stable as the society it upholds, has been executed invariably since the beginning of time. Evil exists on the earth and acts constantly, and by necessary consequence it must constantly be repressed by punishment. All over the globe what we see is the constant action of all governments stopping or punishing criminal outrages. The sword of justice has no sheath; it must always be threatening or striking. For whom are there knouts, gallows, wheels or stakes? For criminals. Obviously. Judicial errors are exceptions that do not upset the rule (Joseph De Maistre, The Count from The First Dialogue)
Posted on: Sat, 19 Jul 2014 18:49:38 +0000
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