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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
The foregoing considerations give me the right to affirm that the one true measure of criminality is the damage done to the nation and that, therefore, those who believe that the true measure of criminality lies in the malefactor's intention are mistaken. A person's intention is contingent on the impression caused by the objects at the time and the preceding disposition of the mind, and these vary from man to man and in the same man according to the very swift succession of ideas, emotions and circumstances. It would, therefore, be necessary to frame not only a special code of laws for each citizen, but also a new law for each particular crime. Sometimes men do the greatest wrongs to society with the best of intentions; and at other times they do it the greatest service with the worst will.
Others measure the seriousness of crimes more by the rank of the injured party than by their significance for the public good. If this were the true measure of criminality, an irreverence towards the divine Being ought to be more harshly punished than the murder of a monarch, the superiority of His nature off-setting infinitely the difference in the offence.
Lastly, some men have thought that the gravity of the sin plays a role in measuring the degree of criminality of an action. The fallaciousness of this opinion will be obvious to an impartial student of the true relations among men, and between God and man.
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