r if a robber sees that his
danger is the same if he is convicted of theft as if he were guilty of
murder, this will naturally incite him to kill the person whom otherwise
he would only have robbed; since, if the punishment is the same, there is
more security, and less danger of discovery, when he that can best make
it is put out of the way; so that terrifying thieves too much provokes
them to cruelty.

"But as to the question, 'What more convenient way of punishment can be
found?' I think it much easier to find out that than to invent anything
that is worse; why should we doubt but the way that was so long in use
among the old Romans, who understood so well the arts of government, was
very proper for their punishment? They condemned such as they found
guilty of great crimes to work their whole lives in quarries, or to dig
in mines with chains about them. But the method that I liked best was
that which I observed in my travels in Persia, among the Polylerits, who
are a considerable and well-governed people: they pay a yearly tribute to
the King of Persia, but in all other respects they are a free nation, and
governed by their own laws: they lie far from the sea, and are environed
with hills; and, being contented with the productions of their own
country, which is very fruitful, they have little commerce with any other
nation; and as they, according to the genius of their country, have no
inclination to enlarge their borders, so their mountains and the pension
they pay to the Persian, secure them from all invasions. Thus they have
no wars among them; they live rather conveniently than with splendour,
and may be rather called a happy nation than either eminent or famous;
for I do not think that they are known, so much as by name, to any but
their next neighbours. Those that are found guilty of theft among them
are bound to make restitution to the owner, and not, as it is in other
places, to the prince, for they reckon that the prince has no more right
to the stolen goods than the thief; but if that which was stolen is no
more in being, then the goods of the thieves are estimated, and
restitution being made out of them, the remainder is given to their wives
and children; and they themselves are condemned to serve in the public
works, but are neither imprisoned nor chained, unless there happens to be
some extraordinary circumstance in their crimes. They go about loose and
free, working for the public: if they are idle o