if he return
contrary to law, let the guardians of the law punish him with death; and
let them hand over his property, if he have any, to him who is next
of kin to the sufferer. And if he be wrecked, and driven on the coast
against his will, he shall take up his abode on the seashore, wetting
his feet in the sea, and watching for an opportunity of sailing; but
if he be brought by land, and is not his own master, let the magistrate
whom he first comes across in the city, release him and send him
unharmed over the border.

If any one slays a freeman with his own hand, and the deed be done
in passion, in the case of such actions we must begin by making a
distinction. For a deed is done from passion either when men suddenly,
and without intention to kill, cause the death of another by blows and
the like on a momentary impulse, and are sorry for the deed immediately
afterwards; or again, when after having been insulted in deed or word,
men pursue revenge, and kill a person intentionally, and are not sorry
for the act. And, therefore, we must assume that these homicides are of
two kinds, both of them arising from passion, which may be justly said
to be in a mean between the voluntary and involuntary; at the same time,
they are neither of them anything more than a likeness or shadow
of either. He who treasures up his anger, and avenges himself, not
immediately and at the moment, but with insidious design, and after an
interval, is like the voluntary; but he who does not treasure up his
anger, and takes vengeance on the instant, and without malice prepense,
approaches to the involuntary; and yet even he is not altogether
involuntary, but is only the image or shadow of the involuntary;
wherefore about homicides committed in hot blood, there is a difficulty
in determining whether in legislating we shall reckon them as voluntary
or as partly involuntary. The best and truest view is to regard them
respectively as likenesses only of the voluntary and involuntary, and
to distinguish them accordingly as they are done with or without
premeditation. And we should make the penalties heavier for those who
commit homicide with angry premeditation, and lighter for those who do
not premeditate, but smite upon the instant; for that which is like a
greater evil should be punished more severely, and that which is like
a less evil should be punished less severely: this shall be the rule of
our laws.

CLEINIAS: Certainly.

ATHENIAN: Let us pr