eading, crucifying, stoning, strangling and
electrocuting. Until the middle of the last century they were carried
out in the presence of the multitude so that all might be warned by the
example.

The number of crimes for which death and bodily torture have been the
punishment can scarcely be recorded, and if they could it would be of no
value. They would run into the hundreds and probably the thousands. A
large part of these crimes are now obsolete. Doubtless more men have
been executed for crimes they did not commit and could not commit than
for any real wrong of which they were guilty.

Prisons came into fashion later than the death penalty, and as a form of
punishment have gradually come to take the place of most death
penalties. Prisons in the past have been loathsome places and not much
better than death. Prisoners have been packed together so closely that
life was almost impossible. To incarcerate victims in prisons has
brought terrible punishment not only on the prisoners and their
families, but indirectly on the state. No doubt through the years
prisons have been gradually improved. Many of their terrors have been
banished. People have come to believe that even a prisoner should have
some consideration from the state. Penalties have likewise grown less
severe and terms have been shortened, but this course has not been
regular or constant; the public readily relaxes into hatred and
vengeance, and it is easy to arouse these feelings in men, since they
lie very close to the surface. A constant struggle has always been waged
by the humane to make man more kindly, and yet probably his nature does
not really change. A few months of frenzy may easily undo the work of
years.

So long as men punish for the sake of punishment, there will be a
disagreement between the advocates of long punishment and short
punishment, hard punishment and light punishment. From the nature of
things, there is no basis on which this can be determined. The only
thing that throws any light on the question is experience, and men can
always differ as to the lessons of experience. Neither do they remember
experience when feelings are concerned.

Punishment can deter only on the ground of the fear that flows from it.
Fear comes from things that are more or less unusual. Man has little
abstract fear of a natural death; it is so unavoidable that it does not
even figure in the ordinary affairs of life. Extreme punishments may
grow so common that