ifferent religions,
because their religions differed so greatly on these points as to be
almost opposed, that the English officer and his Burman servant failed
to understand each other.

For to the Englishman punishment was a degradation. It seemed to him far
more disgraceful that his servant should have been in gaol than that he
should have committed theft. The theft he was ready to forgive, the
punishment he could not. Punishment to him meant revenge. It is the
revenge of an outraged and injured morality. The sinner had insulted the
law, and therefore the law was to make him suffer. He was to be
frightened into not doing it again. That is the idea. He was to be
afraid of receiving punishment. And again his punishment was to be
useful as a warning to others. Indeed, the magistrate had especially
increased it with that object in view. He was to suffer that others
might be saved. The idea of punishment being an atonement hardly enters
into our minds at all. To us it is practically a revenge. We do not
expect people to be the better for it. We are sure they are the worse.
It is a deterrent for others, not a healing process for the man himself.
We punish A. that B. may be afraid, and not do likewise. Our thoughts
are bent on B., not really on A. at all. As far as he is concerned, the
process is very similar to pouring boiling lead into a wound. We do not
wish or intend to improve him, but simply and purely to make him suffer.
After we have dealt with him, he is never fit again for human society.
That was in the officer's thought when he refused to take back his
Burmese servant.

Now see the boy's idea.

Punishment is an atonement, a purifying of the soul from the stain of
sin. That is the only justification for, and meaning of, suffering. If a
man breaks the everlasting laws of righteousness and stains his soul
with the stain of sin, he must be purified, and the only method of
purification is by suffering. Each sin is followed by suffering, lasting
just so long as to cleanse the soul--not a moment less, or the soul
would not be white; not a moment more, or it would be useless and cruel.
That is the law of righteousness, the eternal inevitable sequence that
leads us in the end to wisdom and peace. And as it is with the greater
laws, so it should, the Buddhist thinks, be with the lesser laws.

If a man steals, he should have such punishment and for such a time as
will wean his soul from theft, as will atone for his sin.