all the maxims above laid down for praise. Definite descriptions of definite failures, without note or comment, are a power to punish. When there are aggravations, such as downright carelessness, a damaging commentary may be added; but, in using terms of reprobation, still more strict regard has to be paid to discrimination and justice. The degrees of badness are sometimes numerical, as by the quantity of lesson missed, and the repetition of inattention; this very definiteness literally stated is more cutting than epithets.
Strong terms of reproof should be sparing, in order to be more effective. Still more sparing ought to be tones of anger. Loss of temper, however excusable, is really a victory to wrong-doers; although for the moment it may strike terror. Unless a man is of fiendish nature throughout, he cannot maintain a consistent course, if he gives way to temper. Indignation under control is a mighty weapon. Yet it is mere impotence to utter threats when the power of execution is known to be wanting. There is nothing worse for authority than to over vaunt itself; this is the fatal step to the ridiculous.
Whoever occupies a position of authority ought to be familiar with the general principles and conditions of punishment, as they may be found set forth in the penal code of Bentham. The broad, exhaustive view there given will coöperate beneficially with each one's actual experience. I make no apology for presenting a short summary of his principles.
After precisely defining the proper ends of punishment, Bentham marks the cases unmeet for punishment: 1. Where it is groundless: that is, where there never has been any real mischief (the other party consenting to what has been done), or where the mischief is over-weighed by a benefit of greater value. 2. Where it is inefficacious: including cases where the penal provision has not come before the offender's notice, where he is unaware of the consequences of his act, or where he is not a free agent. 3. Cases where it is unprofitable: that is, when the evil of the punishment exceeds the evil of the offense. (The evils of punishment, which have to be summed up and set against the good, are (1) coercion or restraint, (2) the uneasiness of apprehension, (3) the actual suffering, (4) the suffering caused to all those that are in sympathy with the person punished.) 4. Cases where punishment is needless: as when the end can be attained in some cheaper way, as by instruction and persuasion. In this class Bentham specially includes the offenses that consist in disseminating pernicious principles in politics, morality, or religion. These should be met by instruction and argument, and not by the penalties of the law.
Under what he calls the expense or frugality of punishment, Bentham urges the necessity of presenting to the mind an adequate notion of what a punishment really is. Hence the advantage of punishments that are easily learned and remembered, and that appear greater and not less than they really are.
