in the human soul as well as in human associations; and we
live in an epoch of confusion and obscurity, moral as well as social.

How many men have I known, who, gifted with noble qualities, would in
other times have led just and simple lives, but who, in our days,
confounded in the problems and shadows of their own thoughts, have
become ambitious, turbulent, and fanatical, not knowing either how to
attain their object or how to continue in repose!

In 1820, although still young myself, I lamented this agitation of minds
and destinies, almost as sad to contemplate as fatal to be engaged in;
but while deploring it, I was divided between severe judgment and
lenient emotion, and, without seeking to disarm power in its legitimate
defence, I felt a deep anxiety to inspire it with generous and prudent
equity towards such adversaries.

A true sentiment does not readily believe itself impotent. The two works
which I published in 1821 and 1822, entitled, the first, 'On
Conspiracies and Political Justice,' and the second, 'On Capital
Punishment for Political Offences,' were not, on my part, acts of
opposition; I endeavoured to divest them of this character. To mark
distinctly their meaning and object, it will suffice for me to repeat
their respective epigraphs. On the title-page of the first I inscribed
this passage from the prophet Isaiah: "Say ye not, _a confederacy_, to
all them to whom this people shall say, _a confederacy_;" and on that of
the second, the words of St. Paul: "O death, where is thy sting? O
grave, where is thy victory?" What I chiefly desired was to convince
power itself that sound policy and true justice called for very rare
examples of trial and execution in political cases; and that in
exercising against all offenders the utmost severity of the laws, it
created more perils than it subdued. Public opinion was in accordance
with mine; sensible and independent men, taking no part in the passions
of the parties engaged in this struggle, found, as I did, that there was
excess in the action of the police with reference to these plots, excess
in the number and severity of the prosecutions, excess in the
application of legal penalties. I carefully endeavoured to restrain
these complaints within their just limits, to avoid all injurious
comparisons, all attempts at sudden reforms, and to concede to power its
necessary weapons. While discussing these questions, which had sprung up
in the bosom of the most violent