ns of terror more terrible than this must be
discovered, or it must be owned that this restraint is useless; and that
as long as poverty gives men the courage of necessity, or plenty fills
them with the ambition which belongs to insolence and pride, and the
other conditions of life remain each under the thraldom of some fatal
and master passion, so long will the impulse never be wanting to drive
men into danger. Hope also and cupidity, the one leading and the other
following, the one conceiving the attempt, the other suggesting the
facility of succeeding, cause the widest ruin, and, although invisible
agents, are far stronger than the dangers that are seen. Fortune,
too, powerfully helps the delusion and, by the unexpected aid that she
sometimes lends, tempts men to venture with inferior means; and this is
especially the case with communities, because the stakes played for are
the highest, freedom or empire, and, when all are acting together, each
man irrationally magnifies his own capacity. In fine, it is impossible
to prevent, and only great simplicity can hope to prevent, human nature
doing what it has once set its mind upon, by force of law or by any
other deterrent force whatsoever.

"We must not, therefore, commit ourselves to a false policy through a
belief in the efficacy of the punishment of death, or exclude rebels
from the hope of repentance and an early atonement of their error.
Consider a moment. At present, if a city that has already revolted
perceive that it cannot succeed, it will come to terms while it is still
able to refund expenses, and pay tribute afterwards. In the other case,
what city, think you, would not prepare better than is now done, and
hold out to the last against its besiegers, if it is all one whether it
surrender late or soon? And how can it be otherwise than hurtful to us
to be put to the expense of a siege, because surrender is out of the
question; and if we take the city, to receive a ruined town from which
we can no longer draw the revenue which forms our real strength against
the enemy? We must not, therefore, sit as strict judges of the offenders
to our own prejudice, but rather see how by moderate chastisements we
may be enabled to benefit in future by the revenue-producing powers
of our dependencies; and we must make up our minds to look for our
protection not to legal terrors but to careful administration. At
present we do exactly the opposite. When a free community, held
in su