On Crimes and Punishments

Heavy ink bleed and some blurring on the right margin.

...those [principles], although divine and immutable, were altered in a thousand ways in the depraved minds of men through the fault of false Religions and arbitrary notions of vice and virtue. Thus, it seems necessary to examine separately from any other consideration that which arises from pure human conventions, whether expressed or supposed for common necessity and utility. This is an idea in which every sect and every system of Morale Ethics/Morality must necessarily agree. It will always be a laudable undertaking to force even the most obstinate and incredulous to conform to the principles that impel men to live in society. There are, therefore, three distinct classes of Virtue and Vice: Religious, Natural, and Political. These three classes must not-