[89]
We should take care also that the punishment1
shall not be out of proportion to the offence, and
that some shall not be chastised for the same fault
for which others are not even called to account. In
administering punishment it is above all necessary
to allow no trace of anger. For if anyone proceeds
in a passion to inflict punishment, he will never
observe that happy mean which lies between excess
and defect. This doctrine of the mean is approved
by the Peripatetics—and wisely approved, if only
they did not speak in praise of anger and tell us
that it is a gift bestowed on us by Nature for a good
purpose. But, in reality, anger is in every circumstance to be eradicated; and it is to be desired that
they who administer the government should be like
the laws, which are led to inflict punishment not by
wrath but by justice.
1 (4) anger.
M. Tullius Cicero. De Officiis. With An English Translation. Walter Miller. Cambridge. Harvard University Press; Cambridge, Mass., London, England. 1913.
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