[i]

CRIMES AND PUNISHMENTS

[ii]

[iii]

[iv]

CRIMES
AND
PUNISHMENTS

INCLUDING A NEW TRANSLATION OF
BECCARIA’S ‘DEI DELITTI & DELLE PENE’

BY
JAMES ANSON FARRER

London
CHATTO & WINDUS, PICCADILLY
1880

All rights reserved

[v]

PREFACE.

The reason for translating afresh Beccaria’s ‘DeiDelitti e delle Pene’ (‘Crimes and Punishments’) is,that it is a classical work of its kind, and that theinterest which belongs to it is still far from beingmerely historical.

It was translated into English long ago; but thechange in the order of the several chapters and paragraphs,which the work underwent before it wasclothed in its final dress, is so great, that the newtranslation and the old one really constitute quitedifferent books.

The object of the preliminary chapters is to placethe historical importance of the original in its justlight, and to increase the interest of the subjects itdiscusses.

The Translator has abstained from all criticism orcomment of the original, less from complete agreement[vi]with all its ideas than from the conviction thatannotations are more often vexatious than profitable,and are best left to the reader to make for himself.There is scarcely a sentence in the book on which acommentator might not be prolix.

To combine the maximum of perspicuity withthe maximum of fidelity to the original has been thecardinal principle observed in the translation. But itwould, of course, have been no less impossible thancontrary to the spirit of the original to have attemptedto render perfectly comprehensible what theauthor purposely wrapped in obscurity. A translationcan but follow the lights and shades of the surfaceit reflects, rendering clear what is clear in theoriginal, and opaque what is opaque.

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CONTENTS.