That human laws either do, or can, proportion the punishment accurately to the offence, no person will have the folly to assert.  From the inscrutability of motives the thing is absolutely impossible, but this imperfection, though it may be called a species of injustice, is no valid argument against human laws.  It is the lot of man, that he will frequently have to choose between two evils; and it is a sufficient reason for the adoption of any institution, that it is the best mode that suggests itself of preventing greater evils.  A continual endeavour should undoubtedly prevail to make these institutions as perfect as the nature of them will admit.  But nothing is so easy as to find fault with human institutions; nothing so difficult as to suggest adequate practical improvements.  It is to be lamented, that more men of talents employ their time in the former occupation than in the tatter.

The frequency of crime among men, who, as the common saying is, know better, sufficiently proves, that some truths may be brought home to the conviction of the mind without always producing the proper effect upon the conduct.  There are other truths of a nature that perhaps never can be adequately communicated from one man to another.  The superiority of the pleasures of intellect to those of sense, Mr Godwin considers as a fundamental truth.  Taking all circumstances into consideration, I should be disposed to agree with him; but how am I to communicate this truth to a person who has scarcely ever felt intellectual pleasure?  I may as well attempt to explain the nature and beauty of colours to a blind man.  If I am ever so laborious, patient, and clear, and have the most repeated opportunities of expostulation, any real progress toward the accomplishment of my purpose seems absolutely hopeless.  There is no common measure between us.  I cannot proceed step by step..  It is a truth of a nature absolutely incapable of demonstration.  All that I can say is, that the wisest and best men in all ages had agreed in giving the preference, very greatly, to the pleasures of intellect; and that my own experience completely confirmed the truth of their decisions; that I had found sensual pleasures vain, transient, and continually attended with tedium and disgust; but that intellectual pleasures appeared to me ever fresh and young, filled up all my hours satisfactorily, gave a new zest to life, and diffused a lasting serenity over my mind.  If he believe me, it can only be from respect and veneration for my authority.  It is credulity, and not conviction.  I have not said any thing, nor can any thing be said, of a nature to produce real conviction.  The affair is not an affair of reasoning, but of experience.  He would probably observe in reply, what you say may be very true with regard to yourself and many other good men, but for my own part I feel very differently upon the subject.  I have very frequently taken up a book and almost as frequently gone to sleep over it; but when I pass an evening with a gay party, or a pretty woman, I feel alive, and in spirits, and truly enjoy my existence.