A sin, a vice, a crime, are the objects of theology, ethics, and
jurisprudence. Whenever their judgments agree, they corroborate each
other; but as often as they differ a prudent legislator appreciates the
guilt and punishment according to the measure of social injury. On this
principle the most daring attack on the life and property of a private
citizen is judged less atrocious than the crime of treason or rebellion,
which invades the _majesty_ of the republic; the obsequious civilians
unanimously pronounced that the republic is contained in the person of
its chief; and the edge of the Julian law was sharpened by the incessant
diligence of the emperors. The licentious commerce of the sexes may be
tolerated as an impulse of nature, or forbidden as a source of disorder
and corruption; but the fame, the fortunes, the family of the husband,
are seriously injured by the adultery of the wife. The wisdom of
Augustus, after curbing the freedom of revenge, applied to this domestic
offence the animadversion of the laws; and the guilty parties, after the
payment of heavy forfeitures and fines, were condemned to long or
perpetual exile in two separate islands.
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