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by the Sybil through the lower regions , and one of the objects of curiosity in these , as in other countries , is the courts of justice . Over one of them
Rhadaman thus presides , and his office , and the fate of the culprits who are brought before him , are de . scribed in the following lines :
Gnosius haec Rhadamanthus habet durissima regna , Caftigatque auditque dolos ; subigit * qtie fateri , Quse quis apud superos , furto lsttatus
mam , * . Distulit in seram coxmnissa piacula mortem . Continuo sontis ultrix adcincta flagellci Tisiphone quatit insultans , torvosque simstra
Intentans angvus , vocat agtnina saeva sororum * The process of the court described in the above words , seems to me to be simply this . The culprit is brought into court , and
is questioned by the judge in no very pleasing terms , but in the manner best adapted to the hard - ened wretches brought before him . The consequence of these questions is , the discovery of trick
after trick , till at last the miserable , self-convicted criminal is compelled to confess every base act of his life , and to throw himself on the mercy of the court .
But the time of mercy is past . Tisiphone , the executioner , in « * tantly appears , and , with her sister furies , drags the felon to his destined punishment .
The vulgarly received opinion , that in this court punishment came first , arose from the use of the word castigat e and it was not recollected that the poet might apply this verb , to his judge in connection with vcrbis or verberi-
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bus , and the judge would Use in his court words or blows , as the occasion required . If the culprit answered to the questions put tor him , and his villany was
gradually unveiled , till in the anguish of his heart he confessed his guilt , the judge had nothing farther to do than to pass the sentence of the law , and Tisiphone conveyed him to the region set
apart for his description of guilt . But many of the hardened villains , who were brought before this horrible court * were not so easily brought to confession . They stood mute in court * and were not to be
tamed by the mere speeches of the judge . The torturer then , who was present , was called upon to do his duty , and , whether he did it in the presence of the judge , or conveyed him to a
suitable apartment , the word cas * tigat applies equally well to Rhadamanthus . Thus we say , and I repeat it with great grief , that an English governor put a Spanish young woman to the tor * ture , not that he himself racked
the sinews , disjointed the limbs , tore the flesh , or performed any other part of the inhuman office ; it is sufficient for our language that he ordered it ; and in the court below , of which we are bpeaking , Rhadamanthus did not inflict this
chastisement himself , but Jeft it to the proper officer of the court . We may be assured that the effect was always produced which the judge desired ; for he never quits the criminal till every base action of his life is detected , and
he has confessed his guilt . The advocates for torture , if there are any in this country , will gain nothing by the precedent in the lower regions . No one , it "
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17 b On a Passage in Virgil .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1810, page 176, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2403/page/16/
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