and there slay him and expose his body naked; and each of the magistrates shall cast a stone upon his head and justify the city, and he shall be thrown unburied beyond the border.  But what shall we say of him who takes the life which is dearest to him, that is to say, his own; and this not from any disgrace or calamity, but from cowardice and indolence?  The manner of his burial and the purification of his crime is a matter for God and the interpreters to decide and for his kinsmen to execute.  Let him, at any rate, be buried alone in some uncultivated and nameless spot, and be without name or monument.  If a beast kill a man, not in a public contest, let it be prosecuted for murder, and after condemnation slain and cast without the border.  Also inanimate things which have caused death, except in the case of lightning and other visitations from heaven, shall be carried without the border.  If the body of a dead man be found, and the murderer remain unknown, the trial shall take place all the same, and the unknown murderer shall be warned not to set foot in the temples or come within the borders of the land; if discovered, he shall die, and his body shall be cast out.  A man is justified in taking the life of a burglar, of a footpad, of a violator of women or youth; and he may take the life of another with impunity in defence of father, mother, brother, wife, or other relations.

The nurture and education which are necessary to the existence of men have been considered, and the punishment of acts of violence which destroy life.  There remain maiming, wounding, and the like, which admit of a similar division into voluntary and involuntary.  About this class of actions the preamble shall be:  Whereas men would be like wild beasts unless they obeyed the laws, the first duty of citizens is the care of the public interests, which unite and preserve states, as private interests distract them.  A man may know what is for the public good, but if he have absolute power, human nature will impel him to seek pleasure instead of virtue, and so darkness will come over his soul and over the state.  If he had mind, he would have no need of law; for mind is the perfection of law.  But such a freeman, ‘whom the truth makes free,’ is hardly to be found; and therefore law and order are necessary, which are the second-best, and they regulate things as they exist in part only, but cannot take in the whole.  For actions have innumerable characteristics, which must be partly determined by the law and partly left to the judge.  The judge must determine the fact; and to him also the punishment must sometimes be left.  What shall the law prescribe, and what shall be left to the judge?  A city is unfortunate in which the tribunals are either secret and speechless, or, what is worse, noisy and public, when the people, as if they were in a theatre, clap and hoot the various speakers.  Such courts a legislator would rather not have; but if he is compelled to have them, he will