Page:A Philosophical Inquiry Concerning Human Liberty (3rd ed., 1735).djvu/86

 rents; and their punishment is deem’d just, because it is suppos’d to be a means to prevent rebellion in parents.

II. Secondly, it is objected, that it is useless to threaten punishment, or inflict it on men to prevent crimes, when they are necessarily determin’d in all their actions.

1. To which I answer, first, that threatning of punishments is a cause which necessarily determines some mens wills to a conformity to law, and against committing the crimes to which punishments are annex’d; and therefore is useful to all those whose wills must be determin’d by it. It is as useful to such men, as the sun is to the ripening the fruits of the earth, or as any other causes are to produce their proper effects; and a man may as well say the sun is useless, if the ripening the fruits of the earth be necessary, as say, there is no need of threatning punishment for the use of those to whom threatning punishment is a necessary cause of forbearing to do a crime. It is also of use to society to inflict punishments on men for doing what they cannot avoid doing, to the end that necessary