Page:Essay on Crimes and Punishments (1775).djvu/6

vi ideas themselves; and therefore, to destroy that arrangement, is to pervert his meaning, if he had any meaning in his plan, the contrary to which can hardly be supposed.

With regard to the Commentary, attributed to Mons. de Voltaire, my only authority for supposing it his, is the voice of the public, which indeed is the only authority we have for most of his works. Let those who are acquainted with the peculiarity of his manner judge for themselves.

The facts above mentioned would preclude all apology for this translation, if any apology were necessary, for translating into our language, a work which, from the