Page:Montesquieu - The spirit of laws.djvu/188

136 exercise of clemency, the danger is visible; it is an easy matter to distinguish it from that imbecillity which exposes princes to contempt and to the very incapacity of punsfhing.

The emperor Maurice made a resolution never to spill the blood of his subjects. Anastasius punished no crimes at all. Isaac Angelus took an oath that no one should be put to death, during his reign. Those Greek emperors had forgot that it was not for nothing they were intrusted with the sword. Rh