The condemning to death and execution of a criminal is, I reasoned, the public revenge for a private crime. Private revenge is not permitted, which seems a pity. If it was up to me, anyone who harmed a little girl would be strapped to a bull’s-eye on the south lawn so that anyone who wanted to could take a shot with the archery sets provided free of charge. I shivered at the thought of my own brutality. Surely we were more civilized than that. Surely the better part of our brains had evolved since the Stone Age?
