From these different sources of crimes, it appears already, that all crimes are not, as the Stoics of old time maintained, of the same allay. There is place, not only for “excuse,” by which that which seemed a crime is proved to be none at all; but also for “extenuation,” by which the crime, that seemed great, is made less. For though all crimes do equally deserve the name of injustice, as all deviation from a straight line is equally crookedness, which the Stoics rightly observed: yet it does not follow that all crimes are equally unjust, no more than that all crooked lines are equally crooked: which the Stoics not observing, held it as great a crime to kill a hen, against the law, as to kill one’s father.

That which totally excuseth a fact, and takes away from it the nature of a crime, can be none but that which at the same time taketh away the obligation of the law. For the fact committed once against the law, if he that committed it be obliged to the law, can be no other than a crime.