A crime arising from a sudden passion is not so great as when the same ariseth from long meditation; for in the former case there is a place for extenuation, in the common infirmity of human nature; but he that doth it with premeditation, has used circumspection, and cast his eye on the law, on the punishment, and on the consequence thereof to human society; all which, in committing the crime, he hath contemned and postposed to his own appetite. But there is no suddenness of passion sufficient for a total excuse: for all the time between the first knowing of the law and the commission of the fact, shall be taken for a time of deliberation: because he ought by meditation of the law to rectify the irregularity of his passions.

Where the law is publicly, and with assiduity, before all the people read and interpreted, a fact done against it is a greater crime than where men are left without such instruction, to inquire of it with difficulty, uncertainty, and interruption of their callings, and be informed by private men; for in this case part of the fault is discharged upon common infirmity; but, in the former, there is apparent negligence, which is not without some contempt of the sovereign power.