Book XII.
Chap. 11, & 12.last illness, the physicians would not venture to say he was in danger; and surely they acted very right[1].
CHAP. XI.
Of Thoughts.
MARSYAS dreamt that he had cut Dionysius's throat[2]. Dionysius put him to death, pretending that he would never have dreamt of such a thing by night, if he had not thought of it by day. This was a most tyrannical action; for though it had been the subject of his thoughts, yet he had made no attempt[3] towards it. The laws do not take upon them to punish any other than overt acts.
CHAP. XII.
Of indiscreet Speeches.
NOTHING renders the crime of high treason more arbitrary than declaring people guilty of it for indiscreet speeches. Speech is so subject to interpretation; there is so great a difference between indiscretion and malice, and frequently so little is there of the latter in the expressions used, that the law can hardly subject people to a capital punishment for words, unless it expressly declares what words they are which render a man guilty[4].
