[This Fragment was first given by Mrs. Shelley in the Essays, Letters &c. (1840), in the Preface to which collection we read (pages xi & xii), "The fragment of his 'Essay on the Punishment of Death' bears the value which the voice of a philosopher and a poet, reasoning in favour of humanity and refinement, must possess. It alleges all the arguments that an imaginative man, who can vividly figure the feelings of his fellow-creatures, can alone conceive; and it brings them home to the calm reasoner with the logic of truth. In the milder season that since Shelley's time has dawned upon England, our legislators each day approximate nearer to his views of justice; this piece, fragment as it is, may suggest to some among them motives for carrying his beneficent views into practice." Mr. Rossetti (Poetical Works, 1878, Vol. I, page 149) assigns this composition to the year 1815. It is here given from the edition of 1840, the word punishment, in line 2, page 248, omitted from that edition, being, however, supplied from Mrs. Shelley's reprints.—H. B. F.]
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