ABSTRACT
I wish to start by putting a case. There is no logical moral reason why, if I suffer, any wrongs I may have committed before I suffer should become less wrong; no logical reason why my conscience need trouble me no more about them. An eye or a tooth lost by me is not an eye or a tooth restored to someone else; my suffering cannot erase my guilt. My punishment may give a kick to the aggrieved party, but will improve me morally not at all. Very few kinds of suffering ennoble, and prison is an expensive way of making bad people worse.
