PLANS AND PROJECTS-1838-1905 495 



countries ; and other chapters in England and France. At 

 last, in the spare hours of my official life at St. Petersburg, 

 I made an end of the work ; and in Italy, during the winter 

 and spring of 1894-1895, gave it final revision. 



For valuable aid in collecting materials and making 

 notes in public libraries, I was indebted to various 

 friends whose names are mentioned in its preface; and, 

 above all, to my dear friend and former student, Profes 

 sor George Lincoln Burr, who not only aided me greatly 

 during the latter part of my task by wise suggestions 

 and cautions, but who read the proofs and made the 

 index. 



Perhaps I may be allowed to repeat here that my pur 

 pose in preparing this book was to strengthen not only 

 science but religion. I have never had any tendency to 

 scoffing, nor have I liked scoffers. Many of my closest 

 associations and dearest friendships have been, and still 

 are, with clergymen. Clergymen are generally, in our 

 cities and villages, among the best and most intelligent 

 men that one finds, and, as a rule, with thoughtful and 

 tolerant old lawyers and doctors, the people best worth 

 knowing. My aim in writing was not only to aid in free 

 ing science from trammels which for centuries had been 

 vexatious and cruel, but also to strengthen religious teach 

 ers by enabling them to see some of the evils in the past 

 which, for the sake of religion itself, they ought to guard 

 against in the future. 



During vacation journeys in Europe I was led, at 

 various historical centers, to take up special subjects 

 akin to those developed in my lectures. Thus, during my 

 third visit to Florence, having read Manzoni s &quot;Pro- 

 messi Sposi,&quot; which still seems to me the most beautiful 

 historical romance ever written, I was greatly impressed 

 by that part of it which depicts the superstitions and legal 

 cruelties engendered by the plague at Milan. This story, 

 with Manzoni s &quot;Colonna Infame&quot; and Cantu s &quot;Vita di 

 Beccaria, led me to take up the history of criminal law, 

 and especially the development of torture in procedure 



