Let us take an instance from jurisprudence. _Pœna_, in classical Latin, means simply punishment, particularly what is either paid or suffered in order to atone for an injury. (_Si injuriam faxit alteri, viginti quinque æris pœnœ sunto, fragm. xii. tab._) The word agrees so remarkably, both in form and meaning, with the Greek ποινή, that Mommsen assigned to it a place in what he calls Græco-Italic ideas.[5] We might suppose, therefore, that the ancient Italians took _pœna_ originally in the sense of ransom, simply as a civil act, by which he who had inflicted injury on another was, as far as he and the injured person were concerned, restored _in integrum_. The etymology of the word, however, leads us back into a far more distant past, and shows us that when the word _pœna_ was first framed, punishment was conceived from a higher moral and religious point of view, as a purification from sin; for _pœna_, as first shown by Professor Pott (and what has he not been the first to show?) is closely connected with the root pu, to purify. Thus we read in the “Atharva-veda,” xix. 33, 3:-- “Tvám bhû́mim átyeshi ójasâ Tvám védyâm sîdasi cấrur adhvaré Tvấm pavítram ṛshayo bhárantas Tvám puníhi duritấni asmát.” “Thou, O God of Fire, goest mightily across the earth; thou sittest brilliantly on the altar at the sacrifice. The prophets carry Thee as the Purifier; purify us from all misdeeds.” From this root +pu+ we have, in Latin, _pūrus_, and _pŭtus_, as in _argentum purum putum_, fine silver, or in _purus putus est ipse_, Plaut. Ps. 4, 2, 31. From it we also have the verb _purgare_, for _purigare_, to purge, used particularly with reference to purification from crime by means of religious observances. If this transition from the idea of purging to that of punishing should seem strange, we have only to think of _castigare_, meaning originally to purify, but afterwards in such expressions as _verbis et verberibus castigare_, to chide and to chasten. I cannot convince myself that the Latin _crimen_ has anything in common with κρίνειν. The Greek κρίνειν is no doubt connected with Latin _cer-no_, from which _cribrum_, sieve. It means to separate, to sift, so that κρῖμα may well signify a judgment, but not a crime or misdeed. _Crīmen_, as every scholar knows or ought to know, meant originally an accusation, not a crime, and, in spite of all appearances to the contrary, has nothing whatever in common with _discrīmen_, which means what separates two things, a difference, a critical point. _In crimen venire_ means to get into bad repute, to be calumniated; _in discrimine esse_ means to be in a critical and dangerous position.