XLII. It is also certain, that virtue is tinctured with, or wears a different hue, according to the genius or disposition of the subject in whom it exists, and on this account, in different individuals it appears in different colours. Notwithstanding this, we ought in the mixture or combination, to distinguish what is derived solely from virtue, and what is produced by the intervention of constitution. There are men of a harsh, choleric, unpleasant cast of mind, who at the same time are virtuous; but their virtue on this account is not harsh, choleric, and displeasing, but rather in its operations, by means of its innate good qualities, corrects those defects. The misfortune is, that these defects of temper, confound the understanding and pervert the judgment; and in consequence of this perversion of the judgment, virtue is prevented from amending the defects of the genius. A virtuous man, who is of an impetuous, violent disposition, and inclining to the morose, when placed in command, is easily brought to think; he finds himself in circumstances where prudence dictates that he should use rigour; whereas one of an excessive gentle and mild genius, can never persuade himself that contingent is arrived. Both one and the other discharge and preserve their consciences, and the public are the sufferers by their mistakes, but in a very different degree, according to the diversity of the employments or destinations of such people. The very gentle man is most pernicious in external policy, and the rigorous in internal. An excess of clemency, and forbearing to put in execution criminal laws, in cases where the offences committed are injurious to the public at large, is a very great evil. In matters that concern the reformation, or internal amendment of souls, rigour is not only useless, but prejudicial, because the fear of temporal punishment does not make penitents, but hypocrites; it only removes the external execution of vice, and concentrates the evil intention within the soul, where it produces a new sin, in the hatred it excites against the judge. SECT. VI.