_Isab._ [_kneeling._] Most bounteous sir, Look, if it please you, on this man condemn’d, As if my brother liv’d. I partly think, A due sincerity govern’d his deeds, Till he did look on me: since it is so, Let him not die. My brother had but justice, In that he did the thing for which he died: For Angelo, His act did not o’ertake his bad intent; And must be buried but as an intent That perish’d by the way: thoughts are no subjects; Intents but merely thoughts. _Measure for Measure_, Act v. Scene 1. An evil intention is not punishable equally with the fact; Crimen non contrahitur nisi nocendi voluntas intercedit (Bracton, lib. cap. 4; Wood’s Inst., 2nd ed., p. 340), except in treason, when the maxim Voluntas reputatur pro facto (3 Inst. 5, 69), the will is taken for the deed, is said to apply to its full extent. It is a rule laid down by Lord Mansfield, said to comprise all the principles of previous decisions in similar cases (per Lawrence, J., Rex _v._ Higgins, 2 East, 21), that so long as an act rests in bare intention, it is not punishable by the law of England—so Ulpian says: ‘Cogitationis pœnam nemo patitur’ (D. 48, 19, 18), and Montesquieu: ‘Les lois ne se chargent de punir que les actions exterieurs’—but when an act is done, the law judges not only of the act itself, but of the intent with which it is done. _Angelo._ What’s open made to justice, That justice seizes. _Measure for Measure_, Act ii. Scene 1. And if the act be accompanied with an unlawful and malicious intent, though in itself the act would otherwise be innocent, yet, the intent being criminal, the act likewise becomes criminal and punishable (Rex _v._ Scofield, 2 East, D. C. 1028). Non officit conatus, nisi sequitur effectus (6 Rep. 42; Wood’s Inst., 2nd ed., p. 340), for it is a principle of natural justice and of our law that the intent and the act must both concur to constitute the crime (Lord Kenyon, 7, T. R. 514). But where one has the use of his reason, and is at liberty, his endeavour to commit a felony, as to rob, &c., is punishable, though not to that degree as if the felony and robbery, &c., had actually been committed. For in such cases Voluntas non reputabitur pro facto, the will shall not be taken for the deed (3 Inst. 69; 11 Rep. 98). _Ham._ Give me your pardon, sir: I’ve done you wrong; But pardon’t, as you are a gentleman. This presence knows, and you must needs have heard, How I am punish’d with a sore distraction. What I have done, That might your nature, honour, and exception, Roughly awake, I here proclaim was madness. Was’t Hamlet wrong’d Laertes? Never Hamlet: If Hamlet from himself be ta’en away, And, when he’s not himself, does wrong Laertes, Then Hamlet does it not; Hamlet denies it. _Hamlet_, Act v. Scene 2.