[Footnote 150: Seeger, _Versuch der Verbrechen nach römischcm Recht_, pp. 1, 2, 49. _Idem_, _Versuch der Verbrechen in der Wissenschaft des Mittelalters_, p. 9. Mommsen, _Römisches Strafrecht_, p. 97 _sq._ Apuleius, _Florida_, iv. 20:--"In maleficiis etiam cogitata scelera non perfecta adhuc vindicantur, cruenta mente, pura manu. Ergo sicut ad poenam sufficit meditari punienda."] [Footnote 151: _Ancient Laws of Ireland_, iii. pp. cviii. _sq._ 139.] [Footnote 152: Cherry, _Growth of Criminal Law in Ancient Communities_, p. 32.] [Footnote 153: Stephen, _op. cit._ ii. 222 _sq._ Thomas Smith, _Common-wealth of England_, p. 194 _sq._] {243} The question, which attempts should be punished, and even the elementary question, what constitutes an attempt, have been answered differently by different jurists and legislators.[154] In England all attempts whatever to commit indictable offences, whether felonies or misdemeanours, are punishable by law.[155] The French[156] and German[157] codes, on the other hand, do not punish, except in a few particular cases, attempts to commit _délits_ or _Verbrechen_, that is, what the English jurists would describe as misdemeanours. [Footnote 154: See Cohn, _Zur Lehre vom versuchten und unvollendeten Verbrechen_, i. 6 _sqq._] [Footnote 155: Stephen, _op. cit._ ii. 224.] [Footnote 156: _Code Pénal_ art. 3.] [Footnote 157: _Strafgesetzbuch_, art. 43.] Again, should a person be punished for attempting to commit a crime in a manner in which success is physically impossible, as if he attempts to steal from a pocket which is empty, or puts into a cup pounded sugar which he believes to be arsenic? This question has given rise to a whole literature. Seneca's statement that "he who mixes a sleeping draught, believing it to be poison, is a poisoner,"[158] seems to have had the support of Roman law.[159] In England, some time ago, the man who attempted to pick an empty pocket, was not held liable for an attempt to steal;[160] but this case has been overruled, and it appears now to be the law that an indictment would lie for such an attempt.[161] According to the French[162] and Italian[163] codes, it would not be punished, according to some German law-books, it would;[164] whilst the Strafgesetzbuch contains no special provisions for attempts of a similar character. [Footnote 158: Seneca, _De beneficiis_, v. 13. _Cf._ _Idem_, _Ad Serenum_, 7.] [Footnote 159: Seeger, _Versuch nach römischem Recht_, p. 30.] [Footnote 160: Stephen, _op. cit._ ii. 225.] [Footnote 161: Harris, _Principles of the Criminal Law_, p. 209 n. _c._] [Footnote 162: Stephen, _op. cit._ ii. 225.] [Footnote 163: Alimena, in _Le droit criminel des états européens_, ed. by von Liszt, p. 123.] [Footnote 164: von Feuerbach-Mittermaier, _op. cit._ p. 76. Cohn, _op. cit._ i. 14.]