Excerpt from The World's Best Essays, From the Earliest Period to the Present Time, Vol. 2 Beccaria's relations to Montesquieu are evident. He seems to have regarded himself as Montesquieu's pupil, but his intellectual habits are in all things those of the master, - the man of universal sym 'pathy using a strong intellect as a mode of expression for a soul inspired by the sacred desire of decreasing the suffering of mankind. He was born at Milan in 1735, and educated in the Jesuit College at Parma. His first work as an essayist was done on a small paper called II Caff , modeled on the Spectator, so that the style and mind Of Addison may fairly be assumed as greatly influential in deter mining his intellectual habits. His work on Crimes and Punish ments, published in 1764, passed through six editions at once and was soon translated into the principal languages of Europe. One of the most radical thinkers of modern times, Beccaria was nevertheless 'so conservative in his attitude towards existing institutions, and so distrustful of all revolutionary changes, that he was chosen to assist in reforming the Italian Judicial Code, and appointed to a chair of Public Law and Economy which had been founded expressly for him in the Palatine College of Milan. He died in 1793. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.