It may perhaps be said that it signifies nothing to a man what is done to him after he is dead; but it signifies much to the living; it either tortures their feelings or hardens their hearts, and in either case it instructs them how to punish when power falls into their hands.
In "Rights of Man," Paine reflects on the societal impact of cruel punishments, arguing they affect the living by either torturing their feelings or hardening their hearts.
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Man cannot, properly speaking, make circumstances for his purpose, but he always has it in his power to improve them when they occur, and this was the case in France.
He writes neither in the character of a Frenchman nor an Englishman, but in the fawning character of that creature known in all countries, and a friend to none--a courtier.
It was Government dethroning Government; and the old one, by attempting to make a new one, made a chasm.