No one can absolutely
know, though many would be pretty sure, exactly where the bullet
will strike; and if the harm is done, it is a very great harm. If
a man fires at a block, no harm can possibly ensue, and no theft
can be committed in an empty pocket, besides that the harm of
successful theft is less than that of murder. Yet it might be
said that even such things as these should be punished, in order
to make discouragement broad enough and easy to understand.
There remain to be considered certain substantive crimes, which
differ in very important ways from murder and the like, and for
the explanation of which the foregoing analysis of intent in
criminal attempts and analogous misdemeanors will be found of
service.
The type of these is larceny. Under this name acts are punished
which of themselves would not be sufficient to accomplish the
evil which the law seeks to prevent, and which are treated as
equally criminal, whether the evil has been accomplished or not.
Murder, manslaughter, and arson, on the other hand, are not
committed unless the evil is accomplished, and they all consist
of acts the tendency of which under the surrounding circumstances
is to hurt or destroy person or property by the mere working of
natural laws.
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