(b) God knows, in our present quarrel, in which there are a hundred points of dispute to be taken out and put back, — points of great and profound importance, — how many persons there are who can boast of having accurately grasped the arguments of one and the other party. It is a number, if a number there be, which would have no great power to disturb us. But all this other crowd — whither is it going? under what standard does it turn out of the road?[1] It happens with theirs as with other weak and ill-employed drugs: the humours of which it sought to purge us, it has heated and irritated and embittered by the conflict, and still it has remained in our body. It has failed to purge us because of its weakness, and yet it has weakened us so that we can no longer void it, and we get from its operation only intestinal pains long-continued. (a)[2] Yet, however, fortune, retaining always its authority over our judgements, sometimes presents us with so urgent a necessity that there is need for the laws to give way to it somewhat. (b) And when we resist the growth of an innovation which has been introduced by violence, to hold ourselves in every thing and everywhere in check and bound by rule, while our opponents have full liberty,[3] to whom every thing is permissible that can advance their purpose, — who have no other law or rule to follow than their own advantage, — imposes a hazardous obligation and disparity. (c) Aditum nocendi perfido præstat fides.[4] (b) For the ordinary polity of a state in good health does not provide for such extraordinary accidents; it presupposes a body which is composed of its principal members and offices, and a common consent to respect and obey it. (c) Lawful procedure is a cold, heavy, and constrained procedure, and is not fitted to make head against a lawless and unbridled procedure.
(a) We know that it is still matter of reproach to those
- ↑ Soubs quelle enseigne se jette elle à quartier?
- ↑ In the editions prior to 1588, this immediately followed “the rusted sword of justice at Marseilles,” page 159 supra.
- ↑ Contre ceux qui ont la clef des champs.
- ↑ He who puts faith in a treacherous man gives entrance to harm. — Seneca, Œdipus, III, 686.
