The Essays, vol 19 | Page 7

we could not
distinguish one man from another; all things hold by some similitude;
every example halts, and the relation which is drawn from experience is
always faulty and imperfect. Comparisons are ever-coupled at one end
or other: so do the laws serve, and are fitted to every one of our affairs,
by some wrested, biassed, and forced interpretation.
Since the ethic laws, that concern the particular duty of every one in
himself, are so hard to be framed, as we see they are, 'tis no wonder if
those which govern so many particulars are much more so. Do but
consider the form of this justice that governs us; 'tis a true testimony of
human weakness, so full is it of error and contradiction. What we find
to be favour and severity in justice--and we find so much of them both,
that I know not whether the medium is as often met with are sickly and
unjust members of the very body and essence of justice. Some country
people have just brought me news in great haste, that they presently left
in a forest of mine a man with a hundred wounds upon him, who was
yet breathing, and begged of them water for pity's sake, and help to
carry him to some place of relief; they tell me they durst not go near
him, but have run away, lest the officers of justice should catch them
there; and as happens to those who are found near a murdered person,
they should be called in question about this accident, to their utter ruin,
having neither money nor friends to defend their innocence. What
could I have said to these people? 'Tis certain that this office of
humanity would have brought them into trouble.

How many innocent people have we known that have been punished,
and this without the judge's fault; and how many that have not arrived
at our knowledge? This happened in my time: certain men were
condemned to die for a murder committed; their sentence, if not
pronounced, at least determined and concluded on. The judges, just in
the nick, are informed by the officers of an inferior court hard by, that
they have some men in custody, who have directly confessed the
murder, and made an indubitable discovery of all the particulars of the
fact. Yet it was gravely deliberated whether or not they ought to
suspend the execution of the sentence already passed upon the first
accused: they considered the novelty of the example judicially, and the
consequence of reversing judgments; that the sentence was passed, and
the judges deprived of repentance; and in the result, these poor devils
were sacrificed by the forms of justice. Philip, or some other, provided
against a like inconvenience after this manner. He had condemned a
man in a great fine towards another by an absolute judgment. The truth
some time after being discovered, he found that he had passed an unjust
sentence. On one side was the reason of the cause; on the other side, the
reason of the judicial forms: he in some sort satisfied both, leaving the
sentence in the state it was, and out of his own purse recompensing the
condemned party. But he had to do with a reparable affair; my men
were irreparably hanged. How many condemnations have I seen more
criminal than the crimes themselves?
All which makes me remember the ancient opinions, "That 'tis of
necessity a man must do wrong by retail who will do right in gross; and
injustice in little things, who would come to do justice in great: that
human justice is formed after the model of physic, according to which,
all that is useful is also just and honest: and of what is held by the
Stoics, that Nature herself proceeds contrary to justice in most of her
works: and of what is received by the Cyrenaics, that there is nothing
just of itself, but that customs and laws make justice: and what the
Theodorians held that theft, sacrilege, and all sorts of uncleanness, are
just in a sage, if he knows them to be profitable to him." There is no
remedy: I am in the same case that Alcibiades was, that I will never, if I
can help it, put myself into the hands of a man who may determine as
to my head, where my life and honour shall more depend upon the skill

and diligence of my attorney than on my own innocence. I would
venture myself with such justice as would take notice of my good deeds,
as well as my ill; where I had as much to hope as to fear: indemnity is
not sufficient pay to a man who does better than not to do amiss. Our
justice presents to us but one