24 April 1805

Evidence

Ends

Ch Conflict

To make for the reconciliation of these rival ends the best provision which /such provision as/ the nature of things admitts of, requires a certain range /extent/ of thought: a qualification of which the demand is every where, the example no where. Of all men possessing or claiming the character /appellation/ of a man of science, the narrowest in his views is the man of law. AS /Compare on this ground/ /[...?] together/ the mole is to the eagle[?] so is the man of law to the natural philosopher: if in Bacon we see an eagle, in Coke[?] we may see a mole. AS the mole is to the eagle, so is a Coke to a Bacon, so is the man of law compared to the natural philosopher/surveyor of the works of nature/, better named[?] by the French the physiciens[?]

For the adjustment of these difficulties /contrarieties/ no symptoms of /scarce a symptom of/ thinking is any where discoverable among lawyers, or (such as legislators have every where been landlords[?]) among lawyer-led and lawyer-ridden legislators: always /on every occasion/ the main end pursued without a thought about the collateral, or the collateral without a thought about the main end about its antagonist. Particular examples of this will be seen, when under the head of Exclusion of evidence, we come to speak of the narrow and almost unheeded[?] class of cases in which that sort of arrangement may be dictated by preponderant utility.

But in a system of oversights and negligences /imperfections/ /deficiencies/ it will sometimes happen that one /the mischief /effects[?]/ of one/ oversight or one negligence, will be lessened[?] by another /corrected by another/: accordingly in the article of extent of local jurisdiction we shall find the impotence of the man of law setting limits to the vexation that might have been produced by the blind pursuit of the main end with its attendant perquisites, without regard to the collateral end. /If/ To give testimony about the value of a sucking pig or a days food for a horse a man could not be brought from the antipodes, why was it? not because any body cared about the vexation /the vexation was ever thought of/, but because the process for the summoning of a man to [...?] and give his testimony had not been framed so as to /originally framed to/ reach to any such distance.