2 June 1805

Evidence

Introd.Ch.

Would you wish them to see a ground in which the appellation false suit the epithet false with the expression of censure attached to it may be employed with real advantage, under the auspices of truth and justice[?] to turn to jurisprudence. It is there you may see false suit, false suit in abundance, employed for the worst purposes, and with but two extensive an effect: - to nip the faculty of reason in the mind to deprive the disective faculty of its sharpness and its strength: to instill in the mind of the lawyer the art of deception, and in the mind of the suitor the disposition to be deceived: to teach men to be satisfied with sham reasons, as they would with true ones.

To look upon the man of law as their friend, and him who would rescue them (from his grip), as their enemy.

To suspect be jealous of their friends, and have no confidence but in their enemies.

To look up on remedies as poisons, and poisons as remedies to teach them to ascribe some of the worst of their afflictions to a wrong cause.

[marginal insertion: in jurisprudence as in religion, swallowing absurdities is an exercise of faith, and faith is fortified by exercise.]

To accept of any theory as a reason from those who never speak to them but to deceive them and whose interest is in opposition to theirs, as that of the wolf is to that of the sheep.

To regard their afflictions as incurable, by referring them to a wrong cause.

To regard every implanted[?] and carefully cultivated abuse as an unextirpable /ineradicable/ weed, deep rooted by the hand of inexorable nature.

(It is a truth but too well known by imposters of all sorts) the more obsequious the pupil, the more powerful the instructor, and the more absurd the doctrine the stronger and more conclusive the proof given of the obsequiousness of the pupil, and of the power gained by the instructor over his mind. [marginal note: Imposters of all sorts master this; imposters of all sorts build their art upon the strength of it.] The sillier therefore the research the baser the coin which the pupil can be led to pay himself with under the name of a reason, the firmer the hold which the deceiver has on his mind.