10 Aug 1812

Evidence Introd

Note

Intro

Ch Written first

Such being the arrangement, and such the nature and order of the matter comprized in it, observe well /how/ the reasoning in which it is grounded /writ/. "Contracts reduced to writing (says he p.5.) are the most sedate and deliberate acts of the mind" and so forth: and "therefore" it is, that with him "written evidence"... has the first place (p.5.) "in the discourses of probability": meaning as it should seem in discourses [..?] on this subject the order of probability: and therefore it is that through "depositions" as he himself observes (p.53.) fall short "viz. in point of probative force) of examinations vivâ voce" yet in the /his/ scale of probative forces he assigns to them a place higher than that assigned by him to unwritten evidence alias parol evidence extracted by examination vivâ voce, as if depositions themselves were not extracted /extracted by any thing [...?]/ by examination vivâ voce: and therefore it is that putting affidavits which are not extracted by examination vivâ voce before depositions which are, for a reason which even according to his own account of it applies only to contracts, amongst so many other things which are not contracts he ranks affidavits and suppositions.

Among the causes /sources/ of the confusion /darkness/ in which he has contrived to make[?] the whole subject one is the confounding from the very outset the question of authenticity with the question of verity: the question concerning the authenticity of a script with the question concerning the verity of the assertions contained in it. But to blow away dispel any consideration proportion of these clouds would require a volume.