20 March 1808

Letter V

§.6. Reasons

Ends of Justice

Fallaciousness Causes

Fallaciousness of the Evidence, considered as a cause of Misdecision, to the prejudice of either side.

Natural Causes of this evil

1. In case of testimonial evidence, influence of the natural causes of involuntary incorrectness and incompleatness on the part of the witness: infirmity of the intellectual frame, in respect of perception, retention, concentration &c.

2. Influence of the causes of mendacity and bias: viz. motives of all sorts acting on the occasion in question in a sinister direction, and thence, in the character of sinister motives.

3. Insufficiency of the natural securities naturally operating against mendacity and falshood through temerity: viz. the severe force of the several natural sanctions, + physical, moral or popular and religious, in the cases where as in most cases, the direction in which they operate is not sinister, but right.

+ See dunc[?]