The Struggle for Law
defends his rights is based precisely on the same reasons, and is as morally justifiable, as when he defends them against the robber. To wish, in such a case, to deter the party from defending his right, in a suit at law, by pointing out to him the expense and other consequences of the same nature attending it—the uncertainty of the issue, for instance—is a psychological blunder; for the question is, to such a party, not a question of interest, but of his sentiment of justice or of right. The only hope we can cherish here is to cause the supposition of an evil intention to disappear, which caused the party to act; and this done, resistance is overcome; the party may be induced to look at the question in the light of interest, and a settlement or compromise become possible. What stubborn resistance the prepossession and prejudice of the party frequently oppose to all such attempts is only too well known to every practical jurist; and I believe that I shall meet with no contradiction from that quarter when I assert that this inaccessibleness to
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