, regard for the safety of others should, also, have
weight; for in a country liable to such perils, the breach of a promise by
one man might cost the community the lives of many.

*Contracts* are mutual promises, in which each party puts himself under
specific obligations to the other. They are to be interpreted on the same
principles, and to be regarded as void or voidable on the same grounds,
with promises.

*An oath* is an invocation of the protection and blessing of God, or of
his indignation and curse, upon the person swearing, according as his
assertion is true or false, or as his promise shall be observed or
violated. "So help you God," the form in common use in this country,
expresses the idea that underlies an oath,--_so_ being, of course, the
emphatic word. Oaths are exacted of witnesses in courts of justice in
confirmation of their testimony, and of incumbents of public offices in
pledge of their fidelity. They are required, too, in attestation of
invoices, inventories of estates, returns of taxable property, and various
financial and statistical statements made under public authority. There
are, also, not a few persons of whom, and occasions on which an oath of
allegiance to the government of the state or nation is demanded.

*An oath does not enhance one's obligation* to tell the truth, or to
fulfil his promise. This obligation is entire and perfect in all cases, on
the ground of intrinsic fitness, and of the known will and command of God.
But the tendency of oaths is to establish in the minds of men two classes
of assertions and promises, one more sacred than the other. He who is
required under the solemn sanction of an oath merely to tell the truth or
to make a promise in good faith, arrives naturally at the conclusion that
he is bound to a less rigid accuracy or fidelity in ordinary statements or
promises. The law of the land, as we have seen, bears an important part in
the ethical education of the young; and by means of the legal distinction
created between assertions or promises under oath and those made without
that sanction, children and youth are trained to regard simple
truth-telling and promise-keeping as of secondary obligation. This effect
of legal oaths is attested by the prevalence of profane swearing, and by
the frequent use of oath-like forms of asseveration, not regarded as
profane, by persons of a more serious character. Except in the religious
sects that abjure the use of oaths, nine pe