is thus governed lives not by law, but by opinion; not by a certain
rule, to which he can apply his intention before he acts, but by an
uncertain and variable opinion, which he can-never know but after he has
committed the act, on which that opinion shall be passed. He lives by a
law, if a law it be, which he can never know her fore he has offended
it. To this case may be justly applied that important principle, "misera
est servitus ubi jus est aut incognitum aut vagum." If intromission be
not criminal, till it exceeds a certain point, and that point be
unsettled, and, consequently, different in different minds, the right of
intromission, and the right of the creditor arising from it, are all
_jura vaga_, and, by consequence, are _jura incognita_; and the result
can be no other than a _misera servitus_, an uncertainty concerning the
event of action, a servile dependance on private opinion.

It may be urged, and with great plausibility, that there may be
intromission without fraud; which, however true, will by no means
justify an occasional and arbitrary relaxation of the law. The end of
law is protection, as well as vengeance. Indeed, vengeance is never used
but to strengthen protection. That society only is well governed, where
life is freed from danger and from suspicion; where possession is so
sheltered by salutary prohibitions, that violation is prevented more
frequently than punished. Such a prohibition was this, while it operated
with its original force. The creditor of the deceased was not only
without loss, but without fear. He was not to seek a remedy for an
injury suffered; for injury was warded off.

As the law has been sometimes administered, it lays us open to wounds,
because it is imagined to have the power of healing. To punish fraud,
when it is detected, is the proper art of vindictive justice; but to
prevent frauds, and make punishment unnecessary, is the great employment
of legislative wisdom. To permit intromission, and to punish fraud, is
to make law no better than a pitfall. To tread upon the brink is safe;
but to come a step further is destruction. But, surely, it is better to
enclose the gulf, and hinder all access, than by encouraging us to
advance a little, to entice us afterwards a little further, and let us
perceive our folly only by our destruction.

As law supplies the weak with adventitious strength, it likewise
enlightens the ignorant with extrinsick understanding. Law teaches us to
know