the help
or counsel which would be for his advantage in any way; but only in
certain fixed cases, for instance when someone is subject to him, or
when he is the only one who can assist him. Now the seller who offers
goods for sale, gives the buyer an occasion of loss or danger, by the
very fact that he offers him defective goods, if such defect may
occasion loss or danger to the buyer--loss, if, by reason of this
defect, the goods are of less value, and he takes nothing off the
price on that account--danger, if this defect either hinder the use
of the goods or render it hurtful, for instance, if a man sells a
lame for a fleet horse, a tottering house for a safe one, rotten or
poisonous food for wholesome. Wherefore if such like defects be
hidden, and the seller does not make them known, the sale will be
illicit and fraudulent, and the seller will be bound to compensation
for the loss incurred.

On the other hand, if the defect be manifest, for instance if a horse
have but one eye, or if the goods though useless to the buyer, be
useful to someone else, provided the seller take as much as he ought
from the price, he is not bound to state the defect of the goods,
since perhaps on account of that defect the buyer might want him to
allow a greater rebate than he need. Wherefore the seller may look to
his own indemnity, by withholding the defect of the goods.

Reply Obj. 1: Judgment cannot be pronounced save on what is manifest:
for "a man judges of what he knows" (Ethic. i, 3). Hence if the
defects of the goods offered for sale be hidden, judgment of them is
not sufficiently left with the buyer unless such defects be made
known to him. The case would be different if the defects were
manifest.

Reply Obj. 2: There is no need to publish beforehand by the public
crier the defects of the goods one is offering for sale, because if
he were to begin by announcing its defects, the bidders would be
frightened to buy, through ignorance of other qualities that might
render the thing good and serviceable. Such defect ought to be stated
to each individual that offers to buy: and then he will be able to
compare the various points one with the other, the good with the bad:
for nothing prevents that which is defective in one respect being
useful in many others.

Reply Obj. 3: Although a man is not bound strictly speaking to tell
everyone the truth about matters pertaining to virtue, yet he is so
bound in a case when, unless he tells