The Bell of Justice'. In an old city in Italy, its king had installed a bell in the public square. Anyone wrongly treated would ring it and get justice. After many years the bell rope rotted away so it was tied with a wild vine to make it longer. One day an abandoned/old/starving horse wandered into the square, took a mouthful hungrily of the vine... and the bell rang! The king hurried to the square and saw an old/thin/hungry horse and said he should have justice. He immediately summoned the owner and ordered him to look after his old horse, to give him good food and water, a proper stable and peace and if he didn't he would be punished! Justice was done and all the citizens felt their magistrate acted wisely.'
|
The various modes of worship, which prevailed in the Roman world, were all considered by the people as equally true by the philosopher, as equally false and by the magistrate, as equally useful.
|
A man who is a politician at forty is a statesman at three score and ten. It is at this age, when he would be too old to be a clerk or a gardener or a police-court magistrate, that he is ripe to govern a country.
|
Obscenity is whatever happens to shock some elderly and ignorant magistrate.
|
Obscenity is what happens to shock some elderly and ignorant magistrate.
|
The care of every man's soul belongs to himself. But what if he neglect the care of it? Well what if he neglect the care of his health or his estate, which would more nearly relate to the state. Will the magistrate make a law that he not be poor or sick? Laws provide against injury from others; but not from ourselves. God himself will not save men against their wills.
|
It is obvious that 'obscenity' is not a term capable of exact legal definition in the practice of the Courts, it means 'anything that shocks the magistrate.'
|