The American Jurist And Law Magazine Volume 8 PDF Download

Excerpt from The American Jurist and Law Magazine, Vol. 8: For July and October, 1832 To afford a correct and complete knowledge of facts, it is not enough, that they should be stated as they seemed to the witness, but that they should saemto him as they really are. For if owing to want of opportunity for observation, or deficiency of attention, an incorrect or incomplete knowledge of facts should be obtained, the defect of testimony is as great, as if such in correctness and incompleteness were intentional, the result of determined improbity. To see facts as they exist, and all which exist, and in the order of their existence; to give sum cient attention at the time, so as to render those facts fixed in the memory, that at any subsequent period, when it may become desirable to recal them, the recollection of them may be full, clear and distinct, is the work of labor, of labor in the percep tion and recollection and the more numerous and complicated the facts, the greater the labor, and this labor will never be incurred without an adequate motive. The original impressions may have been clear, distinct, embracing every fact, still from want of inducement to renew, to clothe with freshness past im pressions, they may have faded away, without leaving a trace, or only a confused and incorrect reminiscence. In this view of the subject, an absence of interest is not the only desideratum in testimony, for the same absence of interest which affords security against intentional misrepresentation, affords strong rea sons to suppose the witness may have been a careless and indif ferent percipient witness of the several facts which, form the subject-matter of his testimony. Hence we see how treacher ous and mistaken are the recollections of those, who having nothing but their indifference to the result to recommend them, while destitute of interest, are alike destitute of distinct percep tion and accurate recollection, the qualities, most desirable. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.