[18]
there are actions for evil-speaking; and I am told that these are instituted
for this purpose—that men may not be led on, by using abusive language
back and forth, to deal blows to one another. Again, there are actions for
battery; and these, I hear, exist for this reason—that a man, finding
himself the weaker party, may not defend himself with a stone or anything of
that sort, but may await legal redress. Again, there are public prosecutions for
wounding, to the end that wounds may not lead to murder.
Demosthenes. Demosthenes with an English translation by Norman W. DeWitt, Ph.D., and Norman J. DeWitt, Ph.D. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1949.
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