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[32] For a given promise or agreement may turn out in such a way1 that its performance will prove detrimental either to the one to whom the promise has been made or to the one who has made it. If, for example, Neptune, in the drama, had not carried out his promise to Theseus, Theseus would not have lost his son Hippolytus; for, as the story runs, of the three wishes2 that Neptune had promised to grant him the third was this: in a fit of anger he prayed for the death of Hippolytus, and the granting of this prayer plunged him into unspeakable grief. Promises are, therefore, not to be kept, if the keeping of them is to prove harmful to those to whom you have made them; and, if the fulfilment of a promise should do more harm to you than good to him to whom you have made it, it is no violation of moral duty to give the greater good precedence over the lesser good. For example, if you have made an appointment with anyone to appear as his advocate in court, and if in the meantime your son should fall dangerously ill, it would be no breach of your moral duty to fail in what you agreed to do; nay, rather, he to whom your promise was given would have a false conception of duty, if he should complain that he had been deserted in his time of need. Further than this, who fails to see that those promises are not binding which are extorted by intimidation or which we make when [p. 35] misled by false pretences? Such obligations are annulled in most cases by the praetor's edict in equity,3 in some cases by the laws.

1 Non-fulfilment of promises.

2 The three wishes were: (1) safe return from Hades; (2) escape from the Labyrinth; (3) the death of Hippolytus.

3 Each praetor, at his inauguration, announced publicly the principles and policies that should guide him in the administration of his office. These were the source of the Ius Praetorium, which explained and supplemented the common law (Ius Civile) and even modified its ancient rigour so as to conform with a more advanced public sentiment, and form a most valuable part of the body of Roman Law.

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