[9]
There is another form
of defence based on an appeal to the motives of
the act which is the opposite of that which I have
just described It consists not in defending the act
per se, as we do when we employ the absolute
defence, nor in opposing another act to it, but
in appealing to the interests of the State, of a
number of persons, of our opponent himself or finally
at times of ourselves, provided always that the act
in question is such as we might lawfully do in our
own interests. If, however, the accuser is a stranger
and insists on the letter of the law, this form
of defence will invariably be useless, though it may
[p. 111]
serve our turn if the dispute is of a domestic
character.
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1922.
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