OPINION AND CONVICTION. 83 



might be. It was therefore obvious as matter of fact and 

 of duty that we were bound to send out aid to replace 

 the ascertained deficiency, so that, if in time, it might not 

 be required in vain. These were truths and obligations 

 not opinions arrogantly expressed, but duty clearly ascer- 

 tained, without absolutely fixing anything but the wisdom 

 of distrusting opinions altogether. True, we are told that 

 men take and act on legal opinions day by day. But 

 this is really a confusion of ideas arising from mis- 

 application of language. A lawyer has the facts of a case 

 laid before him, and a sound lawyer states what the law 

 is in reference to these facts, not what in his opinion it is ; 

 not what he thinks, but what he knows it to be ; and just 

 in proportion as he states what he competently knows is 

 he a prudent adviser, and as he states what he merely 

 thinks is he utterly unsafe. 



A mere opinion, even from a lawyer, is of very little 

 value, and the word is really a misnomer for the purpose 

 to which it is so applied in law. Clients wish to be in- 

 formed of the law which is certainly applicable to their 

 case, not of that uncertain thing opinion, the accuracy of 

 which has no present certainty, but has wholly to be 

 ascertained by a future result. Opinionative people are 

 great self-deceivers, and besides being very dogmatic 

 members of society, they are the most easy of all to be 

 misled. They are continually encountering those who 

 cannot be made, and are under no obligation, to think as 

 they do, but who could, if they chose to flatter, easily 

 encourage error rather than oppose it, with the most 

 obvious disadvantage to the opinionist. Surely such 

 people should take warning for their own sakes, as well 

 as for the comfort of others, to refrain from making 

 dogmatists of themselves ; for after all their labour and 

 persistency their opinions are really worth nothing. It 

 is a very small unction to lay to their souls to say their 



