CHAPTER XIII 



CONTRACTS 

 I. IN GENERAL 



By far the most important branch of the law, 

 to those who peruse these pages, is the subject 

 of contracts, under which head comes every sort 

 of binding legal agreement between man and 

 man, as well as all agreements with corporate 

 bodies and the like. A contract has been wisely 

 and ably defined as "a meeting of two minds." 

 In other words, it is not generally possible to 

 have a valid contract or agreement between two 

 or more parties unless there is a perfect under- 

 standing between them as to just what is contem- 

 plated by its terms, though there are some cases 

 of rather uncommon occurrence in which the fact 

 that one party has mistaken the matter under con- 

 sideration is held not to excuse him from doing 

 what he agreed to do. Each party must assent 

 in some way to every essential part of its contents. 



Legal verbiage is not an essential element of 

 a contract, although, of course, like a piece of 

 farm machinery, the better the finish the more 

 desirable the production. 



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