Of the branches into which the art and science of logic may be con-
sidered as divisible, one is, that which has for its object [a determinate
set of words]...say, for shortness, avoidance of uncertainty.

Of the whole field of art and science, that portion [of highest]...
importance...is, manifestly, that part which belongs to the depart-
ment of morals; more particularly, that part which belongs to the
sub-department of government, including Legislation.

Of every instance of uncertainty on the part of the rule of action,
expressive of the will of the constituted authorities in the state, one
effect is -- a correspondent degree of insecurity and sense of insecurity.
Insecurity is a chance, more or less considerable, of being afflicted
with the correspondent actual evil: this evil is different according to
the nature of the branch of law, in which the seat of the correspondent
vice resides. If the insecurity is that which affects property, the
correspondent actual evil is, loss of property: and, in the mind of him
by whom the loss is sustained, pain of privation, or say pain of dis-
appointment: pain of privation, produced by reflection on the loss
sustained: pain of disappointment, produced by the succession of
that same pain to the correspondent pleasures of possession or
expectation, as the case may be.

Uncertainty, in the case where it has for its seat the political rule of
action, is at its maximum in the case where that same rule...has no
determinate set of words belonging to it. In this state is the rule of
action throughout all...that spurious and imaginary substitute to
law...unwritten law, common law, or jurisprudential law....In this
case...the rule of action by which the fate...of the parties litigant
is determined, is the arbitrary will of the judge, made known, on that
occasion, for the first time.

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