[34] See Racine’s tragedy of Phèdre.
[35] Puffendorf, Of the Duties of Man and the Citizen, ii., c. ix., § 18.
[36] In the United States children can, in the case of neglect by their parents, make contracts which are obligatory for whatever is necessary for them.
[37] Our Code does not admit that a mistake touching the person, vitiates the consent of the contractors, unless this consideration be the principal cause of the agreement.
[38] Esprit des Lois, XV., iv. The stipulations which Montesquieu demanded have been made, and have led to the suppression, or at least to a great diminution, of the slave-trade.
[39] By maîtrise was understood the rank or degree of master; and jurandes was the name of an annual office by means of which the affairs of the corporation were administered: it also meant the assembly of workmen, who had lent the customary oath.
[40] Beaumarchais, Barbier de Seville.
[41] Nicole does not give any examples; but it is evident, for instance, that it is a graver fault to rashly incriminate the integrity of a functionary than his incapacity, the chastity of a woman than her economy.
[42] Nicole belonged to the sect of the Jansenists, celebrated for the harshness and rigidity of their morality.
[43] It is also called commutative justice, somewhat improperly, in taking for its type the act of exchange, where one gives the equivalent of what he receives; but this expression is only truly correct when it touches upon property, and particularly upon sale, trust, loan. But the term commutative has no longer much meaning when applied to the respect due to the life, the liberty, or the honor of others. Nevertheless, it is necessary to be familiar with the expression, as it is usually opposed to distributive justice.