.
In the next Place, may it please your Majesty, I never took Bribe or Present of any Kind, or from any Hand; lest Favour or Inclination should insensibly tempt me to
cogg,
or give
a partial Turn to the final Cast.
Thus prepared, as soon as Matters were ripe for a Decree; that is to say, as soon as the respective Lawyers had agreed among themselves, that
nothing more was to be said,
nor any Thing
more to be got,
on either Side of the Question; I summed up the repugnant Merits so equally and impartially, with respect to Circumstance, Evidence, and Ordinance of Law, as induced both Parties, now wearied and wishing for Rest, to think that the Decree must inevitably be given against themselves; and having appointed a certain Hour for uttering the fatal Sentence, I got up under visible Concern, and retired.
From the Bench, so please your Graciousness, I withdrew to my Closet, and having locked myself up, I called upon my tutelary and never erring Directors in the solution of all Knots and unwinding of all Intricacies; in short I went to a little Drawer and took out  � 
my Box and Dice.
Box and Dice! exclaimed the Monarch, Half starting from his Seat. Yes, Sire, replied the Judge, I repeat it, Box and Dice. And if your Majesty will be pleased to attend, for a few Moments, I trust to convince you of the Propriety of this Proceeding.
Humanum est errare.
This, my Liege, is a Maxim that has never yet been controverted by Precept or by Practise; and it is as much as to say, that Life is a mere Labyrinth of Errors, in which all Men are appointed to travel, and to stray.
Nothing, save Number and Measure, is yet determined upon Earth. Nothing is certain, save that two and two make four, and that Lines are equal or differ according to their Dimensions.
All Men, further than this, depend upon
Reason,
as their Enlightner and Director in the Search of Truth. And yet Reason, itself, has nothing whereon it may rest or depend. It first doubts, and then proceeds to examine. It calls in Evidence and Arguments, on this Side and on that Side,
pro
and
con.
It compares, canvasses, and discusses; sifts and boults Matters, suppose to the very Bran. It endeavours to poise the Scales of its own Uncertainty, and now recovers some lapsed Circumstance, and casts it into this Scale; and again throws some new Proof or Discovery into that Scale; and
