nowhere forbidden, as in the case of murder (Num. xxxv. 31). Then they
went on to argue that such compensation must have been intended, because
its literal observance teemed with difficulties. If an eye were injured
but not destroyed, who would undertake to inflict an equivalent hurt?
What if a blind man destroyed an eye? Would it be reasonable to quench
utterly the sight of a one-eyed man who had only destroyed one-half of
the vision of his neighbour? Should the right hand of a painter, by
which he maintains his family, be forfeited for that of a singer who
lives by his voice? Would not the cold and premeditated operation
inflict far greater mental and even physical suffering than a sudden
wound received in a moment of excitement? By all these considerations,
drawn from the very principle which underlay the precept, they learned
to relax its pressure in actual life. The law was already their
schoolmaster, to lead them beyond itself (_vide_ Kalisch _in loco_).

Lastly, there is the question of injury to the person, wrought by
cattle.

It is clearly to deepen the sense of reverence for human life, that not
only must the ox which kills a man be slain, but his flesh may not be
eaten; thus carrying further the early aphorism "at the hand of every
beast will I require ... your blood" (Gen. ix. 5). This motive, however,
does not betray the lawgiver into injustice: "the owner of the ox shall
be quit"; the loss of his beast is his sufficient penalty.

But if its evil temper has been previously observed, and he has been
warned, then his recklessness amounts to blood-guiltiness, and he must
die, or else pay whatever ransom is laid upon him. This last clause
recognises the distinction between his guilt and that of a deliberate
man-slayer, for whose crime the law distinctly prohibited a composition
(Num. xxxv. 31).

And it is expressly provided, according to the honourable position of
woman in the Hebrew state, that the penalty for a daughter's life shall
be the same as for that of a son.

As a slave was exposed to especial risk, and his position was an ignoble
one, a fixed composition was appointed, and the amount was memorable.
The ransom of a common slave, killed by the horns of the wild oxen, was
thirty pieces of silver, the goodly price that Messiah was prized at of
them (Zech. xi. 13).

PART III.--RIGHTS OF PROPERTY.

xxi. 33-xxii. 15.

The vital and quickening principle in this section is the stress it lays
upo