relief from common burdens,
for some privilege not to be accorded to others; does not see that
what he is battling for may cause injustice to others. Through
ignorance of the real nature of justice, the grant to one of his plea
for what he calls justice may work grievous injustice to others. So
when altruists, warm with sympathy, obtain the enactment of laws
intended for the betterment of the less fortunate, they may at times
do injustice to others and even to those they hoped to benefit.
History records many instances where laws intended to insure justice
had the contrary effect. Many a statute designed to prevent oppression
has itself proved oppressive in operation. Many a theory of justice
has been found to work injustice. A conspicuous and familiar instance
is found in the history of the French Revolution. The Jacobins
believed that their theories if given effect would usher in the reign
of justice in France. They obtained power and exploited their theories
only to bring in the Reign of Terror, that reign of terrible
injustice.

As mistakes and grievous mistakes have been made in the past as to
what is justice, so they will be made now and in the future, and can
be lessened only by greater wisdom and forethought, by greater effort
to consider justice apart by itself, with philosophical detachment,
with minds unclouded by pity, sympathy, charity, and other like
virtues, on the one hand, or by envy, hate, prejudice, and like evil
sentiments, on the other. True, men are more enlightened now and
education is more general, but society is more complex, with more
diverse and conflicting interests, than formerly. The social mechanism
is now so intricate that even a slight disturbance in one part may
disarrange the whole. Injustice to one may injure the many. Hence the
duty of ascertaining as completely as possible the real nature of
justice is as imperative today as ever. As declared by Ulpian, this
duty is especially incumbent upon those who have to do with the
framing or administration of the laws, since justice can be enforced
only by law.

In any inquiry into the nature of justice we get little help from the
wisdom of the ancients. They wrestled with the question but seem to
have been as puzzled as we of today. Indeed, Plato represents the sage
Socrates as frankly confessing his inability to answer satisfactorily
the persistent question "What is justice?" The question comes up for
discussion by Socrates and some fri