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Debt, Assumpsit, And Consideration, W S. Holdsworth

Michigan Law Review

Lord Mansfield is said to have remarked that "nothing in law is so apt to mislead as a metaphor;"' and if the remark is applied to branches of the law, the principles of which are fully developed and abundantly illustrated by decided cases, it is doubtless very true. But the historian of law, who looks at the efforts of the courts to create these principles 'by the expansion and adaptation of a few narrow remedies, will not be inclined to undervalue the use of the metaphor or analogy, 'when used to give effect to the requirements of public policy, and …