صفحة 271 من 734

But the Just which arises in transactions between men is an equal

in a certain sense, and the Unjust an unequal, only not in the

way of that proportion but of arithmetical.[12] Because it makes

no difference whether a robbery, for instance, is committed by a

good man on a bad or by a bad man on a good, nor whether a good

or a bad man has committed adultery: the law looks only to the

difference created by the injury and treats the men as previously

equal, where the one does and the other suffers injury, or the

one has done and the other suffered harm. And so this Unjust,

being unequal, the judge endeavours to reduce to equality again,

because really when the one party has been wounded and the other

has struck him, or the one kills and the other dies, the

suffering and the doing are divided into unequal shares; well,

the judge tries to restore equality by penalty, thereby taking

from the gain.