صفحة 272 من 734

For these terms gain and loss are applied to these cases, though

perhaps the term in some particular instance may not be strictly

proper, as gain, for instance, to the man who has given a blow,

and loss to him who has received it: still, when the suffering

has been estimated, the one is called loss and the other gain.

And so the equal is a mean between the more and the less, which

represent gain and loss in contrary ways (I mean, that the more

of good and the less of evil is gain, the less of good and the

more of evil is loss): between which the equal was stated to be a

mean, which equal we say is Just: and so the Corrective Just must

be the mean between loss and gain. And this is the reason why,

upon a dispute arising, men have recourse to the judge: going to

the judge is in fact going to the Just, for the judge is meant to

be the personification of the Just.[13] And men seek a judge as

one in the mean, which is expressed in a name given by some to

judges (μεσίδιοι, or middle-men) under the notion that if they

can hit on the mean they shall hit on the Just. The Just is then

surely a mean since the judge is also.