However carefully a judge is protected by the experience and the logic of the law, there must be times -not many, I know, or we should have no judges- when the same frightful question must be answered. Not faced, you see, but answered. Every now and again he must have to say to himself, in effect, “Everyone agrees that this colour is black, and my reason tells me it is so, but on my soul, do I know?

However carefully a judge is protected by the experience and the logic of the law, there must be times -not many, I know, or we should have no judges- when the same frightful question must be answered. Not faced, you see, but answered. Every now and again he must have to say to himself, in effect, “Everyone agrees that this colour is black, and my reason tells me it is so, but on my soul, do I know?

– Margery Allingham –

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