/1/
In this way exact distinctions have been worked out upon
questions in which the elements to be considered are few. For
instance, what is a reasonable time for presenting negotiable
paper, or what is a difference in kind and what a difference only
in quality, or the rule against perpetuities.
An example of the approach of decisions towards each other from
the opposite poles, and of the function of the jury midway, is to
be found in the Massachusetts adjudications, [128] that, if a
child of two years and four months is unnecessarily sent
unattended across and down a street in a large city, he cannot
recover for a negligent injury; /1/ that to allow a boy of eight
to be abroad alone is not necessarily negligent; /2/ and that the
effect of permitting a boy of ten to be abroad after dark is for
the jury; /3/ a coupled with the statement, which may be ventured
on without authority, that such a permission to a young man of
twenty possessed of common intelligence has no effect whatever.
Take again the law of ancient lights in England. An obstruction
to be actionable must be substantial. Under ordinary
circumstances the erection of a structure a hundred yards off,
and one foot above the ground, would not be actionable.
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