/1/ Were this view unsound, it is hard
to see how wagers on any future event, except a miracle, could be
sustained. For if the happening or not happening of the event is
subject to the law of causation, the only uncertainty about it is
in our foresight, not in its happening.
The question when a contract is made arises for the most part
with regard to bilateral contracts by letter, the doubt being
whether the contract is complete at the moment when the return
promise is put into the post, or at the moment when it is
received. If convenience preponderates in favor of either view,
that is a sufficient reason for its adoption. So far as merely
logical grounds go, the most ingenious argument in favor of the
later moment is Professor Langdell's. According to him the
conclusion follows from the fact that the consideration which
makes the offer binding is itself a promise. Every promise, he
says, is an offer before it is a promise, and the essence of an
offer is that it should be communicated. /2/ But this reasoning
seems unsound. When, as in the case supposed, the consideration
for the return promise has been put into the power of the offeree
and the return promise has been accepted in advance, there is not
an instant, either in time or logic, when the return promise is
an offer.
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