Whether or not an utterance can be called law depends on how it is heard, not on how it is meant. Law is defined by its effect rather than its intention, and its chief effect is accusation the intimation of a less-than.

Not how it is meant. Law is defined by its effect rather than its intention, and its chief affect his accusation, the intimation of less-than.

The priest he merry is, and blithe Three-quarters of a year, But oh! it cuts him like a scythe When tithing time draws near.

A kick that scarce would move a horse, May kill a sound divine.

The things that mount the rostrum with a skip, And then skip down again, pronounce a text, Cry hem; and reading what they never wrote Just fifteen minutes, huddle up their work, And with a well-bred whisper close the scene!

He that negotiates between God and man, As God's ambassador, the grand concerns Of judgment and of mercy, should beware Of lightness in his speech.