Legalese

Here is a poetic passage from a legal document:

The singular shall be deemed to include the plural,
and the plural shall be deemed to include the singular; 
the masculine shall be deemed to include the feminine, 
and the feminine shall be deemed to include the masculine;
the disjunctive (“or”) shall be deemed to include the conjunctive (“and”), 
and the conjunctive (“and”) shall be deemed to include the disjunctive (“or”); 
the present tense shall be deemed to include the past tense, 
and the past tense shall be deemed to include the present tense.

 

2 thoughts on “Legalese

  1. This made me think of this passage from Dickens:

    The M’Choakumchild school was all fact, and the school of design was all fact, and the relations between master and man were all fact, and everything was fact between the lying-in hospital and the cemetery, and what you couldn’t state in figures, or show to be purchaseable in the cheapest market and saleable in the dearest, was not, and never should be, world without end, Amen.

    — Hard Times

    Like

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