Dice!!!

'But, my friend,' demanded Blowbroth, ' in what way do you determine the degree of obsurity of the claims put forward by the litigants?'

As you other gentlemen do,' replied Bridlegoose, 'that is to say by the number of bags [of documents] brought in by either party.And then I use my little dice, as you other gentlemen do, to conform to the law. Of course I have large dice as well, fine and most proper ones, that I use, as you other gentlemen do, when the matter is more fluid; that is to say when there are fewer bundles.'

‘And after that,’ asked Blowbroth, ‘how do you pronounce judgement, my friend?’

‘As you other gentlemen do,’ replied Bridlegoose, ‘I pronounce in favour of the party to whom fate first awards a good throw of the judiciary, tribunian, and praetorial dice. So our laws ordain.'

‘Yes, my friend,’ said Blowbroth, ‘but since you settle your judgements by chance and by the fall of the dice, why don’t you put things to the hazard on the same day, at the precise hour when the parties at variance appear before you? Why all this further delay?

'Like you other gentlemen, I consider that time ripens all things; with time all things come to light; time is the father of truth. That is why, like you other gentlemen, I suspend, delay, and postpone judgment, so that the case, being well ventilated, sifted, and debated, may in course of time come to its maturity, and so that the decision by dice, afterwards ensuing, may be borne more patiently by the losing party.'

François Rabelais (c. 1494 - c. 1553),

Pantagruel (1532)