274 



no more but consider whether the demand of the party be consonant to natural reason 

 and equity ; and the sentence he giveth is, therefore, the interpretation of the law of 

 nature ; whicli interpretation is authentic, because he givetli it by authority of the sov- 

 ereign, whereby it becomes the sovereign's sentence, which is law for that lime for the 

 parties pleading. 



" But, because there is no judge, subordinate nor sovereign, but may err in a judgment 

 of equity, if, afterwards, in another case, he finds it more consonant to equity to give a 

 contrary sentence, he is obliged to do it. No man's error becomes his own law, 

 nor oblige-s him to persist in it. Neither, for the same reason, becomes it a law to 

 other judges, though sworn to follow it. For, though a wrong senten' e given by 

 authority of the sovereign, if he know and allow it, in such laws as are mutable, be a 

 constitution of a new law in cases in which every little circumstance is the same, yet in 

 laws immutable, such as are the laws of nature, they are not laws to the same, or other 

 judges, in like cases, forever after. Princes succeed one another ; and one judge passeth, 

 another cometh ; nay, heaven and earth shall pas-s ; but not one tittle of the law of 

 nature shall pass, for it is the eternal law of God. Therefore, all the sentences of prece- 

 dent judges that have ever been, cannot, all together, make a law contrary to natural 

 equity ; nor any example of former judges can warrant an unreasonable sentence, or 

 discharge the present judge of studying what is equity, in the case he is to judge, from 

 the principles of his own natural reason " (Leviathan, pp. 123, 129). 



We may, therefore, with Mnckeldey, adopt for our motto the sentence of Cujacius : 

 " Utinam qui hoc tempore jua nostrum interpretantur, Papianum imitati, qux vel falsa vel 

 inepte aliquando et senserint, et scripserint ingenue retractent ; nee eis, contra quampostea 

 resciierint, tarn obstinato tarn que obflrmatio animo (uti facuinl) perseverent " (Kaufman's 

 Mackeldey, Preface). 



