IDEAS AND CONCEPTIONS OF JURISPRUDENCE 461 



so, it lived in the mind of the artist before his hand ever touched 

 the brush or the chisel. We call this an ideal, and sometimes ideals 

 are spoken of with derision; but ideals are as real and as essential 

 as the things we touch and handle. Within every living organism 

 there is the spirit or unseen force that we call the principle of life. 

 The form remains when the spirit is gone out of it, but there is no 

 longer a living organism. So every rule of conduct expresses more 

 or less accurately a principle a theory of right and by this 

 principle or theory the visible or formulated rule must be known and 

 judged. The principle is the source of the rule more or less definitely 

 fixed in the mind or minds that formed the rule, but in a much 

 higher sense, because more clearly understood by the study and con- 

 sideration of the rule and its operation, the principle becomes the 

 measure or standard by which the Tightness or wrongness of the rule 

 is finally determined. 



Architecture is a science. There may be speculation as to its 

 origin, but we know as a matter of fact that the science grew out of 

 the study of structures. Man ceased to be a savage when he became 

 a carpenter; he became civilized when he became an architect. The 

 science grew out of a study of many visible subjects, the work of 

 men's hands. It involved the adaptation of things to some need in 

 civilized life, right proportions and some adornment. The concep- 

 tions and principles which were the result of this study and compari- 

 son came into being; the study and the comparison of things cultured 

 and enriched the mind, and in that unseen and mysterious workshop 

 created new and higher ideals and conceptions, which in time were 

 manifested in new visible forms. These principles, systematized, 

 formed a body and made the science which became the standard 

 by which all structures are judged. Looking at a building we in- 

 quire, Is it good architecturally? That depends upon its adapta- 

 tion to the uses to which it is to be put; its ability to stand the 

 strains that will come upon it; proper proportions and conformity 

 in all its lines to the beautiful. We measure or determine it by the 

 rules of the science. This same intellectual process is equally true 

 in the domain of formulated law. Is the rule expressed in a given 

 formula adapted to establish and maintain a right or to cure an evil? 

 Does it fit into and become an harmonious part of the general system 

 of law? These inquiries must be answered by applying as a test 

 the principle which ought to govern in the particular case and which 

 presumably it was sought to make prevalent by the formulated 

 rule. It will be observed, therefore, that there is a study that is 

 deeper and more far-reaching than the mere memorizing f rules. 

 The rule is the visible sign; it may be committed to memory and 

 mechanically applied to a condition or to conduct in human society; 

 but the true conception of the rule and its right application in nearly 



