IDEAS AND CONCEPTIONS OF JURISPRUDENCE 469 



The comparative study of law is of the greatest importance, for 

 in the wider observation of law and of its operation under varying 

 social conditions, the better and sounder will be the conclusions 

 reached. 



This science will never become fixed and determined; it is neces- 

 sarily progressive. Conditions of life are continually changing, and 

 laws must be modified and changed to meet the new conditions. 

 There are certain great principles governing the relations of man- 

 kind which will always remain the same, but in their application the 

 formulated rule will have to be changed to meet the growing and 

 developing life of man. 



The science is adaptable, easy of administration, for it is not 

 bound by any mere verbal statement; here the spirit, not the letter, 

 of the law prevails. The formulated rule may need revision, but 

 a system made up of true principles, all in right relation to each other, 

 will meet changes in social, industrial, and economic conditions in 

 any state, and form the basis and right standard for rules of conduct 

 in every nation. The world may not realize the dream of the poet 

 for the federation of man under one universal government, nor may 

 we expect, under varying forms of government and different methods 

 of applying the science, a uniformity in formulated rules, but it is 

 not unreasonable to hope that in the development of jurisprudence 

 as a universal science there will come a unity of the spirit of the law 

 throughout the civilized world. 



