NOTE C C. 



4. It will be better to codify. 



5. It will compel lawyers to study new law. 



These objections he separately and minutely examined. See vol. v. p. 343. 



Duty of Men in contemplative and active Life to unite in Improvement. 



The fourth book of the Treatise &quot; De Augmentis &quot; thus opens : &quot; Si quis me, 

 Rex optime, ob aliquid eorum quas proposui, aut deinceps proponam, impetat 

 aut vulneret (praeterquam quod intra praesidia Majestatis tuae tutus esse de- 

 beam), sciat is se contra morem et disciplinam militias facere. Ego enim, 

 buccinator tantum, pugnam non ineo ; unus fortasse ex iis de quibus Homerus, 



Xaiperc KnpvKtg, Atog ayyeXoi rjde KOI avdpuv : 



hi enim inter hostes, etiam infensissimos et acerbissimos, ultro citroque inviolati 

 ubique commeabant. Neque vero nostra buccina homines advocat et excitat, 

 ut se mutuo contradictionibus proscindant, aut secum ipsi praelientur et digla- 

 dientur; sed potius ut pace inter ipsos facta conjunctis viribus se adversus 

 naturam rerum comparent, ejusque edita et munita capiant et expugnent, atque 

 fines imperii humani (quantum Deus Opt. Max. pro bonitate sua indulserit) 

 proferant.&quot; 



And in some part of his works, but I do not immediately recollect where, he 

 says, that &quot;will indeed dignify and exalt knowledge, if contemplation and 

 action may be more nearly and strongly conjoined and united together, than 

 they have been : a conjunction like unto that of the two highest planets, Saturn 

 the planet of rest and contemplation, and Jupiter the planet of civil society and 

 action.&quot; 



Duty of Lawyers to assist in Improvement of the Law. In his proposition for 

 a compilation of the law, he says, &quot; Your Majesty, of your favour having made 

 me privy counsellor ; and continuing me in the place of your attorney-general, 

 (which is more than was these hundred years before), I do not understand it to 

 be, that by putting off the dealing in causes between party and party, I should 

 keep holy-day the more : but that I should dedicate my time to your service, 

 with less distraction. Wherefore in this plentiful accession of time which I 

 have now gained, I take it to be my duty ; not only to speed your command 

 ments and the business of my place, but to meditate, and to excogitate of 

 myself, wherein I may best by my travels, derive your virtues to the good of 

 your people, and return their thanks and increase of love to you again. And 

 after I had thought of many things, I could find in my judgment, none more 

 proper for your majesty as a master, nor for me as a workman, than the reducing 

 and recompiling of the laws of England.&quot; 



To the same effect, in his Preface to the Elements of the Common Law, he 

 says : &quot; I hold every man a debtor to his profession ; from the which, as men 

 of course do seek to receive countenance and profit, so ought they of duty to 

 endeavour themselves, by way of amends, to be a help and ornament thereunto. 

 This is performed in some degree by the honest and liberal practice of a pro 

 fession, when men shall carry a respect not to descend into any course that is 

 corrupt and unworthy thereof, and preserve themselves free from the abuses 

 wherewith the same profession is noted to be infected ; but much more is this 

 performed if a man be able to visit and strengthen the roots and foundation of 

 the science itself; thereby not only gracing it in reputation and dignity, but 

 also amplifying it in perfection and substance. Having, therefore, from the 

 beginning, come to the study of the laws of this realm, with a desire no less, 

 if I could attain unto it, that the same laws should be the better for my indus 

 try, than that myself should be the better for the knowledge of them ; 1 do not 

 find that, by mine own travel, without the help of authority, I can in any kind 

 confer so profitable an addition unto that science, as by collecting the rules and 

 grounds dispersed throughout the body of the same laws.&quot; 



The same grateful feeling is expressed by Sir Edward Coke, who says, &quot; if 

 this or any other of my works may, in any sort, by the goodness of Almighty 

 God, who hath enabled me hereunto, tend to some discharge of that great obli 

 gation of duty wherein I am bound to my profession, I shall reap some fruits 



