iJ40 A PROPOSAL FOR AMENDING 



And as our language is so much the richer, so the 

 laws are the more complete : neither doth this attri 

 bute less to them, than those that would have them 

 to have stood out the same in all mutations ; for no 

 tree is so good first set, as by transplanting. 



2. As for the second extreme, I have nothing to 

 do with it by way of taxing the laws. I speak only 

 by way of perfecting them, which is easiest in the 

 best things : for that which is far amiss hardly 

 receiveth amendment ; but that which hath already, 

 to that more may be given. Besides, what I shall 

 propound is not to the matter of the laws, but to 

 the manner of their registry, expression, and tradi 

 tion : so that it giveth them rather light than any 

 new nature. This being so, for the dignity of the 

 work I know scarcely where to find the like : for 

 surely that scale, and those degrees of sovereign 

 honour, are true and rightly marshalled ; first the 

 founders of states ; then the lawgivers ; then the 

 deliverers and saviours after long calamities ; then 

 the fathers of their countries, which are just and 

 prudent princes ; and lastly, conquerors, which honour 

 is not to be received amongst the rest, except it be 

 where there is an addition of more country and 

 territory to a better government than that was of 

 the conquered. Of these, in my judgment, your 

 majesty may with more truth and flattery be intitled 

 to the first, because of your uniting of Britain and 

 planting Ireland ; both which savour of the founder. 

 That which I now propound to you, may adopt you 

 also into the second : lawgivers have been called 



