350 ADVANCEMENT Of LEARNING. I BOOK Vttl 



sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle? So if 

 the law has an uncertain sense, who shall obey it ? A law, 

 therefore, ought to give warning before it strikes : and it is 

 a true maxim, that the best law leaves least to the breast of 

 the judge ; which is effected by certainty. 



IX. Laws have two uncertainties the one where no law 

 is prescribed, the other when a law is ambiguous and obscure ; 

 wherefore we must first speak of cases omitted by the law, 

 that in these also may be found some rules of certainty. 



Cases omitted in law. 



X. The narrowness of human prudence cannot foresee all 

 the cases that time may produce. Whence new cases, and 

 cases omitted, frequently turn up. And for these there are 

 three remedies or supplies; viz., 1. by proceeding upon ana 

 logy ; 2. by the use of precedents, though not yet brought 

 into a law ; and 3. by juries, which decree according to con 

 science and discretion, whether in the courts of equity or of 

 common law. 



Application and extension of laws. 



XI. 1. In cases omitted, the rule of law is to be deduced 

 from similar cases, but with caution and judgment. And 

 here the following rules are to be observed : Let reason be 

 esteemed a fruitful, and custom a barren thing, so as to breed 

 no cases. And therefore what is received against the reason 

 of a law, or where its reason is obscure, should not be drawn 

 into precedents. 



XII. A great public good must draw to itself all cases 

 omitted; and therefore, when a law remarkably, and in an ex 

 traordinary manner, regards and procures the good of the 

 public, let its interpretation be full and extensive. 



XIII. It is a cruel thing to torture the laws, that they 

 may torture men ; whence penal laws, much less capital 

 laws, should not be extended to new offences. But if the 

 offence be old, and known to the law, and its prosecution fall 

 upon a new case not provided for by law, the law must 

 rather be forsaken than offences go unpunished. 



XIV. Statutes that repeal the common law, especially in 

 common and settled cases, should not be drawn by analogy 

 to cases omitted ; for when the republic has long been with 



1 Cor. xiv. 8. 



