352 ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING. [bOOR VIll. 



or dissolute ; for this latter kind are a spurious birth oi 

 time, and prove more prejudicial than instructive, 



XXIII. Modern examples are to be held the safest. Foi 

 why may not what was lately done, without any incon 

 venience be safely done again 1 Yet recent examples have 

 the less authority ; and, where things require a restoration, 

 participate more of their own times than of right reason. 



XXIV. Ancient precedents are to be received with cau 

 tion and choice ; for the course of time alters many things ; 

 so that what seems ancient, in time may, for disturbance and 

 unsuitablencss, be new at the present ; and therefore the 

 precedents of intermediate times are the best, or those of 

 such times as have most agreement with the present, which 

 ancient times may happen to have more than later. 



XXV. Let the limits of a precedent be observed, and 

 rather kept within than exceeded ; for where there is no 

 rule of law, everything should be suspected : and therefore, 

 as this is a dark road, we should not be hasty to follow. 



XXVI. Beware of fragments and epitomes of examples, 

 and rather consider the whole of the precedent with all its 

 process ; for if it be absurd to judge upon part of a law 

 without understanding the whole, this should be much rather 

 observed of precedents, the use whereof is precarious, with 

 out an evident correspondence. 



XXVII. It is of great consequence through what hands 

 the precedents pass, and by whom they have been allowed. 

 For if they have obtained only among clerks and secretaries, 

 by the course of the court, without any manifest knowledge 

 of their superiors : or have prevailed among that source oi 

 errors, the populace, they are to be rejected or lighly esteemed. 

 But if they come before senators, judges, or principal courts, 

 so that of necessity they must have been strengthened, at 

 least by tht&amp;gt; tacit approval of proper persons, their dignity is 

 the greater. 



XXVIII. More authority is to be allowed to those 

 examples which, though less used, have been published and 

 thoroughly canvassed ; but less to those that have lain buried 

 and forgotten in the closet or archives : for examples, like 

 waters, are wholesomest in the running stream. 



XXIX. Precedents in law should not be derived JronL 

 history, but from public acts and accurate traditions ; for it 



