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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. 



XXYI. 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 precari 

 ous, without 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 of 

 errors, the populace, they are to be rejected or lightly 

 esteemed. But if they come before senators, judges, or 

 principal courts, so that of necessity they must have been 

 strengthened, at least by the tacit approval of proper per 

 sons, their dignity is the greater. 



XXVIII. More authority is to be allowed to those ex 

 amples 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 exam 

 ples, like waters, are wholesomest in the running stream. 



XXIX. Precedents in law should not be derived from 

 history, but from public acts and accurate traditions; for 

 it is a certain infelicity, even among the best historians, 

 that they dwell not sufficiently upon laws and judicial pro 

 ceedings; or if they happen to have some regard thereto, 

 yet their accounts are far from being authentic. 



XXX. An example rejected in the same, or next succeed 

 ing age, should not easily be received again when the same 

 case recurs ; for it makes not so much in its favor that men 

 sometimes used it, as in its disfavor that they dropped it 

 upon experience. 



XXXI. Examples are things of direction and advice, not 

 rules or orders, and therefore should be so managed as to 



