292 BACON 



76. Let these judgments be digested in the order of time, and not 

 in method and titles; for such writings are a kind of histories or narra- 

 tives of the laws; and not only the acts themselves, but also their 

 times, afford light to a prudent judge. 



Authentic writers 



77. Let a body of law be wholly compiled, i. of the laws that con- 

 stitute the common law; 2. of the statutes; and, 3. of the judgments 

 on record: and besides these, let nothing be deemed authentic, or 

 else be sparingly received. 



78. Nothing conduces more to the certainty of laws, whereof we 

 now speak, than that the authentic writings should be kept within 

 moderate bounds; and that vast multitude of authors and learned men 

 in the law excluded, which otherwise rend the mind of the laws, distract 

 the judge, make lawsuits endless: and the lawyer himself, finding it 

 impossible to peruse and digest so many books, hence takes up with 

 compendiums. Perhaps some good glossary, a few of the exactest 

 writers, or rather a very few portions of a few authors, might be use- 

 fully received for authentic. But let the books be still reserved in lib- 

 raries, for the judges and counsel to inspect occasionally, without per- 

 mitting them to be cited in pleading at the bar, or suffering them to 

 pass into authority. 



Auxiliary writing 



79. But let not the knowledge and practice of the law want its 

 auxiliary books, which are of six kinds; viz., I. Institutes; 2. Ex- 

 planations of words; 3. The rules of law; 4. The antiquities of law; 5. 

 Summaries or abridgments; and 6. Forms of pleading. 



80. Students are to be trained up to the knowledge and higher parts 

 of the law by institutes, which should be written in a clear method. 

 Let the whole private right, of the laws of Meum and Tuum, be gone 

 over in these elements, not omitting some things and dwelling too 

 much upon others, but giving a little taste of all, that when the student 

 comes to peruse the corps of law, he may meet with nothing entirely 

 new, or without having received some previous notion thereof. But 

 the public law is not to be touched in these institutes, this being to be 

 drawn from the fountains themselves. 



81. Let a commentary be made of the terms of the law, without en- 

 deavoring too curiously and laboriously to give their full sense and 

 explanation; the purport hereof being not to search the exact de- 

 finitions of terms, but to afford such explanations only as may open an 

 easy way to reading the books of the law. And let not this treatise be 

 digested alphabetically rather leave that to the index; but place all 

 those words together which relate to the same thing, so that one may 

 help to the understanding of another. 



82. It principally conduces to the certainty of laws, to have a just 

 and exact treatise of the different rules of law; a work deserving the 

 diligence of the most ingenious and prudent lawyers; for we are not 

 satisfied with what is already extant of this kind. Not only the known 



