ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 293 



and common rules are to be here collected, but others also, more 

 subtile and latent, which may be drawn from the harmony of laws 

 and adjudged cases; such as are sometimes found in the best records. 

 And these rules or maxims are general dictates of reason running 

 through the different matters of law, and make, as it were, its ballast 



83. But let not the positions or placets of law be taken for rules, as 

 they usually are, very injudiciously; for if this were received, there 

 would be as many rules as there are laws: a law being no other than a 

 commanding rule. But let those be held for rules which cleave to the 

 very form of justice; whence in general the same rules are found 

 through the civil law of different states, unless they sometimes vary 

 with regard to the form of government. 



84. After the rule is laid down in a short and solid expression, let 

 examples and clear decisions of cases be subjoined by way of ex- 

 planation; distinctions and exceptions by way of limitation; and things 

 of the same kind by way of amplification to the rule. 



85. It is justly directed not to take laws from rules, but to make the 

 rules from the laws in being: neither must the proof be derived from 

 the words of the rule, as if that were the text of the law; for the rule, like 

 the magnetic needle, does not make, but indicate the law. 



86. Besides the body of the law, it is proper to take a view of the 

 antiquities of laws, which, though they have lost their authority, still 

 retain their reverence. Those writings upon laws and judgments, 

 whether published or unpublished, are to be held for antiquities of law, 

 which preceded the body of the laws in point of time; for these anti- 

 quities should not be lost, but the most useful of them being collected, 

 and such as are frivolous and impertinent rejected, they should be 

 brought into one volume without mixing ancient fables, as Tre- 

 bonianus calls them, with the laws themselves. 



87. But for practice, 'tis highly proper to have the whole law orderly 

 digested under heads and titles, whereto any one may occasionally turn 

 on a sudden, as to a storehouse furnished for present use. These sum- 

 maries bring into order what lay dispersed, and abridge what was 

 diffusive and prolix in the law. But care must be had lest these abridg- 

 ments should make men ready for practice, and indolent in the science 

 itself; for their office is to serve but as remembrancers, and not as 

 perfect teachers of the law. And they are to be made with great 

 diligence, fidelity, and judgment, that they may fairly represent, and 

 not steal from the laws. 



88. Let different forms of pleading be collected in every kind, for 

 this tends to practice; and doubtless they lay open the oracles and 

 mysteries of the law, which conceals many such. And these are better 

 and more fully displayed in forms of pleading than otherwise, as the 

 hand is better seen when opened. 



Answers and consultations 



89. Some method ought to be taken for solving and putting an end 

 to particular doubts which arise from time to time; for it is a hard 

 thing, if they who desire to keep clear of error, should find no one to 



