262 GIORDANO BRUNO PART 



execute judgments, with prudence, sagacity, readiness, 

 and generous philanthropy ; to approve, confirm, pre- 

 serve, defend whatever is well instituted, established, 

 posited, executed ; adapting, as far as may be, both 

 passions and actions to the worship of the gods, and 



Law. the common life of men. The function of Law, the 

 daughter of wisdom, is to prevent the powerful from 

 making undue use of their pre-eminence and strength, 

 and in other respects vigorously to protect the common 

 life and civil intercourse of men. 1 " The powerful are 

 to be sustained by the weak, the feeble are not to be 

 oppressed by the strong, tyrants are to be deposed, just 

 governors and kings ordained and confirmed, republics 

 fostered ; violence shall not tread reason under foot, 

 ignorance not despise knowledge, the poor shall be 

 aided by the rich, virtues and studies necessary or 

 useful to the community be promoted, advanced, main- 

 tained. No one is to be put into a place of power 

 that is not superior in merits, by force of virtue and 

 talent, either in himself, which is rare and almost im- 

 possible, or through communication with and counsel of 

 others, which is due, ordinary and necessary. The two 

 hands by which any law is strong to bind are justice 

 and possibility, one moderated by the other, for 

 although many things are possible that are not just, 

 nothing is just that is not possible. Whether it come 

 from heaven or from the earth, no institution or law 

 ought to be approved or accepted which does not tend 

 to the highest end, viz. the direction of our minds and 

 reform of our natures so that they produce fruits 

 necessary or useful for human intercourse." 2 Judg- 



judgment. ment shall make a scale of virtues and of crimes, the 

 greatest in either class being that which affects the 



1 Lag. p. 461. ii ff. 2 Pp. 461, 462. 



