CONDITIONS OF PROGRESS 



ternational concerns, and for supplying every- 

 where the shortcomings of civil legislation, its 

 degenerate offspring, whose worth must be rated 

 according to the degree in which it approaches 

 the perfection of its parent. The influence of 

 this conception may be best appreciated by re- 

 flecting on the extent to which contemporary 

 legal literature, whether embodied in expository 

 treatises or in judicial decisions, is impregnated 

 by it. The appeals to " right reason " and 

 " natural reason '* which since Blackstone's time 

 have filled a considerable place in juristic dis- 

 sertation, bear unequivocal marks of their origin. 

 Nowhere better than here can we see exempli- 

 fied the mighty influence of the ideas of Roman 

 jurisprudence upon modern thought. Sir Henry 

 Maine has well delineated the process by which, 

 from the constantly felt want of a system of 

 principles fit for settling disputes between Ro- 

 man citizens and aliens or foreigners, there 

 gradually arose in the Praetorian courts an equi- 

 table body of law founded upon customs com- 

 mon (or assumed as common) to all peoples 

 alike. But far from comprehending the really 

 progressivecharacter of the noble juristic system 

 steadily growing up under their own supervision 

 — daily attaining grander proportions as the 

 grotesque and barbarous elements hallowed by 

 local usage were one by one eliminated from 

 the body of equitable ideas which formed their 

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