18 ON THE KELATION OF 



said to have been framed deliberately, but rather to have 

 grown up gradually, as they were wanted. Accordingly, 

 they present themselves to a learner rather in the form 

 cf commands, that is, of laws imposed by external au- 

 thority. 



With these sciences theology and jurisprudence are 

 naturally connected. In fact, certain branches of history 

 and philology serve both as stepping-stones and as hand- 

 maids to them. The general laws of theology and juris- 

 prudence are likewise commands, laws imposed by external 

 authority to regulate, from a moral or juridical point of 

 view, the actions of mankind ; not laws which, like those 

 of natm*e, contain generalisations from a vast multitude 

 of facts. At the same time the application of a gramma- 

 tical, legal, moral, or theological rule is couched, like the 

 application of a law of nature to a particular case, in the 

 forms of logical inference. The rule forms the major 

 premiss of the syllogism, while the minor must settle 

 whether the case in question satisfies the conditions to 

 which the rule is intended to apply. The solution of this 

 latter problem, whether in grammatical analysis, where 

 the meaning of a sentence is to be evolved, or in the legal 

 criticism of the credibility of the facts alleged, of the 

 intentions of the parties, or of the meaning of the docu- 

 ments they have put into court, will, in most cases, be 

 again a matter of psychological insight. On the other 

 hand, it should not be forgotten that both the syntax of 

 full3^-developed languages and a system of jurisprudence 

 gradually elaborated, as ours has been, by the practice of 

 more than 2,000 years,^ have reached a high pitch of 

 logical completeness and consistency ; so that, speaking 

 generally, the cases which do not obviously fall under 



' It should be remembered that the Eoman law, uhich has only parti- 

 ally and indirectly influenced English practice, is tliw recognised basis of 

 Geiinan jurisprudence. — Tb. 



