3 o4 Of the Advancemgm of Learning, L i b . VIII. 



Of New Digefts of Laws, 



AP HO RI SM LIX. 



BUt if Laws accMmukted upon Lavps^ fwell into futh vaft voIumeSj 

 or be obnoxious to fuch confufion , that it is expedient to 

 revife them anew , and to reduce them into a found and folid 

 body 3 intend it by all means , and let fuch a work be reputed 

 an Heroical noble work ; and let the Authors of fuch a work , be 

 rightly and defervedly ranckt in the number of the Fonnders and 

 Rejiorers of Lavos, 



APHORISM LX. 



This Purging of Laws, and the contriving of a new Digeft is five 

 ways accorapliflat. Firji, let obfolete Lavet , which Jufiinian ternis 

 old Fables h&lQ^toxxt. Secondly^ let the moft approved oi Anti- 

 nomies be received; the contrary aboHQit. Thirdly, let all C<7- 

 incident Laws ^ or Laws which import the fame, and are nothing 

 elfe but repetitions of the fame thing, be expung'd ; and fome one, 

 the moft perfeft among them, retained inftead of all the reft. Fourth- 

 l)iy if there be any Laws which determine nothing, but only propound 

 Queftions , and fo leave them undecided , let thefe likewife be 

 cafher'd. Lajily, let Laws too wordy and too prolix be abridged 

 into a more narrow compafs. 



AP HO RISM LXf. 



And it will import very much for ufe , to compofe and fort apar£ 

 in a new Digeii of Laws, Law recepted for Common Law, which in 

 regard of their beginning are time out of mind ; and on the other 

 fide statutes fuperadded from time to time : feeing in the delivery 

 of a Juridical fentence, the interpretation of Common Law, and Sta- 

 tute-Laws in many points is not the ftme. ThisTrehmanus did in 

 the Digefts and Code. 



APHORISM LXir. 



But in this Regeneration and new Jiru&ure of Laws, retain pri" 

 cifely the Words and the Text of the Ancient Laws, and of the Books 

 of Law 5 though it muft needs fall out that (uch a colleftion muft 

 be made by centoes and fmaller portions ; then fort them in order. 

 For although this might have been performed more aptly, and (if 

 you refpeft right reafon) more truly, by a New Text, than by ftich 

 a confarcination , yet in Laws, not fo much thejiile and defcription , 

 as Authority, and the Patron thereof. Antiquity, are to be regarded : 

 otherwifey«c^ a work, might Ceema fchelajiick. lufnefs and method, 

 lather than a body of commatiding Laws. 



APHO- 



