3 o5 Of the Advancement of Learning, Lib. VIII. 



APHORISM LXVII. 



And yet notwithftanding a tooCondfe and affe&ed Brevity for Ma- 

 jefties fake, or as more Imperial, is not therefore to be approved, 

 Ipecially in thefe times; left Law become perchance, & Lesbian Rule. 

 Wherefore a middle temper djiile is to be embraced ; and a generality 

 of words well ftated to be fought out ; which though it do not fb 

 throughly purfue cafes comprehended, yet it excludes cafes not com- 

 prehended clearly enough. 



APHORISM LXVIIL 



Yet in ordinary and Politick Laws and Edifts, wherein for mofl: 

 part no man advifeth with his Counfel, but trufteth to his own judg- 

 ment, all ftiould be more amply explicated and pointed oHt^ as it vt>ere^ 

 with the finger^ even to the meaneft capacity. 



APHORISM LXIX, 



So neither (hould we ^llow of Preambles to Laws, which amongft 

 the ancients were held impertinencies, and which introduce Dif 

 puting and not commanding Laws , if we could well away with 

 ancient cuftom. But theie Prefaces commanXy (as the times are now) 

 are neceffarily prefixt, not fo much for explication of Law, as for 

 perfwafion that fuch a Law may pafs in the folemn meeting of a 

 State 5 and again, to give fatisfadiion to the communalty. Yet (b 

 far as poffible may be, let Prologues be avoided^ and the Lax» begin with 

 a command, 



APHORISM LXX. 



The Mind and Meaning of a Law, though (bmetimes it may be 

 drawn not improperly from Prefaces and Preambles ( as they term 

 them 5) yet the latitude and extention thereof, muft not be fetcht 

 from thence. For a Preambk by way of example, (bmetimes fetch- 

 eth in, lays hold upon fome of the plaufible and moft Ipecious paf- 

 fages 5 when yet the Law coraprifeth many more : or on the contra- 

 ry, the Law restrains and limits many Cafes, the realbn of which 

 limitations to inlert in the Preface were fuperjinous. Wherefore the 

 dimenjion and latitude of a Law muft be taken from the Body of a 

 Law : for a Preamble often falls either Jhort^ or over, 



APHORISM LXXL 



And there is a very vitious manner of Recording of Latps, that iSj 

 when the ca(eat which the Larv aimeth,is expreii at large in thepream- 

 ^/e,afterward from the force of the word(The like) or fome fuch term^ 

 of relation^ the Body of a Law is reverft into the Preamble 5 fb as the 

 Tre»mbU is inlerted and incorporated into the Law it felf, which is 



an 



